You may be seeing elaborate shower cleansing routines on social media: daily exfoliation, double cleansing, antibacterial soap, loads of scented body scrubs and shower oils.
“I’m kind of appalled by the shower routines,” said Dr. Olga Bunimovich, a practicing dermatologist and assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
The multistep processes that have inspired people to spend endless amounts of time sudsing up can harm your skin — and the environment. Dermatologists say it’s all mostly unnecessary.
“Your skin is a barrier,” said Dr. Nicole Negbenebor, a dermatologic surgeon at University of Iowa Health Care. “It’s one of the biggest barriers you have. It’s you in your natural elements. So you want to treat it right, and then sometimes there can be too much of a good thing.”
“Lather, rinse. Repeat.”
That last word by itself ballooned profits immensely when added to the label on bottles.
Think about the typical toothpaste picture on the box, a big long snake of paste, too long in fact to fit on the brush, it has to curl up and back a bit. That much makes one look like a rabid animal overflowing with froth, and is just excessive.
The best part is the instructions on the box with that picture say to use a pea sized amount!