Skip Your Daily Showers

Daily showers weren’t actually a common practice a few decades ago. It was the social stigma of being smelly that led to people to shower daily. But is it good for you to shower everyday?

The human skin has glands that keep it healthy by constantly producing sweat and oils to keep you cool and moisturized. However, daily showers with chemical soaps wash way the oils, leaving the outer layer dry and full of cracks. The cracks make it easier for infectious microbes to slip inside your body. Daily showers where you scrub everywhere is an invitation to itchy skin, dryness, flakiness and worsening conditions like eczema.

Professor Stephen Shumack, President of the Australasian College of Dermatologists said in Sunday Morning Herald:

 It’s only in the last fifty to sixty years (since the advent of bathrooms with showers) that the idea of a daily shower has become commonplace. The pressure to do that is actually social pressure rather than actual need. It’s become popular because of the social need to smell good. But it’s only the glands in your armpit and groin that produce body odour. They’re not all over the body.

It is recommended that you focus on the ‘right’ areas. It is only the glands in the armpits and the groin that produce body odor. So, scrubbing the whole body is unnecessary.

Dermatologists have few recommendations based on the biology of your skin. Try using lukewarm water instead of hot water because hot water opens pore and leads to drying of skin. A good moisturizer after drying yourself helps keep the skin soft and prevents chapping and flaking.