Personal Hygiene

Personal Hygiene is a difficult situation during a disaster. If you are sheltering in place you can still use the tub and have the luxury of taking a bath of course in smaller amounts of water and not as much soap as usual. You can heat water up however you are doing that and put some cold water with it and just wash up. You do not need to take a bath every day or you will use your water supply up. And you can wash your hair the same way, and have someone pour water slowly over your hair as you get the soap out. Your hair does not need to be washed every day either. In between you can use any kind of personal powder or baking soda. Just sprinkle either on your hair rub into hair and comb as usual. This dries up the oil that gets into hair and causes it to look dirty. This is what we use in healthcare as waterless shampoo, For the men maybe this would be that special time that you get to grow a mustache and a beard. But you can still shave if you have a straight razor or a safety razor and a non-breakable mirror (look in the camping section). You can use just soap on your face instead of shaving cream. A straight razor is great for camping because you do not have to worry about extra blades, the straight razor can be sharpened like a knife.

In case you need to bug out everyone should have a washcloth and a towel.

Kneel down with the bowl of water in front of you. Take your shirt off and take your washcloth and get it wet and a very small amount of soap and wash your face and neck and upper body. Rinse and dry off, then put your shirt back on. Take your pants off and lay them on the ground and kneel down on them. Wash your lower body, rinse and dry off, then put your pants back on. It is better to have a look out and be up against a group of trees or rocks. This way if someone comes upon you, you’re not completely undressed. This should be done as fast as you can and following these directions will be safer. To wash your hair especially longer hair kneel down as before having someone pour water over your hair, use little shampoo, lather up and have someone pour water slowly over your hair as you rinse out the soap. A comb takes up less room than a brush. Also if anyone has long hair it is a good idea to have something to put the hair up with or braid it would be even better. Deodorant is also a good idea. Some insect repellent and sun protection and a few chap sticks would be good. Some medicated powder would be a good idea especially to use at first until your body gets use to walking a lot.

For the women in your group who have the monthly visit of nature some extra hand towels or premade cloth pads that can be washed out and reused. This may not seem like a good idea, but how many disposable pads can you carry. Of course you can start with the disposable but you probably will have to go to the reusable at some date, depending upon how long the disaster lasts.

For babies and toddlers the same thing applies. How many disposable diapers can you carry or save up. They still sell cloth diapers and rubber pants. And you can wash them out and reuse them.

As far as soap to use, it would be easier to use only 1 type of soap for washing dishes, clothes and the body. Whether to use like dawn liquid you would have to be careful that it did not spill in your pack. Bar soap lasts longer and would not spill, you could use something like Ivory [or Grannies’ Lye soap] for everything.

We must Prepare to Survive & Thrive.