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CLASS OF '84
The Dirty Little Secret About Bathing
Like to sing in the shower?
Better substitute jingles for those
arias—for your skin’s sake. Americans are "personal-hygiene
maniacs," frets Dr. Barney Kenet CGS’84, a dermatological surgeon
at New York Hospital/ Cornell University Medical 
Center
and skin-care consultant to many celebrities. Kenet crusades against overcleansing—which
can lead to a dry, itchy epidermis—and on behalf of common-sense
skin care in How to Wash Your Face (Simon & Schuster), cowritten
with his wife, Patricia Lawler. "Washing, shaving, moisturizing and
even the mundane task of drying your skin," he argues, "have
a significant impact on the way you look."
Kenet
recommends, for example, that people reduce shower lengths to five minutes
(women typically average 12), lower the water temperature and forgo bathing
altogether at least one day a week. If the idea of abstinence makes you
sweat, Kenet assures the reader that soap and a gentle washcloth taken
to a few odor-prone spots will suffice between soaks. People over age
60 need to bathe only three times a week, he adds.
His
book debunks a number of youth-promising products sold at cosmetic counters
and delves into the ways that stress, allergies, nutrition and the environment
can affect skin condition. One beauty product you can’t do
without, Kenet says, is sunscreen. As founder and president of the American
Melanoma Foundation, he extols the skin- and life-saving benefits of its
daily use.
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Copyright 1999 The Pennsylvania Gazette Last modified 10/28/99