Harsh Realities: Hygiene

Author warning: this one could get gross. There, you've been warned.

Did you know....

That one of the main reasons women get medically evacuated from military deployments is due to kidney infections? That progressed to that stage due to un-treated Urinary Tract Infections? That were perfectly avoidable?   Articles I've seen estimate it as low as 32% to upwards of 68%, due to such problems. Just be careful when you go to research this.  You end up with a lot of articles that are on either side of this  "issue" over women deploying that are so full of dross it's pukeable.  Like this article.

Ladies and Gents, pay attention:   Your genitalia region needs to be kept clean along with your armpits.

Seriously.

Ladies, two words: Yeast infections.

Now yes, it's bloody unfair that guys do not have to worry about those wrong!  Men can get yeast infections.  They just don't notice most of the time.

Thought you were in the clear there didn't you boys?

Now we all know the joys of a hot shower after a particular grimy day outside and of scrubbing off the day. This is a luxury. You will know it as such, when SHTF. Bathing will take up precious water resources, however keeping yourselves clean is not something that you should be sacrificing. Our ancestors had open freaking sewers and they did not bathe as frequently as one might think. One of the insults from the Chinese when the Europeans started showing up was that they stunk. Hygiene was a bigger deal to them than Europe and America for a long time.

You don't need a huge bathtub to get clean. Get a pot of water and heat it until the steam is just starting to rise off it. Any hotter than that and you will scald yourself. (We are trying to avoid as much self-inflicted misery as we can, remember?) Get your wash cloth (I'll have patterns for home made ones here soon, as they last longer than store bought, work better and can be made in varying colors to show which is whose), soak yourself down, make thyself soapy and then pour the rest of the water a little at a time over your shoulders to wash off the soap. ( You have remembered to set aside a bathing area in the tribe commons right?) Save some for your scalp.

Now, you want to keep your hair clean too and combed out every day.  Ticks are a serious concern in much of the United States and keeping yourself free of them is crucial.  Bathing frequently lets you check for them, chigger bites (plus the vinegar you are using on your hair takes the itch out of those blasted things' bites), etc. Now to give you more information on what kind of diseases and viruses are carried by ticks:

• Lyme's Disease
• Relapsing fever 
• Typhus
• Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
• Helvetica Spotted Fever
• Tularemia

Ticks are best killed by fire.  Yes, now you get to legitimately yell "KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE!"

Very simple. Bathing does not need to happen every day, however washing your plumbing is something that should happen every night before sleeping.

 Two reasons for this:

1. It'll help you sleep better. ( Don't believe me? Try it out for a couple weeks right now. Sleep is sleep, regardless of what the world is doing.)
2. It reduces the chance of UTI's and yeast infections in women.

Ladies those yeast infections and UTI's are a bitch. I've seen some estimates that state 90% of women by the time we're 40 have experienced both multiple times. The yeast infection symptoms and UTI symptoms can seriously destroy your ability to be productive in any manner that is satisfying to yourself.

Now Gents (thought I had forgotten about you didn't ya?), you should clean down there too. You are going to be wanting to get frisky. As a courtesy, to whomever your partner is ... clean it! That stench is appalling when you want to be physically intimate with someone that you have a close bond too.  Now, it's entirely
possible to do a mutual bath which would be good for couples.  However I am not going to go there right now, I'll just leave you this pic on the right so that you get the general idea.  

It's a respect thing in a way. You keep yourself clean, and don't reek like a gamer on the last day of Dragon*Con, you find it's easier to interact with tribe and friend.  AND you help yourself feel a little bit more human in all the chaos.

Here soon we'll be having a couple of articles on soap making along with a much longer article next week.

(P.S. If this seems a bit less polished than normal that is because our lovely Editor is on vacation, and I do not posses the same level of skill in polishing articles that she does.  My apologies about that.)