Did you know that specific effects of poor personal hygiene may impact health and well-being?
The question is how.
Everybody knows that skipping hand washing, teeth brushing, or showering affects health in the long run. But, few understand how poor personal hygiene impacts personal presentation, relationships, and other aspects of life.
Want to know what aspects of your life might be affected by your possible poor personal hygiene?
Find below how different types of poor personal hygiene affect your health and well-being in different ways.
Poor personal hygiene examples that affects health
1. Body odor effects
Body odor is one of the most embarrassing effects of poor personal hygiene affecting people around.
If you don’t fix this issue, in the long run, this may develop allergies or skin itching.
- Infrequent showering.
- Not replacing your smelly socks.
- Not airing shoes.
- Not washing your feet.
- Wearing smelly, stained, or dirty clothes daily.
- Not changing your underwear regularly.
2. Bad breath and mouth disease effects
Bad breath is also a sign of poor personal hygiene and especially oral hygiene.
When you notice bad breath coming out of your mouth that may mean two things.
First, you might have consumed some sugary food or drink.
Second, you might have an oral teeth problem such as tooth decay, dental caries, or bleeding gums. In this case, you need to treat the oral hygiene issue as soon as possible before it develops into a bigger problem.
Examples of behaviors that promote oral hygiene diseases are:
- Not brushing your teeth regularly.
- Not flossing.
- Not cleaning your tongue.
- Drinking too much acidic drinks.
- Heavy smoking.
3. Influenza effects
Spreading bacteria, microbes, viruses, and other microorganisms is another effect of someone's poor personal hygiene.
Usually, this hygiene issue has its peak during the cold season when our immune system is weak and we can easily get a flu virus from somebody.
Examples of practices that promote the spread of unhealthy bacteria and virus:
- Not wearing a face mask when not feeling well.
- Not covering your mouth with a cloth or elbow when sneezing or coughing.
- Not avoiding social gatherings.
- Not washing your hands often.
- Not following the personal hygiene etiquette.
4. Body lice
Body lice are small insects that develop in your unwashed bedding or clothing.
When these insects get in contact with the human body, they produce eggs in their clothing.
At the same time, body lice feed themselves with body skin residues. The sweaty armpit and groin are body lice’s favorite parts of the body to find food.
Behaviors that promote body lice development:
- Not showering.
- Not changing the bedding at least once a week.
- Not washing your clothes.
- Wearing dirty and smelly clothes.
5. Herpes
Herpes is a form of fungi that most often appears on mouth lips.
Examples of behaviors that promote herpes infection are:
- Drinking from the same cup used before by someone having herpes.
- Using utensils after these being used by someone with herpes.
The effects of poor personal hygiene on human's well-being
1. It affects your social life
Poor personal hygiene issues leave unpleasant visible marks on a person's body. These poor hygiene signs keep other people at distance.
This happens because of our instinct of self-protection.
For example, to prevent getting a flu virus, many people avoid people who sneeze and cough without covering their mouth.
Poor personal hygiene is a sign that speaks of a lack of social acceptance awareness.
So, if you expect people to tell you whenever you smell, eat too loud, or embarrass them with your presence, this will rarely happen. They would rather leave.
That makes sense.
It’s your job to control your hygiene. That’s why it’s called “personal hygiene”
2. It hurts your personal presentation
Personal presentation is the skill of communicating about yourself through your physical appearance.
The better your look is, the better is the message communicated by you to people.
Now, imagine you have to go to an interview.
What message do you think your physical presentation communicates when you show up unkempt and with slight body odors.
Bad message. Right?
That poor message also affects your efforts at work, for example.
Let's say that, daily, you have to meet clients face to face. Your physical appearance has a direct correlation with customer satisfaction. Poor physical presentation - unsatisfied client and good physical presentation - satisfied client. You get the point.
Your customers enjoy working with professional-looking people.
In this way, they can get right to business questions without being disturbed by hygiene issues.
3. It hurts your career
If your personal hygiene at work is poor then it has negative effects on your career growth.
One of these disadvantages of poor health is low chances of earning a promotion in the company or a salary increase.
A study shows that 23% of employers are less likely to promote an employee with poor personal hygiene or physical appearance.
This study conveys the fact that poor personal hygiene may be one of the major reasons why an employee doesn't get promoted.
The employer thinks that:
- Jokes about your bad hygiene will spread throughout the office damaging your reputation in the eyes of your coworkers.
- Your inappropriate personal presentation in the workplace affects your self-esteem and confidence.
- An employer who cares for his team's health and safety will pass on an employee who can potentially infect other coworkers.
An employer wants to promote someone who is a go-getter. Someone who is full of energy and health. Someone who can take care of the business.
But, if you can’t take care of your health, why should the employer believe that you can take care of his business? That’s how an employer thinks.
4. It hurts your romantic relationships
Poor personal hygiene decreases your chances of finding someone with whom you'd share mutually satisfying moments.
By having bad breath or unpleasant body odor, you make it difficult for anyone to like you.
Your hygiene issues may serve as obstacles rather than helping you to improve your romantic life.
Even if someone likes you, be aware that it's uncomfortable to stay around a smelly person or an unhygienic person.
Conclusion
The effects of poor personal hygiene may be infinite. The truth is that its consequences may ruin certain aspects of your life.
In many cases, moving through life is not easy. Why would you make your journey worse with poor personal hygiene.
The problem is that by skipping preventive measures you’ll never enjoy the hygiene benefits entirely.
If you want to see the solutions to improve hygiene, check out this personal hygiene checklist.
