Plot twist - showering daily is not necessarily great for keeping your body clean and healthy. In fact, scientists have decided that showering every single day is now seen as excessive, as it stripes away all of those natural body oils that protect your skin cells. This means it can lead to viruses and cause skin conditions like eczema to get worse. Lovely.
This news comes from Professor Stephen Shumack, President of the Australasian College of Dermatologists, who warns against showering too frequently. Washing our hair too often causes split ends, with the constant use of products leading to buildup. He calls daily showering a ‘social pressure’ rather than us actually needing to. US doctor Robynne Chutkan has also said that the body only needs a ‘rinse’as showering with soap means you strip away all the good bacteria.
As it’s only the glands in the armpits and groins that produce odor, these should be targeted instead of the whole body. We should be switching out our leisurely showers for quick washes. It seems Jennifer Aniston’s got it right with her three minute showers, which she does to help save water.
For all those lovers of boiling hot showers, they’ve also been criticised, as the hot water removes the natural oils. But colder showers help hydrate your skin, which is good if you suffer from dry skin or split ends.
Yet we all know we get our best ideas in the shower. You might find yourself getting distracted and then realise you've been in there for 40 minutes… Luckily, there’s now a showerhead from Hydrao that times you shower. It changes colour to let you know when you’ve spent enough time washing. So feel free to continue with your brainstorm.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.