*Good news for people who don’t take a shower every day. It’s true. You don’t have to take a daily shower to stay clean and funk-free. The New York Post cites medical experts who reveal there is no proven health benefit to a shower a day.
As for why we wash so often, the reason is a simple one, according to environmentalist Donnachadh McCarthy.
“Why are we washing? Mostly because we’re afraid somebody else will tell us that we’re smelling,” the “Prostitute State” author, who showers once a month to help the environment, told the BBC
Although it looks antisocial to abstain from daily showers, medical experts the Post notes that medical experts join McCarty in saying that the obsession to stay clean can be hazardous to your health.
Dr. Julie Russak, a Manhattan-based dermatologist backed that notion in a previous interview with The Post, telling the outlet that prolonged and daily showers could strip away the “skin’s microbiome.” The Post notes the microbiome “plays a role in protecting the skin and is ‘also extremely important in the overall health of the body.’”
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Negative reaction to daily showering comes as data supports the fact that folks are showering more than ever.
In 2021, Harvard Health researchers found that 66% of Americans shower every day. The finding parallels a 2005 report, which claims it is common for Brits to shower once or twice per day. Going back to the experts, The Post reports the shower increase can be attributed to the increased presence of showers, which became a common site in US homes circa the 1920s — and residences overseas in the 1950s.
“If you go 100 years back, we didn’t shower every day, because the shower was not a normal thing to have,” declared Kirsten Gram-Hanssen, a professor in Denmark at Aalborg University’s Department of the Built Environments said.
“We don’t shower because of health. We shower because it’s a normal thing to do.”
In addition to more showers in homes, the stigma of not showering continues to be strong in the reasons for everyday washing. According to Sally Bloomfield, an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, people shower every day because it’s “socially acceptable.”
As for how often you should shower, the simple answer is it depends.
In the official sense, Seattle dermatologist Joyce Park broke it down for the New York Times last year with her take on the topic.
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to washing skin and hair,” she said. “The ideal frequency depends on your skin and hair type, how much you sweat and how dirty you get.”
Overall, experts advise people who have drier skin — or suffer from conditions such as eczema — to take shorter, less frequent showers to preserve their skin microbiomes, The Post notes. If everything mentioned does not register and you feel a shower every day is necessary, Dr. Russak mentioned that people should focus “only on the areas that have higher concentrations of sweat accumulation.”
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