Often, we underestimate how personal hygiene can affect the quality of our lives and interactions with other people. You can’t get away with just being smart or brilliant, you have to be able to portray yourself in an amazing light, you have to put yourself together and actually be someone people genuinely want to be around. Let me give this example, back in university, I had this classmate I would call him Ugwu, this boy was extremely brilliant, he had the highest grades but the body odour he emitted was a killer, like it could choke you to death (okay I’m exaggerating considering the fact that I’m telling this story, I survived). We were always running away from him, nobody wanted to be on his team for group work, nobody wanted to explain things to him. We actually would brave getting lower scores than being around that terrible odour.
Now, what is this Personal Hygiene?
It involves how you care for your body and maintaining the cleanliness of body and clothes. This includes; bathing, washing of hands, brushing teeth, dressing up in clean and well-maintained clothes. There are always germs and bacteria everywhere and if you let them linger, they could act make you and the people around you sick. Good personal hygiene improves your self-image, maintains your health and makes you more attractive as an individual.
Have you ever heard the saying; ‘how you appear is how you will be addressed?’, it is extremely apt in this context, nobody wants to be having conversations with you when your mouth is smelling terrible or when you are wearing dirty smelly clothes, honestly do you want to be associated with yourself in that manner? No now. Here are a few things you can do to ensure good hygiene for your personal and professional development, and it concerns everyone;
- Shave Underarms: a lot of hair under your arms can create a swampy environment for bacteria. Hair is porous, it easily absorbs odours and can even slow the evaporation of sweat
- Use Alum, Lemon or Lime to prevent body odour: it tackles body odour naturally. The natural antiseptic and antimicrobial properties help eliminate unpleasant odours of the body
- Wash and cut your hair regularly.
- Brush your teeth morning and night.
- Wash your body regularly.
- Wear deodorant/antiperspirant daily.
- Make sure you use hand sanitizer to prevent germs from spreading around.
- Dress neatly in well-laundered clothes.
- Air your shoes: this prevents the odours from staying concentrated in one area. If you can afford more than 1 shoe, change your shoe and always air the other. One of the foulest odours comes from your feet.
Consequences of Poor Personal Hygiene
- Your job application success and the chance of promotion could be hampered by poor personal hygiene as no organisation will want you to publicly represent their brand.
- Isolation from social and workgroups as telling you might be culturally/socially insensitive, people will rather avoid you.
- Poor personal hygiene affects your first-time impression which would leave a bitter taste in the mouths of clients or potential investors.
- Your lack of self-maintenance shows lack of confidence and esteem.
- Dirty and stained clothes make you unattractive and unprofessional.
Personal hygiene is very important and should not be taken for granted.
Yomi Olusunle
Brands and Digital Innovation