Taylor Swift has explained why she refuses to wash one particular part of her body in the shower.
For 20 years now, almost every move Taylor Swift has made in the public eye has been documented and discoursed to the nth degree.
Since the debut of her self-titled album in 2006, through the countless Grammys, number one albums, record and earth shattering live tours, Kanye-based interruptions, Kardashian feuds, fellow popstar boyfriends and NFL fiancé, Taylor Swift has been an industry in and of herself.
She has become a billionaire even when dividing the public right down the middle. Millions adore her, millions despair of her.
Her latest ‘Eras’ tour boosted local economies across the world, generating eye watering amounts in revenue, while also raising further questions about ticket prices for concerts in the modern era.
So it should really come as no surprise that when Taylor Swift publicly discussed her shower hygiene, it became a globally debated source of discussion.
Forever in the spotlight
With her runaway train of success showing no signs of derailing, even after 20 solid years, the ‘Love Story’ phenom has amassed a following as devoted as they are fierce.
When ‘Swifties’ are not proclaiming their love for every piece of work Swift commits to record, video or stage, they’re camped out in Ticketmaster queues, willingly remortgaging their houses for tickets to her latest tours.
Or they are… well… erm… going to need a whole new paragraph for this one.
Some Swifties drew attention to themselves after they revealed they wore adult diapers to the singer’s concerts, just so they didn’t miss any of the action.
Of course, when you’ve spent the debt of a developing nation to afford a ticket to a show, you don’t want to miss any of it, but also, when nature calls, perhaps you should just answer that call in the most normal way possible rather than intentionally soiling yourself to ‘Bad Blood.’
Some fans, however, worked around bladder and bowel related distractions in a more intelligent manner, by instead taking to reddit to discuss with fellow Swifties what the best ‘bathroom break’ songs were during each three-hour Eras set.
Controversy magnet
Whether she means to or not, Taylor Swift attracts controversy like very few other popstars on the planet.
Her dating life has relentlessly come under scrutiny, between relationships with Joe Jonas, John Mayer, Harry Styles, Calvin Harris, Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy and now Kansas City Chiefs’ star Travis Kelce.
The media, fans and critics alike are constantly weighing in on her personal life.
The ‘Shake it Off’ singer’s vast wealth is also a point of contention with scores of people, with Swift recently ascending to billionaire status. There are many who feel the mass marketing of Swift as a brand rather than a person has been corporately aggressive, while others point to the extortionate cost of her concert tickets and merchandise.
However, Swift has significantly boosted local economies several times over with her live tours and gave out $197 million in bonus payments to her entire crew on the Eras Tour, in which she also donated to food banks in Florida, Arizona and Las Vegas. In addition to this, Swift has regularly made sizeable donations to a number of charities and activism causes, including Feeding America, American Heart Association, UNICEF, Cancer Research and gave $1 million to Louisiana’s flood relief efforts in 2016.
Despite her activism and charitable donations, Swift has come under fire for her private jet use, with a number of critics labelling it as excessive due to the carbon emissions from the jets.
Swift did state in February 2024 that she had sold one of the planes.
Touching down with Travis
In 2023, Swift made waves when she began dating Kansas City Chiefs’ Tight End Travis Kelce. Kelce, 36, is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation and has three Super Bowl titles to his name.
Swift’s attendance at Chiefs games, as well as two Super Bowls, brought an entirely new fanbase to the NFL, with Swifties and gossip columnists alike now suddenly a lot more interested in football than they ever had been before.
Swift and Kelce broke the internet in 2025 with the news of their engagement, after the NFL star got down on one knee to pop the question.
The ‘Cruel Summer’ star captioned the Instagram post: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”
If you typed either Swift or Kelce’s name into Google in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, you were greeted by vitual confetti. However, not everyone was in a celebratory mood.
Kelce’s ex-girlfriend, Maya Benberry, warned Swift that the three-time Super Bowl champion was a ‘cheating narcissist’ who would ‘never change’.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Benberry said: “Only time will tell, but like the saying always goes, once a cheater, always a cheater.”
Benberry did have a more positive message for Swift, though, adding: “Taylor seems like such a fun girl with a beautiful spirit, so I wish her the best of luck, but I wouldn’t be a girls’ girl if I didn’t advise her to be smart.”
And while Benberry warned against Kelce’s behaviour, even some fans have been taken aback by the behaviour of Swift on her latest album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ with the referenecs to Kelce’s manhood in the song ‘Wood.’
Swift sings: “Forgive me, it sounds c**ky/ He ah-matized me/ And opened my eyes/ Redwood tree, it ain’t hard to see/ His love was the key/ That opened my thighs.”
Later in the song, Swift continues: “Girls, I don’t need to catch the bouquet/ To know a hard rock is on the way.”
The lyrics were eye opening to much of Swift’s fanbase, with some critical about how her younger audience will receive them, while others defended the multiple Grammy award winner as being confident and open about her female s**uality.
The hygiene comment that sparked debate
But bawdily bragging about Travis Kelce’s southern region still didn’t spark as much debate as what Swift revealed in a 2019 interview with Ellen regarding her showering habits.
Now, Swift did generate headlines when she appeared to be caught wiping snot from her nose onto her outfits during the Era tour.
During freezing shows in Edinburgh, the singer appeared to be suffering with the cold and thus had to improvise in less-than-ideal fashion when presented with a subsequent runny nose due to the Scottish weather.
But even those unideal moments were nothing compared to the debate that raged six years ago when Swift revealed that she does not, in fact, wash her legs in the shower.
During her interview with Ellen, Swift claimed that she shaved her legs in the shower, surmising that the shaving cream acts like soap, and is therefore the same as washing.
Swift said that she shaves her legs daily, so they are in fact squeaky clean. Although many people were unconvinced by her explanation.
However, according to Dr. Joshua Zeichner, MD, director of cosmetic and clinical research in dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, lathering up those legs is not actually all that necessary.
In an interview with Women’s Health, Dr. Zeichner explained, “Unless your legs are visibly soiled, you don’t actually need to wash them directly with a cleanser. The cleanser that drips down your body is enough to remove most of the dirt and sweat that accumulates during the day.”
Despite the good doctor’s expert advice, thousands of people online remained unconvinced, with a Reddit poll also being undertaken on the very subject. The poll showed that the majority of people disagreed with Swift’s shower tactics, stating that they do indeed wash, and presumably shave, their legs in the shower.
Crucially, feet must be washed, even if legs aren’t, according to Dr. Zeichner, as they do accumulate far more dirt and sweat than the legs.
Another doctor, Dr. Patricia Varacallo, also weighed in on the debate, with an article on The Healthy, which explained that there is no definitive answer as to whether leg washing every day is essential or not.
In the article, Dr. Varacallo cites another doctor, Shilpi Khetarpal, MD, who reveals that essentially, the decision to wash comes down to skin type.
“You want to shower daily because we all come into contact with allergens, and we want to rinse those allergens off. If you’re someone with sensitive or eczema-prone skin, soap only needs to be applied to the face, armpits and groin area. If you’re someone with normal skin, you can use soap all over.”
Dr. Varacallo explains further that you should wash your legs when you’ve been sweating or exercising, when they are visibly dirty or, crucially in Taylor Swift’ss case, when you’ve shaved your legs.
There, that’s got to the bottom of it. For now…
