No Stupid Questions

No. It’s not normal at all. But you do you. No one is normal.

But I would be more worried about having OCD if you are worried that (not) using separate towels for your hands and face makes you less clean.

I don't understand the logic behind the idea that it makes you "less clean" to wipe yourself off of excess water literally seconds after cleaning yourself in the shower. Think about it: to legitimately spread germs around with the towel, you'd need either the towel, or the area you're wiping off, to be unclean in the first place.

My wife likes a separate towel for her hair, but it's because she has very long and thick hair that's hard to dry out. Not doing so would mean leaving a trail of water dripping on the ground.

For me that's just wasteful behavior - if you're that concerned about cleanliness, those towels need to be washed regularly, therefore 4x the water usage...

Is that normal?

No.

One towel is all that's needed. Start at the top, work your way from head to feet, floss the crotch last,. When the towel dries, it forgets, and the towel is clean for the next shower. If you have long hair, a second towel may be useful as a turban

I cannot tell you how many towels the average person uses, or what the distribution is. Though it's probably less than 4. What I can say is that it doesn't hurt anybody, so if it feels good for you, just do it. That's the nice thing about being an adult, you can do what you want.

I would note though that it's probably much more important how often you change and wash your towels than how many you use.

It depends on what you're wiping off. If it's for drying yourself after a shower, then I'd just use my big bath towel to dry every part of my body since they should all be clean by that point. I sometimes use an extra towel for my hair since I have long hair and it needs some extra fabric to help dry out.

I have figured that if I'm not clean enough to use the same towel all over, I haven't showered well enough. But I don't see any problem in having multiple towels

This sounds like it might be an OCD thing, especially given your reasoning. Do you you have other OCD like habits? OCD is relentless once it gets ahold of you, and can have seriously negative effects for both yourself and your loved ones. The earlier you address it, the easier it is to keep it from ruling your life.

Please don't try to emulate Patrick Bateman unironically

Shouldn't have to worry about the towel being clean if you cleaned yourself properly. You're just drying off water from a body with no oils or dirt.

The error is thinking that your own sebum is bad and should be avoided. It’s like hating that you have tears. If you like, dedicate zones of the towel to functions.

Run away from any OCD-like compulsions early, if that could be the case. please

That is not normal. You're just too keen on getting dry very fast

Important question: Is this the only situation where you strictly divide clean and unclean?

I can understand using more than one towel because they're dry, but to keep yourself clean after a shower sounds obsessive.

Excessive imo

I just start at the top and work my way down when I'm drying off. That being said if any part of you isn't clean enough to rub a towel on and then rub that towel on your face you aren't washing properly.

Why do you feel like you would be less clean? Like peas touching carrots on a plate? You have 1 body.

IMO the different sized towels are all towels and are sized for convenience. If you only wash your hands you don’t want to have to use a blanket to dry them. When you wash your body you don’t want to use a box of tissue sized towels to dry off. It isn’t about contaminating part of your body.

You're going to have microbes growing on the towels as soon as they're used. They're your microbes that grow on your skin. You're not going to make yourself sick by using the towel a couple times on yourself on all your different parts unless you're getting excessive with the booty drying. Swap the towels out more frequently if you're concerned, but what you're talking about sounds a little excessive.

For the last question I welcome you to !skincareaddiction@sh.itjust.works where's there's a lot of helpful people that can help you with that! 😊

I had two towels at once for a while, as I'm quite hairy. One towel didn't feel quite enough to get ne fully dry.

4 towels seems a bit much if I'm honest!

I think there's a missing detail.

Do you want to use different towels for the different parts of you even right after showering? Or only so that a different one for after shovering, another for your hands for when you just washed hands, and another for the face when you just washed your face?
I don't think the former is normal, but the latter is. A different one for showring and just washing your hands is good to have I think, and if you have got oily skin then a third one for your face is also completely understandable.

It does sound like an obsessive trait but if it's not causing you any problems and it makes you happy, then why not?

Although, a tip for you or anyone else reading this - letting your hair completely dry naturally without towel-drying it can make the texture so much nicer. I stopped towel-drying mine completely and now it dries with lovely, soft waves, no frizz at all.

I've only ever used one towel for drying and 2-3 washcloths in the shower. If you do your shower right you will come out clean enough. If any body area still stinks up the towel even slightly you havent done a good enough job.

Here's my wash routine, its simple and effective. Warning it may be a little moein detail than you want to read about.

When washing I soap up the first cloth ad startwith the face then armpits, then crotch, then taint, finally ass crack. Get in there and be thorough, use a lot of soap. I use Dr.bronners 18 in 1 hemp tea tree liquid soap with water in a spray bottle.

Rinse soap, then use sterilizer on your pits and if you are brave enough the tiniest bit on crotch. alcohol is more powerful but quickly dries the skin so its a quick spritz and rinse. vinegar is more gentle for people with sensitive skin.

Retire first wash cloth, get second one soap it up and do a general scrub down of the body. Torso, shoulders, arms, legs, hands and feet,scrub nails. Then do part 1 again (minus the sterilizer)

If you do this properly you will come out so clean one towel is enough. I still start with the face and work my way down to crotch when drying anyways lol. Doing a final sniff test with the towel afterward is the best way to know if you did really well.

It seems a bit weird to me, but these towels all exist already so, it's probably pretty normal lol

I just wash my towels frequently and only have body towels for showers/baths and hand towels for regular hand washing.

I am a dude with long hair, so I need a separate towel for my hair and one for everything else. I even learned how women do that towel turban thing when I grew my hair out.

Why though. I have one that I use even when i haven't had a bath. This is one large body towel that I also use to dry my hands (and face) when it just hangs there. Not sure what people are afraid of really?it's your own body!

If I'm home, I use just one towel and keep using it for like a week or two. If I'm in a hotel, they usually have so many towels so I'll use the whole variety and fresh ones each day. It's nice, but too lazy to constantly be washing towels when I'm home lol.

All you really need is a bath towel and hand towel. There's no need to go nuts with it unless you love doing laundry. If you feel "less clean" then you might want to see a therapist or something. It might be too mild to be OCD but it might not.

Does it matter if it's normal? You using 4 towels isn't hurting anyone anymore than me using one towel does.

As for the skincare routine, I can't help there.

Could you have OCD?

It counts like you have a cleanliness compulsion. Which isn't a huge deal, but if it gets burdensome then you might want to speak with a psychiatrist about it.