to find it minging that people don't shower before they swim?

[AuntyDiluvian]

Just been swimming in my local pool and it was really quite grim. Bits of 'matter' floating around in the water (people-dust/phlegmlike white stringiness) and a choking fug of deodorant and perfume overhanging the pool. Every time I looked up to see a new person coming in from the changing area they were distinctly dry and unshowered.
This is really getting to me and I'm not sure if I'm on my own here. What do you think? Am I a tiresome clean-freak who should mind her own business and stop watching other people get in the pool? Or is this the unhygienic behaviour of a fetid and disgusting local population who should be made to shower by the people running the leisure centre?
AIBU?

I don't use the shower before I get in the pool mainly because I gave a baby and when u get in a hot shower then the pool Its freezing.

ha! I'm now wondering what on earth you use for deodorant...

Hmm I only ever go as part of a family and am the only one going through the women's changing rooms to hold the baby, and I can't very well get in the shower (cubicles at my pool, no temp control so I can't take him in too) because I'd have to just dump him on the grotty ground to be tripped over. I do shower every 24 hours anyway though and don't wear a lot (or any) smelly stuff. Hate it when you can smell Lynx in the pool, and I would not do it if I didn't shower daily.

DS has a proper double swim nappy system but still, I'm sure whatever manages to get out of his nappy into the pool is worse than whatever I might have on my body. All of the worst stuff in the pool, such as phlegm and willy dribbles can't be stopped by showering really.

This is just one of those quasi-religious things that people believe in but really, how much difference can it make? I'm wetting my body before getting fully wet in the pool...what other purpose does it serve?

Maybe the odd loose hair loosens itself in the shower rather than the pool. But there's no soap there so there's no actual cleaning to be done. And in any case, pools have chlorine in there for a reason.

If you don't want to swim in water with other human bodies then don't. Even if you are swimming with clean bodies, those bodies are still shedding hair, skin, bodily secretions into the pool. I can't get overexcited about the benefits of showering beforehand tbh.

I use the shower carefully as one has a heavy upkeep hair colour and its a bastard once wet. My kids hate showers so it's a 10second scream rinse for them. Plus most pool showed seem to be -5!!

Agree with above post - all bodies shed hairs, dead skin, secretions all the time, a quick dousing of water isn't going to stop that. However, what I do find disgusting is that our local pool no longer has the foot bath that you walk through before entering the pool, so no way of rinsing feet after walking through the changing area where people have walked in shoes. Also parents accompany their children to the poolside for swimming lessons in shoes. Is this now the norm, that there are no foot baths?

The thing that 'ews' me out most is people's unwashed bits, but even if you have a shower they are not going to get clean inside a swimsuit and no soap, but all that vigorous sloshing around in the pool will certainly get most of the germs out of that area and into the pool. I don't bother showering for this reason. Afterwards, with soap and shampoo, but not before - because you're only going to swim in everyone else's nether-region water.

Which is why I love chlorine.

I used to shower but since having dd I can't work out the logistics of showering with a baby in my arms. Not being able to shower afterwards is worse IMO, I hate walking home covered in chlorine.

I think you're being a bit ridiculous. The pool is full of chlorine.

If you're that freaked out by possible dirt and germs well then public swimming pools really aren't the right place for you.

'a choking fug of deodorant and perfume overhanging the pool'

I find that very hard to believe, I'm going to put that down to a touch of artistic license.

good point about no footh baths. And its not just shoes that are a problem, at our pool theres usually a row of buggies lined up right by the poolside and we all know the crap (literally) that the wheels get covered in. After you have swum and showered, you then have to walk back through a floor that is covered in mud and goodness knows what!

Agree it's rank! The worse is people coming out of the steam/sauna and usung it as a plunge pool

The chemical produced from sweat and chlorine is trichloramine (not trichloroethane I mentioned up thread). It is a gas. It can trigger asthma.
Some studied have concluded that even though a thorough wash with soap before entering the pool is best - even a quick 30 sec shower just in water reduces the amount of trichloramine produced.

Stop being lazy mingers - walk through a shower before you get in the pool.

The UK are a bit rubbish at swimming pool hygiene all round.
Iceland, on the other hand, has got it sorted. Shoes are left outside the changing rooms (no muddy floors). Clothes are removed in dry changing area. Then on to naked showering (with instructional posters) before swimming. Then it all happens in reverse when you get out, so first shower and dry off, then get dressed in dry area, then put shoes on once you are ready to leave. Much, much cleaner (but a bit scary).

I agree its disgusting. I am always amazed though at the number of people on MN who claim not to have a shower or bath every day - so even more mingling for those people

Yes yes to buggies at poolside too

So this is common at all swimming pools then? I kinda hoped it was just mine. I hate walking through all the dirt and grit after showering when I've come out of the pool on my way to the changing room.

yanbu
totally unacceptable
in other countries you need to soap down naked before getting into the pool and it is (sort of) enforced as in people who come out of changing dry are sent back to shower.

but the shower layout in some pools (open showers next to the pool) doesn't really lend to stripping and washing...

YABU - but only coz I hate the word "minging"

I don't shower immediately before swimming, but I will have had a shower in the morning. I mean, there is chlorine in the pool.

Tbh given the turd fishing that pool attendants needs to engage in sometimes,lack of showering before swimming is the tip of the iceberg.

This is why I don't go swimming anymore. Yuck.

I don't get showered before I get in the pool, and I don't think anyone else does, either. There are no notices asking people to do so.
Our pool seems pretty clean, never noticed anything floating in the water and certainly no 'fug' floating over the pool either.
The changing rooms (village) are nice and clean as well, with shower cubicles. I always have a shower and hairwash after my swim. No ill effects so far.

It's just so horrible to go from a warm changing room to a horrible cold dribbly shower. If they put a decent ward shower by the pool entrance I would shower. I'm not a dirty person anyway. (I would shower if I had just exercised).

I go to a private nude swimming group as often as I can so no issues there with water being unable to reach clothed parts. Before I go I make sure all my delicate areas are scrupulously clean and I always use the shower before I get in the pool. However many fellow group members simply don't bother which isn't on. The lifeguard doesn't ever act on this, perhaps because he's only about twenty years old and most of the members are sixty-plus. They might not appreciate getting the third degree of such a young whippersnapper .

Bahaaa! You aren't serious OP are you?!

You live in a country where seemingly no one showers everyday because they don't smell and you're outraged that people don't wash before getting into the pool?

This isn't the funniest thread today!

Perhaps the Lifeguard is too busy watching people don't drown ;)