I rinse my face in the shower but I haven’t used face soap in probably 4 years. I haven’t had more three zits during that time. I think soap is important for the parts of you that create a lot of smell and for your hair, though there are some people who eschew the 'poo and are glad to do so, but for your face if you have normal skin you shouldn’t have to wash it at all.
People have different skin types, and different ways of taking care of their faces.
If it isn’t obvious, the face is the one thing you really can’t hide, and women are encouraged to make that up as much as possible, to make it look as good as possible. You can’t possibly have married a female without knowing this. Even if she never wears makeup, it’s apparant that many others do, and you have to figure there’s a reason for it, right? Ok.
With that settled, some of the people you think have the best skin in the world have maintained a program that allows them to KEEP that, without which things would look a lot different.
For the record, I have gone through 3 phases of makeup in my life so far:
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14-35 I wore makeup to make me look more professional, or at least approach the expected norms of public life. Since I suck at makeup and have ZERO patience for primping, it typically made me look even younger than usual.
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35-40’ish Makeup started making me look…older…blech.
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40-43’ish Basically said ‘screw it’ and didn’t bother, since it didn’t help anything anyway.
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Currently, I wear a small amount to make me socially acceptable and not scare small children.
Everybody’s different, at different times.
I still find it hard to imagine anyone dating any woman longer than a month or so being confused as to why a woman spends time on makeup/hair/clothes/working out/LOOKS.
I mean, I don’t bother, but that’s because it doesn’t seem to matter anyway. On some women, the difference is appreciable, so…just…appreciate it! 
Same for men and their grooming, btw.
I think the OP’s wife washes her face way too often. Doesn’t washing it too frequently cause your oil glands to over-produce oils, making you more acne prone?
I wash my face only once a day, but I don’t wear any makeup at the moment. When maternity leave is over and I go back to work, I’ll wash twice a day again. My skin is much, much better than it was in high school when I washed three or four times a day.
Why do women wear makeup and perfume?
They are ugly and they smell bad.
I would like to add that this is my first ever use of spoilers…
I wash my face twice a day, in the morning when I get up, and in the evening when I take my shower. Both times I use Noxema. Generally I wear a little bit of make-up everyday, and the Noxema works pretty well for removing it.
I also wash my hands whenever I use the bathroom (why wouldn’t you?), after I’m cleaning, after I eat, feed the cats, etc. (I also use a lot of hand cream, naturally, as I have dry skin. Yes, I know, but it’s better than all the bacteria on my hands. Plus I have to scoop a lot of kitty-litter!)
Remind me never to shake your hand.
Well to be fair I do it through underwear and I use a vibrator. I’m not really touching myself at all. I don’t wash my hands after sex, though sometimes I rinse my crotch out in the bathtub so I guess my hands are being rinsed, too.
Nurses are insane about hygiene. I know this. I’ve worked in a hospital for 8 years and work very closely with several nurses and they are all pretty much exactly like this.
This is representing the very far edge of the bell curve.
At most I wash my face twice a day. (except during the 3 weeks that pass as summer in NH) In the morning before I put my makeup on, mostly because proactiv leaves skin shiny looking by morning, and at night to take the makeup off again. Sometimes I use witch hazel in the morning instead of actually “washing” my face, though.
I’ve never made a point of counting how many times I wash my hands, but I bet it’s at least ten. Every time I use the bathroom, every time I encounter something sticky while cooking/messy doing chores, before eating at work…that adds up. On the plus side, since being nervous about catching the flu has made me wash my hands even more than normal, I haven’t had so much as a cold since the spring.
I use soap only a few times a week, generally only during the school semester when I’m in the pool a lot (to wash off the chlorine). Most of the time I use some sort of lotion to “wash” my face. And typically it’s only once a day. I have good skin, but it’s dry. The rare times I wear makeup (only eye makeup) I do sleep in it, if I get in late (otherwise I take it off). It doesn’t cause blemishes or make it any more dry, so it’s not an issue.
I wash my face in the morning with a cleanser, and then again at night with a warm washcloth. Sometimes a little more often if it’s the summer and I feel sweaty.
I’ll also splash a little cold water on my face after washing my hands sometimes, but I don’t really count that as a full-on washing.
I’m a daily light make-up wearer.
Once a day for me, but I wear no make-up. On the rare occasion I do, I will wash it off before bed or I’ll break out.
I’ll add my vote that the OP’s example of face washing is completely over-the-top and highly unusual. I wash my face maybe once a day, and only when it needs it. I don’t wear make-up everyday and when I do, not a lot of it. At nearly 40 years old, my breakouts are much fewer and farther between, so I only need special washing once in awhile. However, the eczema has begun and I tend to avoid messing with the dry skin other than putting on a light moisturizer once in awhile.
5 times a day is more than any other woman I’ve ever know. Seems like wa-ay too much to me.
I certainly couldn’t keep up a regime like that. I try to wash my face every night; then I use a couple of different wrinkle nostrums and a moisterizer. In any given week I will forget or blow off my nighttime regime 1 or 2 times, usually.
I have a better record in the mornings, since I almost always wear makeup (unless I am ill). if I didn’t wash my face the night before, I will wash it with cleanser in the morning (I don’t shower in the mornings; I bathe at night instead). Otherwise, I just rinse my face with warm water; then the wrinkle nostrums & moisterizer; then my makeup.
10 times doesn’t seem excessive for hand-washing, though. I was my hands after using the toilet, before I cook or prepare food, and whenever I’ve done something messy or dirty… probably right around 8 - 10 times a day.
I was thinking that while the number of face washings seems excessive, it isn’t hard to get to 20 bottles of stuff related to caring for your face - particularly when you get to the age of “fine lines and wrinkles.” I’m a relative minimalist and I still have day cream, night cream and eye cream. A bottle of cleanser. A bottle of makeup remover. Things I use less often - an exfoliating cream and a face mask. There is some astringent around for when I get breakouts. I’m at eight and I’m relatively low maintenance about such things.
Dirty, dirty , dirty…at least my upbringing would have me believe that women were this way…all over.
But then I noticed that they smelled so good, and had such soft skin, and were so freshly appearing…the devilish beings that they are. Ummm, women’s skin…
Oh, wait…no, women are not dirty…at least compared to us hairy smelly gassy men.
Twice a day, morning and niht. Three times a day during the summer - the third time would be after the gym.
Your wife has A Problem.
Yeah, me too. For every day I use an all-purpose cleanser (1), a retinol cream (2), a firming serum (3), eye cream (4), day cream with SPF (5), or night cream (6). Plus eye-makeup remover (7). Also, pimple cream for the occasional spot (8) and a 2-part micro-dermabrasion thingie (9 & 10). So I’m halfway to twenty, not counting makeup, hair stuff, or stuff for below the neck…
And I’m really NOT a product-junkie, like many of my friends.
Heh. Good luck with that.
Eh, I only wash mine when I take a shower. Which admittedly, in the summer is up to 5 times a day (not usual, but possible).
I usually moisten it with a washcloth before I apply face cream at night, but that’s just to get some moisture on it. It’s not really a dirt remover.
But I do think if people are out and about in a city, their faces are more than likely dirtier than they think.
Yes, you are.
I have a daily face wash (1), a moisturizer (2), eye makeup remover, (3) and a deep cleanser (4). My foundation has SPF, so I don’t need a separate cream. Deep cleanser used on pimples.
You probably have a prettier face than I do, though.