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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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To wonder if anyone else will admit to being a soap dodger?

703 replies

blueberrycoconut · 18/08/2018 13:20

I often can’t be arsed. Dh has to prompt me. Anyone else?

OP posts:
CountessWindyBottom · 19/08/2018 19:07

If I didn't wash at least once a day I'd smell like a Tom cat on heat tbh. And I know that doesn't necessarily apply to everyone but personally I always feel better and fresher when clean and smelling nice. And with two small children my hand washing seems relentless insofar as I feel it imperative to wash them a lot after every nappy change/loo break/pushing a shopping trolley etc as not to do so is simply vile.

BettyG66 · 19/08/2018 19:13

Weird

NotBeforeCoffee · 19/08/2018 19:21

If I don’t shower every morning I feel gross.
Before bed I like to wash my feet, it feels so nice and clean and I hate to think of all the floor dirt on the bed sheets

Gottagetmoving · 19/08/2018 19:22

I've had a bath/shower every day all my life and my parents did too. I was born in 1953

You were either from a wealthy family or a bloody rarity.
I was born in 1953 and it was common for people to have one bath a week. In some working class families the men would bath monthly, especially those who had no bathroom and had to use a tin bath. People had strip down washes at the sink.

VickyEadie · 19/08/2018 19:23

I shower twice a day.

RoseNarene · 19/08/2018 19:25

I shower about 3 times a week and I don't smell. I know for a fact my family would tell me if I did! I do have an extra one if I've been particularly sweaty or like this week when we went to the beach so I'd been in the sea.

bringincrazyback · 19/08/2018 19:26

I hate getting wet

I'm glad someone else has voiced that - I hate it too! I shower daily, wash my hands etc but I absolutely hate the sensation of going from dry skin to wet skin. After that part's over I quite enjoy being under the shower, but eegh those first few moments of dry to wet skin - I just find it icky. Always thought it was just me.

glenaim · 19/08/2018 19:30

Human beings fall into 2 types-those who get b.o and those who dont.its down to our genes and unchangeable.the way you know is because genes are linked,if you have one type of gene than you automatically have the other.basically if your ear wax is dry,you dont and almost never will get b.o.on the other hand,if your ear wax is wet when it come out,you will have b.o,and no matter how much you wash,and how much deodourant you use,you will always have the underlying b.o.perhaps the o.p has the non b.o gene.this was on trust me,im a doctor,i think,and is scientific fact.i have dry ear wax and i never get b.o

Sakura7 · 19/08/2018 19:34

I have a shower every day and wash hair every other day. I am conscious of soap drying out the skin (my legs especially get really bad), so on the days I wash my hair I just do face, pits and down below. On the days I don't wash my hair I lather up everywhere. Do a scrub once a week and use body lotion about twice a week.

I'm another one who doesn't understand the point of a strip wash in this day and age, unless there's a reason like mobility issues or a broken shower or something like that. It takes 2 minutes in the shower to do the equivalent of a strip wash, and its cleaner as you're getting a proper rinse. Why would anyone who has access to a shower choose faffing around with a basin and a flannel instead?

CanYouHearThat · 19/08/2018 19:35

Dry ear wax? How does that work? Surely ear wax has to be sticky for it to work?

Sakura7 · 19/08/2018 19:36

Also I absolutely love smellies and trying out different soaps, shower gels, etc, so I enjoy my showers. Try to keep them to about 5 minutes though to preserve water.

OutPinked · 19/08/2018 19:38

I sound awful but I have a colleague who has extremely poor hygiene. I really, really like her- she truly is one of the kindest people I have ever met but she stinks. She doesn’t just smell like bad B.O almost always but she also has greasy hair and bad ear wax (and I’m talking literal potatoes growing out of her ears). I honestly do think she showers in the morning but doesn’t wear deodorant hence the smell. I don’t know how to raise it with her and actually daredn’t because I really like her but it’s pretty gross especially to my pregnant nose.

supadupapupascupa · 19/08/2018 19:49

@Sakura7 because showers are steamy. If you have very very thick curly hair the last thing you need is steam. Shower caps make your head sweat. A strip wash is ideal

dementedma · 19/08/2018 20:01

it amazes me that on MN everyone assumes that every house has a shower!
We finally got one put in last month. have lived in this flat for 16 years and raised 3 dcs without a shower. My friend's flat also doesnt have one. I don't think either of us stink.

YeTalkShiteHen · 19/08/2018 20:05

We didn’t have a shower in our old house until we put one in either!

New house has a shower room, former owners won the postcode lottery and spent it converting the garage shame they went cheap on the drainage instead of the swanky tiles

Icanttakemuchmore · 19/08/2018 20:13

I wash my hands every single time after the loo and at other times and always before touching food.
Showers, I usually shower every day but some days I stay in bed for most of the day and get up in my pj's when dh gets home from work, when I'm not feeling great and I won't shower until the next day,sonetines maybe even the day after, depending if I feel better or not. It's not sonething I like doing, missing a shower as I'm usually very particular. (I'm t/ill). Dh says he can't smell me when I ask bless him, he has no sense of smell either!

ILoveMyDressingGown · 19/08/2018 20:24

You dirty lot. How will your children learn about hygiene? By teaching them to wash hands after using the loo and before food prep etc, to put their mucky clothes to wash after having worn them, to clean their teeth every day and that when they do have their every-other-nightly shower that they have to actually have a proper wash and not just stand there getting wet for 5 minutes.

TheDishRanAwayWithTheSpoon · 19/08/2018 20:25

I dont think its disgusting to not shower everyday, i reckon the people with BO are showering a lot less than this. I saw upthread someone saying the smell of unwashed vagina in toilets but this smell is definitely the bins not lingering unwashed fanjo ffs! My old housemate was a soap dodger and it takes about 4 days till I can smell her, about 6 before I can smell her hair. Incidentally it takes 6 months for a towel to smell out a house 🤢 another friend washes her her once a week and it looks and smells lovely, I was really surprised when I found out.

I used to shower every other day as a student and this was fine, I didn't smell but I wasn't doing an awful lot. However now because of my job I have to shower twice a day, I really really hate showering (I would honestly rather clean the toilet) but it would be gross not to, it's a bit excessive to do it though if your job isn't grotty. I also hate washing my hands but I still do it! I hate the feeling of drying skin, but again not washing my hands would be vile.

I have the occasional Sunday off and I probably wiff a bit by the end but dp doesn't complain, I allow him the odd grotty day too. My DPs fresh sweat actually smells lovely, but I think I am a weirdo. He smells nice when he wakes up in the morning slightly sweaty.

I always assume on MN everyone exaggerates slightly, I am a dentist and I swear I have never met anyone who genuinely flosses everyday (apart from dentists) yet on MN everyone does! Where are you all?

Emj86 · 19/08/2018 20:30

can I just add that I have suffered with mental health from my early teens and it has never stopped me showering, in fact I’m quite obsessed with cleanliness! It’s not a symptom for everyone with depression, although you would think so reading some of these posts.

Rebecca36 · 19/08/2018 20:31

dementedma , you don't have to have a shower, a bath is good and you can use a jug to pour clean water over yourself to rinse.

ILoveMyDressingGown · 19/08/2018 20:36

Our previous house didn't have a shower either and it was only about 20 years old. Our current house has a shower (only the one, mind, because we only have one bathroom) but it's a bit feeble. It doesn't get very hot, seems to use quite a lot of electricity and isn't very powerful. It's broken and been replaced twice too. I wonder if it's something to do with the water pressure? Anyway, that's part of the reason why we only have 3-4 showers a week in our house.

We could have a bath but it's a very deep bath that takes ages to fill only a little bit. Also, being on a water meter and being skint we're loathe to use it 4x a day, every day.

RedCard · 19/08/2018 20:47

When I see people in public loos fail to wash their hands, or just rinse with water, I feel sick.
Everything they touch exposed all the rest of us to their filth.
Hand washing is a social requirement. It’s mandatory. No excuses.

itsalldyingout · 19/08/2018 20:48

OH has dry ear wax and has stronger BO than me when he's been doing sweaty hard work. I have wet wax and only suffer with BO pre-period and when I've been sweaty.

Keeping clean is one of the most important things you can do to stay healthy. I worked in a hospital and would see people with poor personal hygiene succumbing to bacterial skin infections far more often than those with good hygiene.

I'd also see a difference in the infection rates of surgeons that would insist on a pre-surgery routine of 5 days of Hibiscrub etc., to those who didn't. If you need surgery and your surgeon insists on this, he/she's a good one.

I've suffered major depressive episodes in my life and have gone several days without washing my hair, but never more than every other day in the shower - and then had clean clothes on every day. I know I'd have felt worse if I hadn't kept clean. Even when I had flu in my twenties I managed a wipe-down bath sooner than I'd have managed the proverbial pick-a-tenner-up.

I'm now disabled and showering is difficult and hard physically for me, but I still do it almost daily and use a bed bath no-rinse, wipe off foam while sitting on the loo on rare "can't manage a shower" days.

People who can't be bothered to keep clean through laziness freak me out. I'm glad I no longer have to suffer people who smell so bad that they've made me feel physically sick when they've undressed for an exam - thankfully rare, but an absolute dread of mine.

HighwayDragon1 · 19/08/2018 20:51

I shower roughly twice a week. Hands are washed after every toilet trip, before food prep and before meals. Tops are changed daily as are knickers, bras every other day jeans when I remember teeth brushed twice a day and face washed twice a day.

I don't drink or look unkemp

shapeshifter88 · 19/08/2018 20:52

unwashed fanjo smell is deffo not just the bins because for example at work, i have to walked out and go back 10 mins later when its ok. gip

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