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

[blueberrycoconut]

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

Ill admit that my hair isnt washed too often but bodily hygine i cant join the club

I don't shower every day. Personally I'm not sure I agree with it. But I wash my hands when I use the toilet, touch grebby kids, clean up etc.

Hi all,

The OP's not a troll that we can see, so please do avoid troll-hunting, please

Showering four times a week is plenty.

Not washing hands on the other hand (no pun intended!) is not ideal.

Although - most men seem to skip washing hands after the loo. (Used to be able to see the men's sink area through frosted glass while queueing for a venue I used to go to. You could see, MOST of the men just walked straight past it and didn't wash their hands after the loo. Gross!!

4 times a week is fine

OP I think your amazing and I want to be like you. Not for the soap dodging (bit grim), but for having the cahoonas to come on here, admit it and give zero fucks about the mean replies.

I’d love to have (washed) thick as rhino skin like you. What’s your secret?

Thanks, Sophie! FWIW I didn’t report any of the posts that said I was!

I don’t shower every day - My skin gets noticeably dryer if I do.

Myself and my young daughter bathe/shower every day. I couldn't send her to school/ kids club if not.

I agree with others that 4 times a week isn't really soap dodging and fine as long as you're not really getting sweaty. I would be very pleased if my teen washed that much.

I sometimes do less than that when my mental health issues (depression, PTSD, dysphoria) are particularly bad or when my joint are painful and stiff as then getting in and out of the tub is quite painful. At those times, I'm not active or going out or seeing others beyond those who live here much and also avoid certain things that mean I'll need to wash my hands (certain types of cleaning, food prep, garden or rubbish stuff) if my hands or wrists really hurt. It's not something I'm proud of, I'm quite awkward about it but I now it's a reality plenty of people face.

I can't recall my spouse telling me to shower and I think I would be quite embarrassed by it but I'm not very good with teasing. He does sometimes ask if I want to join him because, well, he's a dude but also because he knows I find it easier to get in and particularly out of the tub with help and am less nervous about falling over when he's there. Bit awkward when I need to pee though

Id actually be pretty pissed off if my partner was hassling me to shower if i already washed 4 times a week or more when its hot. Who does he think he is

In all honesty Im trying to see this from all angles but if someone's hair smells so badly their partner has to tell them to shower it means they're not showering 4 times a week already.

You sound good natured and fun, OP! Which is more than can be said of 90% of the replies!

MN is obsessed with showers and cleanliness, and I find it weird. Even beautiful smelling babies are bathed every day. I think its actually a sickness. I've seen LTB threads because a man won't have a shower before you-know-what.

Hell no. I shower at LEAST once a day - often twice if I go for a run or a bike ride.

How gross to allow yourself to be smelly and filthy.

I would never tolerate/be with a partner like this. I would never have friends like this either.

Why do you think it's funny? Fucking grim.

I’m a size 18, so at least once a day in cooler weather and twice a day through summer. I can’t work out how you can sleep sticky and dirty?

@Nocluewhatnext kind of agree, esp about babies. Both mine had eczema and GP and specialist told us to wash them less

What the hell is wrong with the world? Telling someone they must stink & they are disgusting for showering 4 times a week? I think if I didn’t do any exercise I probably could do 3 days before I started to smell - not everyone stinks after 24 hours of no shower gel!

As for her husband telling her to wash, I’d assume that it’s light hearted, a bit like when my husband comes back from cycling and he stinks and I tell him to get away from me until he is clean. It’s not a problem, it’s quite funny almost, and wouldn’t bother me at all. So many people on here are a bit precious.

Anyway, I always thought over-cleanliness was meant to be a bit common

I have family members like this and fear their child is going the same way. Nobody wants to visit them or have them stay with us as the woman in particular smells very badly of bo. I fear the child will be bullied for being dirty and having greasy hair. Its a hard subject to bring up with someone.

I love the idea that if you only bathed weekly as a child then you are scummy.Thats most people up until the 70s.
We had a bath day when the immersion heater was on a lot until we were all through.I don't think that has any bearing on how often I shower now.

The thing with people who don’t shower daily is that, they tend to have similar attitudes towards washing their clothes and homes so everything is a big grubby and smelly which means that even when they do have a shower, so their bodies are clean, they are putting on whiffy clothes and thats what people are smelling from them when they go out and about. I know people who say I don’t smell, I know I don’t, well maybe your body doesn’t but your clothes are telling another story. So in effect, you smell.

My DH went through a soap-dodging phase for a few months early in our marriage for some reason. It may have been "no big deal " for him but it was awful for me. The whole thing was so unattractive; the smelling, the forcing me into a parent role, the selfishness. And sometimes I couldn't catch it in time, e.g. if I didn't smell see him in the morning but then we met friends after work, and he turned up reeking, it was utterly mortifying. When it came up in conversation recently, he'd thought he'd just been mildly whiffy on ocassion and was embarrassed to discover that I had actually dreaded social events in case he turned up smelling overpoweringly vile.
Fortunately was short-lived but at the time it was really upsetting for me thinking that was my life now. So OP, don't assume it's "no big deal" for those around you just because you're not affected by it.

My eldest children and I both have eczema and constant washing exacerbates it. In our house we shower 3-4 times a week. My hair is oily but I'd rather that than have sore and cracked skin. We wash hands after using the loo but we're not otherwise obsessive about it.

See I also don't have a shower and have small DC my hair is stupidly long and thick and my bath takes forever to fill as it has rubbish water pressure it just trickles out.

I probably have a wash 4/5 times a week but it's definitely a chore, if you had said this at the beginning I would hope more people might be on board with you.

HOWEVER
You should wash your hands a lot more. I recently had campylobactor and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.