To ask about this (because I know we all love a person hygiene question!)

[Wetbankhols]

Lately, I can't always be arsed showering and don't notice any particular difference in how I smell.

HOWEVER, when I shower regularly, I seem to notice I get a bit more inclined to need to keep up the routine, if that makes sense.

Do you think showering more can actually cause you to sweat/smell more?

Armpits!

How often is 'less often' op? I can go a day or two easily and not stink?!

I go camping and to festivals, and honestly I haven't gone 'nose blind' in that time, I just don't smell!

To be fair I think a lot depends on the person and their body. I produce a lot of sebum, my hair gets greasy very quickly and so does my skin, I sweat a lot too (I sound gorgeous) so if I don't shower daily I'm pretty disgusting fairly quickly. I have friends who have hair that never seems to get greasy (I experienced the joy of this when I took roaccutane I was heartbroken when normal service resumed), and they glow, they don't sweat buckets and I imagine they could last a few days between showers.
However, you are kidding yourself if you think you smell fresher with less personal hygiene.

Oxters = Scottish for armpit

I'm just away for a shower didn't have one this morning I'm actually still in my PJs (2pm!!!!!!) but I've cleaned the house and done all the washing/ironing. I get really itchy if I don't shower every day.

Oh, I don't think I smell fresher, exactly, just wondered about the self cleansing myth and if it was in fact a myth - or not!

Less often - maybe about 3 times a week? Depends though. Sometimes it's still every day.

No. It's just one of those myths that can't be biologically possible IMO. How could you body make more sweat because you are externally applying soap and water more often?

I shower most days but am not averse to skip a day. Not in the summer though as I'm a bit of a sweaty Betty.

Always give me pits and bits a rinse though.

When I was a nipper, we used to have baths twice a week whether we needed it or not usually in the same bathwater. I do remember feeling slightly sticky before bath time and used to come out three shades paler. My mum used to brag about how easily I tanned...

Ooh Cloppy I get the one onion oxster too what a nice feeling to find out it's not just me!

Buckin talks sense, the amount of sweat your body produces is not going to be affected by how often you wash off the dead skin cells and other sweat it produced previously.

OP, buy a shower cap if you don't want to wash your hair in the shower.

I hate shower caps.

I never manage to get all my hair up so some bits end up damp. Then it's a funny shape when you let it loose again. And they never keep all the water out and so when you wash your face you end up with cleansing liquid round your hairline which itches and a red mark round your forehead.

I really hate shower caps!

Hurrah VaJayJay

A couple of my chums get onion or cats piss oxters. It's disgusting. It can be so strong even if you've washed and clean clothes.

Most of the dead cells & oil come off on your clothes, not in the shower. You only need to shower once or twice a week, under average conditions. It's more important to change your underwear!

Hormones do make a difference, yes. I used to be one of those non-smelly women, but the menopause put paid to it. The pong changes according to where I am on my HRT cycle, too. Loads of women smell bad around the time of their period, but not the rest of the month.

My dad stopped using deodorant about fifteen years ago at the age of 40. He doesn't smell at all, although he does shower most days...

Dear god! Is wet grass oxsters like wet dog? Or tadpoles?
Oxtail oxsters sounds interesting. Beefy.

Cats piss oxsters really does smell like cats piss. Like a dirty great tom has marked your oxsters as his territory. Bastard.

My SIL only showers every other day as their hot water takes a ridiculous amount of time to come on. She never smells bad.

I get cheese and onion armpits

But what about sex, if you've not showered for a few days? Wouldn't it put you off a bit, especially in the oral sex department? Or do you save sex for showered days?

I have no opinion on others needs to shower daily or otherwise, each to their own (I cannot function, literally not even a cup of tea, before my morning shower). BUT my takeaway from this thread is Oxters, what a marvellous word!

When they've done big anonymous surveys on people's showering habits, it turns out something like 50% of people don't wash every day. So the idea that going 24 hours without a bath/shower will leave you honking is nonsense.

In my experience of working with people living in deprivation, it's unwashed clothes that tend to cause a bad smell, rather than the person themselves.

I thought oxters was a name made up by my mum
I sometimes get onion oxters if I forget deo.
I used to shower every other day but now do a couple of times a week, if I had a partner I would up this amount.
I lived a year without hot water from taps, so managed with a couple of kettles on the go for a bath, that's why I reduced my bathing, then just got used to the reduction.

I love the word 'oxters'. 'Hirple' is another.
I'm at the farm at the moment and am in and out checking the sheep. I probably smell worse than them. It's such an effort heating up the water with the antiquated boiler.

Is oxters a saying from the north east I wonder.

Your hair gets greasy quicker if you wash it everyday because the combination of hot water and rubbing your scalp stimulates oil production - I was once told that it takes approximately 6 weeks for all the cells on your scalp to regenerate into "fresh" scalp, so if you didn't wash your hair at all for 6 weeks, it would get greasiest and dirtier and then essentially "wash" itself.....I called bullshit. But then I went to Afghanistan and stayed in a forward operating base in the arsehole of nowhere for 4 months where all we had were bag showers. The bags contained enough water for all the guys to shower every couple of days, but it would have been really unfair for me to use extra water to wash my hair properly every 2-3 days.....so I didn't. I think the longest I went without washing my hair was about 4 weeks - just used dry shampoo every now and again, and I was amazed that my hair did indeed "wash" itself. It went all greasy and sweaty after being under a helmet all day in 30-40 degree heat everyday, and it was truly rank for the first week or two. But then it felt a bit more normal. Was weird!

I thought oxters was a scottish word, rather than particular to the north east. I am from the north east though.

Horrified to see i added some extra 's's. Please don't tell anyone.

Washing your hair too frequently can make it greasy though, I wonder why that applies to hair but not to non scalp skin?

I agree with the person saying that if you use antiperspirant perhaps you are just noticing additional sweating after washing that off, as its the only idea that sounds logical (though falls down a bit if you apply anti perspirent after every shower... )