Jonathan Ross says he showers just once a week. Is he a slovenly health hazard - or onto something? i asked people across the UK about their habits, and hygiene specialists gave their verdict
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 What have celebrities said about washing?
00:02 Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, a Hollywood couple,
00:05 they said that they don't wash more than a couple of times a week.
00:08 They'll do a kind of flannel wash of their armpit
00:12 and, you know, their kind of crotch area,
00:15 but they're not really into washing too much.
00:17 Mila Kunis said she didn't grow up with much hot water
00:19 and Ashton Kutcher says he barely washes his kids.
00:21 So, yeah, they're pretty kind of free-spirited about it.
00:24 And Jonathan Ross, he says he really can't be bothered to shower,
00:29 so he does this about once a week, as does his wife.
00:31 (LAUGHS)
00:33 What is your view on showering?
00:34 I'm not like Jonathan Ross. I have to shower more than once a week.
00:38 I just feel so gross having to go to work,
00:41 going to socialise if I haven't had a full-body wash
00:44 under that hot shower head.
00:46 But I definitely, on holiday, can kind of let it go a little bit.
00:52 If I'm on a beach holiday and I'm in the sea
00:54 and I've got salt in my hair and I'm feeling a bit more free-spirited,
00:57 I might let go of it a little bit.
00:58 But when you're commuting every day in a city
01:01 and you're covered in grime, it's quite hard, I think,
01:03 to kind of go that many days.
01:05 Yeah, it's kind of like that festival thing
01:07 where you might leave it a bit longer.
01:08 Exactly. Although I went to Glastonbury this summer
01:10 and I actually really found it a struggle not to have a shower every day.
01:13 So I would queue for like 90 minutes one morning and once at 5am.
01:16 But that's because it was extremely hot
01:18 and then you would swell during this time of night.
01:20 What's the medical view on showering?
01:22 They believe that we do shower too much.
01:24 So there is no health reason, disease prevention reason
01:28 to shower every single day.
01:31 But they say it obviously depends on your situation,
01:34 depends how you feel.
01:36 There is a level of personal hygiene that they recommend achieving,
01:38 which is some kind of wash every day.
01:41 So maybe, you know, you just like rub a flannel on yourself
01:44 or do something like that, if that's what you're going for.
01:46 Showering every single day or twice a day
01:48 can get some of the kind of important nutrients off your skin
01:53 and it can leave you feeling dry.
01:54 And it's probably not the best thing to do necessarily if you don't fancy it.
01:58 But there's no adverse effects to showering every day either.
02:02 But ultimately, if you don't want to shower every day
02:04 and your colleagues and your friends don't mind you smelling
02:07 or you feel like you don't, then go for it.
02:09 Chill out. Don't shower every day.
02:10 [laughs]
02:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]