You’ve probably heard it before. You tell a friend you took a nice, long relaxing bath, and her response is: “But when you take a bath, aren’t you just soaking in your own dirt?”

Let’s examine this argument for a minute. Chances are you’re not squeaky clean when you first step into the tub. You lie there and soak – for 15, 20 minutes. There’s a ring on the tub when you’re done. Ewww, gross.

But hold on - the ring on the edge of your tub is a good thing, and here’s why. Bathing is an incredible way to cleanse your skin – much more effective than showering. When you take a shower, you quickly rub some soap on your skin, rinse, and get out. Thing is, you’ve only washed the outermost layers of your skin. Bathing in warm water, preferably with bath salts, draws impurities from deep inside your pores, cleansing you on a much deeper level than a simple shower. The dirt around your tub is dirt that has left your body – dirt that probably wouldn’t come out after a quick shower.

The warm water opens up your pores. The water, enhanced with the minerals and nutrients in your bath salts, is able to seep into nooks and crannies in your skin that water from a shower won’t hit. Oil, soap residue, pollutants and impurities rise to the surface and are drawn out and are gone forever. To answer your question, all the gunk that has left your skin will not come back in. Once it’s out, it’s out – and down the drain for good.