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Have you ever met a touring cyclist who has completely given up on personal hygiene? You know the type. Yellow teeth, bad breath, blotchy skin, matted hair, clumpy beard. Enough fingernail dirt to start a community garden. The dirtbag biker.<\/p>\nHave you ever met a touring cyclist who has completely given up on personal hygiene? You know the type. Yellow teeth, bad breath, blotchy skin, matted hair, clumpy beard. Enough fingernail dirt to start a community garden. The dirtbag biker.<\/p>\n
Truth is, it’s easy to descend into dirtbagdom, especially if you’re touring solo. If nobody is there to see you (or smell you), you may not even notice your slow slide into slovenliness.<\/p>\n
I’m not judging. On my solo tours I’ve skipped washing for days in a row. But that was for lack of water (and, yes, also some laziness). Mostly, I try to keep clean.<\/p>\n
Some cyclists, on the other hand, are proud<\/i> to be dirtbags. I once met a proud dirtbag couple riding Route 40 in Patagonia who told me, “We don’t worry about washing; that’s what river crossings are for.” Fortunately, it was so windy I couldn’t smell them, because all the rivers were dry, so they couldn’t have been doing much “washing.”<\/p>\n OK, I’ll comply, but how long may I use the shower? I found this inelegant translation in a Bolivian bathroom.<\/p><\/div>\n No offence to any dirtbags reading this, by the way. You’re all nice people. But you have to admit, you are<\/i> a little smelly.<\/p>\n In all seriousness, there are good reasons to stay clean on the road. Let’s look at a few of them\u2026<\/p>\n First, you might as well. You’ve got plenty of time, now that you’re a nomad. Surely, you can spare fifteen minutes a day to wash. I know it’s harder in dry areas where you need to preserve water, or in cold areas where washing means shivering. But it always feels great once you’re dirt-free and your tent is set up and all that’s left to do is enjoy your dinner and crawl into a nice, clean sleeping bag, unsoiled.<\/p>\n Second, you’ll make a better impression. Even in dirt-poor areas people are usually clean and presentable. It may seem it incongruous that people living in a slum with open sewers or a in a mud-hut village with dirt floors would bother to maintain a high level of personal hygiene, yet it’s almost always the case that they do. So when you roll into their midst looking like a Wookie and smelling like old gym socks you risk offending them.<\/p>\n Then there are the medical reasons for keeping clean.<\/p>\n Harmful flora and fauna can’t be avoided completely, but they can be controlled by cleaning your body and food. My own body has hosted intestinal parasites, skin fungi, and even burrowing insects (disgusting, I know). I can only imagine how much worse it would’ve been if I were more of a dirtbag.<\/p>\n Fast food, altiplano style: alpaca with boiled egg, potato, and sauce. Purchased from a walking vendor at a toll gate at 4,300m. I have no idea how ‘clean’ this food was.<\/p><\/div>\n This brings me to a common misconception that persists in travel circles \u2013 the idea that you can eat and drink anything because that way you “build up a tolerance” for endemic germs, as local people do. Some travellers go so far as to actually avoid<\/i> washing their hands and food, believing they’ll “become immune.”<\/p>\n This idea makes several shaky assumptions: That tolerance and immunity are the same; that it’s possible to immunize yourself to anything by abandoning hygiene; that you needn’t control the quantity of germs you ingest; or the amount of time you expose yourself to the germs in one environment before travelling to the next.<\/p>\n Shakiest of all, it assumes that local people don’t suffer from water- and food-borne illnesses.<\/p>\n The truth is, people in poor areas regularly suffer from diarrhoea, stomach illness, skin infections, worms, and other parasites. The fact that you see only healthy locals simply means that you’re not seeing the sick ones (the sick are in bed, recovering). And they get sick despite growing up around germs that your body is experiencing for the first time.<\/p>\n Parasites and pathogens are part of travel and if you’re keeping clean there’s no need to obsess about them. Fortunately, there are many strategies for keeping clean. Let’s look at a few of them.<\/p>\n \u2022 Wash every day. Change your clothes every day. Being lazy with hygiene comes at a cost.<\/p>\n \u2022 Pack clothes made from quick-drying synthetic material. Sure, also pack your favourite clothes made from organic cotton, or hemp, or bamboo, or sawdust, or whatever, but save wearing them for when you have access to proper laundry facilities. Biking clothes should be easy to clean and quick to dry.<\/p>\n \u2022 You only need two sets of biking clothes. Rotate them daily. Hang damp laundry inside your tent at night if it’s raining; your body’s heat will start drying them. If they aren’t dry by morning, hang them on top of your back panniers on the next day’s ride. Unless it’s raining they’ll be dry before lunch.<\/p>\n \u2022 Shampoo is good for washing more than hair. It lathers up with very little water so it’s good for washing your whole body when water is scarce. Plus it makes excellent laundry soap. Instead of taking different soaps for different jobs, consider saving space with one bottle of shampoo.<\/p>\n![\"OK,](\"https:\/\/elpedalero.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Uso-de-ducha.jpg\")
<\/a>REASONS TO KEEP CLEAN<\/h2>\n
<\/a>STRATEGIES FOR KEEPING CLEAN<\/h2>\n