[Must Read] 15 Showering Mistakes That Can Actually Hurt You

The odds are you don’t give your daily shower all that much thought.

After all, all you’re doing is climbing underneath some falling water and scrubbing yourself clean for the day ahead…

… Right?

Well, it turns out that almost all of us make a bunch of big-time mistakes when it comes time to take a shower, and all of these mistakes can really lead to a lot more headache and hassle than most of us would have ever imagined.

15 Most Common Showering Mistakes:

We break down 15 of the most common showering mistakes you’re going to want to avoid at all costs, not only improving the overall quality of your shower but also improving the quality of your life along the way.

Here we go!

DON’T blast out the hot water

Most of us love nothing more than cranking the shower dial to its hottest setting and then steaming ourselves like a lobster, but you’re actually doing quite a bit of damage to your skin when you go in that direction.

Firstly, you remove a lot of natural only that your body needs to moisturize your skin. Secondly, you bring extra blood circulation to the upper layers of your skin, causing inflammation along the way – and that’s going to force you to itch, to develop rashes, and to dry you out.

DON’T stay in the shower for too long at a time

Everybody has to fight the tendency to stand of the water for 15, 20, or even 30 minutes (or longer), but you’re going to want to try and keep your showers to only 5 or 10 minutes so that you don’t strip away essential oil and dry your skin out.

DON’T use deodorant body washes

The overwhelming majority of antibacterial and deodorant focused body washes are really going to do a number on your skin, introducing a lot of chemicals that can cause a world of hurt to your otherwise delicate skin cells.

The impact of deodorant body washes will be fairly negligible when you’re younger, but as you get older, the skin is going to get thinner and you’re going to run into some real trouble from all of these chemical additives.

Stay away from deodorant body washes and stick with soap free cleansers.

DON’T soap up your entire body

Soap is chemically designed to literally dissolve dirt, debris, and oil, feeling it away from your body so that the running water can wash it off.

Because the skin on your arms and legs generally do not have all that much oil to give up in the first place, so putting them up is only going to leave your limbs bone dry – and they are going to get really, really itchy.

Stick to soaping up your torso, your back, your armpits, your groin, and your feet – but stay away from your extremities.

DON’T wait too terribly long before you moisturize

If you wait any longer than three minutes after leaving your shower to moisturize you aren’t going to be able to take advantage of all the benefits that moisturizer has to offer.

The very first thing you’re going to want to do upon stepping out of the shower is to pat (not rub or scrub) yourself dry, and then you’re going to want to apply a pretty liberal amount of moisturizer to your entire body.

Give yourself a couple of minutes to absorb as much of that moisturizer as possible and you’ll be off to the races!

DON’T keep the same loofah for too long

You are definitely going to want to toss your loofah and your washcloths every month or so, and maybe even more frequently than that depending upon how regularly you are showering.

If you keep the same loofah around you were going to the scrubbing yourself with dead skin cells, dead hair follicles, and all kinds of dirt and debris – invisible particles that are going to leave you dirty after leaving the shower than you were when you climbed in.

That’s obviously bad news!

DON’T blow all your money on “all-natural” cleaning products

There is a huge market for “all-natural” shower products today, but you’re going to want to stay about as far away from these options as you can if you’re smart.

All-natural means absolutely nothing on labels right now, so there’s really no advantage to these products which you will almost always pay a premium for.

DON’T shampoo your hair every single day

Most people understand that you aren’t going to want to shampoo your hair every single day, but a lot of people are surprised to learn just how damaging it can be.

Our hair is incredibly delicate (even if it doesn’t look like that at first), and you want to be 100% certain that you aren’t drying it out and causing it to become prematurely damaged – or even worse, fall right out!

DON’T stick with the same shampoo all the time

It’s also important to mix up the shampoo formula that you are going with from time to time.

Our bodies are amazing at adapting, and if you don’t mix and match things every now and again the cleaning agents and revitalizing solutions in one shampoo are no longer going to “cut the mustard”.

Change your shampoo up after every bottle, running three or four in a regular rotation.

DON’T forget to condition your scalp

It is of critical importance that you make sure you condition your scalp for at least 45 seconds or so immediately after you have rinsed out your shampoo. Your conditioner is going to work like a moisturizing agent, but it’s also going to feed your scalp so that your hair is in the best possible condition it can be.

DON’T get tricked by expensive “multi-blade” razors

Multi-blade razors aren’t at all that effective at cutting hair, or at least not at an appreciably better rate than standard single razors are. You’re not getting anything extra for your money, that’s for sure!

Sure, you may have to go over the area a couple times to make sure that you’ve got everything, but there’s no real significant advantage to expensive multi-blade razors that single razors do not enjoy.

DON’T get lazy when it’s time to rinse

You have to be 100% certain that you get to all of the soap and all of the detergent off of your body when it comes time to rinse. Any extra detergent or any extra soap will dry you about all day long, so much so that you might develop a rash – and that’s trouble!

DON’T forget to lotion up

Lotion income is mission critical, so be sure that you take two or three minutes after every hot shower to do exactly that. You want to be sure that the lotion is evenly distributed, but you’re also going to want to make sure that it is liberally applied so that another of its soaps and along the way.

DON’T shave first thing in the shower

Even though you may be crunched for time you’re going to want to move shaving to the backend of your shower experience.

Shaving when you first step into the shower is going to force you to cut dry hair and then lays in every direction, whereas if you wait a couple of minutes to allowing the steam to lift and stiffen each hair follicle you’ll be able to shave much closer and more efficiently.

DON’T forget to wash your makeup off BEFORE you get into the shower

Finally, you’re going to want to be certain that you wash off any and all makeup before you get into the shower.

Makeup needs to be cleaned by purpose designed makeup remover, or you run the risk of it clogging your pores and really ruining your complexion. If you want, bring your makeup remover into the shower with you, but make sure that you are relying on it to do the heavy lifting for you – and not a soap or body wash. They are way too harsh and will never do as reliable a job.

Author
Recent Posts

Nikki