Showering Once a Week Is Normal, and Other Hygiene Habits Associated With the Pandemic Are Actually Normal.
During the pandemic, some of us may have taken less shower (perhaps a lot less), although we spent more time disinfecting surfaces (well, at first ). As we readjust to the new norm, let’s take a look at our cleanliness routines and figure out what we really need to do every day – and what we might be missing.
Shower as needed
There is no natural law that says that a person needs to take a shower exactly once a day; How often you need to wash depends on how much you sweat, smell, or get dirty.
For example, if you sweat twice a day, you can shower twice a day. Conversely, if your daily activities do not make you feel particularly disgusting, you can shower once or twice a week. There is no health reason to shower every day, so you can decide for yourself based on how dirty you feel.
Less often take a shower may be even better for your skin as soap removes natural oils from the skin. If you often have dry skin, it may be worth experimenting with shower frequency to see if less is better for you. If you’re looking for a sweet spot, you can always shower without soap, or skip the shower and just wash your particularly dirty or greasy body parts by the sink.
Wash your hair as needed.
Your hair, just like your skin, has natural oils that protect it. In addition, it does not need to be washed for health reasons; your hair isn’t even alive.
So, your hair wash schedule should be dictated by how your hair looks and feels to the touch. Most of us will probably find it better to wash our hair every few days than daily. Oily hair may need to be washed every other day (although Dove, who makes money buying shampoo, recommends every day ). Other hair types are best washed 2-3 times a week. Thick or curly hair is best washed once a week.
But washing your hands a lot
It turns out that hand washing hasn’t played as important a role in the fight against COVID as we thought in the early days of the pandemic, but it’s still one of the best tools we have to prevent many respiratory, diarrheal and other diseases from contracting. foodborne illness.
According to the CDC , you must wash your hands:
- Before and after cooking, especially after touching raw meat
- Before and after nursing
- Before and after meals
- After using the toilet
- After changing the diaper
- After touching an animal (such as a pet), food, or waste
- After touching the trash
- After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
In addition to this, I wash my hands after returning home from shopping (a pandemic habit I developed) or from the gym (gyms have always been disgusting).
Brush your teeth twice a day
It is widely believed among professionals that we should brush our teeth twice a day. And floss too.
But what happens if you only brush your teeth once a day? Your teeth may not be as good as someone who does both sessions, but it is much better than nothing. (Plaque, which causes gum disease, takes about 24 hours to form , so brushing your teeth a day will still help.) So stick to your standard morning and night schedule if you can.
Change clothes when she needs to change
Do you really need a fresh change of clothes every day? It depends on what kind of clothes and what you did in them.
Anything that is soaked in sweat or in close contact with your body fluids should be washed after the first use. This includes socks, underwear, most sportswear, and any T-shirt that gets wet by the time you take it off.
Sweatshirts, trousers, and things like jackets can last the longest without washing: GQ estimates five socks for most of these items, and even a full season for jeans. In fact, there is nothing special about jeans; If you keep your clothes clean, don’t sweat on them and they won’t start to stink, you don’t need to wash them unless you really want to.
When to clean and disinfect your home
If you are still sanitizing surfaces in your home daily or weekly due to COVID concerns, the CDC has already given you permission to stop .
However, if someone with COVID (or other infectious disease) has been in your home within the past 24 hours, you should still disinfect all hard-to-touch surfaces. If someone gets sick in your bathroom, drops of their diarrhea or vomiting can be anywhere, and you should definitely use a disinfectant.
When it comes to cleaning rather than disinfecting, CDC recommends doing it “regularly,” with the actual frequency of your choice. For commonly used surfaces like kitchen countertops, we feel like every day is fine.