After a long day’s work you want nothing more to get into bed and rest your head on your pillow. The ideal pillow offers good neck support and can promote a good night’s sleep. Seeing as you spend most of your night with your head resting on the pillow, it makes sense that it can accumulate a lot of unwanted dirt and bacteria. Here’s why you should change your pillowcase at least every other day.
Reason #1: Pillowcases accumulate dirt
We spend a good 6-8 hours lying in bed, this makes up roughly a third of our day. Your hair is good at holding on to dirt especially if you rock longer hair. Dirt includes pollutants from the environment, dust, as well as dead skin cells which are shed from the face and scalp. All these contaminants fall onto your pillowcase making it a breeding ground for bacteria, yuck.
While it can be difficult to know how often exactly you should change your pillowcase, we recommend doing it every other day. This holds particularly true if you suffer from acne and blackheads. Make sure you’re turning it often too!
Reason #2: Pillowcases absorb sweat and oils
Throughout the night your scalp secretes oils to keep the hair nourished and healthy. If it’s particularly warm, you’re also more prone to sweating and this will be directly transferred onto the pillow. Now imagine you’re rolling your face around this dirt all night, doesn’t sound pleasant right?
This oil and moisture is not only a breeding ground for bacteria, but it can also get on your face and clog your pores. Changing your sheets and pillowcase often might improve the condition of your skin, especially if you’re prone to breaking out.
Reason #3: We shed around 50-100 hairs a day
You can guess where they’re going; some on the bathroom floor, some outside, but mostly on your pillow. You don’t want to be rubbing your face in your own hair all night, best to change those covers.
Reason #4: Sleep on your side or front?
A significant advantage to those that sleep on their back is that their face has minimum contact with the pillow. This not only prevents dirt and bacteria from getting on the face, but it can also prevent premature aging. Sleeping on your front or side puts stress on the delicate facial skin and can cause premature aging, and also disturb the natural spinal curve.
Think about it, your face is in contact with the pillow all night. If you’re not changing the pillow cases often everything on that pillow is being transferred to your skin. Gross.
Reason #5: Changing your pillowcase often can help clear up your skin
As mentioned previously, by changing your pillowcases often you’re making sure there aren’t any oils or dirt which can work to clog pores. It’s these clogged pores that lead to blackheads and breakouts. We always say the start to any good skincare regime is practising good hygiene; changing sheets often and refraining from touching your face being the big players.
To sum it up
You should change your pillow cases/covers every other day, especially if you suffer from breakouts, blackheads or other skin conditions.