Like most teenagers I thought I was pretty clever. More clever than my sister, more clever than my parents, just Type-A-ing my way through life basically. Except for one thing. My skin. It just never behaved the way I wanted it to, I couldn’t crack the code, and so after many GP offices my mother took me to the big kahuna, a Dermatologist at a major hospital*. And yes, she taught me a great many things but I’m reminded of one piece of advice daily and it all comes down to clean sheet day – or rather, clean skin day.
How often do you change your sheets? And more importantly, if you’re blessed with oily skin, how often do you change your pillowcases? Let’s get one thing straight, I was not your typical ‘dirty’ teenager but how often my sheets were changed was pretty much not worth thinking about (mum assures me it was weekly) because I had far greater things to worry about like cleansing, scrubbing and picking the heck out of my skin…oh how unwise I was!
Let’s also understand that it’s not being a dirty little teenager (or adult for that matter) that’s causing breakouts but considering you spend a good portion of your day in your sheets and rubbing that beautiful face into a pillow it’s a skin prevention worth considering, the same goes for your towels, because the build up of dirt and oil can clog pores. And I say ‘can’ because every skin is different.
Personally, I sleep on 100 per cent cotton pillowcases and change them twice a week however more frequently if it’s high summer and I know I’ve been sweating through the night. The face I put on my pillow has also been double-cleansed. Regular cotton sheets and towels I change weekly however I have separate towels for hands and face, with my face washer changed twice a week.
It may seem like laundry overkill but I know it makes a difference in my skin, especially in summer, and in the grand scheme of things is an inexpensive way to manage breakouts. Kind of puts a cherry on top of clean sheet day doesn’t it (always knew it was my favourite day for a reason!)
*I am in the process of tracking said Dermatologist down and hope she’ll be part of future stories.
