The Autism Hygiene Rule Book

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Post unwritten rules of hygiene here.
Italics=women only
Bold=men only

I'll start:
You don't just have to shave; you have to do it often enough. You have to shave your armpits at least twice a week--plus whenever you wear a tank top--and your legs at least once a week.

Showering every other day is fine when you're a little kid, but by the time you're in middle school, you have to shower every day.

How do you know when your hair is messy? When it looks messier than everyone else's hair.

Make a mental note of the amount of time it takes from when you shower, to when you can smell yourself. Divide that in half and never let yourself go longer than that period of time without a shower.

Showering is not a problem for me. I can sense my level of cleanness. I have to shower every morning or my skin has that sticky/grimy feeling I can't tolerate. I also have to shower immediately after exercise.

My mom would kill me if I took a shower every day. Or shaved my armpits twice a week. It's a good thing I have about the slowest growing hair in the world and don't get dirty quickly or sweat a lot. I have never met anyone who hates taking showers as much as me. Taking a shower is a task for me.

I take a shower everyday. I used to take baths until i relised i was bathing in my own dirt
in the summertime I take two showers, hey, I need to feel zestfully clean, and the sun is mostley to blame

Shower 2... Maybe 3 times a week. Change clothing as I have energy and/or care. Try to change undies every day but don't sweat it too much if not.

Applies to both:


Wear clean clothes, keep them washed at least once a week unless they get dirty, wash them before a week is up

Brush your teeth twice a day

Always wash your hands after you use the toilet

Always wash your hands before cooking and eating

(I shave my arm pits every time I shower every day and I shave my legs too and pelvis, I also wash my hair. Sometimes I shower every other day)

I shower every 1-2 days but don't wash my hair every day as my hairdresser told me it strips your hair of essential oils and drys it out.

You should clean your teeth twice a day but sometimes I only do it once

I put clean clothes on every day, they have to smell fresh when I put them on (mY e that's a sensory thing I don't know)

It's very important to wash your hands a couple of times a day as this is where most of the germs accumulate (I'm not OCD about germs or anything but dont like grubby hands)

If I don't cleanse my face twice a day and moisterise I get quite bad acne.

For both genders:

Take care of facial hair (if you do it makes you look younger) and if you don't want pimples don't touch your face all the time lol

I don't see the point in showering everyday, if I'm still clean from the previous day then that's ok for me. I also wear the same clothes for about 2-3 days in a row. If they are still clean, why not?

I used to be terrible with hygiene... I hated taking baths and showers, and having to deal with such tasks.
I dressed in the same clothes every day, as I was comfortable that way. I suppose it is possible I was depressed.
Now I shower daily, mainly because my hair gets grotty during the night (which might be because I dont wash my bedding as often as I ought to).
I don't tend to wash my clothes as frequently as others though (except underwear).
I wear deodorant everyday and I do try and shave my armpits, but my legs I tend to not bother with that often.

Both genders:

Wash your hands after going to the bathroom (and especially before touching food).

Both genders:
I coax myself to take baths by keeping my favourite magazines by the bathtub and only allowing myself to read them while in the bath. This makes baths more tolerable for me.

Both genders:
I can't take showers at all because the prickly spray of water on top of me, as well as the noise and steam, is sensory overload for me. I feel like I'm standing under Niagara Falls!

Mostly women, but some men too:
I only buy myself toiletries that I love the aroma of, because I hate bad perfumes. On the other hand, sweet aromas such as vanilla, fruit, coconut or honey tend to make me feel happy and relaxed. If my moisturizer didn't smell like sugar-plums, I don't think I'd ever use it, even though my skin is so dry it cracks.