How to Promote Personal Hygiene in Teenagers

Good personal care is important to remain healthy. In this article, we'll talk about habits that need to be promoted in teenagers to have proper personal hygiene.

Education is fundamental for promoting personal hygiene in teenagers. This is a phase in which adolescents experience different physical and hormonal changes, so it’s very important to take proper care of their body, surroundings and personal hygiene.

What is personal hygiene?

Personal hygiene refers to a set of actions that seek to avoid diseases and infections. These actions are related to cleaning, grooming and body care habits, as well as keeping a good appearance.

Young people, because of their hormonal changes, must keep an eye on their personal care. They tend to sweat more with an intense smell, and on certain occasions, they can have bad breath due to unhealthy eating, drinking or smoking. Some teenagers are thinner, have dirty hair and acne in some areas of their face.

For this reason, it’s necessary to create personal hygiene habits in teenagers. These habits allow young people to maintain a good health, and a good appearance, which affect them physically and psychologically, in a positive way, as well as their social relations.

How to promote personal hygiene in teenagers: developing habits

A habit refers to a regular practice, and as we’ve said, it’s a key aspect to develop these habits at home and at school. The habits that need to be developed for proper hygiene are:

• Taking a shower every day, especially after playing sports. This affects the areas that tend to sweat, such as feet and armpits. Also, it’s important to keep these areas dry to avoid fungus or other infections.
• Brushing your teeth well, in the morning and before bedtime, and after every meal. It’s necessary that young people become aware of the importance of good oral hygiene.
• Avoiding bad smell of feet and armpits. Besides the daily shower, it’s important to use cosmetic products, deodorants, and perfumes of good quality that maintain these body areas clean and with a good smell.

• Maintaining intimate areas and genitals well cleaned. Especially girls, during menstruation, need to have extra care with their personal hygiene.
• Changing intimate clothing daily, such as panties, underpants, and socks. It’s very important to use clean underwear made of proper fabrics, like cotton.
• Washing your face and ears every morning and before bedtime with a good soap. For young people this is essential to keep off pimples produced by acne, which is characteristic of this phase.
• Washing hands and nails. During the day, we touch a lot of objects, so it’s necessary to wash our hands regularly, especially before eating, to avoid bacteria and germs.

Our environment is also part of our personal hygiene

Maintaining a good personal hygiene isn’t only limited to care and hygiene of our body. It also relates to taking care of our closest environment. Regarding teenagers, this refers to keeping their bedroom clean.

It’s important to teach young people to keep their bedroom tidy. This means keeping their bedrooms well ventilated, their belongings organized, and changing their sheets regularly. This will help them to have a clean environment, in line with their body hygiene, where they can rest properly and feel good.