How often should you shower? The personal hygiene myth that leaves us dry

Showering is an integral part of personal hygiene, but is it really necessary to do it every day? For most people, no, experts say, especially if you’re someone who loves a long, hot shower.

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Dr. Sandy Skotnicki, founder of Toronto’s Bay Dermatology Centre, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, and author of “Beyond Soap,” explained that while some people need to shower more often due to their occupation or the climate they live in, there’s no general rule when it comes to frequency.

“There is no normal and it’s because everyone’s so different, right?” Skotnicki said. “I remember someone who was saying, ‘Oh, I live in California. I’m sweaty every day.’ So, I think there is no exact correct answer to that because everyone lives such different lives. Some people have body odour. They work in construction. They have to shower.”

For others, Skotnicki added, their shower frequency has more to do with marketing than necessity.

Some people just get weirded out because it’s been hammered in their brain to wash themselves head to toe

“The whole point about all of this is that if you’re not dirty or sweaty or stinky, what are you having a shower for? Some people see it as, ‘I need it to wake up. It’s a comfort for me.’ If it’s mental health, go for it. But if you’re just doing it as a routine, kind of, ‘this is what you’re supposed to do, this is what I was told,’ it’s marketing.

“Getting into a shower and scrubbing head to toe … it’s not healthy. I think that’s the message and that nuance often gets lost. It’s not that you shouldn’t do this and you can’t do this. It’s about why are you doing what you’re doing? Are you doing it because somewhere in your brain it’s been hammered in there by marketing that this is what you need to do to be healthy? That’s the nuance that I think gets lost when people are like, ‘How many times do I need to shower?’”

Whether you shower daily or not, Skotnicki recommends avoiding traditional soap, which, as she pointed out in a post on her Substack, is harsher than people realize.

“(Traditional soap’s) pH is 9 to 10, while healthy skin is between 4 and 5.5,” Skotnicki wrote. “This alkaline soap can upset the acid mantle, which is a thin layer that protects your skin. When this barrier is damaged, water leaves the skin more easily. Important fats and proteins break down, making skin dry, irritated and more sensitive.”

The length of time you shower and water temperature can also be damaging to your skin. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine in 2022 found that long, continuous exposure to hot water is particularly harmful to the skin barrier, causing increased erythema (redness of the skin or mucous membranes) and TEWL (transepidermal water loss) values in healthy adults.

“If you wash with a good pH-balanced, fragrance-free cleanser, and you’re not in there for half an hour and it’s not too hot, you can do it every day,” Skotnicki said.

“I do recommend five to 10 minutes — people like to have numbers and limits — five to 10 minutes, not scalding hot. Some people just get weirded out because it’s been hammered in their brain to wash themselves head to toe. So, I don’t think, though, in the studies that that matters as much as what you wash with and how you wash.”

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