Social media video app TikTok is known for its ability to create viral trends and boost songs into the charts. It is also used to share hacks and tips meant to improve your beauty routines but not all of these are good for you.
BathTok has over 795million views and is full of fun and makeshift ways to improve your restorative soaks. Many of these videos claim to restore pH balance and remove intimate odours but instead could cause burns and other health issues.
Lemon, apple cider vinegar and excessive bath products can all disrupt your vaginal health, according to Drench.co.uk bath expert Polly Shearer. She said: ““While many popular #BathTok trends look good and follow a certain aesthetic, bathers could be harming their health - and bath suites - by doing so.”
Apple cider vinegar
One popular video on the app with 2.5 million views and 529k likes suggests adding apple cider vinegar to bath water. Apple cider vinegar is a popular home remedy for lots of beauty issues and this video claimed that it could restore pH balance.
Polly shared that this is completely wrong and could even cause burns to sensitive areas. She said: “Apple cider vinegar, while often used as a product to kill harmful bacteria, can often cause irritation or worse, burning of the skin if exposed to it for a longer period."
Comments on the video worryingly showed that people were trying out the hack and encouraging others to do the same. They noted that the water smelled particularly bad due to the vinegar smell.
Lemon slices and salt
Another video with 45k views showed lemon slices and Himalayan salt filling a bathtub. The poster claimed it would even out skin tone, relax muscles, balance pH and remove toxins from the body.
Health expert Dr Shirin Lakhani told Drench.co.uk: “I would strongly avoid bathing with lemons and it’s a myth that this can help your pH in that area. Using lemons could cause more problems and cause the vagina to smell worse.”
Odour around your intimate area is normal and should only be a concern if that odour changes drastically. If you are concerned about a particular smell, contact your doctor rather than attempting this home remedy.
Excessive bath bombs
Another trend encourages users to create a unicorn bath which is filled with a variety of bath products. Bath bombs, salts, liquids and even bath spaghetti are combined in this aesthetic trend.
Polly said, “While bath bombs look great, heavily fragranced products can cause intense skin irritation. Not only that, many bath bombs with artificial colourings can actually leave stains behind in your tub and could leave you with a hefty cost of repair.”
Even if you don’t have sensitive skin, this amount of product can be irritating to the skin. Plus in the cost of living crisis this is a waste of products which can often be expensive for little gain.
Bath flowers
Flowers can be very pretty and aesthetic creating this trend of ritual baths or ‘Bali baths’ filled with bright and colourful petals. The idea is that herbal flowers can add nutrients to baths as well as being visually pleasing.
“While flowers are used in medicines and herbal remedies, their original form may do little for your skin,” said Polly, “Though relaxing and aesthetically pleasing, large quantities of petals heading down the drain can actually cause pipe blockages if not appropriately removed.”
Dr Lakhani said: “Many of these trends can cause more harm than good. Just because it’s on social media does not mean it’s true. Your vagina naturally hosts thousands of good bacteria that help maintain health and I would be very wary about upsetting that balance.”
“The vagina has a pH value of approximately 3.8 to 4.5. This pH range is necessary to protect the vagina against harmful bacteria which can lead to infections. Your vagina is self-cleaning. It really is. It doesn’t need anything to assist it in the cleaning process.”
