How do you stay clean?

Jump in a lake or stream every other day or so. Submerge head.

That's clean enough for me for.

If I were through-hiking one of the greats, I'd shower in town every few weeks, and do laundry.

…

I take cues from my cats and the original Cat Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer, oh baby), and give myself a tongue bath. It works for them, why not for me? Granted, the logistics of licking me nether regions is both difficult in practice and…. conceptually doesn't quite sit right with me either.

More seriously, i rarely get to get out for longer trips, but if i were, i would get a flax linen or hemp fabric, small face cloth. (I use a linen towel and bathrobe in regular everyday life, and these stay pretty "fresh" for a long time.). As an alternative, a polygiene treated small poly towel/face cloth would work well too, but can build up oils in same, eventually leading to some stink via non microbial causes.

That with a little good soap, some water, will go a long way. For extra freshness and antimicrobial properties, one could throw in a little (a pinch of) borax powder (dissolved in plenty of water!).

The last semi long trip i did, i *****trimmed***** my lower fro down (don't shave it completely, please just don't), as well as shaved my head shortly prior to said trip.

Piggy backing off of Roger's post a bit, besides smoke, i would imagine that fresh'ish ash from a fire can be used as a good antimicrobial/deodorizer (after all, one can make a kind of lye with just wood ash and water), as well as a good UV protector/sun screen. However, being high ph on average (especially from hard woods?), you wouldn't want to use it too much or too often–could overly irritate one's skin.

I've washed my hands with ash and water many times.

If it's too cold to swim, try wetting down a cotton bandanna and wiping yourself off. And it's easy to pour water over your head to wash your hair. You could warm the water up with a stove or on the fire if it's cold enough for that to be a problem.

+1 to jumping in lakes, and/or Roger's squirt bottle plus a bandana as a washcloth with a drop of biodegradable soap (100 ft away from the lakes or streams) for face, pits. If on a longer trip I'll use the squirt bottle, maybe a cooking pot filled with water too, to wash my hair (again, away from any water sources) every 4 days or so, otherwise I don't worry about it. The "short hairs" etc. get washed daily with the squirt bottle/soap.

I don't bother with baby wipes; I feel like I'm probably just moving the dirt around with those more than getting rid of it. (edit: I also prefer not to use "disposables" on backpacking trips, or for that matter at home)

"I don't bother with baby wipes; I feel like I'm probably just moving the dirt around with those more than getting rid of it."

Yes and no depending, i think. There is a "technique" with baby wipes wherein you constantly fold over the prior used part of the wipe, while using on the same area of body. Course, one wipe will only go so far with this, which is why i prefer a wash cloth that you can reuse, rinse out well, etc. And linen (or hemp) is truly great for this purpose. It "can" get funky, but takes a lot for it to do so.

Justin, do you know where one could find a linen bandanna? Sounds more useful for that purpose.

No idea Justin–haven't searched for that–but i may search briefly in the near future. Would be pretty easy to make though, if one can sew or get someone to sew for them.

Did some quick searching.

Doesn't have to be linen. Hemp and linen are very similar in many ways. Here is a pre made hemp bandanna, though a bit pricey.

http://www.rawganique.com/graphics/HABA1.htm

> But in the drought south west, I have to haul my entire water for 2-3 days.

The desert Arabs used to 'wash' with sand – fine sand I guess. Only works when the sand is really dry, but maybe those are exactly the conditions in the SW?

Cheers

They’re not marketed as bandanas, but there are plenty of linen napkins that I imagine would fit the need.

I can't seem to find it, but I recently read an article about applying 'good' bacteria to your body in lieu of showering. Test subjects went for a month or more without showering. Went to office job and all their normal life. As I recall they did not get complaints about stinking. Stuff is being made by some start-up company.

somebody do a search, for some reason my google connection is down… strange

Billy

If you need to stay really clean bring along a Sea to Summit Pocket Shower, which can double as water tote/storage in camp. With a wood burning stove you can have unlimited hot water. A little Dr. Bronner's soap goes a long way. If you do this, make sure you shower in an area where the soap won't get washed back into any water supplies if it rains, etc.

Check out this article… perhaps some day we won't need soap to feel and smell fresh on a backpack trip…

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/magazine/my-no-soap-no-shampoo-bacteria-rich-hygiene-experiment.html

Duplicated Thread Here.

Good find Mike. Might be a little on the thicker side than typical bandanna type material though?

Some sort of cloth, a little Dr. Bronners, a little water and scrub away: just a basic sponge bath. If you want a "sink," cut the bottom off a milk jug. The weight is slight and you can stash stuff in it, so it takes no real room in a pack. The half gallon size makes a good storage solution for a sooty cook pot.

Having plenty of water is rarely a problem for my hikes, indeed too much water is more the issue. I do keep the gray water well away from water sources.

+1 on a dunk in a lake, minus any soap. A soak in a mountain lake is great on hot dirty feet. The fish might feel different about it :)

> +1 on a dunk in a lake, minus any soap. A soak in a mountain lake is great on hot
> dirty feet. The fish might feel different about it :)

Mountain lakes are often (very) short on nutrients. I have had tiny fish clustering around my feet eagerly looking for any discarded cells. Yes, I really do mean 'tiny' fish, not piranhas!

Cheers

Yak,

With your medical condition, I would use Hibiclens (Chlorhexidine Gluconate 4% solution) when washing at least once a week. I was hospitalized with a MRSA infection while hiking on the PCT this summer and will be using this product probably for the rest of my life. It is available at any large drug store in an 8oz bottle; consider repackaging in 1oz bottles and including it in resupply packages.

I never heard of hibiclens, I'll have to do some reading on it.

I don't like to get super stinky at the end of a 7 day hike, so I take measures to keep somewhat clean each day. I swim in lakes when possible, shooting for once a day, with clothes on (not socks). I use wet wipes on face, neck and pits before bed. I wear shirts and socks for one day, maybe two, then wash them in a dry bag with a tiny bit of soap, and rinse, dumping the water away from water sources. I take two shirts, and two pairs of socks, so when one is drying, I'm hiking in "clean" shirt and socks. So I wash a shirt and pair of socks each day or two, in the evening. Its no big deal.

After a few days I heat up a pot of water and use a microfiber face cloth to wash up with soap. I don't put the face cloth in the pot, I pour water out of the pot onto the face cloth, so there is no contamination of the cooking pot with soap.

What I am trying to avoid is the sleeping bag smelling so horrible that I stink myself out, which I have done in the past. I feel a lot better when I am clean.

"With your medical condition, I would use Hibiclens (Chlorhexidine Gluconate 4% solution) when washing at least once a week. I was hospitalized with a MRSA infection while hiking on the PCT this summer and will be using this product probably for the rest of my life."

Thanks everyone,but especially John for this tidbit of info.

I actually already have some of that stuff, though in a much weaker solution (0.12%) that my dentist has me was my mouth out with one week a month (it's horrible tasting).

A MRSA or some other nasty infection is exactly what I'm trying to avoid. I had that once on my leg. We caught it really early, and they ended up cutting it out. My kids call that scar my "bullethole".

Would you mind providing some detail on how you use the stuff for skin cleaning? Do you need to rinse, use paper towel/pack towel/baby wipe, etc?

Many thanks to all who've contributed!

I use the Hibiclens in the shower. After cleaning myself, I turn the water off, apply the product to my body from the neck down working it into my skin especially the arm pits. After a couple of minutes I rinse thoroughly. The directions say not for long term use and not for use on the groin. I was told to scrub with it weekly especially concentrating on the armpits and groin. It is a liquid that rinses off easily. It reduces the amount of bacteria on the skin reducing the chance that a scrape or wound gets infected. It is a broad based antimicrobial that kills the bacteria directly by destroying the cell walls. The product has a red dye in it that aids in telling where the product has been applied but the dye does not transfer to the skin. I have not gotten back to hiking yet but using this product should reduce and delay the onset of the biological soup that can form on the skin while hiking when daily bathing is not available.

I once went almost three months without bathing and while my clothing nearly rotted off my body I didn't die.