Personal hygiene habits like bathing, cleaning after number two, and removing unwanted hairs, can keep you clean and smelling fresh.
But if you have no idea what personal hygiene means, it is how you take care of your body every day.
And in this post, we’ll talk about bad personal hygiene and steps to practice good hygiene as a woman.
We’ll also cover feminine care routine, bathing routine, shower essentials, and extra hygiene practices for your period.
Let’s begin with some examples of poor hygiene.
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Examples Of Poor Hygiene
- Bathing once a week or every other day.
- Showering without a sponge, brush, shower gloves, etc.
- Going without deodorants.
- Not brushing your mouth thoroughly
- Only washing your hair under the shower and leaving your whole body unwashed.
- Keeping hairs in your underarms and pubic area.
- Wiping with toilet paper after number two.
- Not bathing during your period.
- Applying lotion to dirty skin.
- Wearing dirty clothes, and lots more.
Now, let’s talk about good personal hygiene.
9 Good Personal Hygiene Habits
1. Skincare routine
The easiest and most common path to good hygiene is bathing.
Some people believe you shouldn’t shower every day, that it dries up the skin.
While that is their opinion, I think it is bad advice.
And it is also poor hygiene to think that washing off dust, excess oil, and sweat from your body dehydrates your skin.
Another thing is, some people step in the shower, wash and rinse their hair, and think they’ve just had a shower.
That’s so gross. I’m sorry.
Bathing/showering every day
Showering daily is a major part of my personal hygiene routine.
When you shower properly daily, you wash off skin secretions that make you feel icky and uncomfortable.
And you’d not only smell fresh, but your skin would also feel clean, refreshed, and ready for clean clothes.
Some of my favorite shower products are exfoliating gloves, moisturizing soap bars, shower gel, and a few others.
Check out this list of shower essentials and how to use them.
Brings me to the next point.
Washing with just soap and water is not enough to clean your body. So try extra skin exfoliation with exfoliating gloves and soap.
Sometimes use a foaming drugstore scrub with bath or shower gloves for additional exfoliation.
I use exfoliating gloves every day, and they clean my skin thoroughly and prepares it to get the full benefits of moisturizers.
This would help your skin glow naturally.
Read more on Exfoliating Gloves: How To Use, The Benefits.
I find it very funny that most people don’t moisturize immediately after bathing.
If you want to get the best from your moisturizer, use it immediately after washing your skin.
That’s the best time for the skin to rehydrate by absorbing the cream or lotion applied.
Stop applying moisturizers 30 minutes or hours after your shower. You are wasting your product.
Aim to moisturize your skin while it is damp so that it can soak in all the moisture and get hydrated.
2. Facial skincare
Caring for your facial skin is an important part of good personal hygiene. Let’s look at a few ways to do that.
How do you wash your face? Are you using soap?
Washing your face daily with soap and water removes oil, dirt, dead skin, leftover makeup and may prevent breakouts.
So make it a habit to wash your face every day in the shower or handwashing basin.
I actually advise you to use the shower as the water is spraying out instead of splashing water from your handwashing basin to your face.
Something in me believes it’s not hygienic.
If you must wash your face in the handwashing basin, run the water into a clean bowl first, then do your thing.
Do you exfoliate your face weekly or once in a blue moon?
Make it a habit to exfoliate your face at least once a week. There are lots of great drugstore face exfoliants you can use to unclog your pores.
Facial exfoliation would leave your skin glowing and moisturized.
Honestly, I’m one cream or lotion for the whole body and face kind of person.
Maybe once in a while, I’d buy a face cream but it was hardly a routine.
Just recently, I got a face cream. I use it at night, or mornings when I’ve got nowhere to be.
And I wonder why I didn’t get one a long time ago.
So if you can, please get a face cream to moisturize after washing and exfoliation.
This can prevent drying, and keep your gentle facial skin plump and hydrated.
Moreover, body creams and lotions were designed for the body, not for the face.
But if you prefer to use the same cream for both body and face, that’s fine. Do what works for you.
Facial hair removal
Believe it or not, facial hair removal is part of personal hygiene for women.
And you can get rid of facial hair painlessly with flawless finishing touch hair remover.
I use it and I highly recommend it as part of your beauty routine.
After removing facial hairs with flawless, make sure to wash, exfoliate, and moisturize your face.
Read more about How To Use Finishing Touch Flawless Remover For Perfect Results.
Once in a while, treat your face to a face mask.
If you prefer a mud mask or charcoal peel-off mask, that’s fine.
Just use what works for your skin, and pamper your face a little.
Read more about Charcoal Peel-Off Mask | How To Use For Amazing Results.
I understand if you love to wear makeup all the time. But sometimes you gotta give your skin a break.
Let it rest. Especially when you are at home.
Then maybe once in a while, wear makeup without foundation.
But continue your regular face care routine. You’d love and appreciate what this can do for your face.
Remember to wash off makeup before sleeping at night. This can reduce breakouts and help you wake up fresh and beautiful.
3. Hair removal
Another personal hygiene habit you’d want to cultivate is removing unwanted body hairs.
Depending on how fast your body hairs grow, make it part of your hygiene routine to get rid of unwanted hairs.
As a lady, you want to remove underarms and pubic hairs. This can help reduce sweating and body odors.
Waxing or sugaring is my preferred hair removal method.
But if you are used to shaving and would like to know more about why I choose to sugar wax, read the post linked below.
If you prefer to keep pubic hair, that’s fine, it’s your choice.
You may also like How To Get Rid Of Dark Underarms Naturally.
4. Bathroom routine
What is your routine like after using the bathroom, especially after number two?
Are you still smearing stuff around your butt with toilet paper?
That is poor hygiene, and it can be detrimental to your health because toilet paper does not clean you thoroughly.
It still leaves stuff there that can introduce bad bacteria into your feminine area.
So try good hygiene habits like washing with a bidet, or using flushable wet wipes.
This can keep you clean both in front and behind down there.
Stop going about with clean clothes and #2 smeared butt. Lol.
Also, remember to wash your hands with soap and water after using the bathroom at home and in public places.
5. Feminine care routine
How you care for your female parts is what we call feminine hygiene.
So to maintain good hygiene down-there,
- make sure to avoid feminine care products
- rinse your private area with clean water without soap
- Trim or wax the hairs down there, etc.
These are just a few, read 7 Feminine Hygiene Tips For A Better Down-There Care.
Now it is time to increase the volume about personal hygiene for the people at the back.
If you have poor hygiene habits, it’s going to be horrible when you are menstruating.
So some menstrual hygiene tips that prevent odors are:
- showering every day,
- rinsing down-there with water before wearing a new pad or tampon,
- removing pubic hairs etc.
Read 5 Menstrual Hygiene Tips To Smell Great On Your Period for more.
Skip wearing underwear
Another good hygiene habit for your feminine area is going commando (or without underwear) so that your feminine area can get some air.
This can reduce sweating, prevent infections and bad odors down there.
So whenever you are indoors, try not to wear underwear.
And some nights, go to bed without them. That’s the most comfortable way to sleep. lol.
6. Nails: mani-pedi
How do you care for your nails?
Another aspect of personal hygiene is taking care of your nails. So create time to get a manicure and pedicure at home or professionally.
If the salon mani-pedi is way above your budget, then buy the right tools and get a mani-pedi at home.
Here’s a list of what you’d need to get a mani-pedi at home:
- A manicure set (contains nail clipper, nail file, cuticle trimmer, nail scissors)
- bowl of water
- hand scrub
- nail polish remover
- hand soap
- cotton balls
- hand cream
- nail polish oil, top and base coat
- foot spa
- foot cream
- pumice stone
- foot file
- pedicure brush
- shower gel
- pedicure scrub, and
7. Oral hygiene
Dentists advise brushing after every meal.
If you ask me, I’d say it is a tedious and unrealistic thing to do every single day.
Imagine, after enjoying a delicious meal you are running to the bathroom to brush your teeth.
Sure, some people do that. Well…
Anyway, aim to brush in the morning and at night before bed, or at least once a day.
Also, remember to floss regularly and rinse with a good mouthwash.
This keeps your breath fresh for hours.
And you’d also feel comfortable talking to others instead of killing them with a nasty breath.
8. Emergency bag
Because we are human and life happens, you must have an emergency bag as part of your personal hygiene routine.
The emergency bag contains most of the items you need for good personal hygiene.
Here are a few must-have items for your emergency bag:
Your period may catch you when you are out and about.
So be prepared for it. Add a couple of sanitary pads or tampons to your emergency bag.
While I’m not a regular pantyliner user, I use them on the last few days of my period.
And I know some people use them on ovulation days.
So make it a personal hygiene habit to have a few with you at all times.
Quick sweat hack: if you sweat a lot in your underarms, stick two pantyliners on your shirt armpits. This would soak up sweat and keep your clothes dry.
And… that’s another reason to have pantyliners in your female emergency bag.
Flushable wet wipes
These will be very useful when you use public bathrooms or need to wash your hands, and there’s no water.
You don’t want to wipe with toilet paper and smear the stuff all over your butt. That is poor hygiene.
So invest in a travel wipes dispenser to carry a few wet wipes in your emergency bag.
This may not be necessary since you don’t go about cleaning your whole face and wearing makeup from scratch again.
But just in case you have to, just keep a few facial wipes in your bag.
Because, you might want to wipe your face clean, and feel fresh.
We’ve all been there. A situation when you need to wash your hands, but there’s nowhere to do it.
That’s where your hand sanitizer comes to the rescue.
Add a travel size one to your emergency kit to sanitize your hands after using a public bathroom.
Or just sanitize your hands as you deem fit.
Remember to keep a hand cream in your emergency bag to moisturize your hands whenever you wash them.
Thankfully deodorants come in travel size too. So buy one and add to your personal hygiene emergency bag.
You would be glad you have deodorant on hand when you need to freshen up on hot sunny days.
I normally use Q-tips to clean melting eye pencils when I’m out. So you can use it to wipe excess eye pencil, eye-shadow, and also lipstick.
If you don’t use lipsticks that last all day, it means at some point you’d have to reapply your lipstick.
But if you don’t have lipstick with you, a lip balm would do.
If you don’t like regular clear lip balms, you can buy the tinted ones. They’re pretty and would keep your lips moisturized all day.
Now add it to the emergency bag.
9. Wearing clean clothes
One more thing to do to take your hygiene habits up a notch is wearing clean clothes.
Some of us like to wear a shirt twice before washing it. I used to do that too but stopped a long time ago when I started getting all sorts of skin infections.
Also, it is just very uncomfortable to wear dirty clothing with all the sweat, and oil.
Just thinking about it makes my skin itch.
Anyway, make it a habit to wear clean clothes all the time.
Why It is Important To Have Good Personal Hygiene
- Having good personal hygiene is great for your physical and mental wellbeing. It also makes you confident with yourself and around people you know or don’t know.
- Good personal hygiene practices such as washing your hands may protect you from contracting cold and flu.
- Regular showering with soap and shower gloves can help you prevent bad body odors.
- Bathing and wearing clean clothes feel very good. Trust me, you’d love it.
- Washing with water after number two or before wearing a fresh sanitary pad/tampon keeps you clean and fresh down there. It can also help prevent stinks in your area.
Let’s Wrap Up! Personal hygiene routine for every lady
Boom! Those are 8 personal hygiene habits you must practice to care for yourself properly.
I hope this helps you kick poor hygiene to the curb, and learn good hygiene habits.
How do you take care of yourself?
Please share with us.
Also, remember to share this post on Pinterest and Facebook.
Thanks for reading.
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