Home in three days, don't wash!" is the message Napoleon Bonaparte is supposed to have sent to his wife Josephine after the battle of Marengo on 14 June 1800 which was 'une victoire politique' that secured his grip on power in the wake of his coup d’état the previous November.
He came undone fifteen years later at the Battle of Waterloo, but he may have been ahead of us when it came to bathing as recent studies have shown that too much of it can actually do more harm than good.
According to the Genetic Science Centre at the University of Utah (trust those clean-living Mormons), over-cleaning can damage the human microbiome – a collection of bacteria, viruses and other microbes that live in and on our body and are essential to our health.
While the research concludes that our Western overzealous, shampoo-scrubbed lifestyle significantly affects the human microbiome diversity, it could not tell us how often we should actually be showering.
I've decided to stick with the little Corsican's idea and limit my showers to Sundays and Wednesdays. Should you come and visit me on any other day, do yourself a favour and stand upwind from me.
