The Fail: Showers have become the unofficial home of contemplating your life, unwinding, and belting out your personal best rendition of "Call Me Maybe." The perfect shower is all of the above, plus steamy-hot water (the steamier, the better), your favorite body wash lathered up on a loofah, and at least once a day , or twice if you went to the gym or need to wash the day's anxieties away. This combo might make you feel squeaky clean and relaxed, but it's actually wrecking your epidermis and making you more susceptible to disease. Why? showering doesn't exactly kill bacteria and microorganisms so much as move them around and strip your skin's protective layer in the process.

The Fix: If you're not open to skipping a few showers here and there to give your skin time to rest and repair, cool down the water temperature and learn how to cope with warm or cool showers instead of the usual, piping-hot ones. Use a mild soap (if any), like Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild Liquid Soap, or Dove's Sensitive Skin Unscented Beauty Bar, and slather on lotion (Aveeno's Daily Moisturizing one is a good place to start) to rehydrate the protective layer of skin post-shower. To keep that moisture locked in, skip all that vigorous towel drying and stick to light blotting or even air-drying when possible.

The Fail: Water, soap, rinse -- how hard can it be, right? Unfortunately, that quick little routine you perform after exiting the stall and before you use a paper towel to open the bathroom door is basically just for appearances. A recent study found that only 5 percent of public restroom users wash their hands correctly ... and if you're only lathering for a few seconds, congratulations, you're in that 95 percent of bathroom users doing it all wrong.

The Fix: The CDC recommends 20 seconds of hand-lathering, which comes out to singing the Happy Birthday song from beginning to end twice. Don't want "Happy Birthday" stuck in your head until the end of time? Check out a whole batch of alternative tunes that will measure ample hand cleaning time.

The Fail: For as long as we stopped believing in the Tooth Fairy, we've been told to brush our teeth after every meal. But dentists in the UK report that brushing immediately after meals can actually be bad for your teeth. Turns out the acidity in the food and drinks we consume softens tooth enamel, and scrubbing them with a toothbrush immediately after actually strips the enamel from our teeth, leaving them susceptible to cavities.

The Fix: If you can't bear the thought of not brushing after every meal, focus your oral efforts into flossing. Studies show that flossing is more important than brushing because it removes the bacteria between your teeth without stripping layers of enamel off. And don't neglect your tongue! Again, forget brushing your tongue clean (it merely spreads the germs around) and invest in a good tongue scraper, like the neat, portable Supersmile Flexible Tongue Cleaner.

The Fail: Props on taking the time to wash your face! But if your hands aren't clean, you're probably making your face even dirtier in the process. According to Macrene Alexiades-Armenakas, MD, assistant clinical professor at Yale University School of Medicine, you're basically transferring all of the bacteria on your hands to your face.

The Fix:Click back to slide #3 and start singing the "Happy Birthday" song before you reach for your facial cleanser. And be sure to thoroughly moisten your face before you smear that cleanser all over. Most cleansers are too harsh and need to be diluted with water before being applied to your face.

The Fail: "Regular trims" are rarely regular. That appointment is inevitably pushed back or avoided altogether, which is how trimming your own hair at home happens. We've all done the quick bang trim, or snipped the split ends from the end of a braid or ponytail -- it just so much easier than blowing off another appointment or risking a bad cut. Once again, your attempt to save time and money is actually making the matter worse, i.e. more breakage. And you're not even really trimming your hair.

The Fix: At-home trims don't remove damage, they maintain shape -- assuming you're actually able to keep the shape. That's nearly impossible when you're cutting at a weird angle with the same scissors you cut paper with. Your stylist gets paid top dollar for a reason, including his or her ability to see all angles of your hair, so your best bet is to do some damage control before your next hair appointment. Instead of taking shears into your own hands, invest in an overnight hair mask , like Tigi Hair Reborn Reparative Nocturnal Therapy, to seal your ends and stop splitting until your stylist can get rid of 'em for good.