I know that some people shower a lot, but was surprised by the results of this poll showing that 23% of people shower more than once a day, and that an additional 55% shower every day or almost every day. Several people in the comments on that page also mentioned wanting a clean towel for each shower! Even though I bike daily and hike on the weekends, and Amy works in the garden almost every day, we’re both light showerers – we average 2-3 showers/week each, and neither of us take showers lasting more than 10-15 minutes (how long does it take to lather up, shampoo, and shave anyway?) Miles gets one or two baths per week, depending on what he’s been up to. Neither of us have ever been accused of stinking, nor do we feel dirty. I can’t help but think that personal perceptions of cleanliness don’t correspond neatly to cultural standards of cleanliness (in other words, people don’t consider us “dirty” based on our appearance or smell, even if they think daily showering is necessary for cleanliness).
According to one person’s calculations, the average 10-minute shower costs $1.12 and uses 26 gallons of water – they don’t come free! If you’re using low-flow toilets, reducing your lawn watering, or taking other water-saving measures for environmental reasons, you could cancel out your efforts pretty quickly by taking long or frequent showers. YMMV.
Curious whether Birdhouse readers have similar showering habits to the population at large, so I’m reproducing the poll here. Votes are 100% anonymous.
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I think you have to take geography into consideration. In the bay area, there is usually not much humidity to speak of. If you were on the east coast during the spring/summer and did a bit of biking and then didn’t shower, it would not be very pleasant for you or the people around you.
I agree that kid’s baths should be based on what they have been up to.
I’m with Mike. Geography plays a major roll. Out here in east Texas where the humidity hovers around 85%, daily showers are a must.
Fair enough on geography and humidity (though when I lived in Boston I didn’t shower every day either, but I can see more why someone would want to). And of course people who work as manual laborers would want to shower every day, etc.
just wondering – how often, when you encounter someone who you think stinks or seems dirty, do you tell them so?
(not implying anything here, just making the point that you can’t assume no-one thinks you’re a lil ripe just cuz they don’t mention it).
@baald: True enough. But I’ve actually wondered about this for a long time, whether I might stink but not know it, and have actually asked a number of people straight out. Today, with this on my mind, I asked someone I work with – someone I can trust to give a straight answer – and he said he had never smelled anything untoward.
Of course there’s the separate question of whether it’s “bad” if we can smell one another’s natural body smells. I certainly don’t mind a mild smell on people (but have my limits of course).
Dude. I assure you, you stink.
And it ain’t the kinda stank a shower is gonna solve. :)
@mnep: Why thank you! (I assume you’re talking about stank, as in FUNK!)
geography does play a big part in how often one showers….LIKE YOU ARE ON A DESERTED ISLAND or where someone has to smell your stence. A larger part is offending others not to mention it is very disrepectful to think that someone would want to sit beside a smelly body or want to engage in any kind of close contact if you get the picture. Some of the male species have yet to realize that and then they wonder why their sex life goes to **** in a hand basket. OOPS did I say that outloud.
So men and women out there clean fresh flesh is alot more tasty… SO WHY SMELL LIKE A DEAD FISH
azgirl: You’re making the assumption that not showering daily makes you stink. That’s not a correct assumption at all. Some people have more smell than others, some people sweat more than others in the course of a day. But I ride 5 miles daily to work and still get by with 2 or 3 showers a day. No one has ever told me I stink.
I shower once a day. I just stink if I don’t. Not a problem with me, though. I like to feel clean and smell good on a daily basis.
Health wise one should shower at least once every 72-96 hours, more often then that depends on activities and climate, the more active and more humid the more often the baseline.
It is largely a myth that one must shower or bath every day to remain healthy, showering once a day is more for social reasons then medical (there are exceptions though). I recommend my patients shower at least once every 48 hours, and to take a bath once per week (it’s more effective at removing dead skin cells).
I hate to say this, but I don’t feel a need to shower often – showers are a time-consuming pain to me, as I have to take off my stockings. It uses up too much time. So what I do, is, in-between my (probably) bi-weekly showers, I wash my hair and upper arms daily, wash my face nightly, and wash my feet right through my stockings a couple of times a week. I reapply deodorant a few times a week. With a tight time schedule that includes a day job and some jazz pianist/vocalist gigs, there isn’t room for a lot of showers. I make sure I don’t smell!!! To fill you in, I’m middle-aged, 1/2 Sicilian, and from NYC. I don’t do a lot of cardio, just some calisthenics, and live in a rather dry climate in sunny Southern Calif. I believe my ethnic heritage plays a part in my approach, too. Frequent showering just benefits the soap companies!! Call this gross, it doesn’t matter; all I know, is I do get by!!
P.S. I’m also not really overweight. I was; but I lost 42 lbs. since last June on a low carb/good starch plan. I weight apx. 147 and since I have very toned thighs from lots of leg work, I look about 140 and am a size 8 these days. I do agree it’s important to smell good, and that’s why I make sure to wash many “parts” of myself in-between. Oh, yes – when I do shower, I take a long one, and spend a lot of time “exfoliating” with a loofah, if you know what I mean! I take a “mega shower,” in other words.
Jazzlady – I’m curious – what’s going on with your stockings that makes them hard to take off? I’m puzzled that you would wash your feet right through the stockings! I’ve never worn stockings, but would think it would take all of five seconds to take them off…
Hi,
Just wanted to put my 2 cents in. I’m a 20 year old female from South Australia and in my whole life I have never found it necessary to shower every day! I shower on average twice a week… (however if im working lots, running around, exerting myself, etc this would increase). I APPLAUD you for bringing this topic up as I believe it is such a MYTH that the human body needs to be washed with water every day to remain ’sanitary’ and clean. I know for a fact I never smell (thanks to a very honest boyfriend of 3 years who I ask often! and my mother!) I always present very cleanly and i guarantee no one would ever guess that I only shower twice a week… although i will admit those showers are usually mega showers as someone has already stated. I wash my face every day and reapply deodorant and perfume every morning.
I know it does depend on what you do… i.e. play sport… but I basically do no physical activity and am very petite in body shape.
ITS A MYTH I TELL YOU
:)
I don’t feel the need to shower unless I feel dirty. If i’m going to be lounging around the house all weekend then I won’t shower. My natural BO smells pretty awesome. I guess i’m lucky. I like my funk
i just wanna know how often a person should shower to smell nice and be healthy. im disabled and a caregiver showers me…how often should this happen? how bout brushing teeth(i do this on my own) or washing hair (have dry flaky hair)…anything?
hello23 I don’t think there’s any blanket answer to that question. Depends so much on people’s natural smells, skin oils, and preferences/tolerances. For me every 3 days is about right, and I do a lot of bicycling. Others feel the need to shower every day, but I think that’s really overkill unless you’re a ditch digger or farmer or something.
Brushing teeth should be done twice per day no matter who you are!
Clearly it depends on climate, activity level, genetics, diet, and many other factors. I understand the need to “slough skin cells” periodically but daily bathing is not necessary for most sedate people in drier climates. My grown children who visit can stay in the shower for 30 minutes or longer and it drives me wild, particularly because I live in the desert and we need to conserve water. If one has daily access to a bidet to cleanse the parts of the body that typically generate the most odor, and wash their face and armpits, daily bathing is truly unnecessary, even though a lot of people think it’s disgusting not to!
DesertLady, I’m with you. I really can’t figure out what people do during long showers. 10 minutes is more than enough time for me to shampoo, wash thoroughly, and shave. And still have time to luxuriate for a while. I can’t help but think that people taking 30 minute showers spend most of the time just standing there with water falling on them, with no thought to conservation whatsoever. I’d feel guilty as hell doing that.
Im curious about the stockings too.
I shower everyday sometimes twice but I have OCD and can not help it. I believe that in general if you wash pits and privates everyday then showering twice week is good. Maybe someday I can back off and shower once a day.. I dont even mind when a man smells a little like B.O. but.. butt rot is totally unacceptable!