While sharing your hopes and dreams with your man is one thing, swapping towels post-shower is quite another. We enlisted the help of Belleville, Ont.-based family physician Dr. Jonathan Kerr to point out the top 5 items that require a his and hers.
#1 Towels
In a moist bathroom towels are prime real estate for fungus and yeast, which can cause a variety of nasty conditions, such as jock itch and athlete’s foot. If your boyfriend has an infection, using his towel will spread the germs all over your body, says Dr. Kerr.
#2 Hairbrushes
Avoiding lice isn’t the only reason to have your own hairbrush. Using his brush could expose you to – believe it or not – ringworm, which is a fungus that causes patchy hair loss and a rash with a ring shape. Either of you can pick up ringworm in public places, such as gym showers or pools, or from infected animals that carry the fungus on their fur.
#3 Toothbrushes
Even though you’ve played tonsil hockey, using his toothbrush is still a bad idea. “The only animal that has a dirtier mouth than a dog is a human,” says Dr. Kerr. “Sharing a toothbrush passes lots of bacteria from one mouth to the other.” And, if either of you have a cold or suffer from cold sores, a toothbrush is the easiest way to end up swapping those viruses, too.
#4 Nail clippers
“Nail fungus grows under the nail bed, so using his clippers will increase the chance that any fungus one of you has will be transferred to the other person’s nails,” Dr. Kerr explains. Plus, you’re not sterilizing those clippers before you use them, which leaves you exposed to other bacteria or viruses, like staph, lurking on the blades.
#5 Razors
Shaving creates tiny cuts or openings in the skin, which is one of the body’s biggest defenses against bacteria, says Dr. Kerr. When bacteria get under the skin through these cuts it can cause staph infections – think of a big whitehead or nasty ingrown hair. Sharing razors with your man means you two are trading bacteria from faces, legs and bikini zones, which takes intimacy to a whole new level.