Hygiene: who are the 24% of French people who do not wash every day?
Do you have to wash every day? If the question still divides dermatologists, a good part of France does not intend to succumb to this modern habit: a quarter of the population does not carry out a complete daily wash and 37% of French people do not take a shower every days. And the figure is even higher than 8 years ago. In 2012, only 20% of French people did not wash daily. However, there has been a notable improvement in hygiene since the 1950s, a period during which only half of women washed daily (2). A behavior mainly attributable to a lack of access to basic sanitary comfort: only 51% of French women then had access to hot water and 10% to a bathroom.
But today, when almost all French people have a bathroom (97%) and a shower (88%) in their homes, who are those who do not wash daily?
Men
We thought the cliché hackneyed. However, men are less attentive to their personal hygiene than women... except for their hair!
They are over-represented among those who wash only twice a week
19.5% of French people wash only twice a week. Behind this figure, gendered behavior: the figure drops to 15% for women and peaks at 24% for men.
They wash their hands less often
The same is true for washing hands after going to the toilet: only 68% of men clean them systematically compared to 75% of women - and 31% and 42% respectively after using public transport.
They change their underwear less often
If 94% of women change their panties every day (against 17% in 1951), only 73% of men have adopted this habit for their underpants or underpants. 21% only change them... twice a week.
But they wash their hair more often!
Significant disparities which are however reversed concerning the frequency of hair washing: 3 out of 10 men clean it every day, compared to 8% of women - 62% preferring to shampoo it twice a week (and 77% of them less than once a week in 1951).
Also to discover: Generation X, Millennials, GenZ: how the beauty habits of French women have evolved
Seniors and isolated people
Behind hygiene problems sometimes hides a grim reality. There is indeed an over-representation of people over 65 and of people who are geographically, professionally and socially isolated among the French who do not wash completely daily.
Seniors
Only 41% of people over 65 take a shower every day. Among seniors too, there is a clear difference between men and women: the figure drops to 36% for the former and climbs to 46% for the latter. Moreover, only 50% of senior men change their underwear daily.
isolated people
Only 59% of rural people, 60% of unemployed people and 60% of women who never receive anyone in their home wash completely every day.
Lack of hygiene, a factor of exclusion
4 out of 10 French people have already stopped seeing someone because of their lack of personal hygiene. A trend that can also be found concerning the interior and appearance: 31% of inhabitants of France have already cut off relations with a person around them who does not take care of their home and 29% of their clothes.
(1) Survey conducted by Ifop for Diogène France, an unsanitary cleaning company specializing in accommodation for victims of Diogenes syndrome, with a sample of 2,005 people, representative of the French population aged 18 and over, by self-administered questionnaire online from January 31 to February 03, 2020.
(2) According to an Ifop survey published in Elle in 1951.
