Practical tips for skin and foot hygiene

Foot and skin hygiene

Fungi lives all around you - in the air, soil, water and plants. Some even live naturally on your skin and can either be beneficial or harmful. Because they’re so hard to avoid, fungal infections are very common. Harmful fungi can thrive on your skin, especially when your immune system is weakened.

The most common types of fungal infections include: athlete’s foot (alipunga), fungal nail infections, jock itch (hadhad), ringworm (buni) and other yeast infections. These conditions are contagious, as fungi can pass from one part of your body to another through scratching, and from person to person. The latter occurs not just through direct physical contact, but also through sharing clothes or towels and contact with contaminated surfaces and objects. That’s why maintaining good personal hygiene is so important in preventing fungal skin infections.¹

Good hygiene practices can help you to reduce your risk of fungal infections, stop recurring infections and also prevent them from spreading. It's good to remember that fungi thrive in warm and damp environments, so keeping your skin clean and dry is the first and most important prevention tip.

If your hygiene is poor, e.g. if your feet sweat a lot or if you don’t dry yourself thoroughly after a shower or bath, you can be more at risk of catching a fungal skin infection.

Wearing clean clothes can help to prevent these fungal skin infections. The same is also true for sheets that collect moisture as you sweat during the night – change them regularly to deny fungi a hotbed where they can thrive.

Fungi are common in communal changing areas like swimming pools, gyms, showers, and spaces that are exposed to constant humidity and heat. To prevent catching fungal skin infections in these places, it’s always advisable to be extra careful. For example, you might want to make sure you always wear flip flops in communal showers. Furthermore, you should never share towels. Instead, always bring your own towel that you wash and dry at home after use in a communal area.²

Look after your feet carefully to prevent or stop recurring fungal infections like athlete’s foot.

Follow these simple tips:

Shoes and socks:

• Choose socks that keep away perspiration. Cotton socks are best.

• Avoid shoes that keep your feet from breathing, or those that presses on your nails.

• Wear sandals or flip-flops in shower rooms at gyms and pools to avoid infection.

• Take your shoes off at home and air them out, as well as let your feet "breathe"³

Foot and nail care:

• Avoid using the same nail tools for normal and infected nails.
• Look after your toenails by keeping them trimmed and clean.
• If you have them, bring your own nail tools like scissors, clippers, nail filers, shaving tools and buffers to your salon.
• Make sure that tools at your nail salon are properly cleaned and sterilized after each individual use.⁴