Today I found out that Americans shower using small towels called “washcloths”—I didn’t even know these existed.
I didn’t know what it meant, so I looked it up on TikTok and found a lot of people saying that washing with just your hands isn’t considered “proper cleaning.”
Is it that common to use them in the U.S.?
Where I’m from, we typically have different towels that are only for drying the face, body, hands, and private areas—but not for actually washing with.
I shower daily with just my hands most days, except twice a week, where I use a silicone exfoliator or body scrub.
Comments
As a white American, I do not believe in washcloths. I prefer the scratchy lufa thingies.
Genuinely, I think the most important part is the regularly bathing and using soap.
I don’t use a washcloth and a lot of people don’t. It does provide some extra scrubbing action, but most of the time I don’t need that.
As another white person from the Seattle area, I do use washcloths.
I suppose some Americans use washcloths. I’m old, and I’ve never known one that did, though.
Where are you? I know British people use them and call them flannels.
In my house we just use soap and water. No issues.
I don’t think it’s necessary to use one everyday. Especially if you don’t get very dirty. For some people using one everyday can even be bad for their skin even.
I use the soap bar & my hands. Why on earth would I want to make more laundry?
It’s hella humid in the south east. I’m showering with a washcloth and washing my hair every day. If you don’t scrub the layer of sweat off, you’re going to smell like a wet dog, as my mother would say. Washcloths are also single use before washing so we usually have dozens in the linen closet so every family member had a clean one every day.
I use washcloths at hotels only. They do provide an excellent clean. At home I have brushes and lufas and such.
I’ve literally never used a wash cloth. All you need is soap and hands. Anything else is just in your head.
If anything, a cloth exposes you to more bacteria.
That sounds like a weird rich people thing to me, honestly. As an American that has lived all over the country, I’ve never known anyone to even talk about using a washcloth in the shower. If you said wash cloth to me, I would think you mean a dish rag in the kitchen, or maybe a hand towel used for drying hands after washing them.
I just use my hands and soap of course, except for a back brush because I can’t reach that far anymore.
ITT: White people 🤦🏽♂️
Hopefully we can avoid opening up the “do you you wash your legs in the shower” can of worms…
I use an African shower cloth for most of my body. It exfoliates but I use a washcloth for certain parts.
I mostly use them for washing my face and behind my ears—the terry cloth is a nice light exfoliator, and the cloth can cover your finger to scrub smaller areas more effectively. They’re also good for washing babies/children. Otherwise I use a loofah for the rest of my body.
I’d say they’re pretty common. I associate them with an older, pre-synthetic-loofah generation, but lots of people prefer them. (In my memory, around 2000 or so, plastic loofahs and body wash became prominent and popular—before then, a bar of soap and a washcloth was pretty standard.)
If I’m at a hotel or somewhere else where I don’t have access to these, I’ll just use my hands. As long as the soap is getting rubbed onto the skin, the vehicle doesn’t matter that much.
Personally, I think it’s gross to only use your hands. I feel a huge difference between when I’ve been caught having to do that and when I have some type of tool.
Hell no. I rub the soap directly on my body including my balls and asshole. And I do my face last to build character.
I thought everyone used a washcloth (or a loofah, etc., if you prefer).
No for me. Using a washcloth seems very unhygienic to me I mean people actually use a washcloth in their pits, groin and ass AND they wash their face with it too!
I’m a bar on the body man.
I’ve had only one white friend who used them, all the black families I’ve showered with used them. Never showered with Koreans or Middle Easterners. Only Latinos I’ve showered with didn’t use them. That’s all the data I’ve collected on washcloths to date
My husband just rubs the bar of soap on his skin — no washcloth or loofa or anything.
When I was growing up, I didn’t use a washcloth. I sudsed up soap in my hands and rubbed the suds on my skin. When I lived in France, I started using gants de toilette (bath gloves), which made perfect sense to me. Now I use a washcloth because we don’t have gants de toilette in the States.
I have a little drawstring bag made out of scrubby loofah material. The soap bar goes in the bag and works up a nice lather as I run it over my body.
I never use a washcloth in the shower. I will use one on the rare occasion when I take a bath, but mostly just for water not soap. When I’m done bathing, the washcloth will go straight in the laundry—it doesn’t get reused without being laundered.
Washcloths actually gross me out because they stay wet in the shower and grow germs. I scrub with an ~18cmX18cm exfoliating cloth that doesn’t retain moisture and wash it with my clothes every week or so. I replace it when it gets less rough and scrubby. I dry my hair and face with a smaller towel than my body, in part because my hair is dyed a blue that occasionally leeches off a bit with shampoo, and I try to keep the dye from bleeding off onto the main towel.
27M in South Carolina from North Carolina, suburban areas all my life:)
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Most people just use their hands and soap/body wash.
I’m of the opinion to be truly clean you need something slightly abrasive (washcloth, loofah, poof, body brush, sponge etc) to wash with. The difference with and without really show how much dead skin and dirt you are washing away. Your hand is not abrasive enough.
https://www.theroot.com/white-folks-still-arent-cleaning-themselves-with-washcl-1851631585
Here is some American context.
I use a loofa.
I use a washcloth to bathe with, but I don’t judge people who do not. Some people do claim it’s unhygienic to just use hands, but there’s still some friction happening with hands. Wash cloths just have more friction. Some people are just over the top about stuff and chronically online.
I don’t use a washcloth I use something different. But if you’re using a different washcloth each time, that is hygienic. Don’t reuse them. And it’s extremely weird if you just use your hands. Ew I doubt you’re getting all your spots effectively. It’s like washing your dishes with just your hand.
I’m in the US, and we often have small maybe 6 or 8 inch squares of fairly scrubby fabric. I only use hands on my face, but use a washcloth or a poof (nylon netting gathered up in a poofy ball and tied off with a cord that you can hang. I have different cleansers for my face and body, all of them gels. I have one large towel used to dry myself starting with my face then arms, legs, torso, and ending with genital area.I use a second smaller towel to wrap y hair up so it will soak up water while I am doing the rest of my morning routine.
I wouldn’t necessarily call it unhygienic to use hands only, I just find the scrubby nature of either a washcloth or poof gets me more awake, and does a nice job of exfoliation..
I use Korean scrubby cloths for my face and body. Amazing exfoliation. It’s freakishly gross how much skin comes off the first time around.
Black Americans usually use a washcloth or something to wash with. Hands doesn’t cut it for us. We also moisturize our bodies and use spf daily.
Yes I use them with every shower to exfoliate my skin and clean my face and bits. So does my husband. I just don’t feel as clean unless I do.
I use soap and some exfoliating gloves to scrub away dead skin but no washcloth. I do remember as a young girl that when we would take baths at my grandparents’ house, my grandma always made us use a washcloth to clean our privates because we weren’t supposed to touch them with just our hands. This was in the early 80s, so a long time ago.
I don’t because there isn’t much need most of the time, on the other hand, my son has a scrubby thing that he uses because he gets dirty where he works.
I prefer washcloths because I feel very itchy if I dont scrub off the top layer of skin
I use wash cloths. For years, I thought people scrubbing themselves with a bar of soap was a soap commercial thing.
I use a wash cloth. I don’t consider it unhygienic not to use one, but I always have and always will.
Washing with your hands is caveman activities. Loofahs are more comfy, but I just don’t like washing myself over and over with something that doesn’t go through the washing machine and never fully dries. I used various loofahs for years, but I’ve been washcloth exclusive for quite some years. I’ve never washed with the bar or my hands, nor do I know anyone who does.
I don’t use a washcloth but I do use a flat body scrubber and then 2-3 times a week I use a Korean scrub towel after dry brushing before the shower.
I personally don’t feel effectively clean just using my hands and soap, I don’t think all the dirt and dead skin cells get removed, but if I’m sick I’ll do it.
I use a washcloth. My wife uses just her hands.
Wash clothes are very common for women especially. & most men. If there is someone who doesn’t use one it’s probably a man. You start with your face. The cloth helps exfoliate. Work your way down. Drying it Out & let it dry before it goes in dirty clothes so that it doesn’t mildew.
I never use a washcloth, just soap and water. However, one time I visited my aunt in montana, and the water was so hard that I would definitely need a washcloth if I were to visit her again, because my skin just wasn’t getting clean.
Most people I know use a cheap puffy “loofah” made of plastic, although I have heard of people who are “team washcloth” and insist that washcloths are the only hygienic way.
I’ve noticed a few “team washcloth” tik toks though.
Soap is soap is soap. As long as you’re using it properly. If washing your hands long enough with just soap is enough to keep clean then why isn’t washing your body with just your hands be enough.
That being said I use a loofah.
Something other than hands helps get more scrubbing action in if you need it while also letting soap used go further.
I was a bar soap and hands guy until my wife decided for me that I’m not to use bar soap anymore and switch to liquid body wash. Now I’m a body wash and wash cloth guy. They get the same results
Loofah daily (replaced monthly). Washcloth my face once in a while to exfoliate.
Okay…. I’m just now finding out some of my fellow Americans aren’t scrubbing themselves with anything other than their hand….
I use a rag every time and it’s one use only. Y’all just raw dogging your butt cracks with a hand?
I just use washclothes when I need to wipe my face off after washing it with face wash at the sink or after shaving to wipe off any excess shaving cream. For showers I use either body wash with a silicone scrub pad or just use an exfoliating bar soap directly on my skin.
I genuinely don’t think most Americans use them, though they’re definitely a thing. I personally like to loofahs but not every single time I shower
A washcloth or the British call it a face cloth is very useful for really cleaning the skin and exfoliating the skin in addition to removing oil and dirt.
You looked it up on tik to???
I use washcloths but sometimes when one is not available, using the hands is fine. I don’t consider it unhygienic.
I use a sponge.
I use a washcloth down there and a scrubby on the rest of my body. I’m Black and not using a washcloth was never gonna happen for me.
The washcloth is replaced frequently and not just sitting around.
Most of us don’t
I just use a bar of soap and my hands.