Let's talk - Personal hygiene
Andrea and Leiann were lucky enough to talk to 16 fabulous students, split over 2 sessions. Both groups were great and the students got stuck in with the activities and answering all the questions! Here’s what we spoke about:
What do we mean by personal hygiene?
'Personal hygiene is keeping your body clean from harmful germs that can affect you and make you sick. Having poor personal hygiene can lead to other issues such as bullying, social isolation, low self esteem and confidence'
Most of the students agreed that although it’s not nice, if they had to choose to hang around with someone they didn’t know, they would rather hang around with someone who had good personal hygiene than someone who didn’t look after themselves.
Why is it important to use soap?
To show the importance of using soap to keep clean, Andrea carried out a science experiment with the students. This is what they did:
- Get a shallow dish filled with water
- Grind some pepper into the water
- Imagine that the pepper represents germs
- Let the pepper spread all around the dish
- Taking turns dip a finger into the dish
- See how the “germs” (pepper) can stick to your finger
- Put liquid soap on your finger (this represents washing your hands)
- Dip your finger back into the dish, what happens to the “germs”?
The students all watched the “germs” (pepper) move away their finger like magic once the soap was applied!
Washing your hands
Andrea spoke to the students about the correct way to wash their hands:
- Wet your hands with water
- Apply soap
- Rub hands together, palm to palm
- Rub the backs of your hand and in between your fingers
- Clean your thumbs
- Clean under your fingernails
- Rub your wrists
- Rinse hands with water
- Dry hands with a clean towel (or hand dryer)
She asked the groups when they thought they should wash their hands. As well as the obvious times such as:
- Before and after eating
- After using the toilet
- After sneezing and coughing
The group suggested that you should also wash your hands:
- After you’ve been outside or been gardening
- If you do any food preparation or you are touching different types of food
- If you have petted any animals
- If your hands get dirty
Andrea also highlighted the importance of keeping your nails clean as germs can collect under them. If possible, keeping nails short helps you to keep them clean.
Keeping your body clean
The students who spoke to us had a shower or bath between twice a day to 2 -3 times a week (with washing in between). Andrea spoke about how it was important as it keeps the body clean, germs at bay and helps you smell fresh. She asked the students if they could think of any times they may need to have showers more frequently? The students showed great understanding that hot weather, or activities that made them sweat more, would mean that it would be a good idea to have more showers.
Andrea went on to speak about the kinds of products that people may use when having a shower or bath, such as shampoo and conditioner, shower gel or soap and deodorant. She also spoke about the importance of brushing your hair to remove knots and make sure that there aren’t any head lice.
Keeping clothes clean
Andrea had an interesting discussion with the groups about keeping clothes clean and how often some commonly worn items of clothing should be washed. Although there are guidelines, the groups decided that many of them would wash clothes more often than suggested. All agreed that underwear and any clothes that you have got sweaty in, needed to be washed after one wear, but other items were more flexible and maybe depended on if they got dirty, how long you’d worn them for or what you were doing in them.
Recommended frequencies:
Underwear - after 1 wear
Gym clothes - after 1 wear
Swimwear - after 1 wear
T-shirt - after 1-2 wears
Dresses - after 1-3 wears
Bras - after 2-3 wears
Pyjamas - after 3-4 wears
Sweatshirt/Hoodie - after 5-6 wears
Skirts - after 5-7 wears
Jeans - after 6-10 wears
An amazing number of the students did their own washing at home and could tell us how they use the washing machine to get their clothes clean!
Looking after your teeth
An important part of personal hygiene is looking after your teeth and Leiann gave the groups a great talk about the importance of brushing their teeth twice a day, attending the dentist at least once a year, and keeping sweet treats to meal times. The students were shocked by the amount of sugar contained in some of their favourite drinks and some vowed to cut down on drinking them!
We have been fortunate enough to have had Leiann run a Let’s talk session before all about oral health. This is available on our website and full of lots of helpful information.
The students at Landmarks once again did themselves, and their college, proud! It was an absolute pleasure to go and talk to them and we look forward to seeing them again soon.
