When it comes to personal cleanliness, people often ask how many times they should shower a day. This question often leads to debates.
It is very important to find the right mix between cleanliness, skin health, and the effect on the environment.
In this article, we’ll learn more about this topic and talk about how how often should you shower?
How Often Should You Shower?
You don’t have to take a shower every day. You should take a shower every other day, or at least twice or three times a week. Doing this is very good for your face.
Taking a shower every day can take away your skin’s natural oils and make it dry. Dryness can lead to eczema or skin inflammation, or it can make your skin red and itchy.
Still, right number of times to shower each week will be different for each person. Even more so for those who do more.
The Pros Of Taking Less Showers
Harvard University says that the usual shower lasts eight minutes and uses 2.5 gallons of water per minute. By the time you’re dry, you’ll have wasted 20 gallons of water.
Even though you can try to cut down on that time, it’s not always easy, especially if you’re cleaning and conditioning your hair, shaving, and doing other things in the shower.
Less is more, though. If you take less showers, you save water and the energy used to heat water.”
Some Dr. says it can be good for your face as well as the earth. Taking less showers makes your immune system stronger because it keeps disease-fighting germs on your skin.
It also lets us keep more of the skin’s natural oils and microorganisms. Microbes on the skin may stop harmful pathogens from getting into the body and lower the risk of skin conditions.
What Happens If You Take Too Many Showers?
Normal skin has a layer of oil that protects it and a mix of “good” bacteria that keep it from getting too dry or getting sick.
If you clean it too often, especially with strong soaps and a lot of scrubbing, you can remove this layer, which can leave your skin dry, red, and itchy.
This can make the skin split, which lets germs and allergens in and can lead to skin infections or allergy reactions.
Your immune system also needs to be stimulated by germs, even the ones that live on your skin. If you get rid of them too quickly, your body won’t have time to make the antibodies that protect it from them.
Antibacterial soaps can help with this by killing the natural bacteria that protect the skin from more dangerous and hard to treat germs.
As kids grow, this can make an even bigger difference in how they feel. Because of this, some pediatricians and skin doctors say that kids shouldn’t take a bath every day.
What Happens If You Don’t Shower Enough?
You can take too many showers, but you can also take too few. So, taking fewer showers might be good for your face, but you should still manage your personal hygiene.
Sweat glands are all over your body, and they make you sweat when you’re too hot, worried, on your period, or moving around a lot.
Sweat has no smell by itself, but when it mixes with bacteria that is already on the skin, it makes a smell.
If you haven’t been working out, a few days without a shower usually won’t cause body odor. But the longer you go without a shower, the more body odor you will have, especially in your armpits and thighs.
However, body odor isn’t the only reason to take regular showers or baths. Dead skin cells, dirt, and sweat can build up on your face if you don’t take care of it or don’t shower often enough.
This can make acne worse and may make psoriasis, rashes, and eczema worse.
If you don’t shower enough, the good and bad germs on your skin can get out of balance. Skin infections can also happen if there are too many bad germs on your skin.
This could cause dermatitis neglecta, a condition in which patches of plaque form on the skin because it isn’t cleaned well enough.
Taking a bath also gets rid of dead skin cells. If you don’t take enough baths, these dead skin cells can stick to your face and make it darker. This can be fixed by getting back to good cleanliness.
How Can You Keep Your Skin Safe While Taking A Shower?
If you can’t cut down on the amount of showers you take, try to protect your skin in other ways, such as:
- Lower the temperature. Your skin can get itchy when hot water dries it out more than cool water. So turn down the bathroom temperature.
- Cut your showers short. With just a quick rinse, you can clean your body without making your skin too dry. Try to do it in 3–5 minutes.
- Don’t use soaps that are too strong. If your skin is sensitive, you should try to use the mildest soap available. Most of the time, products that say they are hypoallergenic and scent-free are your best bet.
- Don’t scrub your face. Your skin rarely gets so dirty that you need to scrub it. So don’t scrub too hard—your face will still get clean.
- Towel yourself off. You don’t have to rub yourself hard with a towel to get dry. It will be easy on your skin to lightly pat yourself dry.
- Don’t forget to put some lotion on. The best way to keep your skin from getting too dry from taking too many showers is to moisturize it every day. When you get out of the shower, while your skin is still wet, is the best time to put on moisturizer.
Those Who Need To Take More (Or Fewer) Showers
According to Dr. teens should take showers the most often because they are the age group that does the most physical activities. Also, when a kid starts puberty, their body odor gets worse.
Dr. points out that children and older people don’t have to shower as often as teenagers do to stay clean.
People whose jobs put them in touch with dirt or germs, like cleaners, garbage collectors, and butchers, may want to take a shower more often than people whose jobs keep them in an office all day.
Thanks for reading. I hope you find it helpful.
