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?

@posterHandsDownRoundTheTown You just fill up a sink with water, lather your flannel with a bar of soap and give yourself a good scrub. Then just pull the plug, wet your flannel to remove suds and give yourself another wipe down to get rid of the soap.

Most people who sink wash are only doing their pits, feet and genital/bum area anyway, so it's really quick.

People who shower every other day or every few days what about when you're on your period? Do you make an exception? Or do you still think you are passable?

When I was growing up, it was a bath every Sunday night and a wash every morning. I think my dad had a bath once a month and a strip down wash every day. He had served in WW2 and didn't see anything more frequent as necessary. My mum thought baths stripped oils from your skin.
Both believed too much washing left you open to infection and weakened your immune system.
In my teens, I had a bath a few times a week but my dad used to moan about the cost of turning the immersion heater on.
I didn't have a shower installed until my thirties, and then I showered every day and had a few baths a week.
It's personal preference. I don't think we 'need' showers every day. I can't wake up properly without my shower, and my baths are for relaxation, not for cleanliness.

@HasaDigaEebowai I think I know exactly what stench you are describing. It is literally breathtaking and vomit-inducing and has the power to waft for an incredible distance. It might be their superpower, really.

ime the 'bath once a week' people have a flannel wash everyday on the other days.

If I don't wash my bits at least once in 24 hours they definitely start to smell so I shower every day and often wash my bits again in between as well.
I think the rest of me could go two days.
I do always wonder about this when people say they shower and very other day although I guess everyone's bits are different

I’m an alternate day person, and don’t think I smell!

I was born late 60s, we didnt have a bathroom and we had an outside toilet. I remember sitting on the draining board with my feet in the kitchen sink and my mum strip washing me. As I got bigger I used to get a bath in my nans tin bath (hung on the back fence when not in use). In between a weekly bath you had a wash "hands, face and little mary" Then my dad built a shower in our kitchen, made a cubicle, decorated the outside of it so it looked like part of the kitchen, we were still using the outside toilet! An extension was built when I was around 11 yrs old, luxury at last, our own bathroom. Now I shower twice a day, it wakes me up in the morning and relaxes me after work

I shower every day but I'm a sweaty person. Have to wash my clothes after one use too. My DH washes every other day and is fresh as a daisy! I think it's better for your skin to wash every other day.

@motherheroic I shower every day but on my period I shower twice a day. I just think there’s an odour sometimes 🤢

People had strip washes at the basin. They didn’t wash once a week. If they did they would smell.
More people and children at school, smelt bad before showers and hot water were available to the majority.

As Queen Victoria said, ‘I bathe once a month whether I need it or not’. She smelt but it was the norm. They covered themselves in perfumes.

Most people need to wash daily to remain fragrant. Some may not sweat as much, be less oily etc and not need to wash daily.

Every day mainly because of my hair but don't worry if I miss a day if Im not going out, 3 days is the limit.

As a child Sunday night was bath night, had to get in after Dad who shaved in the bath which was pretty grim.

We didn't get a shower installed until I was about 12. I remember a lot of strip-washes and washing hair in the sink prior to that.

I generally shower every second day with a strip wash in between. I have very dry eczema prone ski which is getting worse as a I get older amd was advised by my wise old GP 30 years ago that daily showering was at the root of a lot of skin problems

I shower once a day. I'd like to shower twice but don't have the time and am concerned about wasting water.

I have to use soap, not shower gel, and have to use talc under boobs and u dear arms. I use spray on deodorant in the morning.

Since my 30s I sweat so much, particularly under boobs. If I don't apply talc I get a rash despite showering every day without fail.

I've never understood the "secrets" of the strip wash, but understand why people do it when they don't have access to a bath.

Agree that lots of people smell, but maybe there are reasons for that (although I'm sure some are just lazy!).

I've never gotten on with roll on deodorant, although it's meant to be more effective, never seems to dry??

I don’t think it’s fairly recently that most people shower every day. I’m in my fifties and my mother always showered every day. I think it’s unclean to shower less. I work with an older man who clearly doesn’t shower every day. He smells musty and it’s revolting. I think the people who don’t bathe or shower every day and tell themselves they don’t smell are probably kidding themselves.

I’m old enough to remember the summer of 1976 and water rationing. Most people managed to keep themselves clean by strip washing. There wasn’t an epidemic of BO.

I grew up with daily baths/showers and have always stuck to that. I'm 31 now.

I feel grubby and sticky when I go longer than that without washing. A quick five minute shower and I feel fresh as a daisy

I shower every other day. I don't sweat very much and if I shower daily it ruins my hair.

If it's warm or I feel a bit sweaty then I will shower more often.

According to my teen, once a week is plenty! We negotiated twice a week - but she thinks that’s outrageous. So, if that’s the future...

We did have an over bath shower when I was growing up but it was mainly for hair washing - strip washing and bathing were still the main ways of getting clean. I do remember when my brother and I still had baths together we used to pretend it was a phone.

I was a kid in the 80s and we had a bath and hair wash on Sunday nights and then a sink wash every morning.

That changed when I started secondary school, went through puberty etc. Then I had a bath every morning before school (didn’t have a shower).

When I got my own place in my early 20s I got a shower and since then I shower every morning (can’t wake up properly and don’t feel fresh unless I do) and shower or bathe every night, as it’s relaxing and makes me feel lovely and clean when I get in to bed.

Up to others what they do, as long as they don’t stink!

@posteralifelived You can usually smell your period before it even arrives, so I absolutely agree there is a certain...odour

I was a bath a week, shared with numerous siblings child born in the early 60s. When we went to my GPs in rural Ireland for the summer there was no bathroom and only an outside loo so then it was a strip wash in the sink on Saturday nights.

It changed when we got central heating and a shower when I was in my teens but probably still not every day, probably every other day. Then I moved to a HMO with a communal bathroom and no shower so it was probably 2/3 baths a week (and as far as I know no one ever cleaned that bath). I probably made the final switch to at least one shower a day in the early 80s when I got my own flat.
Nowadays I live in a lovely house with multiple (inside) loos and bathrooms so it’s often twice a day. I rarely have a bath though - In 14 years in this house I’ve only used the bath once when I had a back ache. And a guilty pleasure is the occasional duvet day with no shower at all.

You can't ask this on mumsnet: the replies will vary between "I scrub myself with diluted bleach on an hourly basis" and "I strip wash at the sink every few days with my old knickers". It is useless as a barometer of normal behaviour.

BitofFun is right. There is no "normal" with things like this.

I shower daily but wash my hair every other or every third day. But I have severe anxiety and break out in sweats a lot so I have no choice. Dh showers every other or every third day
Once dated a guy who literally showered once or twice a week as that is how hed been brought up (very old fashioned traditional working class family).
Personally I say each to their own, if you dont stink then your doing no harm.