Personal Hygiene Lesson Plans

Welcome to an exploration of personal hygiene! Before we dive into the specific topics and lessons of personal hygiene, let’s begin getting onto the same page about what personal hygiene is, how it impacts our health and daily life, and how it relates to us as students and young adults. 

What is Personal Hygiene? 

Hygiene is the conditions or practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease, especially through cleanliness. 

And we can take hygiene and apply it to food, environment, home, and more. For example, food hygiene would be how we prepare, cook, and store food to prevent food from going bad and spreading illness. Or home hygiene is how we could disinfect and clean parts of our house to prevent bacteria and germs from building up.

With these examples, we can begin to understand what we mean by personal hygiene. Personal hygiene is the behaviors and steps that we can take as individuals to maintain health and prevent disease for ourselves, and the people around us. The primary goal of personal hygiene is to be healthy! 

Personal hygiene refers to things like washing and cleaning your hands, mouth, body, and more. We will explore all the different elements of personal hygiene in future lessons! 

Why is Personal Hygiene Important? 

Personal hygiene is important because it can keep us healthy and prevent disease. Without personal hygiene, we put ourselves at risk of different health issues both short and long term (and small and big problems). 

For example, if a person doesn’t regularly shower/bath, they can increase the risk of different skin irritations or infections. And while a rash might not seem like a major life-altering problem, rather just an annoyance, we can still reduce the risk through personal hygiene.

Without proper regular personal hygiene, we also open ourselves up to bigger issues. For example, when it comes to oral hygiene, people who don’t regularly brush and floss can have major dental issues that are both costly and painful.

While these are just two examples, we can begin to understand the importance of personal hygiene for our health both short and long term. 

Personal Hygiene and Social Interactions 

While the primary focus of personal hygiene is how it relates to our health, the role of personal hygiene in our social and personal lives are deeply connected. 

Many of the steps to personal hygiene also help support people in a world filled with social interactions. By taking regular steps to support personal hygiene, we can also improve the smell of our breath, body odor, and more. While good personal hygiene doesn’t raise many eyebrows, the opposite does. People who fail to take care of personal hygiene can find themselves in difficult and uncomfortable social situations, causing those around them to be uncomfortable. 

Long story short, as we become young adults in school, work, and social settings, taking care of our personal hygiene is important to functioning within society. By tackling bad breath, body odor, and more, we are putting ourselves in a position to operate and exist within society whether it is school, social settings, home life, and more. 

Personal Hygiene and The World You Live In 

These lessons are meant to serve as a general understanding of personal hygiene. There is no one size fits all solution to taking care of yourself and your hygiene.

Personal hygiene in a lot of ways is a chance to explore your interests and opportunity to choose your own adventure. From different types of soaps, toothpastes, deodorants, hair and nail styles and more, personal hygiene is a chance for self expression. 

But, personal hygiene is deeply connected to family, money, resources, culture, and other factors that might not always be in your control. It is important to learn about the basics of personal hygiene and then apply them to your life. For example, you might not get a say or choice in the type of soap, detergent, or other personal hygiene products in your house. Or because of your schedule or situation, your personal hygiene plan might be different from your peers. All of this is okay! 

Lastly, personal hygiene is for anyone and everyone. Notice that throughout these lessons we don’t talk about things like race, ethnicity, or gender. Yes, these things might dictate our preferences on personal hygiene, but can all come to the topic of personal hygiene knowing we are all humans that have basic needs for health and hygiene. 

That is why we keep this high level. If you have more specific questions, talk to someone that you know and trust to help further explore personal hygiene and how it relates to you as an individual! For example, taking care of your hair and scalp is important for everyone, but it may look very different depending on what type of hair you have. Seeking out salons, barber shops, or mentors could be helpful in understanding how to take care of your hair.

In conclusion, learning about personal hygiene gives us all an opportunity to learn about the basics of health and wellness, while also finding the right fit for our personal lives. 

Let’s Be Serious…Personal Hygiene Is Kind Of Funny!  

As we start to dive into personal hygiene, let’s all prepare ourselves to read and watch things that might seem sort of silly or funny. For example, when we talk about showering, we have a dedicated paragraph on our butts. BUT, while personal hygiene might seem a little funny or awkward to learn and talk about, remember that these elements of personal hygiene support our health, wellness, and social interactions on a daily basis. So let’s do our best to take a SERIOUS look at what might feel like a silly subject. 

And you might be asking, I brush my teeth every day so why do I have to learn about it? Even if things like washing your hands or brushing your teeth seem like a no-brainer, we are still going to talk about them so we can all get on the same page about personal hygiene 101. Because as you grow up from young adults into the “real world” it is essential to have a basic understanding of why and how to take care of your bodies. So, let’s dive in!