Only showering once a week? This is what really happens to your skin

“If you give up daily showering, you will initially smell stronger and then often think that washing more will solve the problem,” said Hamblin. This cycle can be broken. “After a while without any intervention, a new balance will emerge on the skin and in the hair.”

Dermatologist Marion Moers-Carpi from Munich welcomed the theories on the whole: “We put a lot of strain on our bodies. Many wash themselves too much, too hot and for too long.” Two minutes every day under a warm shower would be unnecessary and not good at all. People who already have skin problems such as neurodermatitis should definitely be more careful, she stresses.

Moers-Carpi, like Hamblin, says that daily scrubbing removes the oils that the glands produce to protect the skin. This makes the skin drier and causes it to absorb moisturizers to create an artificial version of the oils. The intermediate step could actually be skipped.

You just shower about twice a week and use little soap, says dermatologist Moers-Carpi. The long-proclaimed concept of the acid mantle is now controversial among dermatologists. Personally, you absolutely recommend using hard soap, which was frowned upon for a long time.

Finally, the Munich dermatologist points out: “Ask your grandparents how often they bathed themselves. In the past, most people only bathed once a week. And they weren’t all smelly people.”

Also interesting: Sparkling clean in just a few minutes: How to quickly make your bathtub sparkling clean again