Lifestyle Choices

Bathing should be a pleasant ritual that should treat your mind as well as your body. There are a number of useful prebath techniques and tools. They are important because they can prepare your skin and body for taking the plunge and ensure you get more benefit from bathing.

A Loofah

A dry, rough-textured sea gourd that you soften by wetting it, the loofah is rubbed against the skin to slough off dead cells and to increase circulation. You can buy loofahs in their natural state (about fifteen inches long) or sewn into gloves and bands of terry cloth to be used as scrubbers. (more…)

These are not very good for your skin. Soaps are made of fatty acids taken from animals and treated with caustic soda. Many of them are also full of antiseptics that can cause irritations to the skin and be very drying. If you bathe every day, you don’t need soap to get clean. If you do use it, choose a neutral soap (one that is not alkaline) or one of the pH balanced detergent bars that are mild on the skin and don’t remove the natural acid mantle from it. Even then you probably only need it under the arms, around the genitals, and on the feet unless you have been out in the mud and genuinely need to wash away grime. Bath foams and other detergent-based products can contribute to vaginal infections such as trichomoniasis and candidiasis. (more…)

There is a common misconception that body odor comes from perspiration. It doesn’t. Perspiration or sweat consists of nothing more than almost odorless water plus a few mineral salts that are responsible for that slightly salty smell many find has an almost aphrodisiac appeal to it. The unpleasant smell often thought to be the result of perspiration or sweat is in fact caused by waste products from the bacteria on the skin. The smell only occurs when more water is given off from perspiration than can be easily evaporated into the air and/or when clothing—particularly clothing made from synthetic materials, which hinder evaporation—interferes with this drying out process. (more…)