Its expected to bathe every day to get rid of germs so that we may stay cleaner, fresher, healthier and beautiful and doing this has become our reality.
Many of us bathe as often as we want, whenever we deem it necessary to. While some people bathe once a day, most people bathe twice and a few even three times.
It all depends on personal preferences, state of being, environment and even climate at that point in time. It should come as no surprise that bathing, like every other thing, has its rules and regulations. Its do’s and don’ts.
Seeing as bathing is an everyday habit and a huge part in our lifestyle and beauty regime, emphasis should be laid on doing it the right way at all times.
The most common bathing errors are:
1. Spending too much time in the shower
We’ve all, at some point in time felt the effect of a soothing, stress relieving , body calming bath so bad that we want to spend as much time there as we can – and most often we do. We take our time in the bathroom, thinking its good for the skin. Well, it isn’t.
Spending over 10 minutes in the bathroom strips your skin of moisture, making it dry and unhealthy. Extended lack of moisture can lead to wrinkling and loss of that healthy skin glow.
2. Bathing with Hot water
I’ve come to know bathing with hot water as a bitter sweet feeling. Its so nice bathing with hot water and experiencing the feeling of a ‘’renewed skin’’. I guess that’s why its so difficult to accept this one fact: bathing with hot water does more damage than good.
It removes all the natural oil from your scalp and skin, ridding them of moisture and causing them to dry up. Hot water also opens up your pores, making your skin and your scalp prone to dirt and bacteria.
3. Scrubbing/exfoliating your face every day
It is a healthy habit to exfoliate to get rid of the dead skin cells and make room for a healthier looking, younger skin. But as they say, too much of everything is not good. It is wrong to scrub/exfoliate your face every day.
The skin on our face is about 10x softer than that on our body. Exfoliating or scrubbing could lead to wear ad tear, causing a dry, rough, damaged skin.
4. Shaving or waxing before shower
It is a common habit and unspoken belief to shave before shower so that when we’re done, the bathing cleans the body totally and gets rid of all the dirt from shaving. Like a few of our bathing habits, this falls on the wrong side.
Bathing before shaving opens up pores and hair follicles, makes the hair softer and easier to shave, and reduces razor bumps. So next time, shave after bathing, and then you may bathe again just remember to not spend too much time bathing.
5. Washing your hair everyday
This strips your hair of all its natural oils fast before they have time to reach the roots, thereby causing your hair to be unhealthy.
If the scalp is stripped of its natural oil, it tries to produce more oils and it produces excess that may clog your scalp pores, impairing hair growth. Wash your hair once or twice a week at most so that the oil has time to reach the roots and nourish your hair.
6. Deodorants & Anti-bacterial soaps
The fragrances and chemicals in this soap strips the body of its moisture, drying it up and causing damage to it. This may cause itchiness and flakiness. Also, some of these chemicals may be too harsh on your skin, especially towards sensitive skin.
7. Combing your hair while washing it
When washing your hair, your pores are open and the hair follicle is weak. Combing your hair when its wet and in this position leads to hair breakage.
8. Soaping the entire body
This may sound crazy but its not necessary to use soaps on every part of the body. Areas of the body like the hand, legs, stomach and back do not produce as much body oil as the face, neck, armpit, groin area, buttocks and feet.
So avoid washing the less oil producing parts of the body and pay more attention to the oil producing areas. You can wash your entire body once or twice a week if you want to.
9. Dirty loofahs and towels
If you use loofahs to bathe, ensure to keep them clean as they could house bacteria and germ. Towels should also be washed regularly to get rid of dirt and germs.
