Personal hygiene is the act of cleaning and grooming your body to ensure that your skin, nails and hair are in good condition. This is done to clean and free the body and hair from dirt, odour and infections. The body needs to be washed to avoid infection, pain and odours from drinking, smoking, coughing, sneezing, vomiting and urinary removal and excrement.
You come into contact with millions of external germs and viruses every day. These may stay on your body and can cause you to get sick in some cases. Good personal hygiene habits can help reduce illness for both you and the people around you. It will even make you feel more confident about your appearance.
Why Should I Practice Personal Hygiene?
Personal hygiene practices like washing your hands, cleaning your body and cleaning and flossing your teeth can help keep bacteria, viruses and diseases away. People with poor hygiene — untidy hair and clothing, body odour, bad breath, missing teeth, and the like — are often seen as unhealthy and can face discrimination.
Personal hygiene has a direct bearing on fewer diseases and better health. On the other hand, failing to practice good personal hygiene can lead to more severe health issues like diarrhoea, ringworm, pinworms, and skin rashes.
To stop these side effects, maintain healthy personal hygiene habits which will improve your self-esteem as well. Maintaining healthy personal hygiene practices influences everybody’s social and psychological facets of living.
The importance of personal hygiene cannot be overemphasised. Below is a list of the major reasons why you should practice personal hygiene:
Lack of personal hygiene may result in poor health. For instance, if you cut yourself the wound is supposed to be properly cleaned and dressed so as to reduce the risk of infection and pain.
2. To protect your personal image
Personality affects self-esteem, trust and inspiration. People that have low self-esteem and particularly those with depression frequently neglect personal hygiene, which then perpetuates the issue of poor body image.
People feel more comfortable when they are well-dressed, safe and tidy. Socially, be it at work or in social environments, or sometimes with the opposite sex, our chances of success change when we take care to preserve our health and appearance.
4. For a good social reputation
By ensuring your body is healthy and well taken care of, you are more likely to project a good image of yourself to others which enhances and maintains your social reputation and how others see you.
How do I Practice Personal Hygiene?
Personal hygiene requires a wide range of practices that can help protect your health, the health of your family and that of everyone around you. These practices include:
Wash your body and hair regularly. Personal choice may dictate how often you wish to bath or shower, but you should do so at least once a day. Soap helps to clean away dead skin cells, oils and bacteria.
Wash your hands after using the toilet. Scrub for at least 20-30 seconds using soap, and ensure that you clean amid your fingers as well as the backs of your hands and beneath your nails. Rinse your hands with warm water and dry.
When you don’t have hot water or soap, a hand sanitizer which is alcohol based can work too. Choose one that is at least 60% alcohol.
There is more to proper oral health than lustrous white teeth. Caring about your teeth and gums is a means of preventing gum infections and cavities. Brush your teeth and gums for 2 minutes at least twice a day. You should brush your teeth when you wake up and before bed. When you can, brush after every meal as well. Teeth hygiene also encompasses aesthetics, that is, having an appealing complete dentition. If you have lost a few teeth, all-on-4 is a best in class solution to fix this.
Frequently cut the nails to keep them short and tidy. Use a nail brush or washcloth under them to clean away dust, dirt and germs. Cleaning up your nails helps prevent germs from spreading into your mouth and other openings of your body. You should avoid biting your nails, as well.
Germs can penetrate your body through your eyes, ears, nose, and mouth if you touch them with your hands. Thus you should wash your hands as follows:
· after changing an infant’s diaper
· when helping others to clean themselves
· while washing a cut or wound.
You should take precautions to avoid spreading germs to others if you’re not feeling well. It involves covering your mouth and nose as you sneeze or cough, wiping clean contaminated surfaces with an antibacterial wipe and sharing no utensils or devices. Also, throw out soiled tissues right away.
Dust and bacteria will also build up on the skin. It’s crucial to take care of your clothes as part of your personal hygiene routine by washing and changing them daily, particularly if you or a family member have been unwell. You could start applying antiseptic spray to your laundry to remove any germs and ensure your clothes are hygienically clean.
Change your underwear every day and never wear it again unless it’s been washed. After exercise, change all of your clothes and wash the wet clothes. You should not go idle wearing damp clothing; this can draw more bacteria than a toilet!
Don’t negotiate food quality. Only go for fresh when you are buying vegetables or fruits, even if they are slightly expensive. The last thing that you want is food poisoning. Don’t eat food that has passed its use-by date. Keep meat, fish, dairy products and most vegetables in the fridge to keep them fresh and avoid them becoming potentially bad for you.
If someone does not clean their hands before eating or if they lick their hands while eating, don’t eat from the same plate with them.
Your body contains about 70% of water. It is vital to drink enough clean water every day for your personal hygiene. You should not drink water from the same bottle that someone else drinks from.
7 Tips for Maintaining Good Personal Hygiene
Practicing personal hygiene is one thing but maintaining it is another. Missing a bath doesn’t need to be a terrible thing every time. It happens that you may be in a hurry or you don’t feel like taking a bath or shower for some reason.
The vital thing here is that you don’t want to offend anyone with your bad body odour. Below are some practical guidelines on how to maintain your personal hygiene:
Various sprays are made specifically for your body and hair. Spraying perfume on your hair will not cause your hair to dry out, unlike deodorants. It prevents any unwelcome odours and leaves the hair fresh for longer.
Usually deodorants are preferred to be used at night, right after your bath or shower. Antiperspirants work well with the body during the day when you are more likely to perspire. Both ensure that your body does not smell offensive to others.
Today, the waterless bath has become fairly commonplace and is used especially by people such as hikers, astronauts, the military on deployment, busy healthcare workers, mountaineers and others who have no access to running water or opportunities to bath or shower.
4. Scrub the feet with soap to feel new
The feet are that part of the body that most people fail to look after. Similar to every other body part, your feet absorb bacteria. So washing your feet every day is necessary even if you don’t take a bath or shower. Clean them well with soap, and dry them as soon as you get out, preventing further bacteria.
Feet are a part of the body that accumulate considerable amounts of bacteria which results in bad odour. You should use baby powder on your feet to reduce the odour in your shoes and keep them dry. This also helps to prevent bacteria from multiplying. A deodorant mist can also be used to remove odour.
There’s more to maintaining good personal hygiene than just looking good. The secret to a healthy lifestyle is good personal hygiene. You can avoid illness by taking daily care of your body, smell healthier and look safer without hours of work or costly items. Your health is also of immense benefit to your family and entire society around you.
