The pandemic was funny—not “haha” funny—in that many of us started washing our hands a lot more but showering way less. “When was the last time I bathed?” became a common refrain. So I don’t quite understand why some people on the Internet are in a tizzy that Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher don’t bathe their two children (or themselves) every day. They’re pretty much just following the advice of most dermatologists, who say that daily washing can strip your skin of natural oils and good bacteria, which can cause problems down the road.
The couple shared this tidbit during a recent episode of the podcast Armchair Expert. They were on to talk about cryptocurrency (yawn), but thankfully this revelation took the conversation in a more more exciting direction. “I wasn’t that parent that bathed my newborns, ever,” Kunis said during the podcast of her two children Wyatt Isabelle, 6, and Dimitri Portwood, 4. Kutcher, backed her up adding that there’s a clear way to tell if a child needs to be bathed: “If you can see the dirt on them, clean them,” giving me big Best In Show vibes and also my new life motto.
You actually don’t have to—you shouldn’t, even—wash a baby every day. “Infants and elderly people have thinner, more sensitive skin, and baths should happen less frequently, with cooler water and they should use the most gentle cleansers made for sensitive skin,” dermatologist Jennifer Herrmann, MD, previously told Well+Good. She added that excess cleanser disrupts the skin’s microbiome. “The skin is stripped of natural oils and protective organisms,” when you shower too frequently, she says. “This leads to dryness and can exacerbate many skin conditions from eczema to rosacea to psoriasis.” The American Academy of Dermatology even says that children aged six to 11 don’t necessarily need a daily bath. These are their bathing guidelines for children:
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1. At least once or twice a week.
2. When they get dirty, such as playing in the mud.
3. After being in a pool, lake, ocean, or other body of water.
4. When they get sweaty or have body odor.
5. As often as directed by a dermatologist if getting treated for a skin disease.
And by the way, steal these for yourself to because to reiterate: “You can probably go for as long as you want without showering without too much affecting your health,” Jason Tetro, a microbiologist and author of The Germ Files previously told Well+Good. “It’s good to wash your privates every few days at least to be sure they are not at risk for contamination from fecal bacteria leading to UTIs, but the rest of your body can take care of itself.” Take that, showers.
BTW: Here is a dermatologist’s shower routine:
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