Frequent hot showers and soap also strip most of the healthy bacterial life off the skin, weakening the immune system and making us get sick easier.
THIS. For sure. Companies like Proctor & Gamble have convinced us all that our natural oils are filthy and disgusting and that slathering ourselves in a compound of 60 different chemicals intended to mimic the odor of a pine forest or rose bush is much healthier.
We are sterilizing ourselves to death. We kill off the healthy bacteria as well as the bad. We, as the proverb says, throw out the baby with the bath water. At the very least, we dry out our skin and hair.
All in moderation and depending upon activity for me.
I prefer the every other day quick shower (only use soap on stinky zones that can tolerate soap) unless I am in a rare period of daily exercise, and I only wash my hair once or twice a week. In my present living situation, I only shower weekly and do the spit bath with a washcloth the other days. Even when I exercise daily, I might not use soap daily.
Were my beloved here, I would be sprucing up down under on a daily basis.
It was strangely refreshing and satisfying standing out there buck naked in the forest with the sun shining down on me.
Not strange at all. Sounds blissful!
My wife swears that I smell like an old man , and she wants me to take a vinegar bath, but I shower and bathe every night, so WTF!
Yes, it's your diet unless you have an underlying medical condition causing you to excrete this odor. Patricia Cornwell wrote a thriller where the criminal had a unique maple syrup smell because he had some condition. Most likely your diet, though.