Daily bathing is considered to be a standard hygiene practice. While it’s widely believed that daily showers are essential for cleanliness and health, a recent discussions among experts have raised questions about its daily necessity. As per BBC report, experts have said that daily showers offer no proven health benefits. They have dismissed this practice as a socially accepted norm aimed at avoiding body odour.
While speaking to BBC, environmentalist Donnachadh McCarthy said, “Why are we washing? Mostly because we’re afraid somebody else will tell us that we’re smelling.” McCarthy, who now showers once a month, explained that his decision stemmed from his experience spending two weeks with the indigenous Yanomami people in the Amazon rainforest. He was compelled to do his part for the environment. Upon returning to his London house, he installed a rainwater harvester, solar thermal hot water facilities, and began closely monitoring his water usage. As a result, he gradually reduced his shower frequency over the years with now once a month.
He told the BBC that he rather now opts for washing himself with the help of a clean cloth at the sink adn also uses one cup of water to shave. Further adding, he added, “If you go to an old building, in the bedrooms you’ll see these lovely wooden tables with bowls sunk into them. People used water from the bowls, and had a face cloth for the face and body. … Obviously, having running water is a huge positive. But it means you use much more of it.” “I do think a lot of the showering is performative,” he added.
Another professor from the Department of the Built Environment at Aalborg University in Denmark stated that we don’t shower for health reasons, but rather because it’s a social norm. “If you go 100 years back, we didn’t shower every day, because the shower was not a normal thing to have. We don’t shower because of health. We shower because it’s a normal thing to do,” Professor Kristen Gram-Hanssen said as quoted by The New York Post.
Sally Bloomfield who is an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine stated people shower every day because it’s considered “socially acceptable,” as reported by NYP.
According to the report, experts recommend that people with dry skin or those who suffer from conditions such as eczema should take shorter, less frequent showers. This is because frequent showers can damage their skin microbiome.
While speaking to The New York Times in a 2023 report, Seattle dermatologist Joyce Park had explained that the ideal frequency of showering depends on the skin and hair type of a person and how sweat or dirt a person gets.
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Published: 26 Apr 2024, 11:56 AM IST