How to wash your face

I’m not kidding here. This really is an essay about how to wash your face. Let me explain.

Boys, you may not know this, but us girls are told from the time we’re wearing makeup that you MUST WASH YOUR FACE EVERY SINGLE NIGHT! Or else bad things will happen like YOUR SKIN WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BREATHE, and YOU WILL GET ZITS, and (we’re told later) YOUR SKIN WILL AGE PREMATURELY. Somehow men aren’t given these same dire warnings. I read once that shaving acts like exfoliation for men, so maybe that’s why they get off the hook so easily.

So true confession: it’s only within the last year or so that i’ve gotten into the regular habit of washing my face every night. (Are you running away shrieking now?) Yes, I’ve been that girl who lives dangerously, probably verging on needing a face transplant or whatever else super bad happens if you don’t wash your face at night.

A year ago I decided to tackle this anti-habit. First question was to ask why. Why don’t I wash my face? In my case it was that I didn’t like the feeling of water running down my arms as I splashed my face with water to rinse. And that splash move also makes the mirror spotty and causes it to need cleaning sooner rather than later. More frequent cleaning is nowhere near my “things I love” list. So it makes sense that something that feels unpleasant and creates more work would be something I didn’t do. But just because they do it that way on the commercials for skin care does not mean it’s the only way. Here, for the first time ever, I reveal the secret to washing your face.

Washclothes

Seems a little anti-climactic, doesn’t it? But yes, it’s washclothes. Get a whole bunch of cheap washclothes in pretty colors like these from Target. Keep them in your bathroom. Then in the evening, get one a little wet and put some facial cleanser on it. Rub it around on your face. Rinse the washcloth. Rub the rinsed washcloth around on your face. Put washcloth in the laundry.

I can’t say my new method has taken me from crypt-keeper to fresh as a daisy, but more evenings than not, I actually do wash my face.

P.S. If you’ve figured out how to do this and have done it your whole life, please do not share this here. I’m still basking in the afterglow of my amazing, took me 4 decades of my life to figure out but who’s counting habit.

---