WIBU to shower after swimming?

[StarchyStanley]

The showers are open. The pool is limited numbers and the showers are too. They are closing cubicles and only every other one is open.

I'm taking dc1 swimming tomorrow and I want us to shower and wash hair after, like we normally do, or did pre-covid. It's a naice gym and swimming pool place btw, and never that busy. No we wouldn't wash our hair if there was a big queue for showers, before anyone jumps up and down about that.

Anyway, my dad (doctor) says all his colleagues are choosing not to shower after their gym and swim, (in another location), due to covid. I read in Metro or somewhere that you actually should be showering.

I'm confused! Would you? Do you? I'm tempted to, even if it's just when I go with dc tbh, as then we can walk home instead of bundling out to the car covered in chlorine.

YABU = don't shower after swimming
YANBU = shower after swimming

Our naice gym has asked us to be "beach ready" and to shower at home if possible. I prefer to shower at home in any event. Just stick a towel hoddie on. Its a 10 min drive down the road.

@EDSGFC

Can your dad explain why showering after swimming isn't good? Maybe that will help you understand if there's a risk or not?

No! He can't give me a reason except that his colleagues don't and also he once got a foot infection in a swimming pool shower.

Our pool discourages showering because of the difficulty of social distancing while showering (small number of open showers in small space) and concerns about cleaning between times.

Actually our hospital has also put in a load of extra showers due to Covid so people can shower after their shifts. No logical reason why a pool shower would be different

People have been spitting, blowing their nose and peeing in the pool, I prefer to shower with soap and shampoo before leaving.

I'm showering and washing after my daily swim. I'm last in at night usually and there's no one else there but if I left the chlorine on my skin and then drove home I'd be itchy as anything. I have to use the special anti chlorine wash. They seem to have upped the chlorine which is good but also bad. Maybe if it was busier I'd go straight home.

@Nacreous

Actually our hospital has also put in a load of extra showers due to Covid so people can shower after their shifts. No logical reason why a pool shower would be different

Aha! I will ask him if this is the case at his hospital then and why he thinks the gym is different then.

I adore my dad btw.

Normal showers at our pool, although half are closed for social distancing, so I wash as usual. (No-one goes in the changing room before they've been in the pool, so we're all nicely chlorinated beforehand.)

I do not understand this at all. What on earth is wrong with showering after swimming? What's the connection with Covid? Is it about crowds, or what? What's wrong with soap/shampoo?

I go swimming several times week. It's at a hotel leisure centre. They want you to shower before swimming, and it's up to you to shower after if you want to. At the moment, they only allow a few people in at a time, and it's usually less than six. I'm often the only one in the communal changing room or using the showers.

The showers have soap/shampoo provided but you can bring your own. As the place is so empty I can take as long as I want!

I noticed today that everyone else seemed to be showering btw. So we definitely wouldn't be breaking any rules or etiquette. Probably looked and smelt weirder wandering through the carpark smelling like bleach tbh!

Our pool are doing 40 min slots. You have to be out the building ten minutes after your slot ends so shower fast is the rule.

That was the same set up here, and the changing cubicles have their own shower. No restrictions on using soap or showering, but you need to be quick (although I think they don't mind you being a few minutes over as they clean all the cubicles for the session at the same time, and they can't clean them all at once).

and also he once got a foot infection in a swimming pool shower.

How does he know? Surely its as likely that you would get a food infection standing beside the pool?

We were at Center Parcs on the hottest day of the year and went to the pool at 5pm. I accidentally swallowed some pool water and could taste the salt- presumably from all the sweaty bodies that had been in and out all day without being able to shower beforehand.

It was grim. So yes if the facilities were there I would use them as people have been sweating/peeing/spitting into the pool anyway

Last time that I didn’t shower properly after swimming (I was in an overseas ‘group’ shower with zero privacy), leaving the chlorine on my bits too long gave me a nasty case id thrush. Wash thoroughly after swimming is my advice to you and ignore any opinions from men as they don’t have the first idea about female hygiene.

I swim at the gym so it may be slightly different but we all shower as normal. It wouldn't occur to me not to.

@merrymouse

and also he once got a foot infection in a swimming pool shower.

How does he know? Surely its as likely that you would get a food infection standing beside the pool?

True... for a doctor, he is rather germ phobic tbh.

Good point re thrush! I'm going to tell him that also.

Thanks for all these. I am 100% showering tomorrow.

It might be because if you look up documented cases linked to pools in China (I think) spread is all linked to changing areas not pool itself. Probably due to people congregating in small areas aerosolisation etc.

@Oaktree55

It might be because if you look up documented cases linked to pools in China (I think) spread is all linked to changing areas not pool itself. Probably due to people congregating in small areas aerosolisation etc.

If it was busy, definitely I would avoid. I don't stay anywhere crowded indoors these days. I would run a mile. In fact, I wouldn't even go into the changing area.

The rules in our pool are ( Wales ) arrive swim ready ( ie showered , in bathers and clothes on top )
After swim , quick rinse in the shower , get changed and go
No hairdryers to be used
The changing rooms are the problem ,, apparently.

All the warm people changing makes the virus easy to spread and pass on ( should anyone have it )

Our hairdryers have been removed, so there won't be any of that either.

Ask your Dad to ask his colleagues to explain why they are not showering after swimming.

One of the worst things about this pandemic is all these random rules all over the place that seem to be quite arbitrary.
Why no washing with soap? Ridiculous - especially as good hygiene is especially important at the moment.

@StarchyStanley

Oh x posted. Thanks. I also can't see why not! I've just been for a swim on my own and it is grim coming home covered in swimming pool water. How is that safer? Maybe it is. I don't know. Even my dad doesn't know! He just said since his colleagues don't, there must be a reason...helpful 😂🤦‍♀️.

Wow. Surely a doctor who doesn’t understand a medical thing should be asking his colleagues to explain, not just shrugging his shoulders?!

I'm an in and out person - I don't want to be hanging round in an enclosed, humid, atmosphere any longer than necessary. I arrive at the pool in my cossie, flip flops and towel robe and then leave in the same plus hair turban.
I then have a nice shower at home and don't waste any of my 1 hour slot as well.

My guess would be because showers are aerosol generating? i.e. if there was Covid on any of the surfaces, the shower would aerosolise it's and you'd breathe it in.

I'm not sure of any specific research on this though

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2874882/

At our pool it is mandatory to shower before entering the pool, but not allowed to shower afterward. This is probably just because of where the showers are placed, though I would have thought avoiding any kind of loitering was to be discouraged! I come home and shower/sort hair out.