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What is Personal Hygiene?

Nat Robinson
Nat Robinson

Personal hygiene is the collection of practices a person habitually performs to maintain good health. Hygiene plays an important role in looking and feeling physically and emotionally well. Good hygiene practices can not only protect individual health, but the health of all people a person may come into contact with. For instance, viruses and bacteria are commonly spread amongst people due to poor hygiene. Children are commonly taught about personal hygiene at a young age so routine practices may develop early in life.

Hand washing is one of the most necessary practices of personal hygiene. The hands are a very common carrier of various types of germs. This is generally because people use their hands to do most things. Germs can easily be passed into the body by touching the eyes, ears or mouth with a germ-containing hand. This can not only lead to personal illness, but can make any other person who touches the contaminated hand sick as well.

Wearing deodorant can help reduce body odor and is usually considered part of good personal hygiene.
Wearing deodorant can help reduce body odor and is usually considered part of good personal hygiene.

Maintaining total body cleanliness is equally important for good personal hygiene. This is typically accomplished by taking frequent baths and showers. Frequent washing can prevent body odor and enforce overall skin health. Most people incorporate a wide variety of hygiene products to handle their personal cleaning needs. Examples of commonly used products include soap, body washes, deodorant and fragrant body sprays.

Many people choose to use body wash instead of soap for their personal hygiene.
Many people choose to use body wash instead of soap for their personal hygiene.

Most people spend a great amount of time attending to oral hygiene. Ensuring good oral health is essential to general health. One of the most commonly used practices for personal oral hygiene is teeth brushing and flossing. The teeth should ideally be brushed and flossed twice each day. This will keep the teeth feeling and looking healthy and, along with mouthwash, prevent offensive breath odor.

Keeping the feet clean and healthy is an important part of personal hygiene.
Keeping the feet clean and healthy is an important part of personal hygiene.

A great deal of personal hygiene is done to maintain a certain physical appearance. Individual looks are generally important to most people. For this reason, personal grooming is a very important practice in keeping a presentable appearance. The grooming aspect of hygiene will generally incorporate several acts such as hair washing, combing and cutting as needed. Grooming may also entail clipping and cleaning the fingernails and toenails as well.

Frequent hand washing is a cornerstone of proper hygiene.
Frequent hand washing is a cornerstone of proper hygiene.

An individual may confirm that he or she is providing the best personal hygiene for him or herself by seeing a doctor for periodic checkups. This will also present an opportunity to ask the doctor any questions about how to improve certain areas of hygiene. Breath odor can be a problem commonly attributed to individual hygiene, but may in fact stem from a medical issue. Seeing a doctor for an issue such as this could get a clinical diagnosis and a cure for the problem.

Discussion Comments

cafe41

@Cupcake15 - I agree and I think that children's personal hygiene should be worked into a schedule so that they can automatically develop these habits without even realizing it.

For example, they should brush their teeth in the morning and before bed, and should shower before dinner. With these habits alone children will learn to get used to excellent personal hygiene habits and will feel odd if one day they forget to take a bath or brush their teeth.

Also, they should have a laundry basket in their room so that they can place their dirty clothes in the hamper and not back in their drawers or worse on their bodies. These personal hygiene tips only take a few weeks to develop and this way your children will never develop poor personal hygiene.

cupcake15

I think that personal hygiene tips really should include daily bathing, the use of deodorant and mouthwash. It is important to brush your teeth between meals and floss your teeth daily because food can remain behind your teeth and bacteria can develop that can cause bad breath along with cavities.

I think if you also use mouthwash it can make sure that all of the bacteria are removed from your mouth because brushing your teeth alone is really not enough.

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    • Wearing deodorant can help reduce body odor and is usually considered part of good personal hygiene.
      By: karam miri
      Wearing deodorant can help reduce body odor and is usually considered part of good personal hygiene.
    • Many people choose to use body wash instead of soap for their personal hygiene.
      By: Dessie
      Many people choose to use body wash instead of soap for their personal hygiene.
    • Keeping the feet clean and healthy is an important part of personal hygiene.
      By: Valua Vitaly
      Keeping the feet clean and healthy is an important part of personal hygiene.
    • Frequent hand washing is a cornerstone of proper hygiene.
      By: Vladimir Voronin
      Frequent hand washing is a cornerstone of proper hygiene.
    • Mouthwash is often used to treat bad breath.
      By: ijacky
      Mouthwash is often used to treat bad breath.
    • Commonly used personal hygiene products include body sprays.
      By: Scanrail
      Commonly used personal hygiene products include body sprays.
    • Teeth should be brushed twice a day.
      By: Brian Jackson
      Teeth should be brushed twice a day.
    • Bathing with soap is an important part of personal hygiene.
      By: samantha grandy
      Bathing with soap is an important part of personal hygiene.
    • Getting one's teeth cleaned is an important step in achieving good oral health.
      By: Igor Mojzes
      Getting one's teeth cleaned is an important step in achieving good oral health.
    • Frequent hand washing may help prevent the spread of germs.
      By: kmiragaya
      Frequent hand washing may help prevent the spread of germs.
    • Shampoo and conditioner help keep the hair and scalp healthy.
      By: EuToch
      Shampoo and conditioner help keep the hair and scalp healthy.
    • Sweat must be washed away with soap and water to prevent bacteria from producing foul odors.
      By: Iurii Sokolov
      Sweat must be washed away with soap and water to prevent bacteria from producing foul odors.
    • Flossing should be included in personal oral hygiene.
      By: Steve Morvay
      Flossing should be included in personal oral hygiene.
    • Regular hair brushing is part of personal hygiene.
      By: bedov
      Regular hair brushing is part of personal hygiene.
    • Some people prefer to use soap from a bottle rather than a bar.
      By: Africa Studio
      Some people prefer to use soap from a bottle rather than a bar.
    • Regular bathing is a basic part of person hygiene.
      By: iceteastock
      Regular bathing is a basic part of person hygiene.
    • Tissues can help prevent the spread of germs.
      By: David Stuart
      Tissues can help prevent the spread of germs.
    • Using a sufficient amount of toilet paper is a basic of personal hygiene.
      By: Ruggiero Scardigno
      Using a sufficient amount of toilet paper is a basic of personal hygiene.
    • Personal hygiene can help minimize the occurrence of breakouts.
      By: Ocskay Bence
      Personal hygiene can help minimize the occurrence of breakouts.