Monday, October 29, 2012

Your Unique Hygiene Responses

Everyone's body chemistry is unique. Most of us shower or bathe daily to prevent others from knowing just how unique we are! So how does your body respond to a rapid change in that routine? When was the last time you went more than 48 hours without a bath, shower, hair wash, etc.?  Finding out is essentially free -- in fact you may save a buck by not using the soap and hot water for a day or two.

I regularly skip one day a week just to give my dry skin a little break. Recently I stretched it and went 72 hours. Wow, did my body react!! It wasn't just the sticky feeling on the skin or some odors I wasn't accustomed to noticing.  My head, which had some hair styling products on it, broke out with  a tender, lumpy rash. Didn't see that coming!

So how can we get our bodies to the point that, if necessity dictates, we can feel comfortable without that daily shower?  What is the point that we go from fragrant to unhealthy in the process? Skin is our largest organ and our primary protection from infection and disease. It's relatively easy to care for it during 'normal' life, but what expedient products can help us during emergencies? Bucket bath?  Baby wipes? Baby powder in your hair? What other methods have you tried? Is there a way to accustom our bodies to doing without a shower or bath a little longer and perhaps beef-up our immune systems without ending up with the head-rash or worse?

Because everyone's skin is different -- how dry, how oily, how sensitive to specific chemicals -- each answer will be a little different. You may be one of the lucky people who can go a week without noticing any differences, but eventually it will catch up with you. Now's a good time to experiment with how your body reacts to a change in hygiene routine. If you're married, you may want to synchronize with your spouse!

No comments:

Post a Comment