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How often should you bathe/shower?

123457

Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    glassyo wrote: »
    For the people who don't shower daily or nightly, how do you uh...not stink...in certain areas of your body that can't be talked about in mixed company. :)

    I mean, I've tried baby wipes but they don't seem to help.

    I wash up at the sink on non-shower days. Face and armpits as well as the "certain areas" :)
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    glassyo wrote: »
    For the people who don't shower daily or nightly, how do you uh...not stink...in certain areas of your body that can't be talked about in mixed company. :)

    I mean, I've tried baby wipes but they don't seem to help.

    I wash up at the sink on non-shower days. Face and armpits as well as the "certain areas" :)

    Interesting!! But I don't want to add any more controversial comments. 🤔
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,311 Member
    I feel guilty for using so much water sometimes but I usually have to shower or bathe twice a day. I train in the evening so get v sweaty and need to shower. Then (warning TMI!) owing to an endocrine issue I frequently get night sweats. There is no way I am not showering after those.

    I save water in other ways and will frequently share a bath with my OH though 😀
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,427 Member
    If someone has to ask how often they should shower the simple answer is most likely "more".
  • _sw33tp3a_11
    _sw33tp3a_11 Posts: 4,692 Member
    I like showering twice a day. One in the morning to get my day started and one at night after I come back from the gym.
  • ExpressoLove11
    ExpressoLove11 Posts: 337 Member
    edited December 2020
    shaumom wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Norms change. The modern habits of daily bath/shower are pretty new, I think, in the general population . . . maybe around the last century-ish? (Running water, electricity, is a big deal.) Yeah, people have fewer lice, bedbugs, etc., than in the distant past. Bathing isn't the only reason.

    Weird trivia I actually know, LOL. First thing is, daily showering is very regional. Over half of Americans shower daily. But in Japan, 5 days a week is more common. British, last I recall, shower about every 2-3 days.

    And Brazilians shower around 2 times a day, on average.

    From what I've read, WHY we shower/bathe as much as we do actually seems to have less to do with running water, electricity, or anything you'd think it might, and more with a variety of other reasons.

    In the USA, our bathing habit changes correlate very specifically with two things.

    One, the Civil War. Disease was the main cause of death for all soldiers in the war, and was often caused by unsanitary living conditions and poor hygiene practices. It was such a problem that in 1861, the U.S. Sanitary Commission was made to help ensure good hygiene and sanitation practices. After the war ended, the increased hygiene practices stayed.

    And two, advertising. Soap companies ran with the whole hygiene concept and quickly started campaigns to convince Americans that using lots of soap, daily, would make them successful and attractive (pretty much like commercials today) and there was a huge bump in how frequently we showered due to that as well, it seems.

    This is fake news my friend. I don't know a single soul who doesn't shower or have a bath on a daily basis. I am curious to know your sources on this?

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,036 Member
    I'm not the person who posted that message, but this is a fairly recent study about the UK:
    https://yougov.co.uk/topics/health/articles-reports/2019/01/07/three-quarters-brits-probably-shower-too-much
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,926 Member
    This is fake news my friend. I don't know a single soul who doesn't shower or have a bath on a daily basis. I am curious to know your sources on this?


    your source must be wrong because I dont know anyone myself who fits the description :*

    Even though several posters in the thread said they did themselves :*
  • ExpressoLove11
    ExpressoLove11 Posts: 337 Member
    This is fake news my friend. I don't know a single soul who doesn't shower or have a bath on a daily basis. I am curious to know your sources on this?


    your source must be wrong because I dont know anyone myself who fits the description :*

    Even though several posters in the thread said they did themselves :*

    My response was in relation to the aspersion that British people only shower every 2-3 days, hence the bolded text in the comment I to which I replied. I can see many people in here don't wash daily, which is entirely up to them and no judgement on my behalf. However, I can offer you my anecdotal evidence, as the means to survey a nation are beyond me, that British culture, at least in the South of the country, is to wash daily. As a researcher I'm aware of the limitations of my anecdotal knowledge, however coupled with the YouGov report linked above which shows a higher percentage of daily washers in the South, my anecdotal evidence gains some numerical support and I am therefore happy to maintain my mild outrage at such a suggestion towards my hygiene practices 😉
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    freda78 wrote: »
    This is fake news my friend. I don't know a single soul who doesn't shower or have a bath on a daily basis. I am curious to know your sources on this?


    your source must be wrong because I dont know anyone myself who fits the description :*

    Even though several posters in the thread said they did themselves :*

    My response was in relation to the aspersion that British people only shower every 2-3 days, hence the bolded text in the comment I to which I replied. I can see many people in here don't wash daily, which is entirely up to them and no judgement on my behalf. However, I can offer you my anecdotal evidence, as the means to survey a nation are beyond me, that British culture, at least in the South of the country, is to wash daily. As a researcher I'm aware of the limitations of my anecdotal knowledge, however coupled with the YouGov report linked above which shows a higher percentage of daily washers in the South, my anecdotal evidence gains some numerical support and I am therefore happy to maintain my mild outrage at such a suggestion towards my hygiene practices 😉

    You are mixing up washing and showering I think. I wash every day; I do not shower every day.

    And most people, I would imagine, do wash regularly whatever method they might choose.

    I have come across a few stink-pots in my time and it pretty much seemed to be a lack of deodorant compounded by a lack of regular clothes changes rather than an issue of not enough showers.

    Get sweaty at work, don't use a deodorant and then wear the same clothes the next day and it doesn't matter how much you wash!

    I live in the south east of England.

    And I've heard of some people who use deodorant INSTEAD OF bathing or showering. I laugh everytime I read the labels and see stuff like 24 hour or 48 hour protection. I use deodorant, but not as a substitute for water and soap.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,400 Member
    This thread makes me laugh. When I arrived in Italy 35 yrs ago, people didn't use deodorant. They showered multiple times a day, especially during the summer. You couldn't find deodorant in the stores, I had to buy mine in the US and bring it back with me. They used perfume here--sometimes very expensive stuff.

    Women didn't shave underarms ever, and legs were only waxed for the summer. It would always throw me for a loop to go to an elegant affair, where the women were dressed to the nines with sleeveless dresses and when they lifted up an arm........

    Things are very different now. All women shave underarms and stores are full of deodorants. Sometimes I think I imagined it.
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,366 Member
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    freda78 wrote: »
    This is fake news my friend. I don't know a single soul who doesn't shower or have a bath on a daily basis. I am curious to know your sources on this?


    your source must be wrong because I dont know anyone myself who fits the description :*

    Even though several posters in the thread said they did themselves :*

    My response was in relation to the aspersion that British people only shower every 2-3 days, hence the bolded text in the comment I to which I replied. I can see many people in here don't wash daily, which is entirely up to them and no judgement on my behalf. However, I can offer you my anecdotal evidence, as the means to survey a nation are beyond me, that British culture, at least in the South of the country, is to wash daily. As a researcher I'm aware of the limitations of my anecdotal knowledge, however coupled with the YouGov report linked above which shows a higher percentage of daily washers in the South, my anecdotal evidence gains some numerical support and I am therefore happy to maintain my mild outrage at such a suggestion towards my hygiene practices 😉

    You are mixing up washing and showering I think. I wash every day; I do not shower every day.

    And most people, I would imagine, do wash regularly whatever method they might choose.

    I have come across a few stink-pots in my time and it pretty much seemed to be a lack of deodorant compounded by a lack of regular clothes changes rather than an issue of not enough showers.

    Get sweaty at work, don't use a deodorant and then wear the same clothes the next day and it doesn't matter how much you wash!

    I live in the south east of England.

    And I've heard of some people who use deodorant INSTEAD OF bathing or showering. I laugh everytime I read the labels and see stuff like 24 hour or 48 hour protection. I use deodorant, but not as a substitute for water and soap.

    I had coworkers who would go to the gym and work out on their lunch hour and come back to the office absolutely reeking of cologne or perfume or body spray because they didn't have time to shower. I'd rather have smelled a bit of sweat, frankly. One fellow's cologne would linger in a room for 10 minutes after he'd left.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,400 Member
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    This thread makes me laugh. When I arrived in Italy 35 yrs ago, people didn't use deodorant. They showered multiple times a day, especially during the summer. You couldn't find deodorant in the stores, I had to buy mine in the US and bring it back with me. They used perfume here--sometimes very expensive stuff.

    Women didn't shave underarms ever, and legs were only waxed for the summer. It would always throw me for a loop to go to an elegant affair, where the women were dressed to the nines with sleeveless dresses and when they lifted up an arm........

    Things are very different now. All women shave underarms and stores are full of deodorants. Sometimes I think I imagined it.

    ........... and here it is, I always thought underarm hair was a sign of puberty and normal for adults!!

    Hair under arms, on legs and on the privates is totally natural and not something people, no matter their sexual organs, should be shamed for. But being more comfortable shaving/waxing/sugaring/whatever that hair is not something people should be ashamed of either. I have literally met (online) a person who said that a man who was attracted to a woman who shaves is no better than a pedophile. Whatever a person decides to do with their body hair, as long as it's clean and not smelly, we should support their choice.

    My point was that all this follows fashion, and different places have different habits--just like bathing.