Am I not washing properly?

[Washerg]

Inspired (worried!) following a poster today talking about buttocks washing.

I shower daily. By this I mean I stand under the shower and clean under my arms with water only, same down below. I let the water run all over me for a good ten or fifteen mins but don’t actually scrub or touch other parts of my body. On days I wash my hair (weekly), the soap will run down my body obviously but that’s the extent of any soap that runs over me.

I have from time to time used some shower gel but only if I feel like it. Haven’t for about a year or so and before then it would be some weeks not others. Just don’t feel the need I suppose... and when I do use it, again it would be under arms and definitely not a big body scrub. I don’t think I’ve ever ever washed my toes apart from when I’ve been on the beach or outside with no shoes on in summer. I do use deodorant and perfume.

I’m actually worried now that I’m some sort of disgusting person who doesn’t realise it!! It’s not something I’ve ever discussed with friends. Am I weird? Should I be scrubbing away?! I’ve NC.

I'm wondering what people use to scrub themselves with. Using hands isn't scrubbing. Presumably most people use a sponge but I've always found this odd as most people (presumably) do body, pits and bits, then leave the sponge overnight and repeat? The sponge won't be clean.

I've never seen a bathroom with several sponges for each household member either.

Maybe I should start my own thread

@Harmarsuperstar

Some people have a gene that means they don't have body odour (from armpits, at least) i think its colloquially known as the 'dry earwax gene' i may be wrong though, uts a while since I read about it

Prince Andrew has that!

Travel, I assume you need to use the zero percent femfresh and not the standard range?

I’d agree with the doctor. That product causes people a lot of irritation there has been many threads on it. I get you’ve been very ill and I’m sorry but for normal healthy women that product is not required.

My partner has very dry, eczema-prone skin and he washes with water only. He has a shower, sometimes two, every day and is perfectly clean.

I use soap on my armpits, boobs, back, bum-crack and pubes and just let water run over the rest of me. I’m extremely clean.

I reckon that if you’re not doing dirty manual labour, you’re fine with just water, or soaping very sparingly.

I swish a bit of unscented femfresh on the outside, nothing on the inner parts. Anything else gives me thrush or BV

@VaggieMight

In my house everyone has a sponge or pouffe for their body, and a flannel for their face

@Bluntness100 Yes, exactly Bluntness - the exact one that I reccommended in my post here

The only one I was told to use, and contrary to the gynae post it has no soap, no fragrance and no nasties in it.

Travel, you’re missing my point, I’m sorry they do a wider range, with I think four different scents.

I’m an icu dr and would be fascinated to learn of the circumstances in which other icu drs recommended you use femfresh......

It’s quite a long way outside our area of expertise.

So I can work out like crazy at the gym and I mean hair wet with sweat and I don’t smell. I just don’t.

If I were I have a stressful call with work and sweat then I will smell. The stress sweat is grim smelling. It’s different.

So I can totally believe that you do not smell day to day. However I would swipe some soap under my arms and around my butt if I were you just to be safe.

And just for clarification I am a daily showerer with all sorts of potions and lotions. I love the Caudelie The de Vinges scent which is organic and natural.

But the vulva has its own delicately balanced biome too. Definitely never use soap on the vulva!!!

OP ignore the soap obsessed weirdos, you're using water daily, probably an antiperspirant too and I'm sure you smell fine!

This has GOT to be thread of the week.

@trixiebelden77 apparently it's quite a long way out of a gynaecologist's areas of expertise.

Female ICU doctor, I didn't ask how she knew this information, I just thought it was common sense to everyone, and one of those many life's lessons I just didn't know about. I honestly felt really bloody stupid being told it to be honest.

I don't think it has to be heavy manual work though, surely most people also sweat through exercise at least a couple of times a week? There's no way after I've done a 5k run I could just wash myself clean with water! I'd also need to shampoo my hair (I have to wash my hair after every exercise, if I'm exercising daily that means washing it every day).

@Bluntness100 Sorry if I have missed your point, I wouldn't put scented anything down there again after my experience! And I rinse, rinse and rinse again now.

Crikey - NC for this. I had pretty high cleanliness standards, am in my 30s (not a teenage boy) and shower once a day (hair usually 3/4 times a week). I don’t use soap / gel unless I’m shaving or have sweat excessively (and then only pits). I would never use anything on my bits (I’m so sensitive down there and feel it if the PH goes even a fraction out). I had no idea the responses would be so pro-use so I can understand where you’re coming from OP.

Also agree people don’t know they smell. Having said that, I had a smell issue after surgery around my pits and I could definitely tell that I smelled bad (sorted now and was awful at the time).

Solidarity OP. X

pH imbalance inside the vagina, a common cause of which is using any soap-like wash internally, can trigger BV or thrush inside the vagina.

Cystitis/UTI/pyelonephritis are caused by bacteria ascending the urinary tract, from the urethra.

The vagina is not connected to the urethra, although they both open near to each other in the vulva.

Unfortunately, some medical/nursing staff have poor knowledge of basic female anatomy too.

I think as a minimum you should use a bar of soap on the pits, and around the outside of your bits and bum (obviously not up inside the vagina but everywhere else)
I can’t imagine not using soap, makes me feel a bit ill thinking there are people out there who don’t - and I’m not particularly precious!

@Washerg, don’t you find your hair picks up cooking smells? Even if mine is otherwise clean it can smell if I’ve been cooking certain meals.

Regarding not using soap on your arse crack, Dr Christian from “Embarrassing Bodies” once said we need to use soap there as faeces is fatty so water alone won’t remove it properly. Worth considering. If you got shit on your hand and just rinsed it with water what do you think your hand would smell of? That’s what your arse would be like.

You don’t have to go mad with harsh soaps, or even use them all over every time you shower, just use something the same pH as your skin so it doesn’t irritate; I follow a dermatologist on YouTube who suggests products like CeraVe for example.

@quince2figs, I’m so glad you posted that, I was beginning to lose the will and really didn’t want to have to explain vulva smeg and toe and belly button jam to a bunch of grown women 😝

@trixiebelden77

I’m an icu dr and would be fascinated to learn of the circumstances in which other icu drs recommended you use femfresh......

It’s quite a long way outside our area of expertise.

Quite 😀

@quince2figs so you are saying there is a method to wash with soap but not get it near your uretha then? I know the two are not connected (if you were writing that to point it out to me, it's come across as rude).

For me I washed that region with soap, I got a pH imbalance, which led to a raging infection (as I'd killed off the good bugs)- all medicine in the world will agree with that series of events.

I would be very stinky if I didn't use any soap.

I have had eczema and psoriasis on and off all my life, OP, and NOTHING flares me up like too much soap.

I probably properly 'lather up' once or twice a week, with a natural product based on hemp or similar, and then the rest of the time, I'm like you.

More than that and I'm a sore, red, flaky, bumpy lump of human.

I don't smell. At all. I've asked. AND I did the 'deoderant detox' to cleanse my system of aluminium and KNEW I was horrifically stinky (quit in the end. Couldnt do it.Too smelly. I'll just take the risks that come with aluminium) so I feel like I would know.

Ok, I get that some people (and I don't think it's many) just don't whiff. That's great - I wish I was one of them.

But as a woman who sleeps with women, I just cannot imagine wanting to be with a woman who didn't at least daily use something more than water to wash their pits and bits - I just can't imagine thinking water is enough to get fresh, especially after a poo, during a period, after sex etc.

Depends, I have eczema and soap hurts my skin so I've never used it except on my hands. I'm fine and perfectly clean.