The idea that our bodies are inherently dirty and we need speciality products to get them clean is simply not true, says English anatomy professor Michelle Spear. Photo: KoolShooters
Although certain celebrities might suggest otherwise, soap and water are all you need to use for a clean body, says English anatomy professor Michelle Spear.
"We're being told that the body is somehow inherently dirty or inherently smelly and the only way that you control this is with [body hygiene] products - and that just simply isn't the case," she tells RNZ's Saturday Morning.
Helping people make informed choices about which products their bodies actually need to be clean is Spears' mission.
"I don't want people to feel pressurised and somehow feel that they're dirty if they're not doing that."
On the whole, the human body is really, really good at keeping itself clean with just a little help from soap and water each day, she says.
"Daily washing is really enough and you certainly don't need additional products over and above that."
This includes vaginas which Spears says are "really great" on their own and need just a daily wash of the outside skin to be clean - not a special deodorant.
Part of the vagina's "wonderful" self-cleaning mechanism, and a completely normal thing, is the production of discharge as cells from its lining are flushed out.
This moist mucus membrane lining - the same substance which lines the insides of our mouths - has a very delicate pH balance that is easily disturbed by scented products, Spears says.
"That risks inviting irritation and other forms of infection as well.
The undersides of our feet are one area that we can easily forget to scrub in the shower. Photo: Kaboompics.com
In the shower, the undersides of your feet are one area that can be easily forgotten but do need their own dedicated little scrub, Spears says.
But don't worry when later in the day they just get all sweaty again - that's natural and even healthy.
Sweat from around 250,000 sweat glands in our feet actually helps keep the skin supple.
"If it's not [supple] we risk it drying out and cracking - that can become very painful and sore... Those fissures, that's potentially where bacteria and fungi can get in and that can lead to other conditions."
The human body has two types of sweat glands - eccrine glands which produce a very watery sweat on most of our body's surface and apocrine glands which produce a thicker sweat in hairy areas such as our groins and armpits.
Neither of these glands produces sweat that itself has an odour, Spears says.
When sweat is smelly what we smell is the compounds that are being secreted as bacteria break down on the skin.
While many young people now mask these smells with scented whole-body deodorant sprays, Spears says these are not necessary or even "hygienic" and can disrupt the skin's pH balance, risking bacterial infections.
The message from marketers that to combat the human body's "inherent dirtiness or smelliness" we need to use these products just isn't true, she argues.
"I don't want people to feel pressurised and somehow feel that they're dirty if they're not doing that."
