What happens if you stop washing forever?

To maintain good health, every person is recommended to take a shower in the morning and evening. Cool water in the morning helps to cheer up, and warm in the evening – washes away the dirt accumulated during the day and relaxes the body.

But it is not always possible to follow this advice, because after waking up there is not enough time for water procedures, and in the evening many people get too tired. The question arises – what will happen if you stop washing forever?

It is logical to assume that after a couple of days a person will start to smell bad, and if tightened, various diseases may begin to develop. But not everything is so clear! There is a tribe in the world that never bathes and is literally covered with a layer of dirt.

And in 2016, it became known about a 37-year-old doctor who tried to give up regular washing and found that it only became easier for him to live.

Why should you bathe regularly?

Immediately, I note that you should always wash your hands. The fact is that with the help of them we touch food and various parts of our body.

After being outside and throughout the day in general, dangerous bacteria and viruses accumulate on the palms, which can provoke the development of dangerous diseases. Dysentery, typhoid fever, rotavirus infection and much more are transmitted through dirty hands, so washing them should never be neglected!

Hands should always be washed, without any exceptions

What happens if you don’t wash?

It is recommended to take a shower twice a day, you can relax in the bathroom a little less often. As for the baths and saunas, it’s worth going there about once a week.

It is believed that with poor hygiene, the skin, hair and the whole body as a whole begin to suffer. After all, during each day the skin is covered with sweat, dirt and a variety of bacteria.

Even though some microbes are essential to our health, they need to be flushed from your body regularly. Indeed, among them there may be pathogens.

Poor hygiene can cause skin problems

Here are a few problems you might run into when you stop washing:

• increased occurrence of acne, irritation and other skin problems;
• increased risk of developing skin infections;
• clogging of the pores of the skin, due to which it will stop breathing;
• the occurrence of an unpleasant odor from the body and hair.

You probably already know all this very well and try to wash regularly. But there are people in the world who have made the decision not to wash themselves.

The people who never wash

In South Africa, there is the Kalahari desert, in which lives a disappearing tribe – the Bergdams. The representatives of this people are also known as “black people” because their skin is covered with a layer of dirt.

It is not known why, but the fear of water has taken root among this people, but it is impossible to call them complete filthy. The fact is that they thoroughly clean their teeth with pieces of skin and sticks, which is a kind of alternative to our toothbrushes.

But even in spite of this, their snow-white smile does not last long, because they eat rough food like plant roots. When their teeth wear down, the medicine man simply knocks them out with a stick.

A young representative of the Bergdama tribe

Not only do these people not wash, but their rituals are somehow connected with dirt. When a child is born in a tribe, the father fries a piece of meat on a fire and coats his body with the secreted fat.

The resulting dirt rolls off the body and is placed in a bag – a kind of amulet for the baby is obtained. The father puts the amulet around the child’s neck and, at the same time, spits on his chest. Saliva is rubbed over the body of the child at the time when his name is announced.

The representatives of the Bergdama tribe have strange, by the standards of modern people, rituals

It is not difficult to guess that due to poor hygiene, the health of the Bergdams is not the best. When a person feels unwell, he turns to a healer for help.

He contacts the local sun god Kamabu – he answers whether a person’s illness is fatal, or is it just a test. In the first case, a person simply dies alone, and in the second, the healer tries to teach him. So this people do not have such medicine, so the healer does what he can.

Wash Refusal Experiment

In 2016, 37-year-old professor of preventive medicine James Hamblin published an article titled “I Stopped Washing and Life Moved On.”

In his work, he noted that every person spends a huge amount of time to take a shower and wash in the bathroom. His opinion, perhaps people are wasting their time and money (you have to pay for water) in vain.

Professor James Hamblin

In 2020, he continued his reflections in the book Cleanliness: The New Science of Skin and How It’s Great to Do as Little as Possible. James Hamblin stopped washing in 2015 as an experiment to see what would happen.

At first, he just started using less soap and shampoo, then decided to wash every three days. After that, he tried to completely stopped to wash.

James Hamblin stopped washing gradually as an experiment

The man noticed that at first he really felt discomfort and stank from him. But then he realized that over time he began to feel better and the stench disappeared.

The professor explained this phenomenon by the fact that daily washing destroys entire ecosystems of bacteria that live on the human body.

When the skin is cleansed, there is a place for new bacteria, the abundance of which is precisely the source of the unpleasant odor.

If you do not wash, the ecosystems begin to regulate themselves, and the discomfort with the stench disappears. So, at least, thinks James Hamblin.

Both good and bad bacteria live on the human body.

At the same time, James Hamblin occasionally takes a shower when he really feels dirty. It is especially important for him to take a shower after sports – he does not deny the need for this.

But he is sure that people are too busy washing because they want to look healthy. At the same time, they forget that the condition of the skin largely depends on the internal health of the body.

That is, if you exercise regularly and eat right, acne and other problems can be avoided even without a regular shower or bath.

According to James Hamblin, people are too busy washing

Professor James Hamblin is confident in the correctness of his choice to wash less often. But in no way does he encourage other people to do the same. We are all different and what works for one may not work for another.

What do you think about the point of view of James Hamblin – is there some truth in his words, or is it just another freak? Share your opinion in the comment section and here.