hi. Im in dire need of a shower routine. Do you all have any that you try that you recommend I use? Also what is ur shower frequency? Mine is 2 showers per day. Also, how much time do you spend in the shower. I spend an hour.
Hi @SSundar ! My body skin is very reactive/inflammation-prone: if I simply rub my skin with moderate pressure, or rub too hard/long with even the softest microfiber cloth, my skin will flush red and sometimes welt up. (My face also has this problem.) Also, my body skin's quite dry. And I'm a chronic insomniac trying to improve my sleep quality. Those are the main issues that drive my body skincare routine.
When do I shower: at night. I was a morning shower person all my life until last year, when I switched to night showers to combat my insomnia and help me get more sleep. Now I wonder why I didn't do it sooner.
Frequency: usually once a day. If I'm too ill to stand in the shower, I'll towel-bathe (a little soap + a wet microfiber cloth or water wipes to remove the soap) rather than take a shower.
Duration: 5-7 minutes. Longer if I wash my hair that night; duration then depends on what I do to my hair (simple wash + condition, or deep condition, or hair mask).
Water temperature: lukewarm. Sometimes cool. Never cold or hot, though—especially not hot. If my bathroom mirror fogs up during my shower, the water's too hot and my skin's gonna be angrily dehydrated.
Wash with CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser Bar - I do this only on my face, neck, armpits, chest, groin, and anywhere I applied sunscreen that day. I use just my hands to lather up (no washcloth, sponge, etc.). If I didn't wear sunscreen on my arms or legs that day, or I didn't sweat a lot that day, I don't soap up my arms or legs. I just gently wipe them down with my hands and water.
Salicylic acid cleanser on my back + a scrubby towel - I do this nightly unless I can't stand in the shower. (I'm still figuring out the best-for-me way to clean my back on illness days.) It's how I combat back acne. I alternate The INKEY List Salicylic Acid Acne + Blackhead Cleanser 5 oz/ 150 mL (2% BHA) and Paula's Choice CLEAR Pore Normalizing Cleanser (0.5% BHA; I use this one more often). I need to read up on CeraVe's newest BHA cleansers before picking one up to try.
The scrubby towels are usually those inexpensive nylon shower towels you can find at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Ulta, etc. But last year I got a Goshi Exfoliating Shower Towel and I'm in love with it. I use these scrubby towels because I can't reach my whole back otherwise, and I hate shower brushes.
Exfoliate arms and legs once a week - I just use one of my salicylic acid cleansers for this. I try to resist the temptation to use a scrubby towel anywhere except my back. I'm a recovering body over-exfoliator: I'm great at not over-exfoliating my face, but I used to use scrubby gloves (which are less gentle than the towels) daily on almost my entire body, which is one of the reasons my body skin was always very dry. Scrubby gloves are addictive! 😂 I've promised my dermatologist I'll stop scrubbing the heck out of my body.
Shave armpits once in a while - I'm not grossed out by body hair and don't care if people see hair on my pits. I do this only because I find it makes me less stinky. I don't have a set frequency... eh, I shave whenever I notice a lot of hair regrowth. I very rarely shave my legs anymore, so a can of shaving cream lasts a long time for me. I use either of Aveeno's 2 shave creams for this, plus an old Gillette Venus refillable 5-blade razor because I like the way the handle feels in my hand (it's very easy to grip in the shower)—but at some point I'll switch to a men's razor because women's razors and blade refills are stupidly more expensive than men's.
Pumice stone on my feet once each 1 or 2 weeks - I'm super lazy about this, so it's more like once a month. But it's a good way to keep my heels smooth. I do this on hair wash days, when I'll be in the shower long enough to soak my feet in preparation for the pumice stone.
Towel-dry armpits and apply antiperspirant - I use microfiber hair towels for my body—not Aquis towels (those are reserved for my hair; I love those towels), but any towel that has a higher pile texture than an Aquis towel. I really only use towels for my armpits. Then I apply Vanicream Antiperspirant, which seems to be the only antiperspirant that doesn't cause a rash in my pits. (I can hear my dermatologist saying "I told you so" even as I type this.)
Apply moisturizer while skin's still damp - I don't towel-dry the rest of my body. By the time I've taken care of my armpits, the rest of my body's done dripping water but (hopefully) still damp. I apply body lotion ASAP to lock in all that hydration. If any part of my body has dried down, I spritz water on it and then quickly follow with lotion. I usually use an Aveeno lotion, either the Baby Daily Moisture Lotion or the Daily Moisturizing Lotion (they contain the same ingredients, except the Baby version also has skin-soothing allantoin). I also like Eucerin Advanced Repair Lotion and Aveeno Restorative Skin Therapy Oat Body Cream. In the winter, I sometimes have to use a thicker richer cream like Eurcerin Advanced Repair Cream or Aveeno Skin Relief Moisture Repair Cream.
Apply serums occasionally - this is how I use up serums my face doesn't like. My arms and legs benefit from my face's temper tantrums, plus I don't waste products that haven't gone bad. It helps that my body skin is far more tolerant of fragrance and essential oils than my face, so I don't usually have bad body reactions to serums/essences.
I don't do this every night, or even every week. It depends on what product(s) I've got laying around that I won't use on my face anymore. Good candidates are serums with star ingredients like vitamin C, niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, CoQ10, etc. I also use up sheet masks that didn't fare well on my face. Instead of applying the sheet to, say, an arm for 10+ minutes, I'll use the sheet as a cloth to gently apply and press-massage all the serum/essence inside the mask sleeve/pouch.
I do this step after moisturizer because none of those body lotions I mentioned will block active ingredients from penetrating my skin. (Nor will a facial moisturizer block actives from reaching your facial skin, unless you use a petrolatum balm/jelly as a moisturizer.)
That's probably more than you wanted to know about my shower routine. 🤣 I'm nearly 50 and my body skin's spent decades trying to tell me what it needs and hates—and I finally started earnestly listening over the last 2 years. A good routine depends a lot on your particular skin's needs and personal preferences.
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