A US doctor has claimed he hasn’t bathed in five years and does not stink. His takeaway? Personal care and hygiene products such as soaps and shampoos are unnecessary and harmful to the body.
Speaking to CNN, James Hamblin, a public health expert and author, said he quit taking showers as part of a study to find if personal hygiene practices were purely a question of taste or necessary for a healthy lifestyle.
His goal was not to entirely eliminate hygiene but to call into question the necessity of taking regular showers and the actual benefits of personal care products.
“You walk into any pharmacy, and next to cold and flu medications, there are aisles of soaps and shampoos,” Mr Hamblin noted. “It made me wonder—what is all this for? How much of it is actually necessary?”
He said that soaps eliminate skin’s natural fats, lipids, and oils, making it dry and compelling people to use lotions and other items to compensate. Mr Hamblin explained that while the skin microbiome was smaller than the gut microbiome, the principle remained the same: these microbes were always present in our bodies.
He pointed out that taking hot, soapy showers can damage the skin’s natural oils and disrupt the microbiome, which consists of tiny organisms that live on the skin. These microbes play a vital role in overall health, similar to the bacteria in the gut. Excessive washing can remove healthy bacteria, weakening the body’s natural defences, he said.
A common concern people have about not showering is body odour. However, Mr Hamblin observed that over time, his body adapted to less frequent washing. He suggested that if someone was comfortable with how they looked and felt and was not offending others, they could get by with minimal washing.
He also mentioned that after exercising, when the body is covered in sweat and salt, simply rinsing with water is often sufficient. He added that if there is visible salt buildup on the skin, it’s fine to rinse it off, but soap is not necessary unless there is something sticky or greasy that water alone cannot remove.
Mr Hamblin emphasised that he was not advising people to stop showering completely but rather to adopt a more mindful approach to hygiene.