“It Turns Out You Should Only Wear Socks Once Before Washing”, 15 Hygiene Tips People Learned ”Embarassingly Late”
by Benjamin Dzialdowski · BuzzFeedRecently, ThenPercentage3360 asked r/hygiene, "What is one hygiene tip you learned embarrassingly late in life?" So, without judging, we thought we'd share some of the top responses.
1. "Changing ur pillowcase more often. Turns out ur face spends a LOT of time on that thing."
2. "Pelvic floor exercises are as easy as hip bridges and clam shells, along with kegels, can fix a world of bladder issues."
"I always thought it was because of having kids (even though I had issues before pregnancy), being a little overweight (even though I still had problems when slimmer), and drinking so much water (even though it happened no matter my water intake). Nope, just weakened pelvic muscles due to a variety of reasons.
12 weeks of pelvic floor PT and it was like a miracle. In fact, it was really after about three weeks of daily PF exercises and I was done buying panty liners."
3. "Clean your belly button! I know right? Mind blown!"
4. "Everyone, take a look at the nose pads of your glasses, please. I won't judge, but please go grab a cotton swab, a toothpick, and clean them now, that stuff is right near your eyes."
5. "Bidet or wet tp. During the TP shortage of 2020, I resorted to getting a bidet from Home Depot as I could not find a napkin in the whole city, let alone a roll. I have never known such a clean asshole outside of a shower, and now I refuse to use a toilet without at least wetting the tp. Japan has been living in the future while we're over here smearing shit into our ass with dry paper. Seriously wtf. Big Paper conspiracy!"
"The worst thing about coming back from Japan was having to wipe my ass like an animal, now I have to renovate my bathroom."
6. "Never use dryer sheets."
“Soooo many reasons. Here are the main ones for me: They’re toxic to the environment, put unnecessary chemicals on your skin via clothes transfer, their chemicals clog the screen that catches lint in your dryer, increasing the chance of a dryer fire, and they leave a waxy coating on your clothes that picks up more dirt and environmental whatever you run into daily, making your clothes even dirtier faster.
Hit up r/laundry if you want clean, great-smelling clothes that don’t need a bunch of unnecessary gunk making them smellier and dirtier. Like everything else in our lives, we are being targeted [and] marketed things that don’t work but sound like a good idea.”
7. "Switching to an oil based cleanser before your normal face wash is the only real way to dissolve stubborn sunscreen buildup."
8. “Not rinsing your mouth out after brushing. It even says on the back of my toothpaste not to rinse it – feels like the Mandela effect.”
9. "I always washed my hands for regular stuff like food and bathroom, but during COVID specifically I started washing my hands every time I came home. Seems ridiculous that I wasn't doing it the whole time before, you touch so much random bullshit when out and about."
10. “That you have to use a friggin’ moisturiser. My skin had horrendous texture up until like the last month. I never took care of my face. Apparently, it was parched for water, and since then it’s gotten better. Been applying a moisturising gel.”
11. “Cleaning behind my ears. I never understood why, in old shows and movies, like the original Little Rascals, for example, adults would always harp on the kids about washing behind their ears."
"I couldn’t understand what these kids were doing that got them so filthy behind the ears! I never had dirt there, or so I thought. I’m ashamed to say I was in my 30s before I caught a whiff of the funk behind my ears. I was mortified when I realised I’d been letting people hug me and sometimes kiss me near my funky ears for decades.”
12. “My girlfriend introduced me to exfoliating gloves for the shower. They help remove a lot of dead skin cells and leave your skin feeling smooth. Also, scrub behind your ears.”
13. “I thought I had stinky feet, but it turns out you should only wear socks once before washing.”
14. “Shoes without socks are a recipe for disaster.”
15. “Sit down to wipe. Standing up squishes your cheeks together and makes more mess. Learnt that at 23.”
H/T to ThenPercentage3360 and r/hygiene for having the discussion!
Any more to add? Let us know in the comments below!
Additional thumbnail credits: FXX