Showering without using soap can have dangerous consequences to your health

You can do a lot of things wrong in the shower: Either you shower too long or too often, or perhaps simply at the wrong time of day. But what happens if we skip the shower gel?

The skin still gets clean

We can reassure anyone who is afraid of not getting properly clean after washing without shower gel. Dermatologist Dr. Yael Adler told SWR3:

You can absolutely only shower with water, it removes everything that needs to be removed, from dust to sweat and flakes of skin. Even urine is water-soluble.

According to Utopia, it may be advisable to only clean certain areas with shower gel. These include parts of the body where you sometimes sweat a lot, such as the feet, armpits or certain areas of the back.

Read more:Beware! Public swimming pools are dirtier than you think

Benefits for the body

Not using shower gel can also have benefits for the skin. According to Münchner Merkur, this means that the 'natural skin barrier remains intact'. This means you don't have to reapply cream after showering.

If you absolutely don't want to do without shower gels, you should make sure that the pH value of the shower gel is similar to that of your skin. As Stiftung Warentest reports, 'this is around 5'.

Read more:Tired in the morning? It could be your shower habits

This article has been translated from Gentside DE.

Sources used:

SWR3: Muss man unbedingt mit Seife duschen, um richtig sauber zu werden?

Utopia: Ohne Seife duschen: Was passiert, wenn man sich nur mit Wasser wäscht?

Münchner Merkur: „Sogar Urin ist wasserlöslich“: Hautärztin erklärt, warum Sie nur mit Wasser duschen können – ohne Seife

Stiftung Warentest: ph-Wert: Was ist das?