Thanks to Alice the Goon’s excellent Pit thread on shower poufs, I’ve started rotating my towels and washcloths on the suggested basis–one washcloth per day, towels every four days (actually Mondays and Thursdays, which makes it 3/4).
Shortly after this, I had a recurrence of a boil or infected cyst that had originally troubled me about a year ago. It may or may not have been staph–the culture came back negative, but my doc was still convinced that it was staph. As a result, I’m trying to be more aware of practices that could cause future problems. My favorite soap, woodland from the River Soap Company, contains black tea leaves “as a mild exfoliator.” The trouble with shower poufs and loofahs is that they’re abrasive; in the name of exfoliating they cause millions of tiny cuts and then grind bacteria into them. I presume that the black tea leaves in my soap are also meant to be mildly abrasive. Should I look into a new soap?
Milder soap is usually best. Your skin doesn’t need to be beat up for no reason, so look towards something like Ivory.
If you have a special need to moisturize, buy a mild moisturizer to finish your shower with. Other than that, keep the shower brief/sufficient, and watch the water temp.
I also find a nice washcloth is all you need. Keep it clean and soft.
Over scrubbing and over cleaning can also remove beneficial germs that compete for space with the bad guys. If you create conditions that favor the bad guys, and wash away or kill their competition, don’t be surprised to have problems.
Oh, hey! I wasn’t even doing a vanity search! I still hate shower poufs- just today there was a patient that had “ringworm” and if that wasn’t bad enough, it was infected with staph. Nasty rash. Caused by her shower pouf is what the doctor said.
Exfoliators are okay once in a while, but used too often could be very irritating, even causing tiny scratches that could become infected with staph.
Your cyst wasn’t necessarily infected- they can become inflamed and painful without having staph. They will come and go, sometimes infected and sometimes not, until they are surgically removed. A plastic surgeon or some dermatologists can do this for you but whether it will be covered by insurance is iffy.
And, ironically, all the derms I work with expressly denounce Ivory soap- it’s not as good as it’s reputation. Dove bar soap (liquid soap is drying) is where it’s at.
I’ve got to agree with that! I’m prone to oily skin and grew up using Zest (ew). They advertise Dove as having “1/4 moisturizing cream.” Why would someone need moisturizing cream if they have oily skin? I think most of the oily skin was overcompensation from being dried out all the time. Also consider the old chemistry rule of “like dissolves like.” Oily soap dissolves oil on skin. Gently.
If your skin is angry, don’t be harsh with it. Be gentle. It may feel weird at first if you’re used to heavy duty skin stripping detergents (my mother still doesn’t believe me regarding the Dove, claims it doesn’t rinse thoroughly).
Thank you for your informative anti-pouf thread, Alice. I’m going to have a hard time giving up my soap–I could care less about its exfoliating qualities or lack thereof, honestly, I just love the scent and the fact that it lasts a nice long time and seems reasonably kind to my skin and stuff. I guess I’ll figure something out when my current supply runs low.
Interesting about the cyst, though. I’d had it for a very long time–10+ years–without incident before it decided to get angry last year and then come back for round two this year. My doc (well, the university clinic doc that I keep winding up with) gave me a referral to surgery to have it removed. I’m not especially eager to, due both to cost and the thought of having to go through this routine of daily clinic visits to have the dressing changed and the wound packed all over again.
Another consideration about exfoliant products is that the majority of them use plastic as the exfoliant. These little pieces of plastic get washed down the drain and eventually end up in the ocean where they essentially float around forever. Little sea animals see them and think they’re food so they eat them. But they’re indigestible so they often kill the animal they ate them - and when they decompose the plastic is still there the same as it started and ready to be eaten by another animal. It sounds trivial but we’re talking billions of pieces of plastic and it adds up to a noticable effect on the population of these species. Which in turn affects the larger animals that eat these species and so on up the ocean food chain.
I’m going to have a hard time giving up my soap–I could care less about its exfoliating qualities or lack thereof, honestly, I just love the scent and the fact that it lasts a nice long time and seems reasonably kind to my skin and stuff. I guess I’ll figure something out when my current supply runs low.