How to Wash Your Hands

Did you ever think that hand wash was a beauty product? If you're familiar with the concept of wellness, then yes, it very much can be. Also, so many beauty brands—even the fancy ones—offer really nice (and expensive) hand washes. I myself have had the blessed pleasure of having a bottle of Byredo's Rose hand soap and Aesop's orange blossom-scented hand soap on my sink at some points in my life and nothing—NOTHING—makes you feel like you have done things right in life as when you have luxury hand soap in your home.

But any hand soap, even the orange Dial and the slippery bar soap, are now beauty's biggest heros. A little thing called COVID-19 aka Coronovirus has made hand soap the star of this whole Staying Healthy show.

Just having hand soap doesn't mean you're cool though. You kind of have to use it effectively. Not just like a wet and wimpy swirl down the sink after lazily slip-and-sliding it around your hands. No, you must wash your hands with warm water, enough soap to lather and cover the same area that gloves would, and then you have to squish it around all the nooks and crannies in your hands for 20 seconds. Man, you never realize just how many nooks and crannies are in your hands until you're squishing soap around between every finger, under your fingernails (important!), and all around again for 20 whole seconds.

They say, find a song to sing for the duration of your hand washing. My suds-song of choice is this TikTok looped twice.

Here are a few trusty hand-washing tips:

1. You'll need: Soap and warm water.
2. Wet you hands, lather up, and massage your hands the way nail techs massage your hands when you're getting a manicure.
3. Do it for 20 seconds.
4. Dry those suckers.

When should you wash your hands?

• Before and after eating
• Before and after interacting with people
• Before and after touching your face
• After using the bathroom
• After sneezing or blowing your nose
• Whenever you think "Hmm, haven't washed my hands a while."

But the fun part of washing your hands is and always probably has been the kind of hand soaps you enjoy. Not just whatever's in the dispenser, we love a nicely-scented and softening hand wash.

Bath and Body Works has a ton of great scents. Here's a good old standby:

And, of course, Mrs. Meyers has always come through for you and yours with deliciously fresh-smelling hand soaps that are like drugstore deluxe. Fancy enough for your favorite brunch spot's restroom and fancy enough for your bathroom.

Prepare yourself to witness cute things in this video of the youths learning to love washing their hands. Gotta teach 'em young, bless up.