Why You Don’t Need To Shower (Every Day)

Ninety-three percent of the people reading this have washed their hair in the past 24 hours. According to the New York Times, that number might be about to drop.

In a recent article, Times reporter Catherine St. Louis profiles a variety of people–including a paralegal, a salesman, an actor and the owner of a skin-care company–who bathe rarely and use deodorant even less. Their claim: it’s not necessary, and nobody seems to notice.

Your intrepid author washes her hair but once or twice a week and showers every couple-few days. Deodorant is for hot afternoons and important situations, but most of the time I don’t wear it. Unless I’m sweaty, I just don’t see the need for underarm perfume. Showering dries out my skin badly. So I bathe less, but I don’t mention it. People have a tendency to judge.

Catherine St. Louis describes our “culture of clean” as the result of incessant marketing. “Personal cleanliness in the United States has long been big business,” she writes, and 93% of American adults shampoo almost daily. But scientists are discovering good reasons why you shouldn’t: soap strips your skin of its natural lipids, aging it faster and causing dry skin and eczema. Thank jeebus there are expensive lotions for that, eh?

But lotions can’t replace the host of friendly bacteria that prevent infections and irritation of your skin. The chief dermatologist at UC San Diego told St. Louis that your skin bacteria don’t just fight disease, they’re “educating your own skin cells to make your own antibiotics.”

Last but not least: skipping a shower can save nearly 40 gallons of water a day. Yipes.

Everybody’s going to make their own choices about soap, shampoo, deodorant, perfume, toothpaste, lotion, body wash, night cream, conditioner… and you should always wash up after you ride the subway or go to the gym. Aside from that, there’s a lot of leeway.

 

View Jessica’s profile here.