New Year…New Habits. Let's talk teen hygiene and how to help your child instil good habits.

I would say it’s never too early to talk to your children about keeping good hygiene habits. The earlier the better in my experience.

Teaching teens & pre-teens about good hygiene habits tends to be 10% teaching and 90% gentle reminders. Puberty can be a confusing stage in your child’s development, especially the changes happening to their body. It’s a time when you might see a dip in their confidence and self-esteem so give them the tools and products to help them with a little bit of self-care.

It's very common for kids to become less attentive about their personal hygiene when they start secondary school, especially once they're more independent. There’s so much for them to think about and for you to remind them to do on their own. Nagging them about showering and using deodorant shouldn’t be one of them. So, here's a reminder on which healthy hygiene habits to teach your teen and how to instil them into their daily routine.

Why Are Hygiene Habits Important?

Personal hygiene is essentially how we keep our bodies clean. Being clean helps us to be free of germs - 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, personal hygiene impacts social interactions. There is an expectation in our society for 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 odour.

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 which no child wants, especially when starting a new school.

Where Teens Learn About Hygiene

In many cases, our children learn how to behave by watching our example. Personal hygiene is no different. If you have a regular routine for keeping yourself clean, your child and teen will see this as normal behaviour. However, it's also typical for tweens and teens to become lazy 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, especially as they become more independent or in older teens withdraw to their bedrooms.

If your child skips a day of teeth brushing or showering, it's not the end of the world. However, if this pattern slips into several days, ignoring these tasks might spiral into bad habits.

Peers also shape how teens behave. If your child's best friend tends to be especially clean or loads up on perfumes or fragrances, don't be surprised when your child starts showering more frequently or comes home with a new body wash or deodorant. Alternatively, if their friends don't seem especially concerned with maintaining optimal hygiene, then your child might become less inclined as well.

It helps that many schools also instruct students about the importance of proper hygiene habits, such as showering regularly and wearing deodorant.

At Sens Bodycare, we believe that healthy personal hygiene habits start from a young age. That’s why we’ve designed our products just for teens and pre-teens. We think it’s important that they have their own products, designed just for their needs and young developing skin.

Our bodywash contains natural ingredients to removes sweat and odour causing bacteria without stripping young skin of essential moisture.

Our deodorant contains hand-picked ingredients for young skin to deliver a deodorant that absorbs sweat and reduces body odour, to keep armpits dry and smelling SENSational.

Check out our shop for more info on our products - SHOP – Sens Bodycare

Check out our other blogs on teen hygiene - Blog – Sens Bodycare