Let me say this at the start: if you are showering or bathing every day or every other day, then clearly I’m not talking about you in this post. My mouth was hanging open when I read this though – Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher and Dax Shepard were all bonding on the Armchair Expert podcast about how they rarely use soap and they rarely bathe their children. This is… not how I was raised. I could not live that life with my Indian skin and my hair that absorbs every smell. But apparently it’s a thing that (certain) white folks bond about, how infrequently they bathe and how infrequently they wash their children??
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have a very specific approach to bath time for their children. The couple — who share daughter Wyatt Isabelle, 6, and son Dimitri Portwood, 4 — revealed during their latest appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast that they don’t believe in bathing their kids with soap every day.
The subject came up when co-hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman started discussing how frequently they shower. When Shepard, 46, insisted that Padman, 33, “should not be getting rid of the natural oil on your skin with a bar of soap every day” and instead only wash with water, Kunis, 37, and Kutcher, 43, agreed.
“I can’t believe I am in the minority here of washing my whole body in the shower. Who taught you to not wash?” Padman asked, to which Kunis replied, “I didn’t have hot water growing up as a child, so I didn’t shower much anyway. But when I had children, I also didn’t wash them every day. I wasn’t that parent that bathed my newborns — ever.”
Shepard then noted that he and wife Kristen Bell used to bathe daughters Lincoln, 8, and Delta, 6, every day as “part of a nighttime routine,” but stopped when the kids got older.
“That’s how we feel about our children,” Kunis said. Kutcher added, “Now, here’s the thing: If you can see the dirt on them, clean them. Otherwise, there’s no point.” Bathing babies too much with soap “can dry out his or her skin,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
The American Academy of Dermatology Association say on their website that kids ages 6 to 11 “may not need a daily bath,” but should at least wash once or twice a week.
As for their own showering habits, Kunis and Kutcher both said on the Armchair Expert podcast that they refrain from using soap on their entire bodies every day. “I wash my armpits and my crotch daily, and nothing else ever,” Kutcher said of his soap usage. “I got a bar of Lever 2000 that delivers every time. Nothing else.”
While baths may not be a daily occurrence in their household, the pair do believe in washing their faces every day. “I do have a tendency to throw some water on my face after a workout to get all the salts out,” Kutcher admitted. Kunis said, “I do wash my face twice a day.”
Whew, I could not get away with bathing so infrequently and it would drive me up the wall to live in this kind of “no soap/showers” household. I’m not saying that every child should be bathing and showering every day, but kids are germy and dirty and y’all need to bathe your kids! That’s also just role-modeling good hygiene behavior for your kids too. As for Ashton and Mila rarely bathing… ugh. So what do you do if you’ve had a good, sweaty workout? What do you do if you’ve been out of your house all day and you want to “wash the outside” off of your body? Are people really just stepping into the shower, soaping their crotch and pits and that’s it? BLECH.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and via Instagram.
what’s beyond comprehension is that he believes in being natural but then uses lever 2000. there are such better natural soaps on the market now besides that toxic one. it’s mainly water that cleans anything anyhow. including laundry. go natural soap wise.
While I agree that Lever 2000 isn’t the best soap around – my dad used to use it and the smell killed me – let’s not go overboard: it is NOT toxic. That’s nonsense. Go wild with the organics if you want – you do you, my Gram is the same way – but your local Walgreens and CVS aren’t trying to poison people when they stock it. It’s just soap. Let’s all keep our heads here, hmm?
Well, @terra, maybe you can trust the science on whether or not chemical-laden soap is healthy, hmmm?
Here you go, take a look:
https://www.bendsoap.com/blogs/sudsy-scoop/the-top-5-toxic-ingredients-to-avoid-in-soap
+1000 terra
The site is selling something, it’s not a peer-reviewed study. Several outdated /old links too.
@María, my response didn’t make it through, probably because there were three links and that may have been too much. But here is just one, and it’s pretty easy to find research studies that parse out which chemicals are toxic and which are not:
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/the-chemicals-to-avoid-in-your-shampoo-and-body-wash#What-the-study-found
720 people is not what I would consider a large enough sample considering we all use soap in some form.
This article also plainly states that there is a lack of significant research explaining the toxicity of these chemicals insofar as their concrete effect on disease. Food exposure is the largest area of exposure to things like phthalates, not soap. Everything from office supplies to carpeting to pharmaceuticals contain things like phthalates. Parabens too. The article also states that people who made an effort to avoid BPA still had comparable levels in their system opposed to those who didn’t.
Furthermore, “soap” is a far reaching term that can refer to anything from Dove bars or the lard-lye combination preferred by pioneers.
We live in a world over dependent on these things, yes, as ingredients, but the idea that we can just cherry pick our exposure to them and that’s it’s a question of what body cleanser you use is not necessarily accurate. Like I said, until there are strong and definitive links to degenerative physical diseases the concept of toxicity can be taken with a grain of salt. Many natural ingredients are also toxic.
Thanks for helping out, @Maria.
@Frida_K Here’s the latest article I’ve read in out of what must be 1,000,000,000 articles on the subject: https://www.npr.org/2021/07/12/1012666138/clean-beauty-products-are-a-marketing-triumph
As with everything else in the world today, so-called “clean beauty” and its ilk are just marketing language. There is no legal definition for what can be labeled and sold as “clean,” “all-natural”, or “non-toxic,” just to name a few. There is no reason to believe that a bottle of shampoo at a drug store is any worse for you than one at a health store. Neither of them is going to destroy your skin or overload you with carcinogens.
As a person with a lifelong history of EXTREME allergic reactions, I’ve had just as many bad reactions to “healthy” products as I have mainstream. Yes, we should pay attention to our bodies and how we care for them, but, no, we should not give into scare tactics with no real basis in reality. All I’m advocating for is rationality and keeping a level head.
As I said above, you do you, I have absolutely no right to tell you otherwise as it’s your life and money, not mine. But me? Me, I’ll stick with my Vanicream and Aveeno oatmeal baby wash the next time I wash my face and take a shower.
Can anyone tell me why the order of these posts change throughout the day? After having read a few posts I’ll return later to the last post I’ve read and look at the next one. I often find that the order has changed and need to go back to the first one of the day and then forward to make sure I don’t miss one.
They’re re-organized by popularity, meaning the most commented upon go first so that every time the front page loads those are what a visitor sees first, and the least commented upon go last, right above the previous day’s posts.
It’s actually annoying isn’t it, it happens to me all the time, I can only hop on periodically throughout the day, and most times lately I just give up trying to figure out where I left off and close it. Maybe a time stamp would help?
I don’t use any soap in the shower, I haven’t found one that I’m not sensitive/allergic to and doesn’t make me so itchy I scratch myself til I bleed.
I wash my hair in the kitchen sink, I rarely use shampoo because again, I itch.
I do use conditioner on the ends.
My hair is fluffy and fantastic looking, so obviously shampoo isn’t necessary.
I know a lot of people that just use water.
I developed an autoimmune disease a few years ago, and I have similar issues. I can use Avenos sensitive skin fragrance-free body wash. It’s the only thing that doesn’t cause me to wake up with skin under my nails. What helped was doing allergy testing and removing a lot of foods from my diet.
I still don’t have a solution for hair. Shea Moisture brand doesn’t trigger itching, but my hair hates it. Switched to Kerastase which is so fragrant, it makes me sick. but hair is improving, the itching only lasts for a day, so I just wash it in the morning. Good luck.
I also have an auto-immune condition which is affecting my skin. We have a much-loved doctor, scientist, researcher, writer and broadcaster, Dr Karl. He has been advising us for many years not to use soap in the shower or bath. For many years he has been using sorbolene to wash his body in the shower daily, but still using soap for the armpits and nether regions. Soap is made with fat, and it’s the fat, through friction, that picks up grime and germs which are then rinsed away. It’s ok not to use soap, instead using something that mimics soap, hence sorbolene. This is why there’s been such a push to get us all washing our hands properly since Covid-19 hit.
In the last few months, my skin has become ultra dry,, intensely itchy and developed a worrying and ugly appearance and feel. It failed to respond to what I was doing. I recently saw the new doctor at my medical centre. She advised me to use “Sorbolene Wash” for showering. I’m sure you have something like it in the US. She instructed me to pat my skin dry and cream my body with sorbolene. For my thighs up, it’s great, but below that is where my real problem is. Because of that, I need to use a steroid ointment once the sorbolene is absorbed, but I can only do this 3 times weekly. Even so, I can see and feel the improvement already.
I’ve wondered about these celebs. Do their kids not sweat or get dirty? No way could my kids miss a nightly bath; I could smell them as soon As they barged in from school!
Same! I’ve started using skin fix and it’s been really gentle on my skin. It’s meant for eczema.
I only shower once or twice a week (I also have curly hair and dry skin so if I shower to much my skin literally hurts.
I am also from AK’s region and we grew up only showering when necessary but washing pits and groins everyday. It’s a farm thing.
Thanks @AnnaKist. I’m in Canada, but my west Indian parents wouldn’t even let me sit on my bed with my “outside” clothes and dry skin or not, I have to bathe daily. That being said, I’m going to try sorbolene. Sounds like it would be heaven in the winter.
My hair is straight and if I wash it with just water, it’s like I just spread the oil around, it looks horrible.
Same. I need to wash my hair with shampoo every day.
Same for me, Larisa. Now I work outdoors all the time, no way I would miss a shower with shampoo/shower cream once a day.
Not necessary for you. Not all have your hair type
Head’s up on using Sorbolene/Aqueous cream as a soap substitute, especially Eczema sufferers:
From the National Eczema Society: “Aqueous cream is no longer recommended either as a leave-on emollient or as a soap substitute. In addition to being a poor moisturiser it contains the ingredient sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), which can irritate the skin and make eczema worse. Several emollients have been reformulated in recent years to remove SLS. Apart from aqueous cream and emulsifying ointment, no emollients available on prescription in the UK still contain it.”
I’ve never used soap in the shower in my life, I just wash my hair. My parents never taught me to do that and I was really surprised when I found out people do. I’m not running around getting filthy, and the hot water rinses everything off just fine.
This conversation is none of my Black and Korean business. I shower every day if not twice a day.
The way my brain is unable to acknowledge what they’re saying and is interpreting that info as “they don’t bathe everyday, but they shower everyday”. My mind refuses to recognise any other interpretation.
Mila said she washes her armpits and crotch everyday, and her face twice a day meaning: no baths and no showers either. Just armpit and crotch washing and thats it. Yikes😬😲
How do you wash the crotch without getting in the shower? pretty sure they meant they lather only those parts and just rinse the rest with water.
BabsORIG that was Ashton who washes his crotch and armpits and nothing else ever! ugghhh Mila just says she doesn’t bathe often. I mean, what about after working out?
I don’t think the key words here should be soap or no soap, i mean, there is shower gel that doesn’t dry. The point is washing or not washing, uggghh once again
I’m interpreting it as they rinse off with water, but don’t use soap to wash. I think the semantics are creating a lot of confusion.
I shower every day, sometimes twice a day. But I only “wash” (use soap) my trunk (neck to tops of thighs) every day. I only use soap on my arms and legs every few days. I have eczema, and it’s better to let the oil build up on my hotspots.
It shocks me that she washes her face twice a day if she’s so worried about drying out her skin.
Yeah, let’s hope they meant something like that. 😂 Also, my mind keeps going to, “But…it’s summer time….and you’re in southern California!”
Same here for this Mexicana! It’s makes no damn sense to me. I work out regularly and also renovating our house. I get filthy. My son is 6 and gets filthy because he loves playing outside and tends to our garden. Like Kaiser, my mouth was hanging open reading this ish.
I’m white, dry skin and all and I bathe every day. Goats milk soap works wonders for dry skin, but man, have you ever caught a whiff of someone you’re walking behind that doesn’t smell BAD but its’ that old body hair, skin smell? EW!!
White girl checking in and I shower at least once a day, sometimes twice if I go to the beach or pool. I wash my hair every 2-3 days and supplement with dry shampoo in between. I feel bad for the kids, they’re going to be the smelly kids at school!
Co-sign from this black person who sweats (family trait), works out, rocks a wash-n-go, and lives in Texas.
Except some black people don’t wash their hair every day or for weeks at a time? (Which is bad for their hair I get it) That can be seen by some as just as gross as Kutcher/mila.
Maybe it’s just that all our skin/hair is different? Daily soap can dry out skin/scalp for different people. Most of the benefit of washing comes from the friction of the washcloth and less the soap anyway.
But they didn’t say they don’t shower, but they just don’t apply using soap on their whole body. Every dermatologist will tell you that. Why putting soap on your forearm, thigh, belly? They got it right. My pediatrician also told me not to bath my kids too often. We did it once a week unless we could see the dirt on them. This artificial outrage is ridiculous
Thank you for the voice of reason @Lenni.
My parents had to take me to a dermatologist as a child because daily hot showers with soap were making my skin crack and bleed. I still shower daily but have to use non-soap cleansers. Daily scrubbing is not for all skin types.
EXACTLY! some folks seem to be wildly misinterpreting what these guys are saying and getting weirdly insulting in the comments
from what i read, the adults wash their important bits daily with soap, and otherwise wash their entire bodies with water regularly but not daily. the kids wash with water and sometimes soap regularly but not daily unless they get dirty – there’s no reason to assume they smell
what they described is skincare 101 and supported by science – maybe it doesn’t apply to some skin types/ethnicities, but for peeps of euro descent like the Kutchers, the only part of your body you should be washing constantly with soap are your hands. derms recommend gentle non-soap cleansers for the face, regular soap for the “folds” and feet, and otherwise water everywhere else. don’t even get me started on douching!
as someone with serious skin / immune issues from my family’s overzealous cleanliness, i wish they would have followed this advice
Yeah I bathe my daughter twice per week most of the year. More in summer due to dirt and sunscreen.
She gets painfully dry skin very easily and requires medicated cream. If I bathe her less, she doesn’t need the cream.
We both have a hair type that benefits from only being washed every 7-10 days.
It’s none of my Mexican business, either. Being scrubbed with a sudsy washcloth was a regular part of my childhood.
Yeah I mean I’m Black mixed with Black and I think none of this is my business because I just can not fathom. I’m also natural with type 4 hair and my hair needs water it needs…like it just needs. I can not process this story at all. Someone said the privilege of rich white people is astounding because if a family living in poverty said this their children would be taken away and I believe it.
No thank you. I’m indifferent to these two generally but knowing they’re friendly with Dax Shepard makes me think less of them. Ugh, that guy is the worst
Dax got his break on Ashton’s Punked and Kristen and Mila are on Bad Moms…. it makes sense they are friendly
Ashton is pretty bad on his own. Met him years ago. Obnoxious, acted like he was too good for the party, yet Demi was gracious and friendly to everyone.
It makes perfect sense the Kutcher-Shepard families are friends. Can you imagine the bored fly on the wall listening to them all over sharing together?
Eh, that’s totally fine for a smaller child, but kids are nasty little creatures by nature and once a week ain’t cutting it, at least not for my kid. My daughter is turning 6 and she plays with too much dirt, paint, marker, glitter, glue to only bathe once a week. She’d be a hot, stinky mess for sure!
They said they wash them if there’s dirt on them. It’s right in there in the quotes above.
Exactly! Ever been around a bunch of First Graders after recess on a hot day? Those are some stinky critters! At least if kids get hosed down daily (even a 5-minute jump-in, jump-out of the shower), the day’s accumulated crust can be washed away. Clean underwear/clothing every day can also help–if they rarely bathe and continue wearing dirty clothes, that doesn’t help the situation. But a kid that enjoys and thrives in the messiness of childhood probably needs a good scrub more than once a week.
There’s dirt visible on my boys every damn day—food in the hair, grime on every limb, and my youngest is in diapers and I feel like anyone who poops themselves daily needs to bathe daily.
Bathtime is a wonderful pre-bedtime ritual and signals to their little bodies that it’s time to transition to bed. It’s also a great final moment of play for the day. I don’t think my kids would be such successful sleepers without it.
I think it’s totally dependent – for both kids and adults – on what they’re doing. I never understood why babies needed to be bathed every night and I certainly didn’t do it. If they spat on themselves (or worse), I’d give them a bath right away, but otherwise I only did it every couple of days. Now that they’re teens they definitely need to wash every day, but that’s because they stink now. I also don’t shower every day unless I’ve gotten sweaty or dirty. If I’m sitting in an office all day doing nothing, why should I? And I saw several articles last year about how people were showering less and that’s not only good for the environment but good for our health too. The WSJ and NYT and I think WaPo all ran articles like this: https://www.wsj.com/articles/do-you-need-to-shower-every-day-11608564443 I really don’t get why some people think you’re automatically dirty if you don’t shower every day.
My son will be 5 on Sunday and he gets a bath every other day if we haven’t been doing anything. I may stretch it to 2 days, like during the pandemic when we were just chilling around the house. If he’s been playing outside at daycare or been in the paint/glue/glitter yeah he is getting a bath. He doesn’t like playing in mud and grass and stuff so honestly I really don’t even “see” dirt on him. And then some days he just really wants to take a bath and I just don’t wash his hair.
My mom was very into the “bathe him every single day” when he was a baby and I’m like he hasnt DONE anything to get dirty!
It’s not that weird. I don’t think soap is great for the skin. During the winter I can go days without leaving the house. I don’t shower on those days, my skin gets dry in the winter. I use a head bonnet while cooking to keep my hair from getting smelly. And I definitely don’t use soap on my arms and legs every day unless I’ve been walking around the city or if I put sunscreen on my arms that day. And for my pits, feet, and crotch it’s only ever un scented baby wash. I can’t with bar soap and fragrances are definitely out for me. If I’m in salt water daily I can go a very long time without using soap, just rinse the salt off and I feel clean.
I’m with you. I have very very dry skin especially in the winter. I rarely use soap on my skin. The only time I do is when I’ve been doing something extremely dirty like working in the yard or home renovations. And even then very lightly. I use soap in the shower or bath on my private areas and shampoo in my hair and that’s it. In the winter when my skin gets really bad and there is just absolutely no relief for it I don’t shower often but yes I make sure I am clean.
salt water is cleansing in itself. and probably better for skin than constantly stripping away all the natural skin oils. same with hair – I use shampoo once a week. otherwise my hair and scalp dry out.
Read Ashton’s quote about himself twice.
Does he ever wash his ass?
I could puke.
Likely (hopefully?) included in the greater Crotch region.
the greater crotch region! I’m dying. lol
🤣🤣🤣 in the running for best comment of the week.
Bwahahahaha fantastic comment!!
“The American Academy of Dermatology Association say on their website that kids ages 6 to 11 “may not need a daily bath,” but should at least wash once or twice a week.“
I know it are scientists saying this but this is just dirty to me. Kids have gym class in school, kids sweat, kids run around all the time, kids are in school (a breeding ground for germs). Kids simply need a bath. Far more than once or twice a week.
And since mila doesn’t believe in washing her body at least once a day, what exactly is her reason for washing her face twice, daily?
The skin on your face and the rest of your body really isn’t that different.
Your face and neck area are the most prone to acne breakouts if not cleansed.
Face, folds and feet is what one dermatologist I follow on Instagram recommends you soap up in the shower. I don’t soap my whole body and am fine. But humans are a spectrum, so of course what works for one may not work for another.
My kids are so f’n filthy they would not be tolerable to be in the presence of any other human life if they weren’t bathing daily.
I’m shocked by this because like do their kids do nothing? With sports, school, running around mine just inevitably are daily sweaty, smelly creatures.
face for makeup and sunscreen and product removal
Eh, unless I’m super sweaty from running around, I shower every other day too. That said, I do ‘wash’ myself before bed with a cloth. Mostly laziness.
I really want to thank white people for seemingly always talking about how they don’t really bathe. Thanks for making us all look like stinkasses. I’m going to have to blog about this because I can’t say what I really want to say about you stinkasses anywhere else.
I’m one white person who actually bathes, sometimes twice a day in the summer. I might have a different routine for my hair because it’s wavy, frizzy. These guys are gross.
Me too purple! But we get the rap for this disgusting isht all the same. I always shower daily and often twice daily. I workout almost daily, in this humidity? Definitely twice a day.
ps- it sounds like we have very similar hair too.
My record is probably 5 showers in one day. Just due to hot weather. Keeping my hair wet prevents me from sweating
I agree I bathe sometime twice daily in the summer. I use Cetaphil or Lumi soap and my skin is soft and more importantly I don’t stink. My hair I wash every other day unless I am really sweaty. I’m not about to take hygiene recommendations from these Hollywood idiots
Purplehazeforever, you may need to wash once or twice a day but as a fellow white American who doesn’t shower every day I think it’s a bit extreme for you to say “these guys are gross.” Most days I get up, sit in an air-conditioned office, and go home and make dinner and work more. If I’m not gardening or exercising or having to hike around outside somewhere in the summer, I’m not getting stinky or sweaty. And as someone with dry, sensitive skin, lots of hot water and soap is damaging to my skin. Not to mention the fact that I try to avoid using water unless absolutely necessary (for this same reason I never wash my car unless there’s nasty bird poop on it). I understand you may have grown up with this need to shower, and your body may require it, but I think it’s also worth understanding that there’s a difference between people who need to shower once or more a day and people who never shower.
Darla, I shower every morning with extra attention to the areas that can get smelly. And if I’m hot and sweaty when I get home from work, into the shower again I go.
Some people – hi, there! – have skin conditions that preclude bathing daily. I have a chronic condition on my scalp and two different annoying conditions on my body itself. If I were to shower or take a bath every day, or even every other day, I would be one giant rash.
My grandmother, who is disabled, has a different skin condition than I do, but she also has a hard time maneuvering in and out of the tub and, as I am disabled myself, it’s difficult for me to help her. We’d never get anything done if we had to schedule in bath time every day. It’s nearly a three hour process, what with her Epsom soak and getting her hair washed and untangled.
There are exceptions to every rule.
PS: Also here with the frizzy wavy/curly hair. I feel you about humidity. Houston is the worst for that.
My dermatologist told me to not shower daily and only use soap as Ashton is describing.
Terra, I understand what you are saying, and of course, that’s different. I am speaking in generalities.
@Darla – but that’s the point! It turns out that that much detergent on our skin isn’t good for our skin.
Not everyone lives in humid places, not everyone has the same hair and skin type, and some of us have bidets. How is this so hard to understand. If you smell, obviously you need to figure out how to clean yourself better, but there is no 1 right way.
Word. Like, why are they always proud of it? Nasty. Reminds me of Jennifer Lawrence and why I can’t deal with her, even if she was a good actor. This is another example of peak white privilege. All the way back to the Middle Ages, West African folk were covering themselves in gold, meanwhile while Europeans were tossing full chamber pots out onto the street. #legacy And yet Black and Brown people are framed as dirty. Systemic white supremacy is a hell of a drug.
Mila Kunis grew up in government housing without running hot water.
This isn’t a “white people” thing.
It’s a “distracted by the idea of being natural” thing.
“Thanks for making us all look like stinkasses.”
I second this!
If I don’t shower daily I feel itchy and greasy and I can smell myself, even if it’s only a slight whiff. I bath my 3 year old daily mainly because she enjoys it and it’s something to do for that desperate last hour of the day (and she’s quite mucky). My 7 year old has baths Sundays and Thursdays but when it was hot last week (in the UK) she was bathing daily too to get the sweat and suncream off …and also if she fancies a bath in-between those days she can because BATHS ARE RELAXING and a nice thing to do.
Ashton and Mila’s household must pong
*shrug* My 11 year olds have a weekly bath. An occasional shower mid-week if they’re sweaty, but that’s it. My toddler has a bath every other day or so. They’re all clean enough. Each to their own.
Same here. My 7 yo bathes twice a week, but with the heat most of what he’s doing is indoors. Obs, if he spent the entire day outside, we would make an exception, but otherwise. My husband and I shower far more. My 13 yo was on the same schedule, but his hormones have kicked in and he stinks. If I can get him in the shower every other day, I consider it a success.
My kids bathe when they need it but not always daily. Usually every other day unless really grimy. Our pediatrician said to use soap sparingly due to their eczema. 🤷
All these self righteous comments on here are 🙄🙄
Mila keeps pushing this narrative about growing up poor and without any amenities and it makes me so angry. She grew up in a well-off Jewish family in a normal Soviet town. Unless you lived off the grid in some siberian village, you had warm water and soap. We showered every night before going to bed as kids. Do whatever you want, but stop rewriting history.
You must be much younger than Mila then if you don’t remember daily water restrictions and issues with heating. It had nothing to do with how well off your family was. The municipalities simply didn’t have the infrastructure. I’m Mila’s age. Our situation in former Yugoslavia wasn’t as bad, but I definitely remember hearing about it in other parts of Eastern Europe. Even my grandma in Austria was very aware of need to conserve water and heat.
I am 10 years older than Mila and I spent the first 19 years of my life in Soviet Union, different parts of it. Chernivtsi, where Mila grew up, had everything. and yes, the hot water shut down once a year for three weeks, but it was usually staggered, so people would go to their friends or relatives for a quick wash. But other than that, no, it was mostly civilized. I am far from romantisizing the history, but it seems to me that Mila’s childhood has been getting worse as shes been getting older.
But maybe she didn’t have hot water? Doesn’t hot water shut down for about 3 weeks in summer today, even in Moscow.
Mila has acknowledged before that she grew up “not poor” and was very fortunate but perhaps her house didn’t always have access to hot water, especially in the 1980s.
I was born in 1991 in Ireland and the house I spent the first 7 years of my life in had no central heating. I otherwise grew up middle class. People call BS on me telling that story because Ireland was more modernised by the 1990s but it’s true.
Yep, I’m a 70s baby, and I grew up in a house in Wales that had no central heating. I remember not wanting to get out of bed in the morning sometimes because it was so cold in winter. We also had our hot water come from a tank behind the house, and it was perpetually full of flies. I still don’t drink water out of the hot tap. I didn’t grow up deprived or poor. I can easily believe she had limited access to hot water a lot of the time, regardless of how well off her family was.
My grandparents house in rural Ireland prior to 1990 had no running water or central heating. They actually filled water from a well and bathed once a week in a tin bath. They heated the water on a stove. So I can believe that Mila didn’t have hot water growing up.
What does Mila being Jewish have to do with it?
Russian are still antisemitic they mourn the loss of the Pale
It sounds like they shower daily or most days but don’t soap their skin? I don’t soap my skin either. And shower every other day. It’s not a big deal.
Exactly. It’s not healthy soaping all over your body frequently, You have something called normal skin flora protecting you. This is so not a story.
KatV – I agree with you. And it shouldn’t be a story. To me, the story is how violently so many people have reacted to this anecdote, insisting that people are gross if they don’t shower once or more a day. As someone who’s always taken the “shower if you’re sweaty, dirty, or stinky but otherwise don’t need to waste the water or time” approach, I’m kind of shocked and insulted that so many people on here and on Twitter are acting like this is proof that people who don’t shower daily are disgusting, stinky, people.
Thanks for adding this @katv. Disrupting your individual skin microbiome by washing away the natural balance of oils and beneficial bacteria with hot water and detergent every day can make “the stink” worse, causing one to keep up the cycle. Everyone is different, of course, not to mention that other factors such as body chemistry, diet, health issues, etc play into this. The jump to gross/disgusting and other adjectives used in these comments is interesting.
When I shower I wash the important parts and kind of let the soap fall where it may elsewhere without scrubbing. Also, when I shampoo I let the rinse out go down my back and that acts as a cleaning thing for my back (my hair is long too). The conditioner afterward helps too.
I recently started using Dove scented body wash. I really don’t think it strips the oils. Back in the day in my 20’s I used to buy that Castile soap they sold in the drug stores. That stuff actually dried my skin out – go figure. Didn’t keep using it.
I find this strange talk during a pandemic when children have to wear masks but it’s okay to not wash them? Then again, it is possible it might actually be building a stronger immune system. I wonder if some of this isn’t just plain laziness? Bathing your children is a lot of work! I know when I went to Italy I noticed many women with super greasy hair and my Aunt told me it is good to let the natural oils come out into your hair.
I’m white and live in Florida, which is like living in a sauna for many, many months of the year. I shower at the minimum once a day, sometimes a very cold shower later in the day. I mean, for themselves they said they wash the sweaty parts of their body once a day and rinse their whole body with water in the shower, so I don’t see a problem with them. The kids once-a-week regimen I don’t get. Kids can get so stinky.
My hair is fine and seems to attract every smell around. When I was younger, I remember coming home from clubs in the early hours and showering to get rid of the smell of smoke/alcohol etc. Also living in a dirty city (London) means I feel grimy after being out all day.
I get the no soap thing, because I use an alternative so as not to dry out my skin, but water alone doesn’t cut it.
Idk what to say, my Asian blood can’t relate. We shower everyday sometimes twice daily during hot weather 🥴 besides, the covid made me more conscious about hygiene… don’t they wash their hands with soap?? 😬
You only need to soap the parts of your body that sweat – that’s science. I gave up most soap/detergent years ago to treat my eczema, and my skin dramatically improved. Soap strips your skin, period. That being said, you should be using water at least 2-3 times a week, I think.
I had a dermatologist tell me not to use soap. Just water and a washcloth.
I was at a pharmacy years ago to get a treatment for a minor yeast infection (I think, it was a long time ago) and the lady recommended only using water on your lady parts. I’ve followed her advice ever since and had no further issues.
Really? I have seen a lot of people saying the v is self-cleaning and you should only use water. I not only use soap I break one of the ten commandments of modern feminism and douche once a week. I never get infections or any issues so there’s never been a reason for me to stop.
@SarahCS same. All those “feminine” washes are irritating and unnecessary, and soap in general is drying and makes my skin itch. I had terrible acne as a teen and twenty-something until I read something radical about not stripping skin of its natural oils. I stopped washing my face and all of my skin problems subsided! Now I only use soap on armpits, and on my hands after using the bathroom. Anything else can be cleaned with water. And I don’t see any need to waste water on showering unless I’m actually smelly, so not every day or necessarily even every other day.
same, I cannot use anything on my v, have not in maybe 40 years. Any type of cleaner is irritating to me
@Darla, I had a friend that developed contact dermatitis on her v from following a similar routine. I have contact dermatitis on my hand so I know that this can be very uncomfortable. It’s fine if your skin can handle all that stuff, but you won’t really know until it’s too late. One day a poison ivy like rash appears and doesn’t ever go away until you stop irritating it. The solution is to avoid pretty much an detergent/soap/lotion/deodorant. I say deodorant because the doctor that finally diagnosed me had contact dermatitis in his pits. It’s very hard to avoid most of this stuff on my hands, especially as a mom, but at least it’s easier on the v.
“Feminine washes” are awful for you. There has perhaps never been an advertising campaign more insidious than the one that convinced millions of women that their private parts smell and need to be made “fresh.” If you have an odor down there strong enough to cause you real concern, go to a doctor because you might have an infection.
The wipes and washes that only clean the outside of the vulva are not that bad (although if you were to use them, only use unscented varieties). That being said, never, EVER clean the inside of the vagina itself (meaning, never douche). Douching is poison and you should never do it, ever.
Human bodies are not meant to be smellless, pristine things.
You need a new dermatologist
My really bad skin condition cleared up so it can’t be that bad. Prior to seeing him my skin was very red and raw. No one in the household would apply the prescription to my back even when I offered gloves.
@Sam the PInk
Yes to everything you said. Especially the horrible campaign to sell women on the idea that we ‘smell’ and needed to douche to be acceptably clean. Insidious is right. I also am on board with all the commenters who said that over-washing destroys natural beneficial skin bacteria that protect us.
And I too am shocked with all of the “disgusting! gross! and filthy!” remarks about those of us that believe daily washing/scrubbing with soap is not beneficial.
I have no issue with any of this, except the talking about it.
100%
Yeah, I trust their judgment about what their body parts need, I don’t think it’s necessary for Ashton to get specific.
I don’t understand when my fellow white people stopped bathing regularly. My generation bathed daily and we survived.
Generations before you didn’t bathe daily and survived. In the US indoor plumbing wasn’t available in some homes until the 1960’s.
They quite literally did not. And if they did, they murdered indigenous civilisations
with their stank upon contact
How on earth do you make the connection between murder and bathing? And the “indigenous civilizations” wouldn’t have been bathing any more frequently.
I live in Denver, where the average humidity is about 20%. The dry air makes it more difficult to manage excema and other skin conditions. My very mainstream pediatrician made a point of telling me to just use water, and a little non-soap cleanser only on the dirty bits, when i bathed my newborn. And he also mentioned not to keep the home environment too clean, that he had seen kids with poorly developed immune systems because the parents were trying to keep their kid’s environment as sterile as possible.
As a younger child, i had my son bathe every 3 days or so, unless he was really dirty or sweaty. On the days he didn’t bathe, I would run him over with a damp cloth, and make sure his hands and feet and face were well washed. So it’s not like people who don’t bathe their kids every day let them go to bed covered in dirt. There is a middle ground.
@ Malificent, I had a very well educated South African pediatrician in Houston that was also of the mindset that children, in general, do not need to bathe everyday. His recommendations were similar to your pediatrician. Which was extremely beneficial to developing their immune system. Now, when my kids grew older and had that super stink after school, especially my son, they would bathe at everyday. Living in the south, Texas and Florida, with the humidity, daily baths were needed and they were of a preteen age.
Now for my upbringing, we bathed everyday, no matter what we did that day. I spent a year with my fathers side of the family in Argentina for almost a year. It was a common practice of women not bathing every day and men bathing every day that truly shocked my system/ideals. They were middle class and the fact that I would bathe every day caused them to run out of gas canisters every month, as I was the only female bathing every day. It’s a very common tradition/history of women not bathing every day and we had no central A/C or heat, which my body was not accustomed to. But without fail, I bathed everyday.
The bottom line is that you should follow what is most compatible with your skin.
I mean lucky you if you don’t need to bathe everyday but my sweaty and stinky self needed/still needs to. As for soaps, there are lots of alternatives that may not irritate skin. Try that before turning off from soaps forever.
Yes, there are so many beautiful moisturizing body washes out there.
Thank You!!!! Everyone is like soap is drying to your skin and I’m thinking there are alternatives. I have dry skin all over with the exception of my face and I use Dove or when I run out of Dove, an organic body wash that doesn’t dry out my skin. The test for me is if I have to immediately use lotion then what I’m using is too harsh.
I worked as a receptionist in a medical skin care clinic in college, where we sold super expensive (although admittedly excellent) brands like SkinCeuticals and Kinerase, which the aestheticians were strongly encouraged to push to their clients. But when a client was just like; “I’m sorry i just cannot afford to spend a jillion dollars to wash my face”, what did the aestheticians almost ALWAYS recommend? Dove soap. The original unscented. Not only that, Dove soap can also cure certain skin issues. Im not an aesthetician so my wording might not be 100% correct, but i remember being told that its ph balanced, which a lot of people dont realize is extremely important in skin care products. If youre not made of money, Dove soap is easily one of if not THE best soaps/face soaps in your drug store.
Well, this explains why I always thought Ashton Kutcher looked smelly.
Thread winner.
Can’t do without a thorough shower with blankets of shower gel and shampoo, personally. And those Japanese Salux scrubbing towels to get me gleaming!
I also shave everything so I hate the stubble.
My boys don’t bathe every day in the winter, their skin gets super dry, but they are still young-ish (9 and 6) and they seem pretty clean to me. But they do shower/clean themselves a few times a week (usually works out to every other day) and always after a sports practice or a hike or something. And in the summer they shower most days.
I shower most days, some weeks there will be a day where I skip but that’s not that common. I only wash my hair every two or three days though (but if i exercise, I will get the roots a little wet to get the sweat out.)
I wonder if they are talking about not showering or not actively cleaning themselves. I use soap whenever I shower (I smell if not, lol) but I know some people who just get in the shower and dont use soap, which I guess is better than nothing?
Even living in the UK where we only get a few weeks of actually hot weather each year I’m a daily shower person but thinking back, when I was a small kid in the 80’s Sunday night baths were the routine and you used the basin and a cloth the rest of the week, we didn’t have a shower. Very little daily washing went on if I wasn’t being supervised in the winter as we never had central heating in our homes and it was COLD (like getting dressed under the covers cold).
That was pretty much the routine when I was a kid in 70s and 80s NZ. We’d have baths on Wednesday and Sunday nights, and the whole family would share the water. The bathroom didn’t have a shower, only a tub. Every other day was morning and night washes with a basin of warm soapy water and a facecloth. The main reason for that was that we were dependent on rainwater collection tanks, and had to be very careful to conserve water. Things changed in the late 80s when the neighbourhood was hooked up to mains water and a shower was installed.
In summer the Wednesday night bath was cancelled, because we were swimming every day in the sea or the school swimming pool, and that rinsed off the worst of the dirt.
My husband is Japanese and he has always said most white people are smelly. After reading this article about Ashton Kutcher not using soap I am starting to understand my husband’s opinion.
Seriously? If a white person said that about Asians, do you think it’d be ok?
It’s true though. And white America did a preemptive projection job on most of the rest of the world, and our own citizens who are AA, by telling everyone “foreigners” stink and so do black people.
I’m white and will not listen to any white tears on this subject.
@ Darla
Seriously. As an Indian, who grew up in a household where we take showers every single day, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the term “smelly Indian…or you smell like Curry” out of a White person’s mouth (mostly in elementary school and high school but also racist adults). No b*tch I smell like Dove soap.
@ME
and they were wrong to say that, too. I’m not an American, and I’ve heard my share of comments about how “gross” my food is. But I am hoping the goal is to stop labeling each other as dirty and bad over differences, not to start labeling white people to pay them back, no?
@Darla
What’s true though? That white people are smelly? How do you define “true”, exactly? Americans are the most germaphobic, cleanliness-obsessed society I’ve ever seen, also one of the most indulgent in terms of the ability to shower multiple times a day. So, no, I don’t think it’s “true” that white people are the smelliest, at least, not in America. If we are talking about diet and characteristic, rather than dirty, smell, as people below are discussing – perhaps, I don’t smell it, but maybe my nose isn’t as sensitive, but then a Japanese person could be “the smelliest” to a white person with a sensitive nose? So, that still doesn’t make it “true”.
I mean im white and the longer I live the more I think white people are the dirtiest
no one else literally bags about not bathing, so gross
@larisa- exactly. and no one is crying, just pointing out the obvious.
I’ve read for forever that Japanese perceive that Western people stink. It’s attributed to diet, particulary because we eat dairy (cheese). I assume it’s true, and in our own country we are not sensitive to the smell because it’s so prevalent.
@gil oh honey! that comes down to national diet, not cleanliness – groups with a shared food culture/diet will be nose blind to their own distinct smell and put off by the unfamiliar/distinct smell of other groups.
on a smaller scale, it’s the reason why every family has a distinct smell that you’ll notice when you go over to their house. heck, i even got weirded out when my husband started drinking soylent for a bit, and it made him smell like a *stranger* – not smelly, mind you, just unfamiliar and that was offputting enough
Yes, I remember as a kid always thinking that my friends’ houses (and cars) smelled funny/different. I never thought of it that way, but it makes sense. I imagine they felt the same way about my house, even though it was always quite clean.
This was referenced a few years ago here on a CB post—there’s a famous actor, was in the Melissa McCarthy “can you ever forgive me” movie and he referenced being a “super smeller.” Forgot his name but I 100 percent get it, That is ME. I can walk by people and determine what shampoo they use, what laundry detergent they use, and when they bathed last. There is NOTHING worse than that metallic old “haven’t bathed in a few days” smell. EW.
I bathe for others, too—often we don’t smell ourselves but others do. I think my daughter inherited my insane sense of smell as she will make the most obscure comments to me (and others), like, “oh you went to chick fil a today,” because she can smell it on me. Makes me even more neurotic! Ha!
Me too.
But smelly people are not all that common, and half the time I think it’s their unwashed clothing rather than they themselves that smells so bad. And I find the overwhelming funk of laundry detergent to be far worse than when people smell lightly unwashed.
Ew. I’m sorry but if I don’t bathe everyday, either shower with shower gel/shampoo or a tub bath, I feel icky. I work out everyday. I can’t imagine not bathing and letting the sweat and gunk accumulated during a workout to dry on my skin. I know we’re not supposed to wash our hair everyday, but I do that too. The smelly, sweaty feeling after a workout is something I want to wash off ASAP. And even if I didn’t workout everyday, showering once a day is natural to me. I like feeling and smelling clean.
I shower daily and wash the smelly parts with soap. I rarely wash my arms, legs, stomach, and back. I shampoo twice a week. I work out all the time and I live in Florida. When I tell people this, they are always shocked but agree that I don’t smell and I have soft skin. I just don’t understand the knee jerk white people nonsense reaction. If it’s not for you don’t do it, but don’t imply that people you don’t know smell badly.
As a black African, I regret the advent of technology and with it the ability to access this kind of unsolicited information. Because one can’t help be annoyed, especially when we were made to feel like the unclean ones. Like, why spend all that time trying to convince us we’re dirty only to, like, not bath?
Well, you do realize that Ashton and Mila probably didn’t spend any time convincing black people that they were dirty? White people don’t have a hive mind.
#Truth @SunRae The construction of the primitive, dirty African, all part of a continuing economic grab over centuries. Whether @Larisa wants to believe or not, these ideas about who is clean and who is not are constructed as part of white supremacy and embedded systemically. White people have the privilege not to believe it or to pretend not to see or ignore their involvement in this construction but it exists nonetheless. Black folks have to deal with it all the time and like with everything else, we are extra-vigilant so as not to be seen as the worst white framing. This is not about “convincing [B]lack people that they were dirty”; this is about different standards for different races.
I def can’t wash my hair too often or the curls break but in a city that’s quite smoggy… I do feel like water alone isn’t going to get off the air pollution – other people’s sweat, dirt and exhaust grime – that end up on me after a day of commuting.
But if I was not a drone bee, I might have a very different lifestyle and feel a lot cleaner most days unless I worked out!
i’m actually not surpirsed this topic is coming up now, i think they want to start a trend, i started seeing videos on youtube about how its not good to have a shower every day, so this makes them on trend. I’ve just accepted Gillian anderson no longer wearing a Bra thing, I dont think i can get on board with the not showering trend.
I grew up in Nigeria were indoor running water doesnt exist but we still managed to have a bucket bath every do, i still use a bucket in my bath till this day.
But they ARE showering, they’re just not using soap all over their bodies.
And honestly little kids do NOT need a bath unless they need a bath, which is when these two said they bathe their children.
As the mom of two teenage boys I can confidently say that even with showering and antiperspirant they stink at the end of the day. Wait till their kids hit puberty they will have issues if their hygiene is subpar.
That’s what I was thinking. The problem with not making daily bathing a habit is that one day they will hit an age where they simultaneously start to smell more and be less amenable to parental guidance/rules. Puberty is bad enough with kids who already shower daily, I can’t imagine it with kids who don’t think it’s needed!
I don’t understand why you wouldn’t wash your body? I mean I guess people do it but that’s just not how I was brought up, lol. There are good natural soaps out there. It takes 10 seconds. I just can’t wrap my head around this concept.
I try not to wash my hair with shampoo too frequently because I started getting it dyed again and forgot how fast it fades, but because of my allergies I do rinse it if I’ve been outside.
Ffs- yall with skin conditions, we aren’t talking to you. We understand there are legitimate reasons not to clean your skin daily. The rest of yall defending this shit are just nasty.
^^^
I’m with Steph.
Yeah, me too. Co-signing. It’s a common courtesy thing. You may not be able to smell your own stink, but others can. Everybody has body odor. The least you can do is be considerate to the public and your loved ones in private. Like someone else said down thread. Not clean? No sex.
Yup, me threee
I shower with soap everyday all over and wash my hair every other day. On the days I don’t wash my hair I swear I’m still able to smell my scalp, ugh! My scalp must be very porous or something. I can never go longer than a day without washing it. As for Ashton and Mila, can you imagine the shower experience they’re able to afford but don’t use it? I’m not advocating wasting water, but seriously? I love my shower and would probably do a daily soak in the tub if I had their $. And baths and showers are calming and soothing for little kids, it’s a shame they only bathe them once they get so dirty they can see it. What is that?!
Eh. I only shower myself and bathe my kids once every few days as well. That’s what works for us.
It’s wild that out of the whole podcast this is what’s trending everywhere. The podcast episode was about cryptocurrency and it was really fascinating. The way Mila and Ashton broke it down made so much sense, and I truly learned a lot. They had a weird ice breaker banter in the beginning with this bathing conversation, and honestly it didn’t sound that odd, and also slightly over exaggerated when they made the comments. Sounded like something dumb I’d say to my friends. Last night my husband and I were exhausted and I was like, ugh can we skip baths today? And he goes well they just went to one store. So we had them brush their teeth, stuck them in their pjs and bed.
I don’t know, in context the story didn’t seem like that big of a deal at all. Out of context I can see how it sounds gross. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t bath my kids everyday. Or myself either. Every three days we’ll shower and use soap and shampoo and such. The kids also do it all themselves. Of course this is something I taught them over time, but they are all good now! (I will say though, if my kids are playing in mud everyday, obviously they would get an earlier shower lol)
I work out all most every day so I shower. In the summer sometimes I shower twice a day because I don’t want to go to bed feeling ” sticky”. When I had an afro I co-washed one week and used shampoo the other week. People like this are nose blind and they don’t think they smell, the rest of us have news for you…..
So weird. If I don’t bathe daily, it grosses me out. Even when I’m sick, I feel better after a shower. And my scalp does NOT want me to stretch washes. Been there, tried that, it wants to be squeaky clean. I also like running around barefoot as much as possible…my feet definitely want daily washing.
And who wants to have sex with someone unbathed? Ick!
There’s actual scientific evidence that suggests that frequent bathing actually depresses mating, since it removes the natural phermones and “musk” that humans, like most other mammals, use as mating cues.
I don’t need to smell someone’s ass to get horny. I would wonder what kind of sex people are having that they think this is okay, but I really don’t want to go there. All I can say is the way I like to have sex you better be squeaky. I am.
I’m with ya, Darla. Clean is a turn on, dirty isn’t.
Daily showers never destroyed my urge to mate — however any stank did. I shower and shampoo almost every day because I work out almost every day and I’m a sweater. I do not, however, use soap, I use a moisturizing body wash on the PTA areas. Everything else just gets a rinse.
I do a full shower every other day because that’s my workout schedule. In between, i only make stops at Pittstown, Crotcherdamm, and Footsville unless something switches up or I get gross-dirty from some other activity.
LOL just when you think you know everything there is to know about White people, they surprise you.
I kid, I kid…but not really.
Now I wonder if these two were regular folk who had to work in a hot factory doing 12 hour shifts a day, would they take a damn shower every day then? Privilege is what this is. They are sitting in AC doing nothing all day.
news flash: ashton and mila do not represent all white people.
news flash: I wasn’t actually being serious. But it’s nice when things go the other way for once. I mean all us POC get lumped into one big category don’t we?
your words, not mine: “I kid, I kid…but not really.”
@ M
LOL seriously? Some of you woke up on the wrong side of the bed today so I’m going to let this all slide. Have a wonderful day.
They are not sitting in AC doing nothing all day. They work, they exercise, they chase their kids around. I see photos of them out and about grocery shopping, doing regular things, not living like royalty. BTW, take that giant chip off your shoulder.
Well I don’t have a chip on my shoulder, perhaps you do with that attitude? I wasn’t actually saying they don’t leave the house, but they sure as hell don’t have to work regular jobs and therefore want to “wash the day off” when they get home. Get what I’m saying?
@ME – Once again, as M says, your words, not mine….”They are sitting in AC doing nothing all day.” Your comments are verging on rude and aggressive. Have a nice day.
‘Chip on her shoulder?’ That’s quite a dog whistle there. As WOC we go from pet to threat with white allies so quickly. All over a little joke about how things have been historically? Sheesh. The Karen jumped out.
@Amanda the original post set the tone. if you want to keep nitpicking, the original poster also told me I got up on the wrong side of the bed, yet according to you her comments can’t be called out or you will call everyone Karen. This is getting boooring.
@Amanda – no, this is definitely not a dog whistle. Nor was the response a little historical joke. We are not Karens jumping out. This is a legitimate rebuttal to comments that deserved to be disagreed with because they were insulting and completely unfounded.
Wow, so there’s some ignorance on top of the white fragility. Big surprise. She’s right about the expression you used. If you don’t believe us poc telling you that here, you’re free to look it up yourselves.
@Me: Don’t worry about what you said being perceived as rude and aggressive in this case- I promise you the same ones freaking out about it go around saying worse.
I find it weird that they are talking about this. I don’t need to know.
As far as, well, white people and bathing, I think it depends entirely on the person, the day they have had, the weather. I live in Houston where it is very hot and humid for at least half the year. I sometimes shower twice a day, even three if necessary, because I get sweaty just walking from the car to the grocery store. And my kids bathed daily, too, for sure. If they had been swimming in a pool a lot, I would let them skip the soap and just rinse off their skin and hair.
But I also spend time in the Northeast in the summer and fall, and sometimes the winter, and frankly, I just don’t need to shower every day sometimes. Especially now that I’m older, I don’t sweat as much. And if I’m not seeing anyone that day and/or covered with layers of clothing, it doesn’t matter if I smell a tiny bit, no one knows.
I don’t get the thing with the hair though. My hair is pretty dry but if I don’t wash it every few days it gets gross. Doesn’t everyone’s hair get greasy? I hate the way that feels. I know it’s good to let the natural oils come out a bit, but at some point it doesn’t look, feel or smell good.
Ann, my hair is the same. It’s not oily, it’s normal but thick and wavy, and if I go more than 2 days without washing/conditioning it gets stiff, loses its shine and my scalp actually begins to hurt.
I really don’t know why certain folks feel the need to announce to the world that they got a crusty ass. 😷
I’m white af and my butt is in a bath or shower at least once a day if not twice. I wash my hair daily too. Maybe this is a northern thing idk- it’s not par for course at my house.
Half native/half white here – I got cursed with the DRIEST skin. And my skin refuses to be moisturized by most moisturizers. Oils? Hates them. Cerave and Cetaphil? Hates them too. Moisturizers the ashiest Black ladies I know swear by? Hates them! Aveeno Eczema moisturizer and the Vaseline Clinical Care Extremely Dry Skin Rescue are the only lotions that actually make a difference for me, and I’ve tried some of the most insanely expensive lotions out there. So, yay, my skin likes cheap? But I have also learned I can’t shower every day. It makes me sooooo itchy. I shower every other day. Sometimes every 2 days. I don’t sweat much and always use hypoallergenic bathing wipes on the “hot spots” before I go to bed, wear deodorant religiously, etc and shower if I work out or get sweaty. People always say I smell nice, so I’m one of the “lucky ones” I guess. Honestly, I’d much rather shower more often than have skin this dry. I live in fear of being away from lotion. LOL. I can’t imagine never showering with any kind of soap though. That grosses me out. :/
Shepard and Bell LITERALLY sell soap in their Hello Bello brand. LITERALLY.
lol, this is Paltrow level: say one thing, do the other.
Again, this was captured best by “Happy Endings,” a show that left us way too soon. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D7CRxAeMxvs
That’s effin’ brilliant!
I miss that show!!!
Shepard doesn’t want to shower to be more natural but injects himself with “testosterone” to give himself a different body. These people are the freaking worst.
It kind of sounds like they still shower and bathe, but they don’t use soap everywhere.
I need to shower to get my energy levels up and moving, so I’ve wondered how people who don’t shower don’t get sleepy.
If showering is not necessary for them, I would assume they’re not working. I feel like when you’re working, and/or meeting with other people you’re more inclined to want a routine related to showering.
I assumed newborns had to be cleaned because of the pooping. So you’re getting water on to them….somehow. Maybe not through bathing, but there’s no way you could just let the kid run free. Mila must be exaggerating there. If it’s not through bathing, she’s cleaning those kids through some other method.
I enjoy getting into bed clean and refreshed too much to not bathe or shower. It feels so nice! A perfect ending to any day. That’s how I was raised and did the same with our kids. I would never put my kids to bed dirty. Our mom quit us all on soap years ago except for extra dirty places, feet & pits as needed.
I usually wear clothing,. Long sleeve pants and socks protect my skin from dirt.
My kids are 3 and 6 and they get a bath once a week, unless they get visibly dirty. Kids are different than adults and don’t smell and don’t get oily hair. They wash their hands mutiple times a day with soap and water, and I wipe their faces with a washcloth when they get food on them. An upside to this is that my kids don’t ever get dry skin or eczema, and their pediatrician told me that not bathing them often is actually protective against those skin issues.
I think Mila cleans herself like I do.
I shower every morning, and I wash my armpits and my privates. I don’t use soap anywhere else on my body unless I’m dirty or full of sunblock /pool water. I wash my face every night, sometimes in the morning too. I wash my hair 2-3 times a week with shampoo and conditioner.
I don’t know how she would wash those parts otherwise, it sounds like a messy procedure.
I try to use very little soap when I bathe my daughter too, because too soapy water is very bad for the private parts. She takes a bath or shower 2 -3 times a week. The people I know who cleans themselves, their kids, and their home like maniacs all have asthma, allergies, and skin problems. It’s funny how it never fails to be so.
I understand what they’re saying to an extent. Where I live in Eastern Canada it can fluctuate from -30C in the Winter to +30C in the Summer. We tend not to bathe our 2 and 4-year-old every night in the Winter because it dries their skin out so badly and they aren’t getting sweaty and dirty. However, in the summertime, we bathe them pretty much every night to get the sunscreen, sweat, dirt, sand, and whatever else off of them. My husband showers every day but he also works outdoors. I shower every other day unless needed (working out, sweaty etc) because I have dry, sensitive skin. We do use soap everywhere but it’s a very gentle, natural soap.
My kids got a bath 3x a week, as I recall. Maybe 4. But not every day. I’m the same right now. I shower 4x a week and washcloth the rest of the time. After I heal from my surgery, it’s back to 6-7 days a week because I’ll be back in the gym and doing a lot of walking.
Have these yokels never heard of Dr. Bronner’s, Dove Body Wash (heaven) or other non oil stripping “soap”? Sheesh.
My Mexican mother checks my toddlers ears every single time she sees her to make sure I am bathing her properly. 😀 I could not get away with this white nonsense.
I’m Mexican and don’t shower everyday, convinced my mom to do the same. Don’t generalize. Overcleaning is worse!
Nuh uh, that’s gross. We got a bath every other day as little kids with a head to toe wipedown morning and night on the off days. When my sibling and I hit our preteens, we started showers every day. We were white trash but we were clean white trash-these people are just grody.
In the age of germs… we need to focus more on personal hygiene.
Also, my child star friend said child stars tend to not bath or even brush their teeth. That can be done in the chair.
So are they washing their hands? I was raised to bathe every day and to this day I continue to do so. I prefer an organic body wash to bar soap because of the high content of glycerine in soap. I find a warm bath or shower followed by a lathering of body cream therapeutic. I receive many compliments concerning my skin; it’s smooth, blemish, and wrinkle-free. To each their own.
People just out here being funky as hell.
I had eczema my entire prepubescent- early adulthood and I still went under that hot water everyday, bad skin condition be damned. This whole oh I have extremely dry skin thing is really out of pocket when you have lotion out the wahoo for every skin type imaginable. I see nothing but white folk on the lotion commercials so I know y’all use it.
I just hope that people can now kill the narrative that Black, Indian and Hispanic people don’t wash. We are some of the cleanest people that you will ever meet.
Folk want to know why we got corona, this is why. I can tell you all about how my roommates would get up from their beds with their boyfriends ever having sex not wash or brush teeth and hop off too class with just a little bit of spray. Rich, white girls. T
I would love to get into this, Vita. I will tell you what makes a healthy v smell, it’s semen. And that’s when you smell like fish. Men blamed it on us! just like white people claimed black people smell to cover up their own dirty behinds. You see? Anyway, I would love to know what all these women who are sexually active (and their birth control isn’t condoms) are doing about that. Splashing some water around? And getting out of bed afterwards and just going about your business? omg. Good luck with that! You stink. You may not smell it, but it’s because you’re used to it. I will stick with my own routine, I have no infections, no rashes, I’m fine, thank you!
Vita, we didn’t get corona from getting out of bed without washing. It’s an airborne disease caused by a virus that’s spread through coughing and sneezing, hence the wearing of masks. Furthermore, anyone who gets out of bed after sex and not washing or brushing teeth, white or black, is going to smell funky. Quit bringing your hatred of “rich white girls” to this discussion.
Not sure I quite understand why so many commenters are turning this into a racial thing. We’re talking about the personal habits of literally three celebrities here.
It’s because a lot of stuff has gone viral on Twitter and it’s always white people. I remember a big leg washing thing that went really viral last year.
People just out here being funky as hell.
I had eczema my entire prepubescent- early adulthood and I still went under that hot water everyday, bad skin condition be damned. This whole oh I have extremely dry skin thing is really out of pocket when you have lotion out the wahoo for every skin type imaginable. I see nothing but white folk on the lotion commercials so I know y’all use it.
I just hope that people can now kill the narrative that Black, Indian and Hispanic people don’t wash. We are some of the cleanest people that you will ever meet.
Folk want to know why we got corona, this is why. I can tell you all about how my roommates would get up from their beds with their boyfriends ever having sex not wash or brush teeth and hop off to class with just a little bit of spray. Rich, white girls. But then talk about how my Indian friend probable smellled goat or curry. I had to cuss them out because it was not true and they had some nerve.
I’m Mexican and don’t shower every day, if I don’t sweat, why shower, the skin bacteria and flora is actually good, it’s science and there’s peer reviewed papers on this. Plus, covid is airborn, and the cleaning of surfaces has been proven doesn’t really effect much. Your comment is so ignorant. I always smell good and get compliments on being fashionable and out together, I’m not some slob. I do brush my teeth daily and cleanse my face.
I feel like only wealthy (possibly white) people can get away with admitting this and seem normal. If anyone else of any other class status admitted this, then I’m not sure what the perception would be.
I have many friends who have had kids and the medical advice was not to bathe them frequently as new borns and toddlers (this is ok Australia sun the U.K.). If I’m not in a big city I only wash my hair once a fortnight or maybe once a week, and I’m sparing with soap on my body.
I lived out of big cities for a year and used jojoba oil occasionally. My skin was really good. Now I’m back in a city I’ve just had a facial and I have to cleanse properly every night. But it’s good to give your skin a break, IMHO, if possible. And yes, I’ve had acne, and breakouts and all sorts of things happen to my skin in the past. But if I can get away with it, in a non polluted environment, I’ll leave my skin and hair for a few days at least!
I remember my mom having me shower every other night when I was a kid (pre-puberty). I think it was a matter of convenience for her, plus showering at night made more sense so she didn’t have to rush me in and out of the shower before school each morning. Plus I wasn’t a messy, dirty kid so maybe every other night was enough at the time.
And I do see the value in not washing your arms and legs and torso unless they’ve been sweaty/dirty all day. (reminds me of the joke in It’s always sunny about Dee not washing her legs, but just letting the soap run down them to clean them)
Pits and Bits are all that need to be washed daily IMO unless you have a specific body chemistry that makes you feel you need to wash more frequently. To each their own, our bodies are all different.
Lucky you guys. Whre I live it is so hot and humid we sweat all over. Still, some teens will wear sweatshirts in May! Ewww
Mila Kunis immigrated to the USA at the age of 7. What kind of bullshit is she trying to pull with this “having no hot water growing up” tale. She also became a child actor in Hollywood as a kid and she certainly was showering regularly for that.
My heart breaks for their children. They’ll have to put up with these airheads for their entire lives.
I also think it’s hilarious that the same people claiming it’s perfectly fine for their own kids to bathe once a week, are going to be the same Karens freaking out at the elementary school when their kids are horribly bullied and taunted for being smelly, stinky, and dirty. Being smelly and gross is probably the number one thing children get bullied for. Believe me Karen, if your kids shower once a week, we can ALL smell them, and most people will attempt to be kind about it, but lots of kids won’t.
This lifestyle is actually based strongly in science. Soap in manufactured using fat and lye. Lye is an extremely alkaline product and needs to be to break the fats down to create what we know as soap. Our skin on the other hand has a natural acid mantle which protects us from many external pathogens and keeps our natural flora in perfect balance. All humans are covered and contain more bacterial cells than human ones. The ratio of non-human to human cells on any one of us is incredible. This includes healthy colonies of staph up our noses. These bacteria actually serve incredibly useful functions on our skin, like the birds picking insects of elephants and other large animals. It is only when the bacteria become displaced through an abraision in our skin that we develop an infection that we may need antibiotics for. Our bodies have thrived for millenia without the need for soaps. In addition the antibacterial soaps that are so commonly popular are partly responsible for antimicrobial resistance and the development of deadly superbugs. It is a con by the beauty indusstry that we need antibacterial soap to cleanse unseen microorganisms from us twice a day and every time we wash our hands in between. Water is better. If you study the science of handwashing you will see that the majority of the germ removing comes from the friction which is created by correct handwashing technique. Sure if you are a healthcare worker its a good idea to be using chlorhexidine wash as you are in en environment where you have the potential to infect immune suppressed individuals. However everyday showers do not require soap. It is actually deleterious to the functionality of our delicate and complex microbiome. Check out the science. The joke is on us as we are being conned by mutli billion dollar industries. “Natural” or not. Btw traditional soap is also natural – being animal fat and lye. In Australia antibacterial soaps etc are being gradually phased out as people start to recognise the long term negative impacts of splashing antimicrobial agents around unnecessarily.
As I said above, Dax Shepard (with Kristen Bell) has a company called Hello Bello in which they LITERALLY sell soap (they brand it as “wash”) for baths and showers. So which are we to believe? Is he against soap or does he wants us to buy his soap? He’s part of this beauty complex of which you speak. And he’s happy to take anyone’s money.
Agreed! I read this book called Clean by James Hamblin and it covers a lot of what you said, I only use fragrance free “soap” that barely lathers and very sparingly, also I don’t shower every day 🙊 I always get told I smell really good, btw 😇
The injustice of it all has me shaking my head. Here is a gazillionaire couple with their fugly ass barn house chic estate (seared in my memory after that spread in AD) choosing not to shower like it’s nbd. Meanwhile many working class folks and undocumented workers need to shower daily and can barely afford a place and hot water.
Some of y’all are reaching, less showering is better for the environment so if more people did this it’d be better. And I’m a Mexican immigrant btw.
Good for you, but that’s just your own lived experience. Please don’t be dismissive towards other people like me, who have a different lived experience. I’m a Lebanese immigrant and I’ve worked in settlement services, specifically with Iraqi and Syrian refugees. Affordable housing and water is a huge struggle. Also, my first job was undocumented in a restaurant, so I needed daily showers to remove the smell of onions etc… These types of jobs are hard on the body and require showering, so please think of the privilege in what you’re saying.
I shower about 4-5 times per seek and wash my dry hair once per week. To be specific I use Dr Bonner soap and usually only on underarms and nethers. We have a hot water bidet attached to our toliet 🙂 and I’m a nutter about my face and teeth. I want to point out that what you put into your body dietary wise drastically changes your sweat and smell. Eliminate sugar/alcohol/processed food and you will just smell different.
Most kids are overwashed in chemicals. Teach kids to wash their hands and teeth then worry when their sweat galnds activate.
I bet they have a pool so the kids get cleaned with chlorine instead of soap.
They practice The Airplane Shower. The wings and the engine Hahahaha.
dying
There are SO MANY commenters on here whitesplaining hygiene to people. This couple even chatting about this screams privilege. Leave it to rich white people to blah on about this like it’s a good thing. And all you so called allies or progressives in the comments REALLY let that inner Karen jump out with this topic. Wowwwww.
We see you and we don’t forget.
+1000. Some of the same ones who conveniently piggyback off of real concerns we may have when they see red carpet rivals jump right off those bandwagons when their own microaggressions are observed.
As a child of a pediatric nurse & midwife, I bathed every day, with soap, and applied lotion after. I had eczema and swam five days a week in the summer-I didn’t always want to shower as a kid but my mom made me. Period. Rich people say this shit and people make excuses for it-if other people did it people wouldn’t be this kind and we all know this.
I’m sorry but I gagged while reading this. How do these people smell? and not showering after a workout, nope. and there are a lot of natural non drying products out there and they got money to buy the best ones. why
I just thought that it was lucky that they found each other. Because they would each gross a lot of people out.
I hope they are at least teaching their children about hygiene. Children don’t know to shower or not to shower unless they are taught. I was rarely bathed as a child, but it was due to negligence/abuse by my parents. Because of this, i knew nothing about hygiene and was actually bullied in middle school for looking dirty. I also always had cavities because i waa never taught how to brush. I literally had no concept of hygiene because no one took the time to take care of me or teach me.
separate but related point re comments above about toxic soaps and shampoos — toothpaste can be a problem too. I had chronic rashes around my mouth, burning eyes, sore throat and stomach ache, all mild enough I just ignored them, and never considered they might be connected until a dermatologist suggested I might be allergic to toothpaste. And I was using Tom’s. Take a look at all of the ingredients in toothpaste and some are pretty toxic. I switched to brushing w just water or baking soda w coconut oil plus flossing etc. and the symptoms all went away, plus my dentist says my teeth actually look better than ever…
Why is this a racial thing suddenly? I live with a Malaysian girl and an Indonesian girl and neither of them washes their hands after the toilet nor do they shower every day. Am I thrilled with this? No. But does this have anything to do them being from Southeast Asia? I doubt it. It’s just them being uneducated weirdos. I shower every day, in the summer heat twice a day, and I’m white. I wash my hair every other day. My black friend washes her hair once a month. Different strokes for different folks, what’s with the racial profiling of hygiene, Jesus…
I think other groups have been stereotyped a certain way in terms of hygiene and cleanliness (not just ethnic groups, but people of a certain social class as well).
So when rich, privileged people like Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher admit to something like this, I can see how people might go “I knew it!” and feel perhaps a certain vindication. I do think they’re able to admit to this BECAUSE they’re rich. If I admitted this at work, I’m pretty sure I’d be shunned at work.
I shower 3 times a day. I live in the Middle East, and sometimes it is more. I’ve worked fro home for the past 18 months. No difference if I work out or not I like to be clean.
Barring a skin condition there is no excuse. Mila and Ashton are just nasty. Thanks goodness for my Caribbean mother teaching me about cleanliness and good personal hygiene.
Very white (Irish/Scottish) lady here, I shower daily, often twice daily. It would seriously impact my mental health if that was not an option to shower at least once a day.
I think some folks are lazy and nasty, and don’t want to own it.
I’m with you in that my mental health would be affected if I didn’t shower once or twice a day. But I live in Texas, and believe me, if you are active at all, it’s a necessity. I work in my garden daily, but even going to the grocery works up a sweat. You know I live somewhere hot when I say that one of my favorite things this summer has been discovering a new deodorant that is great! 😂
The ableism in these comments is astounding.
I recently read an article about how the covid-19 pandemic has affected people’s bathing habits. Due to unemployment or working at home, Americans have decreased their bathing time and apparently, it’s also a world wide thing too. They have estimated that millions of gallons of water have been saved by this interesting phenomenon. I’m not doing the daily shower thing anymore either. I’m just doing what my grandmother called the”Airplane Bath” which is basically the wings and tail. But,at bedtime I’m going to make sure that my face and feet are clean. Apparently, the experts are saying that the daily shower or bath with soap does wash too much of your body’s natural oils and leaves your skin dried out. They have figured out how this daily shower habit first became a thing, since the generations before us didn’t usually have a routine daily shower. I guess that we can blame Farrah Fawcett’s blowback and the invention of the blow-dryer which started the early morning shower and then styling to achieve her look. Of course, if someone has a gritty/dirty job and needs a daily scrub, then it goes without saying. I guess that it’s also been a boost in dry shampoo sales that’s keeping us with some what clean hair. Who knows what the future will bring in bathing habits? I kinda like taking a break from the daily shower and just hitting the hot spots, what they used to call a “whores bath”. No offense to anyone who’s a sex worker; that’s just what I grew up hearing from people here in the South. I think that saving water is a good thing and if you don’t need a bath, wait until the next day or two. 😏
This is just weird. The human body produces so much oozy crap and the world is nasty, especially out in public. I can’t even wear flip flops or sandals in public because I’m grossed out by what might be touching my feet. I shower AT LEAST once a day and if my only shower is in the morning, I wash my feet and face before I get anywhere near my bed. I can’t wrap my head around a person who is okay with being dirty.