You might think you’re getting clean in the shower, but these shower habits are actually detrimental to your health.
It is time to look at how you are showering (and keeping your bathroom tidy) and time to figure out what ways to adjust things.
1. Avoiding cold showers
This one might be easy to say, hard to do. No one really likes to step into a freezing cold shower, right? Well, maybe on a hot summer’s day, but otherwise, no. Most people like a good, hot shower.
Cold showers have a lot of benefits! Cold showers can help with alertness. They can refine hair and skin cells, improve circulation, ease stress, stimulate weight loss, and more!
2. Over-exfoliating
Exfoliating is great for your skin, but too much of a good thing is never good. You shouldn’t exfoliate more than 2-3x a week. Exfoliating the skin on your legs is great to do the day before you plan to shave. If you exfoliate your skin too often, you can cause your skin to become inflamed and even can affect your hair follicles.
3. Skipping a shower post-workout
We’ve all been there, you hit the gym, but you have a ton of errands to run after. By the time you get home, you just want to lay down, not hop in the shower. But you really, really need to. Bacteria can proliferate on your skin after a vigorous workout and not rinsing them off is bad for you. Your skin can breakout with acne or rashes if you skip the shower.
4. Showering in hard water
You might not even realize that you are showering in hard water, but it is pretty easy to check this one out. If your water leaves soap scum in your tub, sink, or dishes, then you most likely have hard water. Hard water is defined but the high concentration of minerals like magnesium and calcium it has. This can cause your skin to break out. There are many options you can go through to find the right water softener for you.
5. Roughly rubbing your skin and hair with a towel
Letting your skin air dry might be a pain, but it is much better than rubbing your body with a towel. Doing this pulls on your skin and can cause dry skin. Instead, you should pat your body down with a towel. When it comes to your hair, you can instead use a cotton t-shirt to pat your hair dry.
6. Using scented soap
That scented soap might smell amazing, but it can have some lasting effects on your skin that aren’t. If you get out of the shower and your skin feels itchy or tender, you should look at your scented soap first. It can strip your skin of natural oils that you need to maintain the balance between oily and dry.
7. Washing your hair daily
You might think that you need to wash your hair every day, but you’d be wrong. Washing your hair with shampoo too often can strip your hair of its natural oils and dry it out. You might think that you’re not drying your hair out if you use a lot of conditioner, but that is also not good. Too much conditioner can weigh your hair down.
8. Using a soap dish
This might seem counterintuitive since the soap dish was built for a reason. If you just look at your soap dish, you’ll realize your mistake here. It is all caked over with old soap, right? Well, that is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria and you’re just wiping it all over your skin every day.
9. Skipping moisturizer after
If you’re not moisturizing your skin after a shower, the only person you’re hurting is yourself. Taking a lot hot shower is damaging to your skin, so you need to rehydrate it with moisturizer after. Moisturizer is good for keeping balance in your skin, as it can get either too dry or too oily.
10. Reusing a dirty towel
You might think that your towel can never get dirty because you’re only using it after a shower when you’re clean. If you thought that, you were wrong. Realistically, you should only be using your towel about 3 times before washing it.
The reasons are that dead skin cells can cling to your towel after a shower. Your towel can be teeming with bacteria. Not only that, if you are not hanging your towel in an area that it can dry 100%, it also runs the risk of collecting mold and mildew.
11. Not washing/replacing your loofah
Has your loofah been in the shower for as long as you can remember? It is time to throw that thing out ASAP. You should be replacing your loofah every 3 to 4 weeks. Like quite a few items on this list, your loofah is literally crawling with bacteria. If you’ve had your loofah for years, you might honestly want to burn it.
12. Bathing in a dirty tub
This should be a no-brainer, right? Well, how often do you clean your tub? Because of the constant use of the tub and shower and the steam that builds up, mold and mildew are always lurking in your bathroom. You should be cleaning your bathroom at least once a week
13. Not washing your feet
You might be so heavily focused on washing your hair and private parts, you’re totally forgetting your feet. The soap from the rest of your body doesn’t just wash down to your feet and clean them. You need to actively wash between your toes!
14. Washing your face
You might have thought you were saving time and money by washing your face in the shower (which, you are), but you’re doing your skin a disservice. Typically, people shower with water much hotter than what they would normally use to wash their face. In doing this, you can cause some serious irritation to your skin. If you’re prone to acne or have rosacea, you are going to want to only use a gentle cleanser in the shower if you’re using anything at all.
15. Leaving your razor in the shower
I know you’re probably saying, “well, where else should I leave my razor?” Literally, anywhere else. The steam and condensation in the bathroom are very bad for your razor. It can rust very easily in that setting. If it doesn’t get rusty, then bacteria is hiding between each blade.
16. Using an old razor
There’s more than one way to mess up with a razor. Just like leaving it in the shower is bad, so is using an old razor head. New razors and razor heads are not cheap, so we tend to keep them for much longer than we should. Using an old razor can cause your skin to become red and inflamed. The consensus on how often you should change your razor varies online, Gillette says every 10 shaves, while some grooming sites say ever 3-4 uses. Check the packaging on your razor brand to see what they suggest!
17. Showering too long
Hot water might feel very comforting in the shower, but having it blast your skin for 30 minutes is not good. In fact, it could be giving you a serious dry skin issue. Typically, you showers should only last about 5 to 10 minutes.
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