People usually shower at least once a day nowadays. However, you could be losing sleep wondering whether taking a bath daily is right or wrong for you. Particularly since the media recently portrayed taking hot baths as bad for our health. At any given time, you generally carry about 1,000 different types of bacteria and 40 types of fungus on your body. However, most of these micro-organisms are actually good for your overall well-being. Simply put, the good bacterium helps us to keep the bad bacteria away. Listed below is what happens to your body when you skip showers for about two days.
Your skin does not get too dry
Long hot showers on a daily basis could lead to dry skin because both soap and hot water strip your skin of its natural oils. Contact with hot water and soap often dries out your skin, which means taking less frequent showers effectively prevents skin dryness.
One way to avoid dry skin is to use lukewarm water to take shorter showers, lasting about ten minutes at a time. You should pat yourself dry as opposed to rubbing your skin dry once you step out of the shower. Applying a moisturizer all over your body while you are still wet is also recommended.
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Your skin might get too oily
If on the other hand, you go overboard and skip too many showers, you could get the opposite problem to skin dryness. Neglecting to wash regularly might cause increased oiliness, and your skin might appear grimy. The appearance of greasiness due to neglecting to clean usually becomes apparent on the scalp more quickly. This means that apart from your skin looking all icky and shiny, your hair typically appears even worse.
Your dead skin cells stay with you longer
Taking a shower on a daily basis allows you to wash and scrub off the outer layer of your skin. On the other hand, reducing your baths means the outer layer of your skin sticks with you for longer. You are encouraged to slough off’ your skin’s outer layer, which mostly contains dead skin cells.
However, it is still unclear whether removing dead skin cells is good or bad for your health. Removing dead skin cells causes some disruption to the barrier functions of your skin’s outer protective layer. On the other hand, dead skin cells provide a more suitable environment for harmful fungi and bacteria.
Poses potential health hazards
By skipping, you may not be able to contain harmful bacteria, most of which cause various infections, especially if they find a way to your mouth, nose, or eyes. The salty and oily nature of your skin could cause blemishes and irritations, particularly if not cleaned regularly.
Might alter your natural skin flora
Do not confuse your natural flora with your aura. Compared to taking regular baths, skipping might result in a less frequent elimination of the microorganisms living on your skin. Skipping for two or more days causes significant changes when it comes to the usual flora of these organisms. It is, however, unclear whether skipping your bath for a single day causes such changes.
Lead to bad odors
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Although most people think sweat causes bad body odor, it is in fact caused by gasses emitted by bacteria. Such gasses are produced whenever bacteria consume fatty acids and body protein, and these gasses can lead to about 30 bad odors. Unless these bad smells get too severe, it is never a health issue but a social one. People will judge and even avoid you due to foul smells. If you must skip showering, be sure to treat your face, groin, and armpits some other way. The main reason is that these areas are breeding grounds for bacteria.
Summary
In general, taking daily showers is the ideal practice. You, however, need to be more careful, especially if you have some underlying conditions or if your skin is already dry and sensitive.
