Has it been a long day? You know, the kind of day filled with a lot of excitement, stress, and of course sweat. If this sounds about right to you, you probably think a nice hot shower or soothing bath is exactly what you need. What follows below will explain how multiple daily showers are doing nothing more than wasting money, time and nutrients.

Over Bathing Dries Out Your Skin

If you have ever experienced dry skin you know just how irritating, uncomfortable, and painful it can be.  If you haven’t, save yourself from the agony and do not subject yourself to such a dry and arid fate. Your body goes out of its way to create a protective layer of moisture called sebum to prevent serious skin issues such as eczema or psoriasis.   

Although this lubricating protective layer is waterproof, thanks to harsh chemicals found in many of today’s body soaps, the sebum your body needs to keep itself lubricated throughout the day is usually washed down the drain every time you decide you “need” another shower.

While you might think that’s what moisturizing creams are for, the compounds that make up moisturizers can only keep the body lubricated for a few hours. Your body’s natural oils are designed to keep your skin lubricated for days at a time and replenish themselves without your conscious effort.

Sebum also acts as your body’s first line of defense against harmful viruses and bacteria that your daily shower cannot always wash away. Sebum does this by creating a very thin slightly acidic barrier between your skin and harmful bacteria.  

Friendly Bacteria

Just like your stomach your skin is also home to a rich and diverse community of healthy organisms that help and protect your body from foreign harmful bacteria and viruses.  One of the most important and by far beneficial bacteria your skin is home to is known as staphylococcus.

Staphylococcus releases molecules known as lipoteichoic acid (LTA), which are able to stop skin cells from releasing chemicals that trigger inflammation.

It Only Takes One

Contrary to popular belief you don’t actually need to shower or bathe more than once every single day. One of the many advantages to the modern society we live in is that a large number of our citizenship no longer works in conditions that demand them to clean of dirt and pathogens of themselves regularly.

The new age lifestyle that a large number of us live according to Katherine Ashenburg, the author of “The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History;” has created a community in which “we have never needed to wash less, and we have never done it more.”

Hair Health.

Constant showering and bathing not only puts your skin at risk it can also result in the damage of your hair. Just like your skin, your hair contains natural oils that keep it moisturized. Constant over bathing can lead to a variety of hair and scalp issues. Much of the time, we try to reverse these issues with hair products that do much more harm than good.

By simply not washing your hair more than once every day you can avoid chronic hair related issues such as split ends, dry brittle hair or excessive dandruff. These scalp and hair issues are usually caused by heat from excessive use of steamy showers.

Don’t Buy In

The culture of over cleanliness that has developed in our time has mainly been cultivated by profit eager industries desiring to make a dollar off of your insecurity.

The fact of the matter is you don’t need to shower more than once a day unless you have participate in an activity that caused you to sweat excessively or come into contact with bacteria and germs that could be harmful to your health.

While it is true that the activity of bathing or showering can be extremely soothing it is not something that needs to be performed daily.

A societal stigma has formed around that lifestyle that does not priorities cleaning one’s self multiple times a day, but, by showering less you could actually be doing your body so much more good than the latest body wash or shampoo commercial would have you believe.

Now we are not saying you should give up bathing by any means, it is hygienic and as stated previously it can be very soothing, but, like most things in life if not used in proper moderation it can bring about some health issues. Rather than bath multiple times a day it is recommended to bath once a day or a few times in the week.

For more information on why bathing multiple times is bad for your skin and hair health visit New York Times.