What is personal hygiene?
Personal hygiene is the practice of taking care of our bodies to avoid diseases that may come with poor hygiene. We do this by washing our bodies, hair, and hands. Good hygiene lessens the occurrence of diseases. The human body is vulnerable to billions of germs and viruses every day. At work, school, shopping malls, public transport and even in our homes. One must keep clean all the time.
Types of hygiene
Toilet hygiene: Wash your hands with soap every time after using a toilet. Scrub your hands for at least 10 to 20 seconds, this will help get rid of any excess dirt or germs. After a wash dry your hands with a towel.
Dental hygiene: brushing your teeth at least twice a day, this will help you maintain oral health. Brushing your teeth only is not enough hence dentists recommend flossing. It helps in getting rid of the buildup in teeth caused by food particles.
Body hygiene: this is probably the most important hygiene practice. Most of us every day we wake up and wash our bodies. This is a normal routine for most people. Bathing every day helps us keep clean, and smell good. Taking care of your hair is also as important, wash your hair at least once or twice a week.
Nail hygiene: trim your nails now and then, this will make cleaning your nails easier. We do almost everything with our hands, including eating. Dirt can get stuck under nails can cause serious diseases.
Why is personal hygiene important?
Practicing good personal hygiene is important, it minimizes chances of getting diseases such as cold, cough and flu. Which all can be contracted due to poor hand hygiene. Maintaining good personal hygiene can impact your social life. No man is an island we interact with people almost every day. People may like you and want to associate with you because of your good hygiene.
Also, people can choose to distance themselves from you because of poor hygiene. Indeed first impressions count, imagine, you attend a job interview looking like you got hit by a hurricane. No company will hire you because no one wants to associate with people who don’t take care of themselves. For most companies image is everything. So even getting a job can be hard for someone who doesn’t practice good hygiene.
Things you can do to help you to remember
- Set reminders on your phone to remind you about things you need to do.
- Use signs in the bathroom as reminders to wash your hands after using the toilet.
- Place kitchen reminders to wash hands before and after handling food.
To help children practice their daily personal hygiene you can come up with fun activities to do. For example, you can come up with a song they can sing along to while taking a bath. This will help them enjoy and look forward to bath time.
