He describes his bold experiment in his recently published book. “I feel great.” This is how Dr. James Hamblin always responds when asked why he hasn’t taken a bath in five years. “You get used to it and feel completely normal,” admits a 37-year-old professor of preventive medicine at the Yale School of Public Health in an interview with the BBC. Dr. Hamblin is a regular contributor to the American magazine Atlantic, where his 2016 article, “I Stopped Showering, and Life Continued,” was published. “We spend two years of our lives showering or bathing. How much time (as well as money and water) do we waste?” he wrote at the time. In 2020 he described his experience in detail in the book “Чистота: новая наука о коже и чем прекрасно делать как можно меньше” (Clean: The New Science of Skin and the Beauty of Doing Less).
Do we really need to shower every day? While Hamblin is adamant that we should not stop washing our hands with soap and brushing our teeth, he believes we should not be so diligent about taking care of other parts of our bodies. The decision to stop washing was made as an experiment. “I wanted to understand what would happen,” explains the scientist. “I know a lot of people who rarely wash themselves, but I wanted to experience it myself and see what the effect would be.” And what was the effect when Hamburg stopped bathing in 2015? “Over time, your body gets used to it, and if you don’t use soap and deodorant, you don’t smell as much,” he says. “And your skin doesn’t get greasier at all.” “Many people wash their hair with shampoo to remove oil from their hair, and then use conditioner to apply artificial oils to their hair. But if you break this cycle, your hair will look exactly the same as it did before you used these products,” adds the experimenter.
According to Hamblyn, those who want to repeat his experiment should do everything gradually and judge by how comfortable they feel. However, according to the doctor, it is a gradual process. Hemblin began using less and less soap, shampoo, and deodorant, and bathing less frequently. Instead of showering every day, he showered every three days and eventually stopped bathing altogether. “It used to be that I wanted to take a shower just because I missed it, I smelled bad, and I felt dirty,” Hamblin says. “But that happened less and less.” According to him, the less he used water and cleaning products, the less he needed them. According to an American scientist, the smell of the body is determined by bacteria that live on the skin and feed on sweat and other secretions. Daily use of cleansers alters the skin’s lipid balance and disrupts bacteria. “During a vigorous shower, you destroy entire ecosystems,” he wrote in his 2016 article, “the niche is certainly filled, but more and more with those types of microbes that produce a bad smell.”
The less soul – the less shampoo – the more savings. Well, if you don’t wash, the doctor says, then the process of self-regulation of these ecosystems is triggered, they stabilize, and we stop smelling bad. “Of course, you’re not going to start smelling like cologne, but you’re not going to stink, you’re just going to smell like a normal person,” Hamblin says. In an August 2020 interview with BBC Science Focus, Hamblin was asked if he was concerned that he might smell bad, but that people around him were too polite to point it out. The professor assured that he has repeatedly and persistently asked colleagues, friends and acquaintances to tell him if he smells bad (the number of offers should remain unclear). That’s how he achieved a balance where his body stopped emitting an unpleasant odor. In addition, Hamblin claims that his wife even likes his new cologne, and other people say he smells pretty good.
One scientist claims that frequent washing upsets the balance of microbes living on our skin. “For most of human history, smells have played an important role in human communication, but now they have practically disappeared from our social biology,” he explains. “So now we want people not to smell at all, or to smell like perfume, cologne, or at least shower gel. Otherwise, we think they smell bad; any natural scent of the human body is automatically considered negative. But did Hamblin really reject the soul altogether? No, he says that he rinses himself off when he is clearly covered in dirt or after physical exercise. At the same time, the scientist claims that we can easily get rid of excess dirt by simply scratching or occasionally combing our hair. The decision to stop washing became more than an experiment for Hemblin. In the process of writing the book, he interviewed many people, including specialists in dermatology, immunology, allergists, and even theologians.
Hemblin admits that he sometimes still takes a shower – after exercise. As a result, his book is very negative about the skin care industry. He says that this industry sells products that solve superficial problems, and while some of these remedies can be quite effective, it is important to remember that the health of our skin is ultimately a reflection of our lifestyle and what is happening inside our bodies. Hemblin believes it is extremely important to distinguish between science and marketing. He believes that we use more resources than we really need because we think it is good for our health. The doctor also reminds us that self-care, as it currently exists, is a modern invention. “A century ago, most people did not have access to running water, except for royalty, and ordinary people could only enjoy running water occasionally,” Hamblyn notes. “They might be able to go to the river or lake, but certainly not every day.” “Also, there was no mass production, people used homemade soap, and not every day, because it corroded the skin,” he continues.
In his book, Hamblyn is very critical of skin care products. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. The number of offers should remain the same: episodes. End of story: Podcast Advertising. In his book, Hamblyn concludes that we may be abusing the use of showers and baths, and that if we started washing less, it would only benefit us. One of his arguments is that we have not sufficiently studied what happens when the composition of microorganisms on our skin changes during the washing process. “The bacteria that live on our skin are as important to our health and appearance as the bacteria in our gut are to our digestion,” Hamblin says. “Bacteria have gotten a bad rap, but in the last 10 years, thanks to DNA sequencing technology, we have learned that bacteria are everywhere and usually do no harm. Only a small minority of them do. “This should make people think about what they’re doing when they wash, because of course we want to get rid of disease-causing microbes, but we don’t want to get rid of all microbes completely,” the scientist explains. Different people have different ideas about the ideal of cleanliness, Hamblin notes. And many people overestimate the importance of showering frequently. Now, he says, it is more of a preference than a medical necessity. However, he never advises people to stop washing.
Microbes are everywhere, but only a small fraction of them are capable of causing disease. The doctor himself claims that he has no intention of proving to anyone what is good and what is bad, or insisting that his approach is good for everyone. “But for those who have skin problems or just want to try, I would advise them to wash less often and find out for themselves how comfortable it is,” he says. “For example, some people start by using less shampoo, while others switch to a milder deodorant. You can start by spending less time in the shower, making it colder, showering less often and using less soap. Radical changes are not necessary. Note: Any conclusions reached by Dr. James Hamblin are his personal opinion and not a recommendation. Although many modern scientists agree that people sometimes overuse cleaning products, there is no scientific evidence that eliminating soap and shampoo completely will affect a person’s health. However, there is ample scientific evidence that failure to regularly cleanse the scalp can lead to serious problems such as seborrheic dermatitis.