Personal Hygiene

[Jewelsy]

I'm not really feeling so "fresh" sometimes and I want to know the best way I can "clean" myself down there.

[Snorkmaiden]

I'll assume you are not talking about your feet
Water is the best option for cleaning one's genitals. If you like, you can also use a bit of soap on the external parts, but make sure it's a mild one.
But using nothing but water works fine too, and since it's so safe you can do it several times a day if need be.

[Heather]

To be clear, the vagina -- if that's the body part you are asking about -- is a self-cleaning organ. So, unless someone has an infection, it's as "fresh" as it gets, all by itself, and feeling "not so fresh" is likely not about anything being wrong with your health or body, but about ideas people often have about vulvas and vaginas.

[Jewelsy]

Wow thanks Heather! I do feel a bit pressured to live up to the standards people set for how women should "display" themselves. Regardless of that, I'm also worried about getting an infection down there if I'm not clean enough. I take showers about 2-3 times a week because my hair is very fragile and I straighten it and dye it, and doing that every day would certainly damage my hair even more. However, I do take baths about every other day and just put my hair up and wash my body. I just want to feel clean and fresh every day and sometimes I don't.

[Heather]

It is okay to bathe -- including per your genitals -- every other day or so. But as someone with a buttload of hair (so getting it wet is a big pain in the tucas since it takes a gazillion years to dry), I can also suggest getting a shower cap if you *want* to bathe daily.

But genital infections aren't likely to happen because of bathing every other day, nor even because of not cleaning often enough (which doesn't sound like an issue for you, anyway). Again, the vagina is a self-cleaning organ, and STIs are mostly about not protecting yourself with barriers, and infections like yeast infections or bacterial infections are more about overall, general health than about not washing enough. In other words, someone could wash all they want, but if the conditions were such for a yeast or bacterial infection, that'd happen regardless, and washing wouldn't do a thing.

But I do also want to add that infections like that aren't anything anyone needs to stress about. For sure, they're annoying if and when they happen, because being itchy sucks, as does dealing with discharges that smell funky. But just like, say getting zits (which is about infected pores) is just a thing that happens to most people at least sometimes, or getting a cold virus is, the same goes here: there's nothing that's any different about genital infections, they're just another kind of illness, and not a thing for anyone to feel ashamed about, or like getting one would be the end of the world.

(Btw, I left you a response yesterday to your more complex question, so I'd be happy to talk with you more about it today, if you like, either on the boards here where we started, or in our chat service, which is also open today. )