How long CAN you go without a shower?

[1000DayChallenge]

I like to shower twice a day. I don’t do manual work or lots of exercise, I just like it. However

We currently don’t have a bathroom (apart from loo). We’re having a new one installed and it was supposed to be usable today, but it’s not going to be until (hopefully) Sunday. Maybe Monday or Tuesday.

I’m having to make do with really really thorough strip washes, and I can wash my hair in the kitchen sink. The strip washes involve two buckets of hot water, one clean, one soapy, and four flannels. I feel like it’s enough but is it? I don’t smell, I don’t think

Is this healthy? It’s a stupid thing to be worried about but I worry about everything

Going somewhere else isn’t an option

unless someone details everything they do I’m really not interested in them preaching about one lifestyle choice.

So often it’s some who drives a filthy gas guzzler, consumes highly processed foods packaged in plastic covered cardboard, wears microplastic producing fleece and polyester and fast fashion and who thinks nothing of flying 4 long haul flights a year smugly telling people that their two showers a day is killing the planet

A strip wash is quite fine and you can
live your whole life like that

Baby wipes can be your best friend in a "no hot water in the shower" situation. I know this. I used the wipes as separate flannels - a few for soaping, and a few for wiping ahem. Did the trick and I smelt like a baby 😊

When I was working it was a shower every single morning, automatically. I'm retired now and shower every second or third day with a sink wash in between. I'm not down the mines or running marathons.

About one week. I had an epiphany about showering and bathing about 3 years ago.

I top and tail daily. I do not waste water for showering or bathing daily anymore. My skin is better because my natural oils moisturise my skin.

About once or twice a week I shower, but even then it's less than five minutes doing the essential bits with a plain old fashioned bar of soap and mostly just water.

Hair washing is as and when over the side of the bath, with a trickle of water, turned off while I'm lathering.

Yes I'm clean, no I don't have B.O (I'm very sensitive to smells!)

I actually find the smell of freshly laundered clothes and the fake smells of perfumes make me retch and give me a headache!

My granny used to say to us when we stayed with her as kids (and washed at the kitchen sink)

"Wash up as far as possible
Then down as far as possible,
Then wash possible"

You’ll be fine at that and even at less, you’re obviously hygiene conscious so don’t worry about it. I’ve been without a bathroom before while work being done and had to use local gym showers. it was a massive PITA but so nice to get an actual hot shower.

About 25 years. That’s how old I was when I moved into a house with a shower.

100%

I was waiting for the first 'fake smells give me a headache' poster to arrive!
BO, when you are stuck behind someone who clearly hasn't washed recently makes me nauseous but we all have our personal preferences when it comes to hygiene and smelling nice.
@1000DayChallenge you can buy extra large washing wipes, campers use them when there are no facilities and carers use them to bed bath the elderly. I have only heard good things about them.

My Mum says this! 😃 I've started saying it to my kids 🤣

If you’re still able to wash (as you are), you can go indefinitely without a shower. It’s much nicer to have a shower but it’s hygienic to strip wash and wash your hair in the sink.

Pits and bits, face and hands over the sink each morning is perfectly adequate.

I hate showering, ugh, it feels like such an inconvenience. I do it, of course. Usually every other day unless I've done something sweaty but I hate doing it. Weirdly though, I like feeling clean afterwards.

Loathe baths, stewing in my own mucky water 🤢

I also can't work out why you need 4 flannels?

OP you don't need to do the strip wash every day to the full extent. It is a pain without access to bath or shower. When we had our bathroom done there was only one day without either.

I think if you don't do manual work a week without bath or shower is manageable. Reputedly, you can do without a hair wash much longer. I'm not saying I'd go for this approach on either front, but unless it's high summer, most people wouldn't smell

Forever. Plenty of humans have never had a shower. You're washing your whole body every day. What's the problem?

"OP you don't need to do the strip wash every day to the full extent."

No, of course not. You don't need to wash your calves every day when it's not hot. You wash' those areas that need to be washed', as my dermatologist said to me when I had extremely dry skin!

"So often"?

So you 'so often' hear from people who do 4 long haul flights a year. I don't know anyone who does 1 long haul flight a year except for one person who works on places. And I know a lot of people who take very regular holidays.

Every now and then it’s completely fine. People get bed baths in hospital for weeks/months so less than a week will be fine. My brother told me he and his wife have only had three showers each in the last two weeks so people can and do survive over a week with no proper wash 😳

Two showers a day is completely unnecessary. You're not going to die from not having a shower for a few days. Maybe you'll realise you don't need to be using all that water and electricity which will be great for the environment and probably much better for your skin.

Do you must hate pools and the sea. You are sharing water in pools and it’s not fresh water. And the sea is chock full of stuff
i wash once or twice daily so my bath water is not murky. If yours is that would suggest you need to wash more frequently

You’ll be fine and won’t smell! In the UK most people didn’t have a shower installed until the late 70s/early 80s and made do with a bath once a week and a daily “pits and bits” strip wash (often in a bathroom without a radiator), or maybe not even daily.

We’re now very lucky to have lovely modern bathrooms so can indulge more, but it’s not essential, just something that’s nice to have and most of us enjoy. You definitely won’t smell; people who don’t regularly do any of the daily hygiene stuff would smell.

Similar situation and went 4 days
strip wash in between (using one flannel ) and a glass bowl of warm soapy water
i did not smell

A relative had a stoke a year ago and is now bedbound. He hasn't had a shower or proper bath in all that time! Just a bed bath from the carers! They are on a waiting list to be assessed to have the bathroom modified to fit a wheelchair/commode in there.

OP- in kindness, do you have any support for your mental health anxieties? If not, please seek help from your GP to start with.

2 showers a day seems excessive to me, unless you were doing manual labour or lived where the temp is 50' and you are sweating profusely.

Also- can you explain what the 4 flannels are for? 1 on each limb? . 🤔

I could probably go longer than 3 days but three to four days is when I shower, any more than that dries out my skin, particularly I feel it on my back where it then itches just from the dryness.

Excessive use of the shower washes away essential oils that our body needs to protect our skin.
My hair doesn't look it's best after 3 or 4 days so that's when I shower.
If I was working in a very dirty environment or I had a problem with perspiring excessively I suppose that would make a difference, but first I would seek medical help for that!

I only shower every couple of days, I don't smell. I'm sure DH or our DDs would soon tell me. My skin gets too dry if I shower more frequently.

Why the two buckets and four flannels though?

I just tie my hair up inbetween washes.