Prudence Over Habit, or Why Not To Bathe Daily

So it was Saturday night, and alone I sat wondering why we are burdened with the chore of existence. And thinking of chores, I was reminded about another most daunting chore. Having a bath daily.

I mean, why waste away so much water and precious pheremones! But then a wave of Nirvana swept across my mind. And I was enlightened ever more.

For in that moment of sweet nirvana, I found out the reason for having a bath daily. And now that I have the knowledge, I must pass it on. The knowledge could enable us to optimise the frequency of the activity without being compelled to label a violator of the daily bath ritual a heretic.

You see, dead skin cells from the epidermis keep shedding from the human skin. The epidermis is the topmost layer of the skin. Cells on it keep getting replaced by the cells from beneath it. In around thirty days, the skin of a person gets totally replaced by new cells. Snakes collect it and shed it at once. We humans keep shedding little by little all the time. 

 

On an average, an adult sheds some million dead cells every day. About eight pounds of weight is shed through our dead skin cells every year.

Skin is made of Keratin. Keratin is essentially a protein. And hence…food! Food for virus and bacteria! 

You have to bathe daily to get rid of that feast that is being hosted on you! You have to crash the party and throw away the food. So bathe to not only feel fresh, but to wash away the skin cells that accumulate on our skin during the course of the day.

Intruders thrive in warm and moist conditions. So in the warm plains and in humid conditions, it is far more important to bathe everyday than in dry or cold areas where the climate itself does not favour the life of viruses and bacteria. So while people in the hills can get away without bathing everyday, especially if they are not doing any activity that makes them sweat, the people in the warm plains need to have a bath daily. Otherwise, apart from body odour, they would get skin infections.

The English, when they came to India in the eighteenth century, found it terribly hard to manage with skin diseases. Their washing habits were not suited to the warm humid climes of the Indian planes and it is documented that many of them suffered from skin infections. Perhaps eating spices is not the only reason why we use water…

Now I searched Google to check if my deductions were correct, but I couldn’t find any proof. So maybe I might be fanciful. But it does seem logical. And it does help to justify why on some days I do not take a bath...

Just Google skin flora and you will see the variety of life that thrives on our skin.