5 “Normal” Shower Habits That You Might Want to Reconsider

Important question: when was the last time you reassessed your shower routine? Strange thing to think about, we know, but it’s something that deserves your attention. You see, some of your habits may be making your overall bathing experience work against you and not for you.

Here are 5 shower habits that many of us follow, but all of us should ditch!

  1. Using skin scrubs that contain microbeads

    In recent years, skin care companies have been touting exfoliating face and body washes that contain “microbeads”, small, usually plastic beads that don’t dissolve in a timely fashion.

    This has, unfortunately, lead to two very harmful results: 1) a tainted water supply (the beads are too tiny to be broken down in city filtration processes) and 2) sea life consuming the beads and subsequently becoming injured or killed by the inedible product.

    Our tip? Create your own exfoliator at home using coconut oil and baking soda from your pantry. It’s natural, just as effective as the store-bought stuff, and, most importantly, it won’t harm the environment!

  2. Leaving your wet razor in the shower

    Disposable razor blades are expensive— so expensive, in fact, we’ll readily admit that, in the past, we’ve fallen victim to painful, itchy bumps just because we weren’t willing to shell out for a new sharp replacement cartridge.

    Having said that, there are several ways to extend the life of your razor, and numero uno is NOT leaving it to dry in your wet shower.

    You see, razor blades are made out of sharp metal – duh! – so when they aren’t dried after coming into contact with water, their surfaces will slowly deteriorate, leaving you with a dull, rusty blade. You’re better off hand-drying the blade with a soft towel and relocating it to your medicine cabinet when finished!

  3. Shampooing your hair daily

    How often do you shampoo your hair? If your answer is “daily” or even “every other day”, then you may want to reassess your bathing ritual.

    Recently, we covered a story about a woman who had decided to go the “no-poo” route and trade in her shampoo for a baking soda mixture. She appeared on the hit show The Doctors to spread the word, and although the hosts were at first dubious about the effectiveness of her bizarre hygiene plan, they quickly changed their tune upon examining her healthy scalp.

    Now, we’re not telling you to stop shampooing your hair altogether— that’s quite the project that even we are not willing to take on— but we do think it would behoove you to try scaling back on your hair washing, especially if you have a dry or itchy scalp. Beautiful hair and more money in the bank? Talk about a win-win!

  4. Washing your shower curtain with harsh chemicals

    Let’s face it, a good shower curtain will run you a pretty penny, which means you should try your best to make it LAST. The key here is to drive away the mold and mildew before it rears its ugly head in the form of a dotted, splotchy mess on the bottom of your pristine white shower curtain!

    You can opt to spray down your curtain with harsh store-bought chemicals, like bleach, but that results in an entirely noxious “aromatherapy” situation the next time you shower. Instead, make this table salt and vinegar cleaning mix; it will take care of tough stains without the unpleasant odor. Yes, please!

  5. Turning up the heat

    We know, we know— unless it’s 100-degrees outside, you want your showers to be steaming hot. Look, we do, too, but it doesn’t mean that it’s the best choice.

    We admit that cold showers are, well, cold—there’s no getting around that!— but taking them has plenty of added benefits, like faster recovery after exercise, healthier hair, increased alertness, stronger immunity, and even weight loss. Who knew?

    Pro tip: if the mere mention of the practice has you shivering, start with a 20-second icy blast at the tail end of a hot shower and eventually transition to a short, cold shower once a week. It’s worked wonders for us!

Who knew so many mistakes could be made in the shower? We’d love to hear your take on this list! Were you surprised by anything you read? Would you like to defend any of the above items? Can you name any other bad habits that you would like to add to the conversation?