To ask how often you need to wash yourself to be clean?

[Goldencurtain]

I have a shower every other day but wouldn't admit that publicly because fear I would be shamed for being dirty. When my mum was growing up it was standard to have a bath once a week, no shame attached at all to that. Indeed it's probably only been fairly recently there has been an expectation of a daily/twice daily shower.

When did social attitudes start to change on what 'dirty' meant and what do you do?

Op, why don't you shower every day? If you're not washing your hair or shaving anything then a shower only has to take 5 minutes in the morning.
Even if you don't smell of BO you probably have an unwashed smell on the days you don't shower. Maybe that doesn't bother you though.

I also think it depends a bit on where you live. I have to have a shower/bath as soon as I get home if we are every in London. I can't breathe properly there and it makes me feel really grimy.

Surprise surprise, people are different. My dh has quite stinky armpits so more than two days without a shower he would get whiffy. I discovered a few years back I don't need deodorant as my pits don't smell. I can go several days without a shower and not smell. On the other hand in the summer I have to wash my feet everyday as they smell whereas dh's feet never smell.
Do what seems right for you so you look pleasant and don't smell bad, but don't judge others on what they do.

In the 70s as a child one bath a week on a Sunday.

In the 80s as a greasy teenager I realised I needed to wash more - but felt embarrassed! We bought one of those hose things for the bath taps so I could wash my greasy teenage hair midweek.

As soon as I left for uni I started showering every day

Now I’m my 50s I have lost my sense of smell and am paranoid that I might smell but not realise, so I shower at least once daily.

If you’re wearing fresh and clean clothes and deodorant then I doubt most people would smell if they showered every other day.

I grew up in the 1950s, we had a bath, hot water heated by a coal fired backboiler plus an immersion heater. Once or twice a week was the norm. That probably increased to three or four times a week, then in the early 1980s we got a shower. Showered most days back then, and by the time the DC were teenagers, they showered regularly. Now they have their own families, the grandchildren have never known a non shower house!

Now we're retired, DH showers every day, so do I with the occasional exception on a lazy Sunday if we're staying at home. Washing clothes became much more frequent for me once I acquired an automatic washer, some time in the 70s. Many clothes used to be hand wash and dry clean, and we wore them quite a lot before they were changed. We didn't have extensive wardrobes either, so more care was taken, clothes were darned and mended and hems taken up then let down. Children were often bought items to 'grow into'.

Now underwear is washed daily, shirts and tops after one or two wears, even many coats can be machine washed.

Shower every day and in summer twice a day.

When I was younger my gran (who would have been in her late 90’s now) used to make all the grand kids shower after a poo

For me, it all comes down to stench. I come from a family and a culture of daily showers or baths. There was one little English boy in my class whose parents rarely bathed him and the poor thing stank. The teachers had to tell him to ask his parents to bathe him more. It was horrible.

OTOH, I had a French roommate who only bathed on weekends when she went home but she did not stink. I thought it was odd, but it really did not affect my life or the lives of anyone around her.

And my US BF never smelled, never had BO. He still showered regularly, but unlike me, if he skipped one, no one was the wiser.

Yet is a surprising number of people around me day-to-day in my city in the North who smell rank, even just in passing on the street, sometimes entire jolly families strolling together, and I wonder how they can stand it. Public transportation can be really unpleasant because of BO.

I had a guy chat me up the other day and he smell sour and his hair and clothes looked dirty. Just how do you not recognise that? Do you not want to present your best face and body to the world?

Being around these people makes me realise just how the country must have smelled just a few decades ago when access to sanitary facilities was different.

In 2020 if you have facilities for keeping clean and you smell, there is no excuse for stinking.

Are you just the kind of person with no BO, OP?

Daily. I think when you are a little kid you dont know or care how you look or smell. Once you are pre-adolescent it starts to sink in and by puberty for sure. About once a week if not doing anything I may skip a shower but I wouldn't go anywhere! Feel pretty gross by next day though. My husband often showered twice a day - in morning before work and at the end of the day after work. My teenage boy loves showering/having baths but I have to remind my teenage daughter to do it!

every 2 or 3 days but wash bits daily, this usually changes to daily if i'm in a relationship.

I work with the public and quite a lot of them smell bad; bad breath, musty unwashed smell, BO, stale smoke, unwashed hair.
I have to assume people can't smell themselves or they wouldn't go out smelling like that.

I shower every day. I don't like my ass and vag being unwashed and then to put clean knickers on on top of that?

As with another poser, probably moved to daily shower in the 1990's
Moving to slightly less now..save electric and water on days...every other day if it's not really hot and I not done much exercise

There's a big difference between 'I shower every other day' and 'I shower every other day but sink wash inbetween'. Imo.

As a child we had 3 baths a week but as we reached puberty we naturally started to increase the frequency. We got a shower when I was about 14/15 and then probably increased to daily showers I assume.

I usually shower on a day. If I have a shower on an evening I am unlikely to have another one the next morning unless it was a warm night.

Yet is a surprising number of people around me day-to-day in my city in the North who smell rank, even just in passing on the street, sometimes entire jolly families strolling together, and I wonder how they can stand it. Public transportation can be really unpleasant because of BO.

I was in a shop with aisles the other day. I was half way up the first aisle when a smell hit me. It was so bad I couldn't breathe without feeling like I would gag. It was a woman (probably mid 30s and her mother probably early 60s). As they got closer I literally couldn't breathe in the smell. The younger woman was the worst. I had to get ahead of them and skip three aisles in order to finish my shopping. I tried to get back around behind and do the aisles I'd missed but the air was still disgusting even though they'd moved on.

I genuinely had no idea that people could smell that bad. Ironically they were in a shop known for selling cheap toiletries/candles/zoflora etc/

At least daily. I just don't feel clean otherwise and it puts me off kilter for the day if I don't shower. On non hair wash days it's literally in and out within about 2 minutes. Lather up with the soap and rinse.

I like to have an evening shower too but sometimes skip that if I'm feeling tired or have lots to do.

If I'm backpacking, it's day 3 before I notice me and the rest of the party start to whiff

Some people are naturally oily and some are dry. I am very dry, I get itchy skin from how dry it is. Obviously I sweat but the rest of me doesn't produce much oil. I think oily people must need to wash more often.

I know some people must not know when they smell (or maybe they don't care) but I know when I smell and if I do smell myself then I wash.

Shower every other day. Often three/four days between hair washes. Never really thought about whether that’s adequate before now. . I am 42.

Please can someone let us into the secret of how to do this strip wash then if you have to be taught??! Tho agree I can’t see how it’s quicker / better than a shower.

I shower every night but don't wash my hair every night, that gets done 2/3 times a week. I don't think the shower is for cleanliness its more of a bedtime routine tbh.

I grew up in a time of 1 bath on a Sunday night with 1 uniform for the week too. We were not poor, just this was normal then. Looking back I think I must have been a smelly child and as a teenager very smelly/greasy. I now shower every morning and evening if I've been to the gym. My DC showers twice a day, it's his choice and a habit I'm not going to subdue going into teen hood.

If you wash too often, you will deplete your body of natural oils which are guards to your skin.

I think you're getting this mixed up. The reason people bathed weekly was not because they thought this was all that was required for hygiene, it was due to the logistics involved. They would still wash daily on average, but it was a strip wash at the sink.

So nothing has changed, it was always daily washing, it has simply become easier for us, we can now have a shower with hot water in a few mins.

@everyrosehasathorn that made me LOL 😂