I love baths — as ritual, as reset, as heat therapy, to improve circulation and blood flow, to slow heart rate, to repose….
For years I kept a gigantic jar of Epsom salts by the bathtub, laced with my favorite essential oils. I would scoop in gigantic cup-fulls, and disappear for a while, emerging to dryer skin (!) that I then followed with a generous coat of coconut oil. I am fairly stubborn and even though this ritual wasn’t perfect (so many oil-stained linen sheets!) it was mine, and I loved it for years.
On occasion I would splurge on beautiful packaged mineral-rich salts, or go back to the old favorite “Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath” (that smells of wintergreen and turns the bathwater mustard yellow)— but the chloride salts (even if meticulously sourced) dried my skin even worse than Epsom, and the formulas often left a mess in the tub to deal with later. Don’t even get me started on bubble baths.
It was in the bath that I realized that there was a missing opportunity to care for the skin during this ritualized time. I studied cellular function, how the barrier works, and what happens to skin cells when immersed in hot water, and what would truly be effective during a bath, and not lost down the drain.
I started to think of a bath as an opportunity to supplement my skin topically, an extension of all the supplements I was taking internally - but most likely were not benefitting the outer layers of skin.
Most importantly, I also came to understand that dehydrated skin is predisposed to damage, the kind you get every day through UV exposure and pollution. In addition, dehydrated skin is NOT remedied with oils.
The SUNSPOTS forming on my arms, legs and chest might just be accelerated by my daily baths.
MY REALIZATION
My daily baths were perhaps causing my skin more harm than good.