DO YOU WASH TOO MUCH?

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 200, 8 May 1902, Page 4

DO YOU WASH TOO MUCH?

It is people tfiivV fiioy "are 'above- alT.'oihcrs a washing nation. Ail kinds or theories have been raised to account for this national tendency to ablution, and most diverse qualities have been attributed to its possession. The familiarity of islanders with water is solemly urged as the foundation of the English proneness to washing; and the fresh complexions and smooth skins of young English boys and girls are held to replace the more dusky and hirsute countenances of the Latin races because of their closer and more frequent acquaintance With the articles of the wash-stand. If, says the " Lancet," we do not attempt thus to explain the presence of a widespread habit, it is nevertheless our concern that such habits should be for the general welfare and should not be carried to injurious excess. It is not generally recognised that some people wash too much. The skin is not well adapted to frequent applications of water accompanied by even. the least irritating of soaps. There is no doubt that many cases ol roughness of the skin of the face come from the frequent applications of water. It is a good thing to rub the face with a soft, clean, dry towl two or three times a day. If in addition, water is used in the morning and at night the skin will be kept in a sounder, smoother, and healthier state than if, as is often the case, soap and • water are used three or four times a day. Men are not often offenders in this respect, but women and childern, whose skins are the most easily affected by superfluous ablutions, are ' the very persons in whom such excess is too common. They should be taught that there are dry methods of 1 cleanliness as well as wet ones.