.·゜-: ✧ :- @greyhovse asked : wand finish, soothe skin, and self care ! | 𝓗𝐲𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝓗𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬 ( pls send me more of these they are fun )
WAND FINISH : do they bathe in the morning or at night ?
Severus tends to bathe at night, now that he’s an adult ! As a child, and into his teenhood, however, ( at home, specifically ) he would bathe in the mornings in order to be the first to get the hot water. It ran out quickly, so if he wasn’t fast enough there would be none left by the time he was able to shower.
During his time at Hogwarts this would transition to showering / bathing at night to avoid anyone else being there during the day. It was somewhat dangerous in the washrooms, there was nobody of much authority there to help him in the event that he got attacked ( which he did, several times ) — or to help him get this clothes back after they’d been stolen from him ( which also happened on multiple occasions ).
After getting his job at Hogwarts, bathing at night was no longer about safety, and just because it was practical. Showering in the morning seems counterintuitive, throughout the day he ends up smelling like a jumble of things, smoke, metal, chemicals, plants, general burning, sometimes a sweat from being in a room filled with burners on constantly. So, he’ll bathe before settling down for the evening, the cleanliness ties in to his period of R&R.
SOOTHE SKIN : do they have a skincare routine ?
He washes his face in the mornings, and at nights, because that is some of the most exposed skin he has, and being in a stuffy, hot room filled with smoke and various other things will make him break out or otherwise just make him feel a bit gross.
He doesn’t have anything in particular he uses, though he has made a bar of the soap he uses for the rest of him especially for his face. If he’s feeling good, he will sometimes moisturize after washing his face, but it’s rare.
Post-War, his skincare routine is extended beyond his face, to everywhere else. It also gets trickier at this point, because while he will use his regular soap for the majority of his body, his left side requires medicated soaps to soothe those muscles. Using the prescribed soap elsewhere won’t do harm, but it is designed to quell muscles spasms and pain, so it can cause tightness in the parts of his body that are unaffected by muscle going haywire. It is also somewhat tricky to make ( and he makes it himself ), so he makes sure to use it for its specific purpose.
As before he will moisturize if he is feeling good, though every time he bathes he will use lotion that serves the same purpose as the soap. On his back, his neck, his left arm, the left side of his abdomen, over his hip and down onto his leg. It’s tedious, but he enjoys the relief and it makes his skin soft.
SELF CARE : does your muse have any other interesting things they do to take care of themselves ?
Severus doesn’t do much in terms of self care. He doesn’t think about it much, so it isn’t something often practised. His methods of self care, when performed are also often unknown to him to be ‘self care’ and are not what you’d expect them to be.
An example is that he makes his own soap, and scents it how he’d like to smell, because that gives him comfort. He will blame it on just being particular — ( ❛ This one contains tallow. Tallow disgusts me. ❜ ❛ I do not like the way that one smells. ❜ ❛ I do not like the feeling of this one. ❜, etc. ), so he isn’t entirely aware that him taking the time to craft his own stuff that makes him more-or-less happy is self care.
Brushing his hair is another one. Being riddled with depression makes these things difficult, so actually taking the time to brush his hair is something that feels like an accomplishment, and makes him feel good about both himself and the day ahead. He feels put together.
A traditional example would be that when he’s stressed, he will take a bath. A long bath, with any fancy thing in it that he’d like. He’ll sit in there for hours, if he wants to, read, think, sing.
Honestly, at times, bathing in of itself is self care for him.
