To think this is disgusting?

It's rank 🤮

Do you think so? I notice people standing under the shower for a short time in their swimming costume, not having a thorough intimate wash. But maybe this is different in different places and different types of pool. I mentioned it because the disgust some posters were expressing is so strong, and I would think that it would also apply sharing water in a public place.

Not to bathe themselves no, but surely these hazards will also apply in a public pool? Perhaps I'm missing something here.

Where do you go swimming that there are either no showers, or no one uses them

I’m in Australia and that’s never been a thing anywhere I’ve gone swimming. Maybe some places have it but in the several decades I’ve gone to swimming pools I’ve never once seen it, or anyone taking a shower beforehand. Whether in a chlorinated swimming pool or ocean, I go in with my hair well coated with conditioner, protects it from the chlorine and salt. I always put a good layer of conditioner on my kids hair before they got in for swimming lessons and as adults, some still do it, some don’t when they swim recreationally. Swimming pools are heavily chlorinated to deal with people’s manky bodies, that’s the point, or they wouldn’t be chlorinated. Ditto with filtration to get rid of skin flakes and what not.

When my kids were little and did swim lessons, while not a frequent event, on the rare occasion there would be a chocolate log (keeping in mind babies from 6mths had classes and I guess swim nappies sometimes failed with poonamies, or toddlers in swimmers who are toilet training. All they did was get everyone to clear away from the area, got a net, done. If a log, that was the end of it, they said the pre-existing chlorine level was designed to take care of that. If a poonamie nappy blow out, the’s just add some (I’m guessing liquid chlorine?) to the spot, wait 5mins and then back to normal. None of this a big deal.

Absolutely not, that’s grim.

I would always shower before getting into the Pool and used a swim cap; obviously, the latter doesn't keep your hair dry but that's not the point - it's to stop your hair clogging up the inlets / outlets or shedding on others. Chlorine is activated by dirt and make-up - I used to see loads of people with full face of make up happily paddling away with hair untied let alone with a swim cap.

I think it's disgusting. Even when I used to shower most days at the Gym I would turn off the water when I soaped / scrubbed up and then rinsed off.

There are showers, people don't use them before getting in the pool.

It’s true there will always be some people who shower before using a public swimming pool or hot tub & some who don’t.

It’s not something that is monitored which must be a concern for people worried about stray pubes etc which seems to be a surprisingly large number of you.

Where do you go swimming that there are either no showers, or no one uses them? :/

I wouldn't have done it when my two were little as I wouldn't want to get in dirty water so wouldn't expect them to.
I wouldn't expect it of my granddaughter either. She gets a freshly drawn bath of lovely bubbly water whenever she likes at our house

Do people use public swimming pools to bathe themselves?

They do where I live.

Not anywhere I've seen

Because people who swim in the swimming pool tend to have showers before and after using them.

Yes, I would do it that way too Sepoctnov, but to be honest I'd probably just have a shower

DH and I share bathwater, but that's our choice, I certainly wouldn't bathe my kids in dirty water - yuk

I'm not sure what the logic is of swimming with a load of strangers if sharing bath water with family seems so repulsive? Swimming baths contain disinfectant so perhaps that makes them OK germ-wise but there will still be the odd public hair floating around, surely, not to mention those 'crumbs'.

YANBU it is disgusting

@NewGreenDuck

thats true, but irrelevant.

Yep, this! And I seem to remember the tank would start cooling back down if you didn't pick the exact optimum moment to have your bath (certainly in our house, anyway - no idea if that's normal). Having a bath was quite the production!

I remember people being advised to bathe sparingly/have shallow baths/share bathwater in the drought of 1976 (I was 8). It probably would have felt more grim if I'd been used to daily baths, but that was frowned on in our house (skint parents, bath just once or twice a week and a daily stand-up wash in between was deemed sufficient). It does seem scuzzy looking back, but felt normal at the time.

Ya thats disgusting

I think it might have been before central heating combi boilers were standard. The older boilers and Immersion heaters were quite expensive and took an hour to heat up, so if the bath was drained the next person had to wait, and if you were all going out that was difficult. Oh the arguments me and DSIS used to have over whos turn it was and who had left the 'mersh" on. 🤣

Are they trying to save on heating costs? I could do without the pubes but it’s probably not the end of the world unless the dad is especially grubby.

It really is. As much as people insist they are clean, there is inevitably going to be bits of sweat, bits of dead skin and hair discarded after each use. There’s bound to be because we all sweat and we all shed skin and hair.

why you’d stick your kid in water 2 adults have just washed themselves in that water is beyond me. I don’t think it’ll make anyone ill but it doesn’t make it not gross.