Pro Tip: You Don't Need to Shower

(Photo: Tom)

Do you bathe on a regular basis? Stop. You don't need to.

James Hamblin, a physician, explains in The Atlantic that it's unnecessary. Your body will naturally regulate its own filth if you would just leave it alone:

The odor of bodies is the product of bacteria that live on our skin and feed off of the oily secretions from the sweat and sebaceous glands at the base of our hair follicles. Applying detergents (soaps) to our skin and hair every day disrupts a sort of balance between skin oils and the bacteria that live on our skin. When you shower aggressively, you obliterate the ecosystems. They repopulate quickly, but the species are out of balance and tend to favor the kinds of microbes that produce odor.

But after a while, the idea goes, your ecosystem reaches a steady state, and you stop smelling bad.

Hamblin put the theory to the test on himself. It worked! His friends tell him that he doesn't stink:

And everything is fine. I wake up and get out the door in minutes. At times when I might’ve smelled bad before, like at the end of a long day or after working out,  I just don’t. At least, to my nose. I’ve asked friends to smell me, and they insist that it’s all good. (Though they could be allied in an attempt to ruin me.)

So knock it off with bathing. Live naturally. The people around you will appreciate it.

-via TYWKIWDBI