Electricity moves all around us and even sometimes through us. As living things made of water and other organic compounds, we can’t help but become good electricity conductors. Having static electricity on your body can be one of the most annoying things in life, especially if your pain threshold is very low. It seems like there’s no way to escape receiving an electric shock that makes you cringe or jump, but in fact there is a solution to this. Keep reading to find out the best ways to remove static electricity from your body.
Why do you have static electricity on your body?
Humans, for the way we are organically composed, are capable of storing and transporting an electric charge. Our body, organs and even hair can “absorb” or build up electrons from external objects we touch on a daily basis; and when there’s too much electricity built up in the body, it’s only natural that a shock is produced when you finally come in contact with another object that’s ready to receive the charge. As humans, there are plenty of reasons why we might be building up more static electricity than the average person. Among them we can find:
-
Wool
This natural-origin fabric is not only very warm during the winter, it can also cause you a lot of trouble when we’re dealing with unwanted static electricity. Wool is a great insulator, which makes this the ideal surface to create an electric charge when being rubbed against your body. Wearing a wool hat or walking around on carpet with wool socks could cause you an annoying shock.
-
Glass
Glass, being a material that restricts electricity, is a great conductor to provide electrons to your skin when coming in contact with it. Need a good example? Remember those old box TV’s that, when you turned them on, started making a weird and low “sparkling” noise? If you dared to touch the screen of the TV you’d most likely receive static electricity all over your hair and body.
-
Human skin
Human skin (especially when it’s dry or dehydrated) has an amazing ability to build up electrons on its surface and later pass them on to whatever surface it comes in contact with. The dryer the skin a person has, the more likely they are to have static electricity.
-
Hypoxia
Hypoxia is a health condition in which the person has really low levels of oxygen at tissue level. Of course, the lack of oxygenation means a lack of proper hydration, which can make it ten times more prone for a person to receive static electricity and get shocks at any given moment without warning.
-
Dry hair and environment
There are bad days sometimes, but in the winter it’s pretty common to have days where your hair gets you into trouble with all sorts of materials and objects. Dry or dehydrated hair can build up electrons and release them at the first chance they get, especially if the ambiance is also dry.
-
Cold weather
Cold weather is most often accompanied by dry weather, which means the levels of humidity present are really low. This presents a problem if you’re looking to stay away from static electricity, because air is the best insulator that exists, which means it can build up huge amounts of electricity.
-
Synthetic fabrics on your clothes
Some synthetic fabrics such as nylon have a very high potential for receiving the electric charge building up in your body. There are fabrics so powerful that they can cause you to get zapped all day long while wearing them. If you add dry skin to this equation things can get even worse.
How to remove static electricity from your body
Static electricity can be very unpleasant and even a little painful if you’re not expecting it (which is almost 100% of the time), but with some simple tricks you can learn how to remove it completely from your body and even prevent it.
-
Ground your body
When electric charge is building up in your body, the best thing you can do is give it what it wants and let it out of your system. How do you do that? By, literally, grounding yourself. Take out your shoes and socks and stand on the floor barefoot so you can let the electricity exit safely through your feet.
-
Keep your skin moisturized
As we mentioned before, one of the main reasons why you’re getting static electricity is due to excessively dry skin. To prevent getting zapped all the time, make sure to moisturize your skin often, applying body lotion and taking lukewarm showers to avoid further dehydration.
-
Change your clothes
As much as you love certain clothes because they look amazing, they might be the culprit of your static electricity. Get rid of items made with synthetic fabrics and wool, sticking to all-natural fabrics like cotton and linen.
-
Use dryer sheets
One of the ultimate life hacks to remove static electricity from your body is to take a dryer sheet and rub it all over your body and clothes. The charge in these sheets can be transferred to your skin and prevent it from getting further zaps.
-
Add humidity to a room
Since dryness is the number one factor of static electricity building up in your body, a good tip to prevent this from happening (especially during the winter) is to increase the humidity of the room you’re in by mopping the floor a couple of times a day, placing wet towels on the windows or placing trays with water on the floor.
-
Help the energy discharge
Similar to grounding your floor to let the electricity exit through the ground, you can also help the energy discharge from your body by touching certain objects more prone to receive energy (fabrics, the carpet, your pet…).
These are some of the most useful tips to finally get rid of static electricity and go on without the fear of an unexpected electric shock on your finger!
