IN middle school you'll often find people making quite rude comments about peoples hygiene, but why is personal hygiene actually important, and why do some people smell more? --- Domino h.c, 8th grade
The shift from elementary to middle school is quite drastic for many, but personal hygiene is one of many drastic changes that young teens often skim over. A quick disclaimer: this isn’t something to feel ashamed about, as some may not have access to basic hygienic needs like dentistry, effective hair, and skin products, etc, due to financial struggle. Some may struggle with mental health issues that make them unable to take proper care of themselves, and some (like many) may not have been taught much about hygiene beyond the basics, which is detrimental to having a proper hygiene routine—especially in middle school.
According to an article on Snexplores, teens often start to develop a higher level of carboxylic acid, which is what causes natural body odor to be more pungent. So when people tell you “when you get to middle school people start to smell a little more,” it’s not because everyone's an absolute lazy slob—it’s because your body goes through a massive change in hormones. Many young adolescents don’t update their hygiene routine because they’re used to being able to be low-maintenance about it.
Of course, this can be easily fixed, but there are also people who blatantly try to ignore this important change, despite being aware of it. People who choose to neglect personal hygiene with no valid reason (financial issues, serious mental health, mental disability, etc) often don’t see the risks that poor hygiene actually holds. It's not something people reinforce just to mother you, personal hygiene actually plays a significant role in your physical health—you know, like the kind your doctors check up on. Personal hygiene, unsurprisingly, affects your social life, too.
“Poor hygiene relates to mental health in two ways. First, an unclean appearance can cause social and professional isolation. Feelings of loneliness and failure caused by this isolation can harm your mental health and lead to chronic depression or social anxiety. In some cases, the progression of poor hygiene and mental health issues gets reversed. People with depression may cease caring about hygiene practices. In these instances, the lack of cleanliness is a symptom of a mental disorder, not its cause,” states Innerbody, a health and wellness website.
More on this, as mentioned before, the severe detriment that mental health issues such as depression pose to your care of hygiene is very significant. This is a very sad phenomenon that many struggle with, and it is often somewhat outside of your control. But when somebody has noticeable bad hygiene that you can see or smell, some people may not have this understanding of what you're going through, making them have a misguided judgment of someone. Many are guilty of this, as this is a common nature.
“I think when you don’t shower for a while, the grease starts weighing you down, and brings down your spirits and the people around you, isolating you,” says Lilah Aparton, a Lit Arts 8th grader.
Having poor hygiene can also risk disease and/or infection. In fact, poor dental hygiene has been shown to risk of heart disease, as the bacteria from your mouth enter your bloodstream and deteriorate your heart. This information is backed up by Preston Home Medical Equipment. Gum disease is also a risk; not only does it cause tooth loss (as it loosens around your teeth and then you need to get them removed), but in general, it is very painful to just do basic things like feel your gums with your tongue, or chew food that isn’t pillow-soft. You also can’t eat spicy food or very highly salted foods, as they cause irritation.
Besides this, how can you improve your hygiene? Well, having the standard hygiene regime isn’t actually as hard as social media will inform. More on that note, often social media bullies people into extreme hygiene routines that enforce themes of over-consumption, whilst it is good to maybe do things to maybe cut your nails and clean your cuticles buying things like glycolic acid and special moisturizing strips just for your fingers is absolutely unnecessary (unless your a hand model), this applies to most things, as it is also really wasteful.
Showering every day or even every other day, brushing and flossing your teeth, cutting your nails, and wearing deodorant is an appropriate amount of care. Of course, if you feel particularly motivated to have better hygiene, start with things like having a small skincare routine, scraping your tongue, and maybe using exfoliate for your skin.
And again, this article isn’t one big passive-aggressive personal attack, as you should be aware that many have legitimate reasons that they can’t meet what most may call the hygiene standard, as I have mentioned before. But learning good hygiene practices aids you in more ways than you may think.
According to an article on Snexplores, teens often start to develop a higher level of carboxylic acid, which is what causes natural body odor to be more pungent. So when people tell you “when you get to middle school people start to smell a little more,” it’s not because everyone's an absolute lazy slob—it’s because your body goes through a massive change in hormones. Many young adolescents don’t update their hygiene routine because they’re used to being able to be low-maintenance about it.
Of course, this can be easily fixed, but there are also people who blatantly try to ignore this important change, despite being aware of it. People who choose to neglect personal hygiene with no valid reason (financial issues, serious mental health, mental disability, etc) often don’t see the risks that poor hygiene actually holds. It's not something people reinforce just to mother you, personal hygiene actually plays a significant role in your physical health—you know, like the kind your doctors check up on. Personal hygiene, unsurprisingly, affects your social life, too.
“Poor hygiene relates to mental health in two ways. First, an unclean appearance can cause social and professional isolation. Feelings of loneliness and failure caused by this isolation can harm your mental health and lead to chronic depression or social anxiety. In some cases, the progression of poor hygiene and mental health issues gets reversed. People with depression may cease caring about hygiene practices. In these instances, the lack of cleanliness is a symptom of a mental disorder, not its cause,” states Innerbody, a health and wellness website.
More on this, as mentioned before, the severe detriment that mental health issues such as depression pose to your care of hygiene is very significant. This is a very sad phenomenon that many struggle with, and it is often somewhat outside of your control. But when somebody has noticeable bad hygiene that you can see or smell, some people may not have this understanding of what you're going through, making them have a misguided judgment of someone. Many are guilty of this, as this is a common nature.
“I think when you don’t shower for a while, the grease starts weighing you down, and brings down your spirits and the people around you, isolating you,” says Lilah Aparton, a Lit Arts 8th grader.
Having poor hygiene can also risk disease and/or infection. In fact, poor dental hygiene has been shown to risk of heart disease, as the bacteria from your mouth enter your bloodstream and deteriorate your heart. This information is backed up by Preston Home Medical Equipment. Gum disease is also a risk; not only does it cause tooth loss (as it loosens around your teeth and then you need to get them removed), but in general, it is very painful to just do basic things like feel your gums with your tongue, or chew food that isn’t pillow-soft. You also can’t eat spicy food or very highly salted foods, as they cause irritation.
Besides this, how can you improve your hygiene? Well, having the standard hygiene regime isn’t actually as hard as social media will inform. More on that note, often social media bullies people into extreme hygiene routines that enforce themes of over-consumption, whilst it is good to maybe do things to maybe cut your nails and clean your cuticles buying things like glycolic acid and special moisturizing strips just for your fingers is absolutely unnecessary (unless your a hand model), this applies to most things, as it is also really wasteful.
Showering every day or even every other day, brushing and flossing your teeth, cutting your nails, and wearing deodorant is an appropriate amount of care. Of course, if you feel particularly motivated to have better hygiene, start with things like having a small skincare routine, scraping your tongue, and maybe using exfoliate for your skin.
And again, this article isn’t one big passive-aggressive personal attack, as you should be aware that many have legitimate reasons that they can’t meet what most may call the hygiene standard, as I have mentioned before. But learning good hygiene practices aids you in more ways than you may think.
