Everyone touches their face - a lot. According to the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, people may touch their faces as often as 23 times an hour, and every time that happens you are accidentally transferring things from your hands to near your ripe-for-infection mucous membranes (i.e. your mouth, nose, eyes.)
If there is a current outbreak of something infectious in your community, like, say, a pandemic coronavirus or seasonal flu - the need to keep your hands off of your face is even more important.
Read on for 8 tips to keep your hands off your face and those germs out of your body (as best you can.)
Maybe you are a chronic nail biter, a dry lip peeler, or you are constantly readjusting your swoopy side-swept bang. Think about why you tend to touch your face and do all that you can to get away from those habits.
Paint on some anti-nail biting nail polish to discourage nibling, keep your lips hydrated with balm to prevent dry lips, and trim your bangs or wear your hair back if you are a constant hair adjuster.
A lot of face touching is subconscious, so you may not even notice just how often you do it.
Ask your friends or family members to point out if you are touching your face to start realizing when and why you touch your face, and you can return the favor if they want. Bringing it to your attention when you are touching your face is a great start to slowing down your hand-to-face contact.
This one may feel a little awkward at first, but if you tend to touch your face a lot while watching TV, a movie, sitting in class, or in a work meeting, sitting on your hands can be a good way to keep those hands out of the way.
After a little while, the weirdness of sitting on your hands will likely wear off and you will have a good way to know that you will not be absentmindedly touching your face.
This tip is more for if there is a current outbreak, like the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, where there are already recommendations to wear a face mask while out in public.
You are more likely to come in contact with viruses when you are out and about in public areas, and since germs can settle on surfaces, items, handles, and railings that you may need to touch, it is even more important to now not bring those germs to your face.
If you are already wearing a face mask while in public, it is much more difficult to accidentally touch your face since it is all covered up.
Bottom line: wearing a face mask will always give you a barrier between your hands and your face.
Having a few irritating pimples on your face may make it harder to stop yourself from popping and picking at the area, so doing something about your breakouts may help you boost your skin’s appearance as well as help you keep your hands off your face.
In addition, touching your face too often may even be a culprit to why those pimples are popping up in the first place - making less hand-to-face contact a win-win.
Strut Acne Formula is a potent pharmaceutical-grade acne cream that only needs to be applied once daily.
Have a free online visit with our U.S. licensed doctors today to see if Strut Acne Formula can clear up your skin and help you keep those hands off.
If you are a chronic face toucher while you are on your computer, or hanging out on the couch, put up some well-placed sticky notes as a visual reminder in those areas to keep your hands off your face.
Something a simple as “Don’t touch your face”, “Hands off!”, or even a little doodle of a hand will probably do the trick to remind you to break the habit.
Switch up your hand lotion or sanitizer to something that has a noticeable (yet pleasant) scent, so that if your hands wander into the vicinity of your nose, you will get a little smell reminder to keep your hands away.
Right now some people are wearing gloves when they are out, which is great for avoiding picking up a virus on your hands, but it is also a good way to avoid putting your hands on your face.
Someone who will absent-mindedly put an ungloved hand on their face will likely avoid doing so with a glove (we hope!)
Having gloves on your hands instantly switches up how your hands feel and changes what you do with them, so if you are out and want to avoid face touching - gloving up is hard to beat.
While it is a little odd to wear gloves while you are just hanging around your house, it may be a good way to retrain yourself to not touch your face at home if you wear them for a few days.
Avoiding touching your face is a great way to stop absentmindedly moving viruses, dirt, and germs to your face near your mucus membranes.
But, just avoid touching your face is not a substitute for good hand hygiene including regular washing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
Mix in these tips to ditch that face touching habit while keeping up your normal hand hygiene measures for your best defense against germs.
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