Doctor advises only using soap on your hands and nowhere else
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
I don't know if everybody is this way - I'm sure it varies a lot by body chemistry - but for me at least there have been no downsides. In addition to saving time, I have to think I've saved an enormous amount of water. From the article, it sounds like I may be healthier for it too.
I am sorry, but I do not believe you. What the author is saying is not to use soap, not to avoid showering.
https://blog.sylvaine-delacourte.com/perfumes-history-renais...
That's not to say they couldn't smell fine without daily showers but a smell will certainly build up over time. Some might be lucky and it won't smell particularly objectionable but you will smell and will smell stronger over time.
They need to check with someone they don't live with(so they're not used to it) and that someone will need to be willing to be blunt with them.
I've been showering every night before bed for about a month now, just to cool off as much as anything because we leave our windows open except on the very hottest days.
The main thing I've noticed since I picked up the habit is that my scalp has been more itchy lately. Also if anything I feel like I'm more smelly now than before. And it's not just a summer thing, because this is the first year I've picked up this habit.
But that brings up a question, back when mariners and seamen traversed the seas and didn’t bathe, some came upon the Japanese isles for the purpose of trade, and legend is they got called smelly foreigners... so, how come?
- Water temperature has a huge effect; consider taking lukewarm or even cold showers, if you can get used to it
- Using a wash rag is much harsher than just using soap in your hand. The coarse surface really used to tear up the outer layer of my skin.
- When drying off with a towel, pat instead of rub
Logically, it makes sense that our skin can adapt to be less oily and odorous with taking a break from using a lot of soap. I've been only using shampoo to wash my hair every other time I shower and I've noticed that my hair now seems to take longer to get oily. It's basically the same concept as using soap on the rest of our skin.
I do wear sunscreen at the beach or if I am going to be outside in direct sunlight all day. I do question however if the risks posed by what is in sunscreen outweigh the protective benefit if you put it all over your body every day. I am not a doctor or expert in this so don't listen to me.
"For the second time in less than a year, a study of common sunscreen ingredients has established that the chemicals are absorbed into the bloodstream at concentrations far greater than the Food and Drug Administration’s safety threshold."
> Dr. SANDY SKOTNICKI is the founder of Toronto’s Bay Dermatology Centre and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, divisions of Dermatology and Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Toronto. She is a consultant dermatologist at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital. […]
* https://drsandyskotnicki.com
Interview with her on TVO, the province of Ontario's public broadcast network:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGl19JJnaK0
It's not that soap is "bad", it's just that we're overemphasizing cleanliness to the point that a lot of the cleaning chemicals we (over-)use are damaging our skin.
Also, one certainly wants some cleanliness, but many products are excessively harsh for what they accomplish, and so she recommends certain products that she's found helped her patients:
Humans have two types of sweat glands: eccrine and apocrine. Eccrine sweat glands are found all over the body. Apocrine glands are found in armpits (and a few other areas), and they only activate at puberty. The smell is related to bacterial activity in the "apocrine sweat". Armpits don't smell because they sweat more; they smell because it's a different kind of sweat.
So I use soap for my armpits. If I don't, I'll notice the smell easily in a day or two. But for most of my skin, I can go pretty much indefinitely with just water. I don't notice any bad smells, and I have asked some close friends, and they don't smell anything either.
And just to finesse what you're saying here:
> The smell is related to bacterial activity in the "apocrine sweat". Armpits don't smell because they sweat more; they smell because it's a different kind of sweat.
Even the sweat from the apocrine glands doesn't smell when it's produced. But because it is much richer in nutrients than the sweat produced from the eccrine glands (which is 99% water and the last 1% mainly being salts), it is a fertile feeding ground for bacteria. And it's the waste excreted by the bacteria feeding on your appocrine sweat that smells bad, not the sweat itself.
We have a shockingly poor understanding of the processes behind most diseases. We generally do a poor job of even thinking of the body in terms of processes and throughputs, much less factoring in elements like "I wonder how this is impacting my microbiome? And what that does to my overall health?"
Tips for self experimentation:
1. Keep a journal.
2. Make one and only one change at a time and space them at least a week apart, longer if possible.
I started using shampoo only once or twice a week (I do shower daily) and just using hot water the rest of the days. My hair is immensely happier now! I also switched to using a "fancy" shampoo with salt granules in it, since the ocean seems to make my hair nice, and that helped as well. Even though the shampoo is more expensive than the cheap stuff I used before, I use way less of it and it's cheaper overall.
I've tested my theory in a couple ways, and it's all been positive. After a Pre-COVID haircut, I had them use whatever shampoo they use for a wash. My scalp was itchy, dry, and uncomfortable for at least 24 hours after that, and my hair was totally flat for a few days as well. I also tried not using shampoo for a long time (3 weeks) and just using hot water, but I got dandruff again and I could feel I was getting dry skin and oil residue building up on my scalp. I'm back to my normal routine now, and have never been happier.
I have fond memories of one lecturer always saying "don't put anything on your skin you wouldn't put in your mouth and swallow".
Your skin is permeable, the fats and oils the skin exude are part of it's protective systems, and, as the article points out, the regular surface of the skin is a veritable smorgasbord of commensal organisms.
We should probably stop treating out bodies as fundamentally broken. They've gotten us this far, and, more generally, you don't see other animals obsessed with hygiene. Although I did recently see a video of a rat soaping itself up for a shower, so there's that I guess.
There are soap alternatives that don't cut the oils the same way.
My favourite is rolled oats in the end of a stocking cut and tied off. The stocking is a mild abrasive and the oats exude a milky substance when wet and it feels quite pleasant.
Worth nothing I didn't say *"don't shower or bathe".
I'd ask this lecturer to join me this weekend as I wade in a giardia-infested river, toes feeling the silt and mud, but I'm a bit of a prude and I can only assume they're naked.
Myself, I'll not hesitate to put on some sunscreen.
Obviously I'm not talking about that.
And, sure, I've got for multiple multi-year periods without wearing sunscreen, though I do when I want to expose my skin, of course.
Also, the site guidelines ask us to:
Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
Ha, tell that to my cats!
He does have somewhat less of a collection of personal hygiene products than the average westerner, though ;)
My two cats lick their own anuses multiple times per day.
Not. Clean.
Cats can carry toxoplasmosis.
But, generally speaking, humans and other animals can cohabitate to quite a degree and nothing much comes of it in the general case.
As always, be skeptical of claims that go against consensus. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
No, because the microbiome (helpful bacteria) around the eyes prevents conjunctivitis. And killing off those beneficial bacteria clears the way for far more undesireable bacteria.
Yes, germs are bad.
We generally credit Lister with saving many lives by inventing sterile surgical procedures; so, how do germs in open wounds and germs on the skin differ in their effects on survival, health, and appearance? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lister
https://hubpages.com/education/The-Many-Uses-of-Olive-Oil-in...
Nice variation on the old the last acceptable prejudice... rhetoric.
I have several friends who do shower, but don't use soap except for hands or when they're actually dirty. None of them get funky, except when we're camping and nobody's been able to take a shower for a while.
As is the use of deodorants and antiperspirants.