Personal hygiene refers to taking daily care in keeping yourself clean. This may involve washing and drying your skin, brushing your nails and teeth as well as avoiding dirty hands.
Women should maintain proper vulvar/vaginal hygiene. This involves washing the area gently while avoiding products that alter its natural pH levels or microbiota, such as those containing bleach.
Wash Your Hands
Handwashing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to protect yourself against illness. Proper handwashing kills most germs that cause diarrhea and respiratory illnesses, killing most germs that cause diarrhoea or illness in general.
A key to effective cleansing with soap and scrubbable scrub brushes is using enough soap for a good scrub; not simply using clean running water (whether warm or cold is fine). Apply enough lathering soap, creating enough lather to scrub backs of hands, wrists, fingers and under fingernails thoroughly for at least 20 seconds or longer (you might find humming Happy Birthday song useful to keep time).
Once your hands have been cleaned and dried completely, be sure to dry them completely as any remaining moisture could provide a breeding ground for bacteria. Antibacterial soaps could disrupt your skin’s natural balance of healthy bacteria causing illness if used too often and should be avoided altogether.
Change Your Towel
As you dry off after showering, your towel may become covered in sweat, salt and bacteria; this is completely normal and an integral part of your skin’s microbiome that protects against disease. However, if these microbes spread into other parts of your life such as increasing risk for pink eye (conjunctivitis), medication-resistant Staph, norovirus and E coli infections.
Before each use, be sure to hang up your towel in an area with proper ventilation so it dries quickly. Additionally, keeping it away from your face and eyes may prevent irritation.
Personal hygiene practices include cleansing your body with soap and water, grooming nails, covering coughs and sneezes with tissues and using birth control to avoid pregnancy. Other healthy practices include eating well, being physically active and using contraception to avoid pregnancies – healthdirect’s Women’s Wellness website offers more insight into such lifestyles.
Wash Your Underwear
Regular washing of underwear will keep it clean and fresh while also helping reduce bacteria or yeast infections that could otherwise arise from wearing used items too long or not changing out worn pieces.
Sort underwear by color and fabric when washing them to avoid stain bleeding from delicate fabrics such as cotton. Use cold water instead of hot, as hot water may shrink fabric and cause elastic bands in panties to lose stretch over time. Avoid throwing your underwear into the dryer as its heat could irritate skin conditions such as itching.
Before washing delicates and lingerie, add a small amount of detergent specifically formulated for delicate fabrics to the basin and mix everything. After 20 minutes have elapsed, drain and rinse each pair individually as soon as the timer chimes; air drying your garments may also be an option – just be sure that direct sunlight doesn’t hit them directly!
Clean Your Vaginal Area
Drugstore feminine hygiene aisles are packed with products in vibrant pink packaging with fragrant floral scents and promises to eliminate unwanted odor. But most women do not require these products in order to maintain healthy and clean intimate areas.
In fact, your vagina has its own natural cleaning system that doesn’t need to be altered; washing the inside of the vagina or using feminine hygiene products to wash or scrub can actually be harmful; these activities change its natural pH balance and allow bacteria to thrive, leading to yeast infections or bacterial vaginosis.
Maintain optimal health by regularly washing the outside of your vulva with warm water and mild soap, wiping from front to back and using unscented toilet paper or wipes. Drink plenty of fluids to flush out your urinary tract and stay hydrated, plus visit a gynecologist regularly and conducting self-exams as part of a proactive health maintenance plan.
