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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

How often should I shower?

999 replies

grosstonotshower · 12/01/2022 10:36

Ok so I'm having a few drinks with friends last night. We are all female a mix of parents and non parents. One friend mentions she is struggling to find time for o shower every day since she had her baby. I said "well I don't shower every day without a young baby," All of my friends looked at me in horror. Apparently even the ones with kids shower daily. Full disclosure I have two dd one under five and I work part time. I shower on work days plus one extra day so usually three times a week my days off usually consist of playing at home, walking dog, school run and maybe park. I would shower extra if exercising/having sex/on period etc. I bath my dc three times a week. My oh works out every week day so he does shower more than me. AIBD? (Disgusting 😂)

OP posts:
HacerSonarSusPasos · 19/01/2022 12:10

cooking doesn't make me smell (what a ridiculous suggestion).

I wear glasses and whenever I fry anything, no matter how little oil I use, by the end of it they're covered in tiny droplets of fat and water.

Those same droplets will inevitably land all over your hair, skin and clothes and carry the smell of the food with them. Of course cooking smells get on you! It's going to be less obvious with less fragrant spices, but still...

Gwenhwyfar · 19/01/2022 12:38

"Of course cooking smells get on you! It's going to be less obvious with less fragrant spices, but still..."

Most of your body's protected by clothes though. I've definitely noticed my clothes smell after making an omelette, but not my skin or hair. As I've said, my hair does pick up smoke smells as do my clothes, but not my skin.

CounsellorTroi · 19/01/2022 13:09

@Lifeisnteasy

Hair picks up cooking/smoke smells.

Like I said as an emergency measure or if I’m seeing nobody I’ll do an armpit wash in the sink, but I absolutely refuse to believe mucking about with multiple flannels and jugs of water, washing your bumhole in the sink etc as a regular thing is either efficient or hygienic.

Not unless you actually work in a kitchen for a living, surely?
VanGoghsDog · 19/01/2022 13:14

@Lifeisnteasy

Hair picks up cooking/smoke smells.

Like I said as an emergency measure or if I’m seeing nobody I’ll do an armpit wash in the sink, but I absolutely refuse to believe mucking about with multiple flannels and jugs of water, washing your bumhole in the sink etc as a regular thing is either efficient or hygienic.

So, are you now saying I should wash my hair every time I cook? Like, three times a day?
VanGoghsDog · 19/01/2022 13:16

@HacerSonarSusPasos

cooking doesn't make me smell (what a ridiculous suggestion).

I wear glasses and whenever I fry anything, no matter how little oil I use, by the end of it they're covered in tiny droplets of fat and water.

Those same droplets will inevitably land all over your hair, skin and clothes and carry the smell of the food with them. Of course cooking smells get on you! It's going to be less obvious with less fragrant spices, but still...

I wear glasses and they are not covered with fat after I cook. I suggest you change your cooking methods if you're that careless. Not that I fry very often.

But anyway, I wash my face and hands which could be affected by this stray fat. The rest is covered with clothes. I wear clean clothes daily and wash on non shower days.

Lifeisnteasy · 19/01/2022 13:29

@VanGoghsDog yes and every time you walk past a takeaway

appleturnovers · 20/01/2022 17:26

@Lifeisnteasy

Hair picks up cooking/smoke smells.

Like I said as an emergency measure or if I’m seeing nobody I’ll do an armpit wash in the sink, but I absolutely refuse to believe mucking about with multiple flannels and jugs of water, washing your bumhole in the sink etc as a regular thing is either efficient or hygienic.

Well if you make that much of a palaver out of a sink wash, then no, it won't be very efficient. If you keep things simple though then yes it is.
Cheekypeach · 20/01/2022 17:38

@appleturnovers can you inform us how exactly you have a hygienic full body strip wash that is quick and easy?

pantsandpringles · 20/01/2022 17:45

Maybe 6 days a week for me. Sometimes 7.

But when I was very disabled and my mental health was at its worst, it was probably once every 2 weeks.

headspin10 · 20/01/2022 17:51

@montysma1 I completely agree. I don't shower every day unless I exercise. It's a modern thing I think. In the 80's lots of people only had baths, you're right.

I listened to a history audiobook recently (Bill Bryson one) and he was saying about washing habits, people sometimes bathed once a year! Obv I'm not aiming for that 😁 but shows how times have changed.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 20/01/2022 18:35

[quote Cheekypeach]@appleturnovers can you inform us how exactly you have a hygienic full body strip wash that is quick and easy?[/quote]
Doesn't need to be a full body now does it. Bits and pits

Cheekypeach · 20/01/2022 18:42

Feet? Bum crack? Underboob?

Kanaloa · 20/01/2022 19:01

@Cheekypeach

I actually asked this in response to the ‘it’s quick and easy’ upthread. I was informed that you just sit on the toilet, soap your bits up, then rinse them with jugs of water. For your feet you put them in the sink and scrub them one at a time.

One poster did actually answer how it’s quick and easy for her, which was that she quickly washes her armpits without taking clothes off, then splashes her face with water. I did agree that this method would be quick and easy, but disagreed that it would be a good wash.

DillonPanthersTexas · 20/01/2022 19:02

Have to confess the whole idea of a sink wash and all the faff that involves is an odd choice given that you can be squeaky clean with a quick 5 min shower. Anyway, why would you want to deal with skiddy flannels post wash ?

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 20/01/2022 19:15

@Cheekypeach

Feet? Bum crack? Underboob?
My feet don't need washing daily. Bum crack is classed as bits. I don't have an underboob. And if I did, hardly hard with a flannel is it? How big are your tits?!
AllThingsServeTheBeam · 20/01/2022 19:15

@DillonPanthersTexas

Have to confess the whole idea of a sink wash and all the faff that involves is an odd choice given that you can be squeaky clean with a quick 5 min shower. Anyway, why would you want to deal with skiddy flannels post wash ?
I wipe my arse properly, so I have never experienced a shitty flannel
Cheekypeach · 20/01/2022 19:18

Can you walk us through this strip wash @AllThingsServeTheBeam because I’m mentally struggling with it

How many flannels do you use?

DillonPanthersTexas · 20/01/2022 19:22

I wipe my arse properly, so I have never experienced a shitty flannel

Sure, you can eat your dinner off your arse* it is so clean after a post dump wipe.

*Possible only possible if you are a cirque du soleil performer.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 20/01/2022 19:24

@Cheekypeach

Can you walk us through this strip wash *@AllThingsServeTheBeam* because I’m mentally struggling with it

How many flannels do you use?

I'm disabled. I struggle to shower. So being patronising isn't necessary. I stand on a towel. I fill a sink with warm soapy water. Wash my face. Rinse a flannel in the water, wash under my arms. Rinse the flannel wash my fanny and arse. Dry myself on the towel and put the flannel in the wash. Is that so hard to imagine?
Cheekypeach · 20/01/2022 19:41

@AllThingsServeTheBeam it sounds physically like harder work than stepping into a cubicle & pushing a button to me.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 20/01/2022 19:43

[quote Cheekypeach]@AllThingsServeTheBeam it sounds physically like harder work than stepping into a cubicle & pushing a button to me.[/quote]
Oh right. So you're disabled too are you? Can you speak for me to tell me what is physically harder? Jesus.

Cheekypeach · 20/01/2022 19:44

Chill out. I’m merely genuinely enquiring how filling jugs, using flannels etc is less physically gruelling than stepping into a cubicle and pressing a button.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 20/01/2022 19:48

@Cheekypeach

Chill out. I’m merely genuinely enquiring how filling jugs, using flannels etc is less physically gruelling than stepping into a cubicle and pressing a button.
I am chilled. Just sick of calling out abelist posters. I have really bad mobility issues. Not that I need to fucking justify myself. Unless DP is in I can't have a shower as I aren't safe enough to stand under the water and risk slipping. So it's a lot simpler and easier for me to have a sink wash between showers. Is that ok with you? I'm going more than every other day at the minute, because I've just had my knee replaced. How grim is that?!?!
HacerSonarSusPasos · 20/01/2022 19:49

@Cheekypeach

Chill out. I’m merely genuinely enquiring how filling jugs, using flannels etc is less physically gruelling than stepping into a cubicle and pressing a button.
Maybe they don't have a walk in shower and would need to get into the bath. Just guessing, cause otherwise it wouldn't make much sense
Gwenhwyfar · 20/01/2022 19:52

@Cheekypeach

Chill out. I’m merely genuinely enquiring how filling jugs, using flannels etc is less physically gruelling than stepping into a cubicle and pressing a button.
Who's talking about filling jugs? Don't you have running water in your bathroom sink?