How often should you shower and what happens to your body if you go too long without showering?
Whether you prefer to shower in the morning, or wash yourself at night, it may feel natural to hop in every day
KEEPING clean is of vital important to your health and even social life - because nobody wants to have a smelly friend.
But while we should shower regularly, it doesn't necessarily have to be once a day.
How often should you shower?
Although you may have hopped into a shower this morning (or last night), it’s not actually crucial to shower every day.
Glands in the armpit and groin produce body odour, so they should obviously be kept clean, but they’re not all over the body, and over washing can actually cause more harm to your skin than good.
Washing too often can cause destroy the natural body oils we produce that protect our skin, which can cause itchiness, dryness, and even eczema.
John Oxford, Professor of Virology at Queen Mary’s School of Medicine And Dentistry told the Daily Mail: “As long as people wash their hands often enough and pay attention to the area of the body below the belt, showering or bathing every other day would do no harm.”
Therefore, it’s up to personal preference how often you want to wash, but every two days isn’t unreasonable –for example if you work at home, you can be less frequent than somebody who does a particularly labour intensive job.
Keeping your hands clean is one of the most important things, and the groin area too, but elsewhere on the body is less crucial.
For the groin area, the recommend washing around your vagina more than once a day if you’re on your period, using plain, unperfumed soaps.
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What happens to your body if you go too long without showering?
While sweat is odourless, it makes a perfect breeding ground for bacteria to multiple, which causes that unpleasant BO smell.
Most bacteria on your skin is good for you, but by not washing enough, harmful bacteria can spread into your body through your eyes, nose, or mouth, which can cause you to get sick.
They can also cause skin infections, and even brown scaly patches, called dermatitis neglecta.