'I don't shower every day'

[WhiteRosesAndThistles]

When someone states they don't shower every day would you assume they are washing the important bits on the days they are not showering or would you think they are completely unwashed on those days?
Going off the BO wafting around in the shops yesterday I would assume most people are not washing inbetween showering!

I did yesterday, taking public transport to a football match. A guy who smelled of not washing and fag smoke. His clothes weren't clean either. He's obviously not poor going by the amount and intricacy of his numerous tattoos either. It's not poverty it's laziness.

Goodness me, are you seriously that unaware of what is going on everywhere? Water levels, droughts, people starving, killing their livestock because there’s no water for them? We absolutely do not have plenty of water. Think of these poor people the next time you’re chucking gallons down your shower drain. 1:3 people do not have access to running water. https://www.who.int/news/item/18-06-2019-1-in-3-people-globally-do-not-have-access-to-safe-drinking-water-unicef-who

I shower every day because if I don’t, my fanny stinks. I’ve said that on here before and been told that I am pandering to misogynistic tropes. I’m not. It’s a fact. Post-sex fannies don’t smell fresh the following morning. And no I don’t have BV (which I’ve had in the past and is infinitely more offensive smelling.

I'd never not shower everyday. I've been housebound for a year waiting for a major operation and working from home.
The thought of stinking of BO turns my stomach. It's tough getting in the shower because I can't put much sometimes any weight on my right leg
I make sure the windows are open for a couple of hours every day to air the house.
It's an effort but if I smell nice I feel good.

I dont live 'around the world'. I live in the UK where we have abundant water which I pay a lot of money for to be processed and delivered to my home via the sanitation systems we have

There is no more or less water in, on and around the earth than there was when the earth came into being.

Someone having a shower everyday in Wolverhampton is not going to affect water processsing and availability for someone in outer Mongolia.

Some people are naturally more smelly / sweaty than others, if you are fairly inactive ( desk job and no gym) then I think you can get away with showering every couple of days

Same. I was a child in the 70s, we had no shower and I remember the weekly bath. 😄I don't remember many people smelling either. I think because baths were so much less frequent, thorough strip washes were more of a thing. I seem to remember some families even taking their baths in turn using the same bath water? (I'm probably remembering the 1976 drought there.) To me that's cringe, very eco-friendly though! 😄

I'm not particularly advocating a return to this - showers are much less of a faff than a stand-up wash - but I do think everything's relative and I don't think frequent baths or showers are necessarily as crucial to personal hygiene as many people think, provided some form of thorough wash is had.

When it goes down our plug holes, what do you think happens to it?
It gets cleaned and reused. It isn’t lost.

I was at a gig the other night and the person infront of me stank of old BO and unwashed/greasy hair.
A shower can be done in a few minutes, so it doesn’t waste much water. I don’t understand how anyone wouldn’t want to shower every day. I love that fresh, clean feeling.

I don't shower every day or wash in-between, except face and hands. But you'd never know because I always do if I'm leaving the house. I wfh and don't go out every day. Single so no sex smells! And no partner to offend. Don't really get people just dropping by. So any smell I do have isn't affecting anyone.

I personally find it more gross that people will shower then put worn clothes back on! A few in my family do this (I know from staying over). T shirts they've sweated in the day before, jeans that were last washed god knows when. I always have full clean clothes when I shower.

I know from a much loved, but sadly quite smelly relative, that sometimes the smell isn't coming from their bodies, it's coming from their clothes.

Just a thought that regardless of how often people are washing (or not) that people may be doing laudary less to save money- which will impact smells when out and about.
Though whether it's washing bodies or clothes- metered water costs have increased by over 50% in the last year where I live!

Dermatologists & scientists say that we all shower too much for skin health. Constant showering strips our skin of natural oils etc.

I would agree that unless an arm or leg is dirty or smelly it doesn't need washing twice a day.

I can't say I often come across people who smell but that's probably because we all wash excessively

Competitive showering.

I shower 50 times a day. Anyone who showers less than 50 times is totally stinky.

Definitely wouldn’t have needed to in 20s or 30s- could do with living in the shower now- I wake up stinking every day!!!!

I shower everyday in the summer but I don’t wear deodorant or perfumes (I don’t like the chemicals and natural deodorant is a waste of money, never found one I didn’t want to chuck out the window). If it’s not hot and sweaty, it’s every other day.

I wash my hair 3 times a week, so I’m in there with my little shower cap.

I wash my clothes after every wear, I’ve always had dogs so I don’t want to smell of them.

I only really go out to walk the dog though, and don’t have any friends, so even if I did smell no one would notice.

We have enough water right now in the UK, but that is unlikely to continue to be the case. Shortages are projected, and action is required. The action is required now rather than later. This is not to say that having a daily shower is wasteful, however, all of us should think about our use of water and whether or not it is wasteful. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10248/#:~:text=What%20are%20the%20current%20and,litres%20of%20water%20per%20day.

I wash between showers. Bo from the armpits is an anti-perspirant issue anyway. You can wash, but if no proper deodorant your armpits will smell by the afternoon.

MN is always bonkers about this stuff. In reality plenty of people don’t shower every day and they aren’t going around offending everyone with their odour. We’ve had the plenty of people to stay who haven’t showered every day when here and none of them have remotely smelled. And some people get so incensed about it too, it’s very bizarre. I’ve got no idea what my friends’ showering or bathing habits are, varied I’m sure, but none of them smell,

Most people need to be showering every day and people smell more than they realise. Not washing your genitals, bum and underarms every day is pretty disgusting - and you will smell.

i agree with PPs that the natural deodorant trend means people smell more than they realise- it is just masking the sweaty smell- and doesn’t do it very well.

i used to have a colleague who smelled of a mixture of dried sweat, coffee and cannabis. He sat opposite me and have a fab than wafted his smellies over our team.

I shower and wash my hair every morning because I work out and often swim.I also work in London and have a quick shower before bed too as Inwant to wash London off me.
I also clean with water after a 💩 and always have done.
I have a friend who only showers before bed and she smells. Not like she is dirty, but she just has a strong bodily odour and I am dying to tell her to shower in the mornings 😅

I do have a very strong sense of smell so I think people’s smells bother me more than perhaps most people.

The countries suffering from lack of access to clean and safe water are not in that position because someone in the uk took an extra shower. I can think about them all day long while I shower, but if I don’t shower, it won’t make any difference.

Immobile/ill people either at home or in hospital are given bed baths for weeks or longer. There are special products like sponge wipes that have an inbuilt sanitiser/soap. No rinsing needed. I think I'll buy some and skip my regular shower now and then. I'm sure if it's good enough for someone who is ill or infected with something, it's good enough for me. Minimal water/gel/soap use too for the environment like.

https://www.amazon.ie/Endure-Rinse-shower-Sponge-Wipes/dp/B0C3MFGTHM/ref=asc_df_B0C3MFGTHM/?hvadid=743418759581&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15976650031269867141&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007850&hvtargid=pla-2198837116977&psc=1&language=en_IE&mcid=afb34ed18c7a3a9f871518a4bd75102e&hvadid=743418759581&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15976650031269867141&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007850&hvtargid=pla-2198837116977&psc=1&language=en_IE

A lot of people probably dont wash at all between showers. In winter i only shower when i work out, thats about 3x a week 😳 but i do wash certain areas morning and night.
Ive never had anyone say i smell. DH showers every morning and sometimes evening because he gets BO much quicker than me. I could literally go for a 1h run and stand next to DH when he showered an hour ago and sat on the couch and he smells worse than me 😄

Can we actually smell our own bodies though?

Agree - 1 shower a day is not obsessive by any stretch of the imagination! Humans sweat, a shower is hygienic.