Staci & Hutch

Do you really need to wash your WHOLE body in the shower?

By now, you’ve probably got your showering routine down pat—lather, rinse, and repeat the next day. But because your clean routine quite literally takes place behind closed doors, you may not realize just how different it can be from other people’s. A 2019 Twitter poll that garnered over 800,000 votes found that roughly 20 percent of people surveyed don’t bother to wash their legs in the shower. Many on that side of the argument explained that they didn’t feel that their legs require any particular attention, since they don’t get particularly sweaty or produce an odor. Many also felt confident that by soaping their upper bodies, they were inadvertently cleaning the legs with the help of gravity. While some of our sweatier body parts get smelly without frequent cleaning, legs are a low-maintenance zone, since they have relatively few sebaceous glands. That said, you should always wash skin that is visibly dirty or sweaty, no matter where it is.