When showering

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Read an article in daily mail recently saying , when showering, you should only use soap or gel on bits and pits to avoid drying out your skin. Just water is apparently all that's needed to keep the rest of you clean. As someone who has washed every inch of my body with anti bac soap for the last 30 years since giving up baths, I found this hard to believe. When I asked my daughter, sister and husband what they thought, I was surprised that they all only soap bits and pits. How could I not know this? AIBU to ask what your showering habits are?

You're all a bunch of dutty beeyatches.

I have a bath in neat bleach every day and scrub with caustic soda every other day

Not really, but I do use shower gel all over.

Omly pits(and boobs) and bits here (outside only!!) and shampoo for my hair. Unless I've been somewhere very mucky or extremely sweaty that is enough to keep clean. I have super soft skin too.

I would never have dreamed that people don't wash their bodies daily!
I feel like one of those "I wash my towels after every use" women now.

I use one of those shower puffs and sanex wash all over, femfresh wash for bits. Exfoliating gloves used once a week particularly for knees and elbows.

I shower daily, hair is washed every other day.

Only pits and bits here. Our skin is covered with bacteria (in fact 90% of our bodies are bacteria - true fact) and natural oils, and they are there for a very good reason. Water is perfect for cleaning arms and legs etc, unless of course you're covered in paint or mud or something and want to get it off. As for antibacterial shower gels and handwashes, they do more harm than good. For some reason it's hard to find a handwash these days that isn't antibacterial. I've reverted to using ordinary Pears soap for handwashing, for this reason.

If you wash your hair then you'll likely have shampoo running over you & likewise soaping bits & pits-there's usually run off!

I've only ever done pits and bits

I have a bath every day, wash my hair every other day and wash my face with Clinique every morning. I use my exfoliating gloves all over maybe once a fortnight.

Soap on face, neck and pits
A good wash with water on bits
Shampoo on hair

Everywhere else just gets cleaned by the running water/soap run off

Only exception is if I've had suncream or massage oil or similar on me - then I soap everywhere.

Shower gel all over, at least once a day, usually twice, sometimes more often in the summer.

I never smell of BO, but if I get hot I smell like baked biscuits 😁 I prefer to feel cool & fresh.

But people are different - I get that biscuity & fragrant foo smell if I'm hot or after I've slept, I always shower in the morning. Whereas my mum could probably not shower for a month & she just wouldn't smell. She happily showers at night & feels fresh enough to go out the next day - I just don't.

Lots of people though, who say, 'I don't smell' simply can't smell themselves, it's not the same thing as not being smelly. But unless I have to share a confined space with them I really don't care what others do.

Despite being on MN since the beginning of time, it still never fails to amaze me the wide variation of 'washing' that goes on 😁

Kids being bathed once a week, in 2016 - I find it quite astounding.

You're all making me want to buy some Dove soap!

I'm a "swipe all over with shower gel" person. I really really can't abide the thought of a smelly fanjo so I can't conceive how those of you who use just water all over would feel clean down there. How??? It discharges!

Using soap doesn't stop you making discharge you know?

Discharge is not oily so water and a good rub does a perfectly good job of getting rid of any "old" discharge that might be hanging around

Fresh discharge is not smelly

'Non-washing brigade'...

I shower daily and consider myself to be very clean. And I don't smell. Doesn't mean I need to strip my skin of its natural oil and bacteria, and replace it with potentially carcinogenic chemicals! Why would you do that? There's no need whatsoever. We've been brainwashed into thinking we need to do this, by companies who rely on us doing this in order to make their millions.

I soap all over every morning in the shower. I have greasy skin and I use Simple soap, my skin doesn't dry out. If I showered a couple of times a day, it would dry out though.

If you speak to any gynaecologist, they will tell you to use nothing but water down there. And they've seen and smelt a LOT of bits.

*smelled

Just pits/bits/under boobs here. The rest just gets sluiced with hot water.

Oh and obviously not inside bits either.

After exercise, a really hot day where I've sweated, or when it's been really hot in bed the previous night, then I do everywhere with shower gel.
Other than that, I just do pits, bits and feet.

I wash all over intimate areas 😀
You really shouldn't use any products down there

I don't use sponges or puffs or anything(they're generally very dirty) -just a squirt of shower gel in my hand and then soap all over.

Never ever put soap on my face though, never did as a teen and I don't struggle with spots

I use an exfoliating sponge with shower gel on it all over, paying particular attention to pits, under boob and legs (in the summer, when they're likely to be out). I wash bits in baby wash - not too intimately but I gave birth 7 weeks ago and my pelvic floor isn't quite recovered yet, so I like to make sure that the hair is at least clean and fresh. Oh, and I used a facial brush with baby wash on my face a couple of times a week.

Moisturise limbs and face with appropriate moisturisers after each shower. Works for me :)

I used to be an all over body washer until I was chatting with DP about how he never really smells bad and he told me it was because he only does pits and bits.

So I gave it a try and honestly, I stopped being stinky by the end of the day like I normally would be. I can wear t shirts two days in a row without them getting niffy. Also my skin is much softer. I used to get those dry bobbly bits at the top of my arms and thighs and they've completely gone now.

I'm a pits and bits (outside bits only, obvs) convert.

All over - definitely! As someone else said, you sweat all over. My skin feels oily if I don't soap it so I would feel very unclean.

I now only shower 5 times a week - used to every day, but think it washes the protective natural oils off your skin. So when I do, I soap bits, but only soap body every other time.
I wash bits on the days that I don't shower,

Why would things like legs smell? Water washes off sweat. I just use that, and then shower gel or scrub a couple of times a week when I exfoliate. Shampoo runs down anyway.

I do like to give my feet a good scrub though. I know the product runs down on top of them anyway but in this flip flop weather I don't think passive washing really gets them clean and smooth.