While people in medieval times weren’t quite as filthy as we tend to think, they certainly weren’t clean by today’s standards. Here’s what keeping clean looked like back in the olden days. Bathing: The Devil’s Work Prior to the Middles Ages, bathing was a pretty popular pastime....
It’s one of those things your mom tells you while you’re growing up: Don’t shower during a storm! It sounds like an old wives’ tale, something that can’t possibly be true. What’s the worst that could happen? The short answer: Very bad things. “If the lightning strikes...
Taking the time to shower and put on deodorant or antiperspirant before sweating on an elliptical, then sweating even more on a workout bench that was already saturated with foreign sweat, might seem like an absurd and pointless endeavor. But before heading straight to the gym without...
Hard as it may be to believe, the holidays are not too far away. If you’re going somewhere this year, then you’ll be bringing your Dopp kit — a.k.a. your trusty Traveler toiletry bag — for all your smelling-and-looking-a-bit-better needs. But is there a correct way to...
You would think washing the dishes counts as washing your hands — dish soap is usually stronger than hand soap, and you might well be giving each individual finger a proper exfoliation with that skillful maneuvering of the sponge. On the other hand, so to speak, you...
If you’ve never opened your suitcase a crack and gotten a powerful whiff of your shampoo, count yourself lucky. The smell comes with a dread of what you’ll see when you look inside — a fear that almost always comes true. One of your toiletries has exploded,...
Face soap: It’s a blessing, and a curse. On the one hand, it keeps you clean, bacteria at bay and your skin looking bright and healthy. On the other, it can be a goopy mess, get in your eyes and otherwise take loads and loads of water...
If you’re reading this, it probably means you’ve gotten through practically all of your (likely) adult life without ever questioning how you shower. I mean, why would you? Basically, you wake up, you get in the shower, you rinse, you lather up, you rinse again, and you’re...
When you share a bathroom with a partner, it’s inevitable that you’re going to end up sharing more than just toothpaste. Our bodies are constantly crawling with bacteria — some good, some bad — and the bathroom, a room dedicated to both dampness and nudity, is the...
Many of us assume that our showers are, well, always clean — they get sprayed down with a concoction of soap and water every day or so, after all. Sadly, though, our soapy runoff does virtually as little for the cleanliness of our showers as it does...
Anyone who owns a shower curtain knows one thing for sure: It’s going to engulf them as soon as they turn the water on. This strange phenomenon is called the shower-curtain effect, and while there’s no conclusive explanation for why running water causes shower curtains to billow...
Belly buttons can be filled with any number of things: Dirt, sweat, lint and maybe even some jewelry if that’s what you’re into. But a 2012 study — appropriately titled, A Jungle in There: Bacteria in Belly Buttons are Highly Diverse, but Predictable — found that our...
