Parents don't shower often.

[pateandcheese]

Is this a generational thing?
My parents in their late 60's only shower once a week.
I wouldn't say they ever smell or look scruffy, but I find it odd.
I've obviously not lived at home in 15+ years so never really noticed before, but before lockdown we went away as a family for a week and they both showered once in that time.
Me, my DH and small kids shower or bath every day without fail.
They're both retired so it's not as if they're massively busy.
They're very house proud and everything is fresh and ironed and tidy.
I just don't get the showering thing.
But thinking about it when I lived at home I'd only shower a few times a week in my teens too. It's only since moving out I shower every day.

"
How does the water from the taps differ from the water in the shower?"

Exactly.

Older people have thinner skin and sweat less.

@HMSSophie

Older people have thinner skin and sweat less.

My mother died at 86 and showered every morning.

I'm now 70 and sweat plenty, would soon smell if I didn't bathe or shower.

Total rubbish! Some people RARELY wash but NEVER smell. Others get jealous - they don't both with the timely FAG.

Others wash/shower/bath twice daily and STILL smell.

My parents are both in their late sixties and they both have a shower every day. Not sure it's a generational thing, more just a different strokes for different folks thing.

Never heard of this before. My Mum and Gran wash daily.

@wellthatsunusual

A "strip or sink wash" or whatever term you have come up with, will not cut it I'm afraid, you will smell.

How does the water from the taps differ from the water in the shower?

It doesn't run directly over your skin. Do you think that plates that have been wiped with a cloth are as clean as those that have been submerged/put under a running tap?

When you wash potatoes they come up clean a lot quicker with a sponge than with running water

Scrub, rinse cloth, scrub again compared to leaving it under a running tap

Bet bodies are the same

It doesn't run directly over your skin. Do you think that plates that have been wiped with a cloth are as clean as those that have been submerged/put under a running tap?

Yes, I'd think they'd probably be cleaner (assuming it is a wet, soapy cloth or sponge? Not just a dry cloth). Isn't it the friction and soap that gets things clean more than the amount of water? So assuming the cloth is clean when you start, and it gets soaped and rinsed throughout, I don't see how it could be any different from the cleaning qualities of a shower.

And before I'm accused of being filthy, I do actually shower daily (and sometimes twice if I've been to the gym) so I'm not secretly filthy and just can't smell myself. And my family call me the bloodhound because they say I'm obsessed with things smelling bad. But I know plenty of people who can't shower daily (because they don't have a shower or because of ill health)and it's just not true that they smell bad. They only smell bad if they can't wash at all, the method doesn't matter.

I remember being a kid in the 80s only having a bath once maybe twice a week. We didn’t have a shower or central heating. As an adult I have a shower daily and the odd relaxing bath.

Not sure it’s a generational thing though just some people feel clean enough having a wash rather than a full shower/bath.

"So assuming the cloth is clean when you start, and it gets soaped and rinsed throughout, I don't see how it could be any different from the cleaning qualities of a shower."

Yes, and the submerged thing isn't relevant to our discussion. That's more like a bath. Dirty plates usually have bits of food stuck to them. Most people aren't walking around covered in crusts that need to be soaked so not really a good comparison unless you want to compare baths to showers.

"They only smell bad if they can't wash at all, the method doesn't matter."

They may also smell bad if they've washed, but not used anti-perspirant. I had a colleague once who used an old perfume instead when she was running out of money. She was clean in the morning, but I could smell her by the afternoon.

@Lavenderfieldsofprovence

To the people saying they shower or bath two or three times a week, but don’t smell, the chances are you’ve got used to that musty smell and can’t even recognise it. I bet other people don’t share your view.

There’s no excuse for anyone in this day and age to not shower every day. As for the twice a week people, that’s disgusting and unhygienic.

Oh, my apologies, I'll tell my skin that there's no excuse for it drying out, cracking and bleeding due to daily showering.

I'm sure that will cure my eczema 🙄 ignorant

Well said person with dry cracking skin!
Both my sons suffered this when they were schoolboys - to shower was agony for them.

"Oh, my apologies, I'll tell my skin that there's no excuse for it drying out, cracking and bleeding due to daily showering.

I'm sure that will cure my eczema 🙄 ignorant"

And I'll tell my dermatologist he was wrong about daily showering being drying lol

My mum has showered less and less with age (she's not old, only 64, but likes to believe she is elderly!) and says her skin really benefits from it. I have never noticed her smelling bad. My dad has a shower every day and cannot do without one because he says he just feels wrong if he tries. Neither of them like baths and from what they say I think that's a throwback to days of homes without hot water and proper bathrooms and being far down the queue for use of the weekly tub of warm water in front of a fire.

This was perfectly normal when I was a kid in the 70s&80s. You had a bath once a week and a sink wash otherwise. When showers became more common, people used them more often but summer will have stuck to their original habits.

I didn't, I had a bath or shower every single night without exception

As a child in the 80's we we had a bath once a week on a Saturday night. We didn't get central hearing until the 90's when I was 12. My 2 dd's have a shower everyday and so does my husband as he has a manual job. I don't shower everyday tbh. I do have the nicest skin though, all the others suffer with dry skin. I only wash my hair once a week, I've thick hair do doesn't get greasy like thin hair.

How can a person (woman) possibly smell with lashings of lovely smelling body lotion and cologne each day.

@Loubilou09

LST you really have no idea if you smell or not I'm afraid. You like to think you don't smell but you can't be 100% certain.

An example of being an arse is calling people names on chat forums.

There is nothing judgemental about saying people who don't wash will smell. It is a pretty basic fact of life that you have to wash off dirt, sweat, bacteria and other bodily fluids, regularly and thoroughly. A "strip or sink wash" or whatever term you have come up with, will not cut it I'm afraid, you will smell.

@Loubilou09

There are people who shower more than once daily, who smell after a few hours.
And there are people who don’t, who don’t.
We’re not all the same. Why do you keep insisting we are, and that you know best? Is it because you are one of those sad smelly ones?

@allppp

How can a person (woman) possibly smell with lashings of lovely smelling body lotion and cologne each day.

Mmmm, my eldest child believes that he cannot possibly smell and thus does not need to wash because of the lashings of horrible body spray he applies. He is VERY wrong. But then he is a teenage boy, I suspect they are naturally sweatier and stinkier than an older adult woman.

As long as you wash, doesn't matter how you do it
I've cared for people that have been bed bound for years, so haven't showered for 3/4/5 years. They smell absolutely fine because they're washed well with soap and water

The only thing worse than BO is BO plus an attempted cover-up job with something that smells nice slathered over the top of it.

I'm in my late 50s and we didn't have a shower at home when I was a child. I seem to recall having a bath every other day. Since my early teens I've always lived somewhere with a shower, and I tend to shower every day in summer, and every other day in winter. I have more baths in winter too.
I do remember going to university and being astonished at the Americans in our halls who showered twice a day.
I do think that a shower is quicker than a sink wash.