I feel like I need a separate body towel (big towel), and 3 other small towels for hair, face, and hands. 4 towels in total. Is that normal?
I just don't want to mix them because I feel like it would make me less clean.
Relatedly, what's the best way I can follow the Patrick Bateman skincare routine as a simplified version that's actually practical to follow and contains the most important steps?
I don't understand the logic behind the idea that it makes you "less clean" to wipe yourself off of excess water literally seconds after cleaning yourself in the shower. Think about it: to legitimately spread germs around with the towel, you'd need either the towel, or the area you're wiping off, to be unclean in the first place.
My wife likes a separate towel for her hair, but it's because she has very long and thick hair that's hard to dry out. Not doing so would mean leaving a trail of water dripping on the ground.
For me that's just wasteful behavior - if you're that concerned about cleanliness, those towels need to be washed regularly, therefore 4x the water usage...
Seems a better solution would be a single, large bath/body towel to dry off the whole body after a shower, that itself gets washed after every use (personally, I wash my towels after two uses). Maybe have a towel just for hair, if your hair is long enough to need it.
Then have separate towels for use throughout the day. A hand towel for drying hands after washing them. A face towel for when you wash your face/brush teeth/shave. And wash those towels and they become soiled.
Using different towels as you just come out of the shower does seem a little redundant and wasteful.
How about the "logic" behind the separate hand towel?Unless you're drying your hands and putting gloves on before drying any other part of your body, you will be cross-contaminating by touching the other towels with your hands.
I'd answer with a non answer: this is way too much thought put into how you use your towels. Just clean yourself properly before drying out your hands, wash your towels regularly, and you're good lol
When I shower, my hands get dry with the rest of my body using the body towel. My hand towel is a separate smaller towel by my sink that I use after eliminating waste and subsequently washing my hands.
I don't go as extreme as OP. I have 3 towel types: large body towel that I use to dry my entire face/hair/hands/body after bathing. Smaller hand towel by the sink for drying hands/face after using the sink. And finally a separate medium-sized hair towel to wrap my long hair for further drying after I've already got most of the water off with my body towel. I'll wear that towel for 5-10 minutes after bathing. That towel isn't necessary for short hair.
I’ve heard the separate towels for hands and face, but only in a shared situation. Some people may use a hand towel to wipe messy hands or sloppily rinse their hands instead of wash. You don’t want their germs and mess getting in your eye
One towel is all that's needed. Start at the top, work your way from head to feet, floss the crotch last,. When the towel dries, it forgets, and the towel is clean for the next shower. If you have long hair, a second towel may be useful as a turban
So… I just love that i basically wrote my post as a shitpost because i think the concept of towels forgetting is funny and you answered with a serious and informative response. It is, and i mean this with all sincerity, quite lovely.
Sadly I don't need hair care tips anymore, but i bet someone will be like, "Heh, the towel forgets… oh, a T-shirt, that's brilliant!"
I cannot tell you how many towels the average person uses, or what the distribution is. Though it's probably less than 4. What I can say is that it doesn't hurt anybody, so if it feels good for you, just do it. That's the nice thing about being an adult, you can do what you want.
I would note though that it's probably much more important how often you change and wash your towels than how many you use.
I have figured that if I'm not clean enough to use the same towel all over, I haven't showered well enough. But I don't see any problem in having multiple towels
It depends on what you're wiping off. If it's for drying yourself after a shower, then I'd just use my big bath towel to dry every part of my body since they should all be clean by that point. I sometimes use an extra towel for my hair since I have long hair and it needs some extra fabric to help dry out.
This sounds like it might be an OCD thing, especially given your reasoning. Do you you have other OCD like habits? OCD is relentless once it gets ahold of you, and can have seriously negative effects for both yourself and your loved ones. The earlier you address it, the easier it is to keep it from ruling your life.
The error is thinking that your own sebum is bad and should be avoided. It’s like hating that you have tears. If you like, dedicate zones of the towel to functions.
Why do you feel like you would be less clean? Like peas touching carrots on a plate? You have 1 body.
IMO the different sized towels are all towels and are sized for convenience. If you only wash your hands you don’t want to have to use a blanket to dry them. When you wash your body you don’t want to use a box of tissue sized towels to dry off. It isn’t about contaminating part of your body.
I just start at the top and work my way down when I'm drying off. That being said if any part of you isn't clean enough to rub a towel on and then rub that towel on your face you aren't washing properly.
You're going to have microbes growing on the towels as soon as they're used. They're your microbes that grow on your skin. You're not going to make yourself sick by using the towel a couple times on yourself on all your different parts unless you're getting excessive with the booty drying. Swap the towels out more frequently if you're concerned, but what you're talking about sounds a little excessive.
It does sound like an obsessive trait but if it's not causing you any problems and it makes you happy, then why not?
Although, a tip for you or anyone else reading this - letting your hair completely dry naturally without towel-drying it can make the texture so much nicer. I stopped towel-drying mine completely and now it dries with lovely, soft waves, no frizz at all.
Do you want to use different towels for the different parts of you even right after showering? Or only so that a different one for after shovering, another for your hands for when you just washed hands, and another for the face when you just washed your face?
I don't think the former is normal, but the latter is. A different one for showring and just washing your hands is good to have I think, and if you have got oily skin then a third one for your face is also completely understandable.
If I'm home, I use just one towel and keep using it for like a week or two. If I'm in a hotel, they usually have so many towels so I'll use the whole variety and fresh ones each day. It's nice, but too lazy to constantly be washing towels when I'm home lol.
I use 4 towels as well, big one for body, small ones for hair and hands and tiny one for the face. Last one is more like a washcloth and not a full fledged towel.
I am a dude with long hair, so I need a separate towel for my hair and one for everything else. I even learned how women do that towel turban thing when I grew my hair out.
Something I learned taking college microbiology was that if you reuse towels for drying off make sure one end (like the end with the tag) is dedicated for your bottom half and the other for the top. That way you don't accidentally get your genital flora in your eyes/face.
Why though. I have one that I use even when i haven't had a bath. This is one large body towel that I also use to dry my hands (and face) when it just hangs there.
Not sure what people are afraid of really?it's your own body!
Not only is it your body, you just washed it. If you're concerned about contaminating your face or hair with the rest of your body, you should consider how well you washed.
I do have a hair towel - two actually, one smooth cotton and one microfiber. Use these for styling, they don't cause frizz and they get gunked up with conditioner and stuff so I'd not use them to dry off.
The rest of me gets one towel. As long as it has time to dry off between showers I figure it's hygenic enough, and I wash it weekly. Husband uses two body towels but no hair towel as his hair is so very short.
If you are asking about a good and easy skincare routine - CeraVe unscented lotion is good enough for face and cheap enough for body. Wash whatever needs to be washed in the shower, dry off but not super dry, apply the CeraVe everywhere. After you get dressed in morning, a sunscreen for your face. If you have acne and/or are older, add prescription Tretinoin, apply that at night before bed.
It counts like you have a cleanliness compulsion. Which isn't a huge deal, but if it gets burdensome then you might want to speak with a psychiatrist about it.