HYGIENE 101: Dermatologist Tips & Hacks

hi everyone it's Dr Aussie your favorite board certified dermatologist here today I want to get into hygiene hacks I'm talking everything from the order which you cleanse in the shower lofas Beauty blenders and so much more I'm so excited to enhance your life with these hygiene hacks so let's get into it let's start with shower etiquet and the Order of cleansing yes that is important a lot of you may may not realize or may not really think about it but our germs will run down our bodies when we shower so it's really important that you start at the top and work your way down when you are cleansing a very common mistake that people make is not washing their feet and cleansing in between their toes at the end of their shower and we see a lot of gram negative bacteria that tend to Harbor in between the toes as well as fungus so it may be something that you you're skipping not realizing that a lot of things are making their way down there so you'll want to wait until the end of your shower and take some soap and cleanse the feet really well but like I said let's start at the top so we're going to start with shampooing and conditioning you really only need to shampoo your scalp the hair will get the shampoo and get the cleansing it needs but in order to avoid over stripping the hair and really focusing on the scalp which is where the shampoo really needs to go make sure that you put this shampoo in the skin of your scalp and then your conditioner at the ends of your hair that will give you smoother more hydrated hair and a cleaner scalp now if you use medicated shampoos like Nero which is really trending you can use it for dandruff it's also been shown to help with hair regrowth especially for male pattern baldness or female pattern hair loss you really want to use it on the skin of the scalp and put your favorite shampoo on the hair because a lot of times nerl as great of a medicated shampoo as it is it can actually strip your hair color if you do get color or highlights it can also change gray or white hair to this kind of orange yellow um tint and it can affect the texture of your hair so it can cause color change and texture so put your regular shampoo on the hair and then put the medicated shampoo on the scalp and then the conditioner needs to go with the um ends now common question I get from patients is how often should I actually wash my hair well that really depends on how oily is your scalp how dirty are you getting I mean some people are doing you know hourong 2hour long workouts really intense every day and they've got you know lots of oil and debris that get trapped there other people can go you know a whole week without washing their hair it also depends on how long your hair is and and if you're going to use heat to fix your hair afterwards and the more you wash it the more you have to use heating tools and that can take a toll on your hair so you have to find the right balance for you if you find that after a day or two your hair gets really greasy and dirty and you're producing a lot of oil and workouts you know in the midst of all that then you it's fine to wash your hair every day or at least wash your scalp now you can put conditioner on your hair and not necessarily get a lot of the shampoo on your actual hair if you're worried about drying it out but one thing I do not recommend is this hair training Trend I've been seeing all over Tik Tok where people are trying to train their hair not to wash it for weeks and weeks and weeks that is a definite no for me if you wash your hair every day it's not going to make it fall out faster or fall out more what you might notice is you might lose more hair in the shower if you're only washing it once a week because a lot of hair naturally Falls when taking a shower but we can lose up to 100 150 hairs a day so don't think that that's really going to damage the folicles and whatnot it really depends on your lifestyle and how much oil your scalp produces for people who have dandruff I usually recommend you wash every other day because generally getting the oil and the yeast build up off the scalp is really helpful in controlling dandruff now working our way down don't forget to wash behind your ears we have this little crevice right behind the ear that just doesn't get the same cleansing love as Elsewhere on the body and it does tend to trap dead skin cells and oil and bacteria so be sure you're cleansing there and a lot of people don't cleanse their face long enough I say usually wait at least 30 seconds when you're cleansing if you're trying to get sunscreen and makeup off now if it's just the morning time you don't necessarily even need a cleanser you just need to you know use some water on your face but a good deep cleansing at the end of the day is so important especially if you live in a very busy City where there might be a lot of pollution or you're wearing tons of makeup or sunscreen it's really important you get all that off because healthy skin is Clean Skin to learn more you can check out my other video on cleansing 101 now if you're using that looks like this it is time to get rid of that even the new ones they do tend to Harbor a lot of bacteria in these little crevices look how much body surface area this loofah carries for bacteria yeast to grab onto and a lot of people don't realize that maybe your back acne or your body breakouts might be from the lofas in your shower so be sure if you do use them that you are changing them out very frequently you're submersing them in bleach or white vinegar whatever that might be you are really making sure that they stay clean I personally prefer washcloths or using your hand because at least with washcloths you're washing them more often but lofas can really trap and harbor a lot of bacteria and and yeast and then you know that scraping the surface of the skin with them can introduce them into your skin now if you don't have a problem with it by all means keep using it you don't have to change thing but if you do suffer from body breakouts and you do use aofa you might consider switching to a washcloth and see if that doesn't help next up feminine washes douches wipes I see so many of these products on the market and people feel like they have to cleanse with these Special you know detergents made for that area but that cannot be further from the truth the intimate area the feminine area really has the art down in terms of keeping the good bacteria and getting rid of the bad bacteria it is pretty high functioning so if you're going in there with a douche and you're really getting in there with a lot of soap and water and cleansing and wiping with those feminine care products well let me tell you you will disrupt that microclimate and end up with a yeast infection or bacterial vaginosis you really want to leave that area alone it doesn't need a lot of you know cleansing care from you it is pretty high functioning and same with males if you find that you know you're getting irritation redness itchiness you might be over cleansing a lot of people don't realize you don't really need to go that deep with the cleansing down there definitely avoid the douches because those actually um go inside the vaginal canal and really screw things up in there so avoid that at all costs speaking of the order of cleansing let's talk about some of the hygiene products and when is the best time to use each one starting with deodorants or antiperspirants I should say that work the best when you use them at night because your sweat glands are least active at night you're not sweating and your body temperature drops and that is really the best time to use your antiperspirant because it does a better job of plugging up your sweat gland so that you are not as sweaty the next day now if you want you can always reapply it in the morning but antiperspirants in general work better overnight if you're using antiperspirants and despite that you tend to sweat excessively there are great treatments for you there are prescription topicals you can apply in addition to your deodrant you can also use a little powder like areas that you sweat a lot like zeasorb is a great one and that helps absorb all that moisture and sweat that tend to accumulate there and if you still struggle there is a medication oral pill called glycopyrolate that helps stop the sweating so if you're one of those people that tends to sweat like you know head to toe uh or just just specific areas you tend to excessively sweat then ask your dermatologist about that medication we can also do Botox injections and there is a device called Mirror dry that is a more permanent solution to excessive sweating but it they only have it for the armpits so that area tends to do really well with that treatment and then brushing your teeth before you start your skincare routine or before you cleanse your face that is another important order because when you brush your teeth you may have bacteria or residue that get on the surface of the skin and fluoride can cause a lot of different conditions like perioral dermatitis or fluide dermatitis where you get bumps around the mouth that are red and can be a little bit scaly so you always want to brush your teeth first and then cleanse your face and start your skincare routine let's talk about beauty blenders and makeup brushes because they can be a culprit for a lot of breakouts on the face for yeast foliculitis they tend to Harbor you know bacteria and yeast and germs especially if you're using them repeatedly and and you're using oilbased products they're sitting in your bathroom which generally can be a pretty humid you know moisture thriving environment which is great for yeast so with beauty blenders you really want to wash them after every use or you can use dishwashing liquid along with a few drops of oil which helps lift up the makeup and you can put it in a microwave safe dish in some hot water and let it you know be in the microwave 15 20 seconds and it does a really nice job a lot of people also throw them in with their washing machines and dryers and so forth or just use your regular cleanser when you cleanse your face also cleanse the beauty blender but they should be washed quite frequently now makeup brushes it really depends how often you're using it if you don't wear a lot of makeup and use them that often you can get by every 2 to 4 weeks but if you're using them on a daily basis it might be good to wash them once a week again they can hard a lot of germs that then get transferred onto your skin and if you have a little bit of a disruption in Your Skin Barrier then it's the perfect opportunity for them to enter also if you're one of those people that washes their beauty blender and then sticks it in a drawer in their bathroom please stop because that environment is moist and damp and dark and guess what likes to grow in Beauty blenders yeast yes so you definitely want to store them in and something like this and put them outside ideally maybe you know outside your window or somewhere where the sun can hit it and dry it more quickly but you definitely don't want to store them in a dark damp environment when they're wet so make sure you don't do that and same with your makeup brushes and then let's talk about pillow cases and sheets really those should be washed every week your pillowcases maybe even every other day it just depends on you know know how dirty they get but you really want to make sure that you are cleansing them regularly and then oh this is very important for summer is hats a lot of people wear these caps and hats all through summer and never wash them and I see so many breakouts on the forehead and size of the face from wearing hats and not washing them so even if it's just soaking them in a little white vinegar or you know bleach or whatever might be detergent make sure that you are washing and cleansing your hats because you get sweat and you know oil and sunscreen and all this you know dead skin collecting on it and it's just a bad idea so make sure you're cleansing your hats as I mentioned I was going to share my favorite natural hack for skin hygiene whether it's your fighting off a yeast infection or bacterial infection dermatologists love distilled white vinegar it's natural we use very dilute amounts to help with nail fungus you know feet fungus or fungal acne cuz it does such a nice job at targeting uh yeast and fungus as well as bacteria for places like the face where it might be more sensitive I usually recommend that you dilute it 1 to 32 so one shot glass of white vinegar to 4 cups of water if you're using it mostly for the feet or the nails you can do one shot glass to two cups of water but dilute white vinegar works for a lot of different skin conditions in fact when we do laser resurfacing where the skin is open we use a lot of dilute white vinegar to help prevent bacterial and fungal infections so that is a dermatologist little trick that I promis to share with you guys all right guys that's it those are all my hygiene hacks I hope that they're going to be as life-changing for you as they have been for me thanks again for tuning in don't forget to rate review And subscribe and share this with a friend because sharing is caring until next time bye guys [Music]