It’s also common for kids to grow less vigilant on personal hygiene when they hit middle and high school, especially once they’re no longer under their parent’s watchful eye while grooming. Here’s a primer on which healthy hygiene habits to teach your teen and how to instill them into your child’s daily routine.
Why Are Hygiene Habits Important?
Hygiene is essentially how we keep our bodies clean. Cleanliness practices serve two basic functions. Firstly, being clean helps us to be sanitary—maybe not completely free of germs, but mostly free of the germs that are harmful and could cause disease. Poor hygiene can lead to tooth decay, skin infections, and many other preventable illnesses. Secondly, hygiene impacts social interactions. Other people, adults in particular, expect people to be clean. Good hygiene allows us to interact with other people more positively. It can be unpleasant to be in close contact with someone who has bad breath or body odor. Proper hygiene demonstrates that you take care of and value yourself. Plus, it’s respectful to others to present yourself in a tidy manner. Poor hygiene, on the other hand, can result in social rejection.
Where Teens Learn About Hygiene
In many cases, our children learn how to behave by watching our example. Hygiene is no different. If you have a regular routine for keeping yourself clean, your teen will see this as normal behavior. However, it’s also typical for tweens and teens to become laxer about their hygiene routines, so it’s helpful for parents to be diligent in making sure their kids are keeping up with these daily habits. Peers also shape how teens behave. If your child’s best friend tends to be especially clean or loads up on cologne, don’t be surprised when your kid starts showering more frequently or comes home with a new body wash or perfume. Alternatively, if their friends don’t seem especially concerned with maintaining optimal hygiene, then your child might become less inclined as well. Many schools also instruct students about the importance of proper hygiene habits, such as showering regularly and wearing deodorant.
Teen Hygiene Basics
Different families will have different preferences or rules in terms of what constitutes proper hygiene. So, in some households, a daily bath and freshly combed hair are expected, while others may opt for less stringent requirements. Follow your instincts on what is needed for your child.
Bathing and Deodorant
If your teen has oily skin or hair and/or participates in regular, vigorous athletics, a daily shower might be necessary. If their skin is dry, then bathing every few days is acceptable (too much bathing strips away the skin’s natural protective oils). Different hair types will require different frequencies of shampooing, between every day to weekly.
Brush teeth twice a day and, preferably, floss daily.Shower or bathe as needed, which often means every day or every other day.Trim nails, as needed.Use deodorant or antiperspirant as needed.Wash hair regularly.Wear clean socks and underwear every day.
Deodorant or antiperspirant is a personal choice in various ways. If your teen has an issue with sweating, an antiperspirant may be in order. Be careful of overusing antiperspirants, as they can block the sweat glands underneath the arms, leading to painful lumps that may need to be examined and treated by your pediatrician. If your teen showers daily and doesn’t feel that deodorant is necessary, and you agree (just give them the sniff test), then it can be safely omitted. Some families are also concerned with the chemicals in deodorant and may opt for products with natural ingredients (or skip the step entirely).
Dental Hygiene
Good dental hygiene will help prevent a variety of ills. Brushing your teeth removes some of the common bacteria that can cause bad breath. Removing this bacteria also helps reduce the risk of various diseases and conditions, including gingivitis (infection of the gums) and cavities. Flossing removes the bacteria and dirt that are trapped between the teeth. Those bacteria, if not removed, can get into the bloodstream and can even lead to heart disease, as well as to tooth decay and gingivitis (inflammation of the gums). Research has shown that daily flossing might even increase life expectancy because it removes these dangerous bacteria. Your teen may not be thinking about living longer, but this research is a great reason for everyone to floss.
Shaving
Around puberty (or sometimes earlier), teens may decide to start shaving their legs, armpits, pubic areas, and faces. Instruct your child on proper techniques for safely using razors or electric razors. Being sure to use a clean razor and enough soap (or shaving cream) and water will reduce the likelihood of irritation. Whether or not to shave is a personal choice and not a reflection on cleanliness.
Grooming
There are lots of choices for teens to make around grooming. Some of these are optional, but others are more about health. You may need to talk to your teen about hairstyling, plucking eyebrows, trimming (or painting) nails, face-washing, acne treatment, and wearing makeup. Teach them the basics of whichever grooming habits are applicable to them. Changing their clothes daily (or when dirty, sweaty, or stained) and doing laundry also plays into healthy hygiene. Keeping their room tidy and their bed made (and sheets clean) are good habits to get into as well.
Menstruation
For menstruating teens, be sure to instruct them on the proper use of hygiene products such as tampons, sanitary pads, or menstrual cups. Learning to track their period can also help them know when to expect their period—and avoid being unprepared for bleeding. Period panties are another option that can help them stay dry and clean, particularly if their cycles are sporadic.
First Aid
Learning about basic injury care is also part of healthy hygiene. So, make sure your child knows how to properly tend to a wound, including washing it with soap and water, using antibiotic ointment, and covering cuts with a sterile bandage. Knowing when to ask for help (or call the doctor) are also key.
Other Hygiene Issues
Contact lens care, keeping glasses clean, and any hygiene steps required for those with braces or retainers are also important areas to discuss with your child, as needed. Another hygiene issue some teens have is nail-biting. Help your teen understand why this habit is unhealthy, including the hazard of ingesting germs from the fingers and potential damage to the nails and nail beds (which can get infected). Brainstorm strategies for helping them break the habit, such as using special flavored nail polish that tastes bad or using a code word to remind them to stop.
Signs of a Mental Health Concern
It’s important to consider if a teen’s lack of interest in hygiene is related to larger mental health issues. When behaviors like excessive nail biting, skin picking, hair pulling, and refusing to shower become habitual and/or are causing physical or emotional harm, your teen may need treatment for an underlying condition like depression, anxiety, a pathological grooming disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. If you notice pervasive hygiene issues that cause you concern, contact your teen’s doctor or therapist to evaluate if something else is going on. There is often a lot of shame involved in these behaviors. Be sure to talk to your teen, too. Offer them nonjudgmental support so that they can feel more comfortable talking about what’s going on and get the help they need.
My Teen Won’t Bathe!
Although it is even more common in the preteen years, sometimes teens will refuse to shower or bathe. First, it’s important to understand whether or not the reduced bathing is a problem for your teen or a problem for you. If you feel your teen should shower daily, but they think that every other day is fine and they’re reasonably clean, perhaps agreeing to disagree would be a reasonable path. But if they are visibly dirty, smell bad, or their poor hygiene is causing negative repercussions at school or with peers, then it is a problem.
Strategies to Encourage Bathing
There are a few ways to deal with a teen who won’t bathe or keep up basic hygiene. One way is to purchase personal care items geared for teens. Deodorant, soap, body spray, or even acne face wash that are left in the bathroom might be more appealing to teens. Don’t buy what you would buy, but look for products geared towards teens. Fun scents and packaging may help, too. Another way is to have a basic hygiene discussion with your child. Sometimes, when you are driving (and they are a captive audience), you can get a short discussion in about what is expected, hygiene-wise. It’s important to steer clear of shaming or making them feel bad. Simply focus on offering basic instructions and why the tasks are important. Alternatively, it might be helpful to enlist someone besides a parent to talk to a teen about this sometimes delicate topic. Sometimes, your teen will listen to another adult, but not you, so use someone your teen trusts. If this does not seem like it is enough, an appointment with a counselor might be in order.
A Word From Verywell
Hygiene is not frequently an issue, but when it is, it can be a big one. With a little information and guidance, your teen will be on the path to good personal care that supports physical and emotional health.
