With the rise of advertising, hygiene has become inflated to the gravity of epidemiology. In the early 1900s, the average American would wash their hair once or twice a month, and it would be healthy. Around the 60s and 70s, commercials promoted the usage of shampoo products on a daily basis to combat their new and emphasized idea of greasy, dirty hair. The average American today washes their hair around 5 times a week. This significant increase in hair washing can only be credited to this unhealthy construct of someone being dirty if they have oily hair.
Although shampooing your hair often may be helpful rather than harmful, it is important to recognize that shampoo often overstrips hair. Yes, it cleans out the dirt and dust accumulated throughout the day. However, shampoo also cleanses your hair of its natural oils, which can sometimes make your hair greasy but are actually good for your hair. Overcleansing generally leads to drier scalps. And, we ‘resolve’ this by using conditioner, a product which brings back the oils that we cleaned with shampoo. This cycle of fixing our shampooed hair with conditioner can be replaced by simply washing hair with water. Water will take care of the dirt and dust we want gone without shampoo and at a lesser cost.
Of course, everyone’s hair is different and using no hair products may not work in everyone’s case. Still, remember that you don’t need to wash your hair all the time. And, leaving the shampoo behind may just make your hair healthier. However, if you do generally exercise a lot or do something that makes you sweaty or actually dirty, obviously washing your hair is better than not washing it.
Similar to shampoo, people shower a lot more than they need to. People often shower daily because showering is considered healthy, people are concerned about body odor, or showering is a part of their daily routine. Yet, just like hair, our skin contains a natural layer of oil and “good” bacteria. Showering daily removes these healthy parts of our skin and makes our skin drier. And, the water we generally shower with often contains different chemicals that may either cause problems or slightly damage skin.
Shower whenever you want unless you are super sweaty, muddy, or something of those sorts. There is no set frequency for how often you should shower. Just don’t shower every day. And, when you do shower, know that short showers of 3 or 4 minutes are actually quite sufficient for cleaning the dirt off of your body.
Hygiene is a great thing. Washing your hands often is important to prevent the spread of germs with Covid and the flu happening right now. However, know that hygiene is not like epidemiology. You can ‘hygiene’ less than you were taught to while being clean and, perhaps, more healthy than before.
