For many, showering is a daily ritual, ranging from a quick rinse to an elaborate pampering session. But how necessary is our cleansing routine for health? Dr. James Hamblin, a preventive medicine expert, questioned conventional hygiene practices by experimenting with minimal showering for five years, a journey chronicled in his 2020 book Clean, The New Science of Skin.
It’s not what you think!
Research by Hamblin takes into consideration a widely shared assumption that personal care products are indispensable to hygiene. The U.S. beauty-and-personal-care market, projected to traverse the $100 billion mark by 2024, thrives on marketing that equates cleanliness with health. Hamblin, meanwhile, suggests that the major emphasis of most personal care products is on improving appearance and fragrance, rather than advanced disease prevention. True hygiene, according to Hamblin, requires practices like washing one’s hands after using the restroom, while daily full-body washing is dictated more by social norms and existence of personal choice.
Among Hamblin’s key messages is the ecological importance of the skin microbiome, a microbially diverse ecosystem subject to interaction with other body environments. He stated that over cleaning causes the loss of this balance because the skin collects less/none of the natural oil, which results in worsening of diseases like eczema and acne. This disruption can be compared to clear-cutting a forest, which just introduces changes to its ecosystem in ways that cannot be predicted.
How Covid impacted the concept of hygiene
COVID-19 very momentarily swung some people’s attitude toward more aggressive germ killing. However, interest in skin microbiome health is resurging, with some products now promoting beneficial microbes. Ultimately, Hamblin doesn’t prescribe a single approach but encourages people to rethink their routines. Whether someone prefers a quick rinse or a deep cleanse, the decision should be based on personal comfort rather than marketing-driven fears about cleanliness.
