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Health

"Tushy," the Portable Bidet, Is Adorable

"For people who poop."
All images courtesy of Miki Agrawal and Tushy. 

“A close second to my obsession with helping women period better,” says Miki Agrawal, “is my obsession with clean butts.” Agrawal, the CEO and Co-founder of THINX, has just launched Tushy: a portable bidet for on-the-go bathroom hygiene. Like THINX, a smart underwear brand and empowerment model for women on their periods that went viral last year and is now back in the limelight due to a questionable MTA ban, Tushy is compact, easy to use, and ingenious. Oh, and it also makes your rear-end squeaky clean.

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“Bidets have yet to be mainstream in America, even if studies show how important they are to overall health and hygiene,” Agrawal informs me. “A few of the reasons why: they're usually next to your toilet, impractical, incredibly hard to install and costly.” Agrawal’s own edition costs a mere $54 and can be installed in under 10 minutes. “Did you know that wiping with toilet paper hasn't changed since 1890 and creates a LOT of health problems?” Tushy, she points out, is an efficient preventative against U.T.I.s, hemorrhoids, yeast infections—or simply if you “want to be clean pre/post sexy time.” In short, “It's like the difference between wiping your teeth with toilet paper and brushing them with a toothbrush.Once you use it, you won't believe that you used to do it "that' way.”

"I want to say that when I am not at home and with my Tushy, having to do #2 and wipe with toilet paper is just the grossest thing ever," Agrawal adds. "I can't believe people still only use toilet paper… It's time for everyone to upgrade. It's just too important for overall hygiene."

Beyond it’s role as hygienic product, however, Tushy is also an agent of activism—both environmental and humanitarian. As the bidet’s webpage points out in a serious of succinct factoids, “An average American goes through 57 sheets of toilet paper per day; One roll of toilet paper requires 37 gallons of water to produce; 27,000 trees get chopped down every single day to wipe your bottom.” Comparatively, Agrawal’s portable bidet only uses one itty bitty pint of water. On the humanitarian end, the product's site emphasizes that “1 billion people are forced to practice open defecation around the world; 14 million pregnant women are infected with worms due to poor sanitation; [and] In developing countries, one child dies every 17 seconds due to poor sanitation facilities.” In an effort to diminish these staggering statistics, Tushy has partnered with charity: water to help bring clean water and latrines to communities and schools in developing nations.

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November 19th is World Toilet Day. May we suggest you celebrate in style with your very own Tushy? Decide for yourself with the help of the images and infographics below.

Find out more information on Tushy's website.

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