Experts claim daily showers are 'performative' and explains why we should be washing a lot less
An expert has claimed that showering daily is simply just 'performative' for the benefit of other people and there aren't any actual health benefits to it.
Like most people, I need to brush my teeth and scrub my body head to toe in the shower to feel ready for the day - in fact, I can't go downstairs without showering, let alone leave the house!
While I probably already knew it's not a necessity, hearing experts say that my time in the tub is for the pleasure of others kind of irks me.
Advert
An environmentalist is the latest 'unhygienic' hygienic person to speak out on the topic, as Donnachadh McCarthy explained why his time with an indigenous tribe in the Amazon jungle showed him the light.
The former professional ballet dancer told the BBC that before spending two weeks in the South American rainforest with the Yanomami people, he showered as frequent as the average person.
But their way of life changed his own, and he went from showering daily to once-a-week and finally, once-a-month.
McCarthy said: "Why are we washing? Mostly because we're afraid somebody else will tell us that we're smelling... I faced that fear, and I live."
According to McCarthy, nobody that he speaks to ever mentions that he smells, although he does still have daily sink-based washes with a cloth and shaves with a singular cup of water.
"I do think a lot of the showering is performative," the eco-warrior says. "I'm not alone in [not showering every day]. What I am alone in is being bravely willing to talk about it."
Celebrity couple Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have both previously gone on record to state that they don't shower every day either - with Kutcher saying in 2021 that he washes his 'armpits and crotch daily and nothing else ever'.
There have been other celebs to come out about saying no to a daily scrub, including Jake Gyllenhaal who told Vanity Fair 'more and more I find bathing to be less necessary, at times', before later claiming he was being sarcastic.
But while society may deem those who shower less frequent as unhygienic, dermatologist Dr. Julie Russak, of Manhattan, told The New York Post that those in his profession do not recommend daily showers.
Adding that bath soaps 'really removes and destroys the skin’s microbiome' which she claimed is 'extremely important in overall health of the body'.
While in 2020, physician James Hamblin wrote a book on why he decided to stop showering.
He told the BBC that anyone who 'mocks' people who don't shower as frequent 'are betraying profound ignorance of the skin microbiome'.
It's all interesting and now knowing the health benefits that come with stopping showering I wish I had it in me... but I enjoy the shower and the feeling of being 'clean' too much to stop!
Topics: Health, Environment, Science, Beauty
Joe Yates