If you don't have any specific skin concerns, then you really just need water and your favorite soap or body wash. “Water is excellent at washing off sweat and dust and the normal lint that we pick up around us every day, [while] soap is really good at pulling oils out of the skin,” Dr. Greiling says.
Scrubbing up with your hands is recommended. "It's best to just wash with our hands," suggests Erum Ilyas, MD, MBE, FAAD. "Loofahs have been well-documented reservoirs of bacteria. They have been shown to grow Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, Enterococcus, Staphylococcus, and more.
Showering with a Washcloth May Save Soap
This prevents soap from merely running off and straight down the drain. The best ways to stretch your soap are: Using a washcloth or loofah to reduce usage during showers or baths. Using bars of soap over liquid soap.
Just water. Water does a fine job of rinsing away dirt without stripping vital oils from your skin.
These ingredients include sulfates, parabens, phthalates, mineral oil, retinyl palmitate, coal tar, hydroquinone, triclosan, triclocarban, formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing agents, and all synthetic fragrances.
Not all areas of your body need soap in order to get clean. Limit soap to your armpits, groin, feet, hands, and face, and stick to warm water for the rest of your body. This will help keep your skin from getting too dry.
"Mold can harbor in loofahs and sponges alike, as well as germs, dead skin cells, and remnants of dirt, oil, and grime that we scrub off our bodies," says Dr. Frieling. "This can cause infection if washing an open cut, trap bacteria inside your pores, and prevent you from really cleansing yourself from germs."
Wet your skin in the bath or shower and lather the solution on a loofah or washcloth. Apply a generous layer all over your skin. Rinse it off and pat your skin dry with a clean towel. Try not to rub your skin after you get out of the shower.
Wash cloth? Just 14 percent of people use a wash cloth and 4 percent use something else. They don't identify what that “something else” is, but if you're one of those people, please let us know what you use!
That's actually wrong, in fact excessive showering or bathing can actually do more harm than good. The three areas, according to one doctor, you really only need to wash with soap are your armpits, groin and feet.
Shower exfoliating cloths are the best way to hygienically exfoliate your body skin. In my opinion and professional experience, a non-porous, synthetic plastic sponge or cloth is the most effective way to exfoliate and a safer option than a loofah. It exfoliates and dries better.
They don't ever totally dry out, so the loofah is a beautiful breeding ground for bacteria.” Loofahs can contain fungal organisms that lead to skin infections. “That's why it's important to make sure you keep your loofahs clean, replace them regularly and use them gently — do not rub your skin too vigorously.”
Body washes tend to have more moisturizing ingredients, says Nicole Negbenebor, MD, a dermatology resident at Brown University. But if you just need to get clean or prefer a squeaky clean feeling after you shower, a traditional bar soap or shower gel can be what you need, says Jones.
So while it's okay to use your shampoo as a body wash in a pinch, the lower level of surfactants in shampoos, may not cleanse your skin as well as your typical body wash, according to Dr. King.
Keeping your back exfoliated will help prevent your pores from getting clogged. Use a loofah to gently rub a body scrub into your back while you're in the shower. Use a back exfoliating band if you can't reach your back. A back exfoliating band is a mildly abrasive band designed to make back exfoliation easier.
According to dermatologists, you should exfoliate first, then wash your hair, and then wash your body. This will ensure that each shower product you use has time to work. If you have concerns about your skin, you should follow this order as closely as you can. This will help prevent acne, razor burn, or dry hair.
After consulting medical professionals, we have good news: Yes, dish soap is an effective way to clean your hands. But it's not the best alternative. “If you have nothing else available, dish soap is fine.
There's no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Many doctors say a daily shower is fine for most people. (More than that could start to cause skin problems.) But for many people, two to three times a week is enough and may be even better to maintain good health.
As for using Blue Dawn as a body wash, it was great. I felt so clean! I didn't notice any difference at all from other body washes, other than it required a lot of rinsing, quite possibly due to the high concentration in the “Ultra” version of Blue Dawn.