RadioScope: Woman's Hour: Going without washing - how dirty can you get?BBC Radio 4, Friday 10am
Ever wonder if we've all got a little too particular about washing? Journalist Nicky Taylor wondered the same thing so she decided to go without washing for 40 days. Neither did she use any make-up or brush her teeth.
The first three days were the worst, when she suffered from "bath envy", wanting to jump into her children's dirty bath water, she told Woman's Hour.
After that, though, it got better. Not washing made her feel liberated on the inside, whatever she may have looked like on the outside. It was nice, for instance, not to have to get up in time to put on make-up and wash before going to work.
The low point came when a squirrel pooed on her head when she was out running - yep, she ran every day without washing - and all she could do was wipe it off with toilet paper.
Her children appear to have survived it all. There again, her other journalistic experiments have included deliberately binge drinking to see what would happen so they are rather used to mum doing odd things.
At least she wore surgical gloves when preparing their food.
She claimed she didn't smell though perhaps people were just too polite to say anything. Her hair, she said, stuck together and was disgusting.
Dr Val Curtis, director of the Hygiene Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the programme that Nicky wasn't at particularly high risk of infection but only because she lives in a country in which everybody else washes. Had she lived in a country with very poor hygienic facilities, the consequences could have been very different.
Curtis recalled that when she
met Nicky during her "dirty" period, she treated her with less respect than she would normally give to another person. She had only realised afterwards that she had treated Nicky in this way and was embarrassed at her subconscious bias.
Both she and Nicky agreed that much of the preening and primping we do is to make ourselves socially acceptable and has little to do with our health.
Curtis did caution that we need to be sure to wash our hands after handling such things as chicken or faeces - not the sort of thing one wants to hear during one's morning tea break.
Liberated or not, Nicky cancelled going to a wedding because of her general state of filthiness and, as far as this listener is concerned, 40 days of dirt is a small price to pay for getting out of a wedding.
On top of that, her experiment has brought her fame - a documentary on her escapade was broadcast on BBC Three television last night.
You probably haven't got BBC Three but you can hear the interview with Nicky and Dr Curtis by going to www.bbc.co.uk/radiofour/womanshourand clicking the "listen again" button.
Review by counsellor Padraig O'Morain