When it comes to keeping clean, you’re either a wake-me-up morning shower person, or someone who wants that clean feeling as they slip into bed at night.
And the debate over which routine is superior has raged since showering every day became the norm. So we decided we wanted to end it, once and for all and ask: is it better to shower in the morning or at night?
To find out, we spoke to Professor Mary-Louise McLaws – an expert in hygiene and infection control at the University of New South Wales.
Listen: Apparently, you’re not meant to soap on your vagina. (Post continues after audio.)
She told us – drum roll – showering before bed is best.
Right now you’ll either be celebrating and perhaps turning to your partner/co-worker/friend and gleefully saying “See!”… or you’re wondering why on earth your morning shower routine isn’t good enough.
Well, Professor McLaws told Mamamia that’s because your end-of-the-day body will dirty your clean sheets. Each night you hop into bed unclean, you add more and more germs. Germs that you then stew in for eight hours.
“You’re putting in dirty feet and a sweaty, odoured body on to your clean sheets. If you want to only shower in the morning, you’ll probably need to wash your pillowcase and your sheets more often,” she says, adding that even if you shower before bed, you should still wash your sheets – along with your towels – once a week.
‘But you don’t understand. I need my morning shower to wake up!’ we hear you saying. Well, if you really don’t think you can part with that, Professor McLaws says you can shower twice a day – though dermatologists do not like you to.
Her solution? “Just have a very quick shower, but don’t use a harsh soap.”
Instead, Professor McLaws recommends washing with a gentle, non-soap-based cleanser, which she also recommends for your nightly shower if you can help it. This is because too much scrubbing with harsh cleansers can damage the outer layer of our skin.
The order you clean your body is important.
Professor McLaws said there were other things to keep in mind while showering. In addition to using a lots less soap than you think you need, the order in which you clean your body is important.
Top Comments
My entire household (kids included) shower twice a day (morning and night). Quick 3 min shower in the morning, and a longer shower in the evening. Always use non soap cleansers.
I never shower, I bath. And I have tank water, so if the tanks are overflowing I'll fill the bath to overflowing, and have two baths in a day. More commonly I have a bath every second or third night, and the bath water goes into the washing machine.