When I was young(er) and when it was time for bed, my Mum would tell me to go the bathroom, brush my teeth and wash my face. Then, she’d walk up behind me while the sink was filling to make sure it did it ‘right.’

As I look back, I realise that ‘right’ actually means ‘making any effort at all beyond splashing soap and water near my skin.’

Happily, I can now appreciate that Mum may have known some things. So, using the stuff she would yell at me as a reference point, here are the ‘things Mum knew about cleansing my skin that ended up being great advice.’

I was going to use that as the title, but it was waaaay too long.

“That’s not clean, get a new one!”

I hated going to bed, but somewhat counterintuitively, I also hated all the things that delayed me going to bed. In retrospect it’s probably because I was being told to do them and I didn’t wanna, but let’s not dig too deep into that.

Anyways, I would race into the bathroom and grab the face washer that had been sitting on the sink for two days, having also been used to clean the floor and mirror and probably other bits and pieces. I’d watch the door nervously for my mother as I rubbed soap into my face, and just I was about to implant unknown germs into my pores, I’d hear, “That disgusting thing needs a wash. Go to the laundry and get a new one!”

It sounds incredibly unhygienic with the benfit of hindsight, but now, whether we use our hands or a muslin washcloth to wash our face, do we check the cleanliness first? Always, ALWAYS wash your hands first and use a clean washcloth.

“You missed a spot”

Look, I’m a scruncher. There, I said it. When I’m washing my face, I don’t look into the mirror and make sure I’ve hit every single piece of my face with cleanser. I scrunch my eyes and hopew for the best.

I mean, that’s my natural state. Now I’m better trained.

You see, Mum would come into the bathroom and poke at the unclean parts of my face and say, “you missed a spot.”

“YOU missed I spot”, I would retort, squinting through the soap in my eyes. It never really had a massive impact, mainly because it made no sense at all.

But I have to admit, she was right. I liked to think I could judge my face by feel alone, but it ended up I was always missing the same places.

How annoying.

“I did it last night!”

Okay, admittedly, this is something I’d yell when Mum would tell me I had to wash my face in the morning, but honestly, it made no sense to me washing again in the morning. I mean, I’d washed my face last night, and how dirty could I get from lying still?

Of course, we know now that the answer is ‘very’.

Things have changed a lot since we were young, and a lot of the advice we were given was a bit misguided (let’s not dredge up using soap), but there’s loads of stuff that Mum was right about. And I don’t just mean boyfriends.