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raybeetle · 5 hours ago

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Hygiene Tips and Information Post

Hello! We are the Starfall System. We wanted to make a big post about hygiene tips and information for anyone who may find it useful. If you wonder why we use plural pronouns it is because we are a system, AKA multiple people sharing one mind. We use "we" to refer to ourselves throughout this post. If you want to learn more about it, you can read about it here: More Than One

In this post we are going to talk about things you can do to keep your body clean and healthy. Not everyone have access to same resources and information, hence why we decided to write this post. It will include information regarding how many times you should wash certain areas, how often you should change your sheets/underwear, Tips and tricks for disabled/spoonie folk, Health information for Trans Folk and many more. First of all, we would like to remind everyone that not everyone has the same ability to access certain hygienic products or perform tasks to keep themselves clean, and they shouldn't be ashamed because of it. This post is simply for information and should not be used to invalidate anyone's lived experiences.

Second of all, please do not start any unrelated conversation and/or debate, including syscourse. Thank you. We aren't doctors and this post will not be exhaustive list of everything, we can get things wrong or missing. If you have anything to add/fix, we would love to talk about it and add to this post ^^ Soo.. Let's begin! BODILY HYGIENE Showering should be done at least once a week, or every few days, depending on weather. You can shower everyday too, but it may cause your skin to dry if you don't moisturize your body. A general rule for cleaning anything is its cleaned from top to bottom. Hair/Face should be washed first, then the rest part of the body.

Do not use plastic shower sponges/loofah for showering. They trap moisture inside and become a growing ground for bacteria. Use natural fiber loofah's; they are environment friendly and exfoliate very well. Change your loofah every 3-4 weeks.

Scrub in circular motions. Wash every curve of your body. Feet and armpits may need more work to clean and get rid of smell. After shower moisturize your skin.

If you use deodorant make sure it doesn't contain heavy metals.

Choosing right shampoo is important to avoid hair damage. Please try to go for shampoo without silicone, parabens and sulfates as ingredients. You can find more detailed information regarding what to avoid in shampoos here . Also learn about your hair type here so you can pick a shampoo according to your hair type. If you struggle with keeping your hair healthy, consider seeing a dermatologist.

Clean your beard every 2-3 times a week at least, use a shampoo and if possible, a conditioner. Brush your bread.

Clean your genital area gently with unscented soap and water ONLY. Do not use any sort of "special product for genitalia" they are a scam. You only need unscented soap and water, gently wash it with your hand and if you have a vagina make sure you aren't washing inside of it- vaginal canal can self-cleanse and you shouldn't disturb the natural vaginal flora or you can get infections. Lips of a vulva needs thorough cleaning to avoid buildup along with under clitoris's hood to avoid buildup of smegma. Learn more about cleaning your clitoris here

Don't forget underneath foreskin of your penis. Gently clean the testicles with unscented soap and lukewarm water.

Wash your anus and general back area with water and tissue after every poop. If you don't have a bidet, you can also wash with wet wipes. But only use baby wet wipes without alcohol and fragrance, others can irritate the skin there.

Wash inside of your belly button when you shower. Use a mild soap and water only, rinse the insides of belly button and dry it including the inside of it to prevent moisture. Cut your nails every week if you intend to keep them short. If you want to get them longer, make sure to clean under the nail to prevent any buildup.

Your toenails needs cutting once a month, do not cut them curvically, cut them with a straight line to avoid infections/ingrown nails. You also need to clean under your toenails, especially corners.

Clean your ears every few days, including the curves and back of the ear. Do not use q tips for cleaning ear wax, it will cause damage to the ear and only push wax more to the inside. Learn more about how to clean and prevent earwax here

Wash your teeth correctly at least twice a day after meals and don't forget to wash back of your teeth and your tongue. (watch this video to learn how) Use a floss. If you have braces you can also use a small braces tootbrush to access inaccessible areas. Change your tootbrush every 3 months or so. Go for gentle bristles if you have sensitive gums. If you have consistent sensitivity with gums, contact a dentist.

Wash your feet every time you come back from outside. It doesn't matter if you wore shoes or flip flops, with shoes you have pretty much no airflow so bacteria can grow and cause smell. If you wear sandls or flip flops the general dirt that elevates from the ground will get on your feet. It is best to use a soap for washing your feet to avoid odor and ensure that its clean. Dry your feet to avoid fungal infections.

Wash your hands when you come home, before and after using bathroom (washing your hands before is good for avoiding harm your genitalia) Wash your hands before and after food. If you cannot wash at least use a wet wipe or hand sanitizer, and then wash as soon as you can with soap and water.

When using razors or shaving use a shaving cream/gel, shave to the direction of where hair grows, not against it. When shaving your pubic area try to go slow and pull your skin taut. Moisturize afterwards.

If you want to wax, check this tutorial

Do not use hair removal chemicals/products that arent genitalia safe on your pubic area.

CLOTHING HYGIENE

Change your underwear every day. No ifs or buts.

If you have vagina and you detect any different/intense odor or different textured/colored discharge, keep an eye on it for a few days. If it does not change or get worse with other symptoms such as pain, contact a gynecologist immediately. It may be an infection. Information regarding discharge can be found here

For trans folk who use a binder, wash your binder at least once per week (or more if needed) Do not put it in washing machine, hand wash only.

For people who wear bra's, try to wash them after every 2-3 uses. During summer you may sweat more due to bra and may need to wash it/change it more regularly.

Wash your bedsheets every week. Your pillowcase being dirty may be the cause of your pimples.

Change your socks after every use. If you think it is not "dirty enough" or you just briefly wore them, don't put it in the same place as your clean socks. Keep them seperate.

Plastic clothing such as polyester and naylon can and will absorb sweat and stink more than natural fibers such as cotton or viscose. Try to avoid that type of clothes for daily usage.

Clean your eyeglasses, especially parts near your ear and nose. They get buildup in tiny spaces.

Use a shoe deodorant if you want to avoid shoes smelling. Try to change the shoe you wear often. Do not get cheap shoes if you can and do not wear tight shoes often, they can mess your feet's shape and health.

MAKEUP HYGIENE

Clean your brushes every few days or after every use. Use a shampoo instead of a soap so it won't hurt the bristles. Use lukewarm water and try to get into the bristles. Don't let them stay with moisture to avoid bacteria from forming and put them somewhere warm to dry quickly.

A general rule that can be applied to products: if you can use it on eyes, you can use it on other parts of your body.

If you can use it on your lips, you can use it on other parts of the body but not on the eyes.

If you can use it on your face, you can use it on your face and other skin areas but not your lips or eyes. There are some skin products such as foundations you can also use on your lips.

If you can use it on your body, you shouldn't use it on your face.

This rule is not always true but it usually applies to a lot of cosmetics.

Use 50 SPF Sunscreen, especially for your face. If you can't get a high quality one still get the best one you can because an average sunscreen is better than no sunscreen.

Don't sleep with makeup, clean your makeup before going to sleep. It can clog your pores, cause eye infections, and more. For cleaning your makeup, you can use makeup cleansers, makeup cleaning oils, or makeup cleaning wipes. Pick those that don't irritate eyes or harm skin in long run.

Try to not get any makeup product in your eye, if you do get any, wash it with water for a while. Don't rub your eyes.

If you use lipstick, use a lipbalm or lip moisturizer before the lipstick to avoid chapping.

For piercings, talk to your piercer about how to keep it clean. It depends on the piercing regarding how often you need to clean it.

There is probably a lot i don't recall to write it here at the moment since i don't do makeup often, so any and every kind of suggestion is appreciated.

DISABILITY HYGIENE TIPS

For lovely disabled folk, your best is enough. Doing whatever you can is always better than doing nothing, do not worry about it being perfect or not.

For those who cannot stand upright for long period of time in shower, a stool or chair is very useful. You can also get long showering brushes or hand shower cloths/mitts for accessing unaccessible or hard to access parts of your body. Picking a scent-free and sensitive bodywash/shampoo may benefit you a lot (personally we can only use sensitive bodywash because our body gets red and swells with any other bodywash)

If you find it hard to wash your teeth, you can use mouthwash, it is better than nothing. If that is too much, you can chew a minty gum for a while to get rid of mouth smell.

Foam grip tubes can be used to grab things more easily.

If you can, use smaller bottles for your shower to minimize energy usage to handle bottles.

If you cannot shower/wash your face/use deodorant, you can always go for wetwipes. There is zero shame in that. You can also wear clean clothes after wet wipes to avoid getting dirty for a while longer.

You can also use dry shampoo for your hair to go longer without showers.

If you find it hard to wash your hair along with your body, you can try to wash body and hair seperately.

Try to be careful washing around your ports or any other health related objects on your body. Ask your doctor about how to keep it clean. Better be safe than sorry.

If you can't use nailcutters you can use emery boards to trim your nails.

It may be hard to change sheets every week, you can put sheets on top of each other when you have energy so you can just strip off old sheets on top and have clean sheets. This way you can get time from once a week to once two weeks. We sometimes use this when we are low spoon.

If you have ADHD, trying to start tasks may be difficult. Try to do smaller tasks before big tasks to gain inertia. We sometimes pour shampoo on our dry hair if we cannot shower, so we eventually want that shampoo out of our hair and get into shower. Or sometimes we simply put our clothes away and try to get cold, so a warm shower gets easier and more pleasant to have.

If your mental health takes a dive and you find yourself unable to perform tasks, reaching people and asking for help is always and always okay. Don't be ashamed of needing help, it is a normal part of life everyone eounters.

I found this website that goes in detail regarding different tools for using during showering.

Any and every tip from disabled people to add to this list is very appreciated <3

TRANS HYGIENE

Already talked about binders there in clothing section ^ just a reminder :)

To trans folk who start HRT and have a second puberty; it is incredibly normal to have body odor changes, especially on your private area. I know quite a few ftm folk advise to shower frequently once people start T due to excessive sweating. A deodorant change may be needed. Your hair type may also change, so maybe changing your shampoo can be a good idea as well. Don't shame yourself and try your best to keep yourself clean, moreso than anything, enjoy your transition !

For checking ingredients of any product, you can use these websites:

Cosmily

INCIDecoder

CosDNA

They may not be totally accurate, but it is best to have an idea about than none.

Aside from all those, for every and any product you put on your body, best advice comes from your doctor/dermatologist.

Any and every kind of correction/suggestion is appreciated! This post is far from finished and we would love to add more.

If in doubt/pain, contact a health professional immediately!

Lastly, fuck Trump. ^^

-Starfalls System!

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raybeetle · 5 hours ago

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Let’s normalize….

Being wrong

Why?

Because it’s ok to be wrong.

Example

We all have been sick at some point in our lives.

We all at some point have turned to Dr.Google “ache, chills, runny nose…”

In that Internet scrolling you find a chat on Reddit “r/ColdSurvivors” you post there like “ugh I feel bad! I have this- insert symptoms here” and someone replies- “sounds like a cold!”

You look up your symptoms next on the Mayo Clinic “ache, sore, cold?” And what do you know the internet says it’s a cold.

So! You finish doomscrolling on the Mayo-clinic website and call your doctor up.

You wouldn’t call the doctor unless you knew you were sick.

Regardless what may cause the sickness and whether or not you think you know what it is.

Maybe while you’re waiting on hold for the office you send a text to your boss saying you are sick - think it’s a cold- going to call out of work.

Then you text a friend- sick today :( look out for symptoms! I’m experiencing this and hope you don’t get sick too!

You finally get on the phone with your doc after a long wait time and tell them that you need appointment because you think you have a cold.

You get to the clinic- you’re evaluated. The doctor listens to your concerns and looks at your symptoms.

Then tells you - I know you said you think you have a cold but it’s actually the flu. Here is how we will treat you.

Pause

I have personally never been upset by a doctor telling me what I actually have and giving me help to treat it.

Even if it’s different than what I thought it was.

I am not a doctor, I don’t have the tools, the education, the background that a doctor has. So of course I scheduled this appointment knowing 1) something was wrong 2) and a theory of what I thought best described my situation.

Resume

Ok cool- you have the flu and it’s not a cold at all!

You get your treatment plan, you get your meds, you get the help you need from your doctor.

You text your boss “turns out I have the flu- I have a note from the doctors, I’ll send it in to you”

You text your friend “turns out it’s the flu! 😷 hope you’re safe and not also sick!”

Maybe you hop back on the Reddit thread “thanks for the help everyone! I have the flu and got what I need to feel better ❤️‍🩹!”

But there is no reason to feel shame that what you thought you had was wrong.

What matters in this situation is that you thought you were sick, sought professional help, and are being helped for what you have.

This also applies to mental disorders.

I see a lot of fear about “what if I go to the doctor and I am wrong?” Or “what if they say I don’t have D.I.D. And it’s something else?”

Ok?

Regardless of what you are diagnosed with it doesn’t change the fact that you’re experiencing symptoms in need of help.

If you think you have a complex disassociation disorder because you have multiple parts of self - even if you are diagnosed with something else- you still experience what you experience. There are MULTIPLE disorders that can appear with similar symptoms such as a fragmented sense of self or a deep disconnect with self / disassociation.

It is ok to have the flu (BPD, IFS, PTSD, Schizophrenia, PPD, or other options) when you think you have a cold (CDD, DID, etc)

It’s OK.

That does NOT make you-

A liar

A faker

An attention seeker

Or any other negative connotation.

If it was a cold vs flu no one would look at you and say you lied for saying you were sick and believed it was one thing over another before a doctor helped you.

The same applies for disorders.

Fear of being wrong is not a reason to avoid help but a reason to SEEK it out.

“But I blogged about my experiences! But I posted on it! But I told my friends about it!”

Ok? There isn’t anything wrong with being wrong.

You told others your best understanding of what you were experiencing. If you used the wrong “label” who cares. People worth your time will be happy you are getting the help you deserve.

“But someone on the r/ColdSurvivors got mad at me for posting there at all!”

That’s their problem. Not yours.

It’s ok to not be diagnosed YET.

But seek help.

It’s ok to get diagnosed and it be DIFFERENT.

Because you are being help.

You being honest and open about the journey can also help others understand that there is no shame around it.

It’s ok to go to spaces that you think you are matching the experiences of from your understanding and it’s ok to then leave those spaces and be transparent about your journey in the spaces it does fit.

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raybeetle · 5 hours ago

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slamming the big red button on my desk labeled "bweh" over and over again to no discernible effect

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raybeetle · 5 hours ago

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Btw my wife and I were at a diner for breakfast and spent the whole time discussing the intimate interpersonal dynamics at play wrt gender "identity" and its lack of essential character and how social inclusion and peculiar contextual investments etc etc destabilize the grip of the political-ideological indoctrinations and enlistments into hegemonic gender-sexuality. And that rather than tgirl-egg friend groups being predicated on some kind of preternatural kindred awareness which draws people together through mystic means, rather it is the fact that "social contagion" (tongue in cheek) is real and awesome and epic. And this is how and why forcefeminization can actually have a causal influence on peoples forreal gender and you CAN make that boy into a girl you just have to keep trying!!!!! This is how global proletarian forcefem can still win!!!!!

/hj

All this to say i forreal am just like this irl.

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raybeetle · 5 hours ago

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Since people were asking about their own experiences in that plural post have you ever experienced something of like. one day deciding that you "don't want to be yourself anymore" and then you become so not yourself that you start not recognizing who you are even though everyone is like "I don't see anything different about you" so you're the only one who notices that your personality changed.... okay wait sorry if this is TMI. I get the whole point of the post is that everyone is/has the potential to be plural. but I wonder if this is a good start for me to start questioning.

i do not think you need my permission to allow yourself to ask incisive questions about yoursel(ves) and your relationship with internality (affectionately). but if you want my permission you certainly have it

When i was a young teenager i spent a few years in extreme isolation with basically no friends and with only my extremely fucked family situation to keep me company and I basically consider that period of my life an immensely impactful (negatively and positively... complicated) metamorphosis / incubation period for a particular expression of my / our plurality. we came out of that period an entirely different person but while we were in it we basically were like this identity mush of butterfly soup (this is what the refrance). It's not the same as what you described but I think it's meaningfully similar and I think plurality is one technology of many which human psychospaces are capable of innovating in response to any number of things.

unrelatedly im realizing that since you all are going to be Talking to me instead of Reading My Posts you will be forced to learn my devastating secret which is that when I'm not Writing I talk like an absolute cornball

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raybeetle · 5 hours ago

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Any advice on how to stop worry that I’m faking? My headmates and I have been pretty open about being plural w partners and close friends for almost 2 years now but I’m still really worried that I’m basically making them up when they’re really just me acting a certain way. Idk I’m so insecure about it

no hate at all when I say this but I think getting a bunch of messages like this is kind of like a pluralposter rite of passage (and one I've asked my own plural mentors etc so like again absolutely not said with any derision) but because of this I think there's like a correct ritual response to this question this follows as:

you are faking and you are also never faking, because the mind is made up. what does "faking" mean? what would "pretending to be plural" entail? a headmate or an alter or a part definitionally "is" "all in your head." the question, which again, extremely normal question to ask, is equivalent to asking "how can I know for sure my psychic constructs aren't just psychic constructs?" the trouble word in that question is "just." Psychic constructs are psychic constructs. A personality is a psychic construct like any other, but that doesn't make it Not Real. in the sense that like. ok I will phrase it this way.

Your plurality, and your headmates, are literally 100% equally as real as any other human's internal personality constructs.

Which is to say, 100% manufactured, and 100% real. Every single thing inside of your head is "in your head." What makes a particular thoughtform or psychic technology "more" or "less" real than another one? They're all made up because the psychospace is the realm of "make-believe" (or "psychological constructs" or "constructed frameworks" or "nonphysical conceptual spaces and frameworks" or or or or....)

If you are making it up, so what? Genuinely, without derision, overflowing with love, what would it mean to "make it up?" You are allowed and should be allowed full autonomy over your psychospace. You do not Owe your psychospace to obey particular mechanics imposed by other people. You do not need to police your mind in that way. There is no such thing as a "normal" "psychospace" any more than there is such a thing as a "correct" "psychospace." every single system and person has a different and unique interior space. nobody but you can define what the inside of your psychospace looks or feels or is shaped like. if plurality is a a framework that does you good, I promise that you adopting it as a framework will not hurt anyone else, no matter what (frankly, reactionary) others might say. With this, go forth and be plural!

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