Strip Washing

Yes I think we’ve become too precious about showering so constantly. I worked with dermatologists for 10 years at our local hospital. They said we (mostly) all shower/bath too frequently.

Maybe when you’re younger, exercise
more getting sweaty, I was a runner 4 miles every day before work in my mid 40’s I would shower every morning

But now? No way José. I shower every other day or every third when my hair needs washing.

@Petre

*Hypothetical question.
You could go on a journey/ holiday/ adventure which you’ve always longed to do ( this could take 6 weeks) longer if you wanted, but, there would be no showers.
Would you do it*

I could, and often have, and would happily do it again. Old habit from childhood.

When I started periods my mother (very fastidiously clean) advised me " a lady strip washes twice daily". which I always did at home and when when rough travelling.

In my teens we lived at my grandfathers house with no indoor plumbing whatever; just a iron pump over the well in the garden shared with the nrighbours Every drop of water was fetched in buckets (my job); For strip wash you tipped some from the bucket into a jug (cold) and carried it up to the bedroom where we had a china bowl on a washstand Wash in cold water, tip bowl out of the window.

I shower ever other day now as my ski n very dry and no hubbie now to cream my back for me. As others have said we don't get very grubby nowadays. Years ago everyone strip washed and had a weekly bath. We survived!!

Couldn’t do without my daily shower

I shower either twice or 3 times a week. Its plenty. I wash all the bits once a day sometimes twice it depends what I have been doing.

But..... I have a bidet so that department gets washed 3 times a day or more (and is super for feet).

This is a major plus, as you can imagine, because as well as underarms, the "bidet area" is the one that needs most washing but overuse of flannels scrape.

Its fine.

Why dry my skin out more?
for what?
Oh, and I can reach my back for the post shower pamper which I take time over and enjoy

My parents’ house had an outside loo, a cold tap in the scullery, and a tin bath hung out by the coal shed, which was brought into the scullery after Sunday tea. A gas copper with a mangle heated water for the bath, we went in one after the other but I always had first bath, my long hair took ages to dry sitting on a pouffé by the fire. They had a wall-mounted heater with a hot water tap installed after I’d left home in 1975, and had the smallest bedroom converted to a bathroom some time after my father retired in 1977.

We used to strip wash at the scullery sink, with water heated in a kettle on the gas stove. Face, feet, mitts, ‘pits and “bits”! When I was small my mother used to lay me on the ironing board with my hair behind me in the sink, washed with water from the kettle and a cold rinse “to make it shine”.

Now I’m old and shower every 3 days or so, when my hair needs washing, and strip wash in between. I’m not sufficiently agile to safely use the bath. I live alone and don’t socialise, nobody would notice.

I feel grubby I’m I don’t shower daily, however a strip wash would suffice it’s just simpler to step into the shower.

twiglet77

My parents’ house had an outside loo, a cold tap in the scullery, and a tin bath hung out by the coal shed, which was brought into the scullery after Sunday tea. A gas copper with a mangle heated water for the bath, we went in one after the other but I always had first bath, my long hair took ages to dry sitting on a pouffé by the fire. They had a wall-mounted heater with a hot water tap installed after I’d left home in 1975, and had the smallest bedroom converted to a bathroom some time after my father retired in 1977.

We used to strip wash at the scullery sink, with water heated in a kettle on the gas stove. Face, feet, mitts, ‘pits and “bits”! When I was small my mother used to lay me on the ironing board with my hair behind me in the sink, washed with water from the kettle and a cold rinse “to make it shine”.

Now I’m old and shower every 3 days or so, when my hair needs washing, and strip wash in between. I’m not sufficiently agile to safely use the bath. I live alone and don’t socialise, nobody would notice.

I feel I would like to socialise with you, Twiglet

I don't shower every day unless I've been cycling or it's very hot. My skin is very dry and daily showers make it worse. I'm a great fan of the European tradition of the bidet.

Would love to be able to shower but now on my own it is a bit risky. I lose my balance when I close the shower curtains thanks to AMD in my eyes. So have a good thorough strip wash with feet in a bowl on the floor. Wash up & down & meet myself in the middle. Always feel clean & odd occasion I do have a visitor they dont back away so hopefully doing ok? It is all personal choice anyway!

Due to disability & fatigue, I'm unable to manage bathing or showering more than about once a week, so I make do with a strip wash on the top half (using a flannel), then I have a bidet bowl which sits over the toilet for dunking my 'bits', & then my feet; on really weak days I just use a wet wipe on my 'bits & pits': nobody has ever commented that I smell!
My husband used to have a bath every day - when he was working as a mechanic, coming home reeking of diesel & with oil-encrusted hands, I could understand this, but he gave up work to become my carer decades ago & yet still insisted on his daily bath. I finally coaxed him out of it about 5 years ago, & now he too has a daily strip wash. An unexpected (to him) bonus is that his psoriasis has improved vastly since he stopped his daily baths; an added bonus is of course that our water bill has plummeted!

I’ve really enjoyed this thread and being introduced to ‘possible’!
It took me back to being bathed in a tin bath by the kitchen fire, as a child - lovely!! We did have a bathroom upstairs-but, pre-central heating it was cold. Baths in the ‘big bath’ were commonly once a week.

Like other people, we’ve started bathing or showering on days when we we’re going out or having visitors and just having a wash the days in between.

I shower every other day and use wet wipes on in between days, and when I feel I need to freshen up underarms and reapply deodorant during the day. I hate a strip wash, because it stings when you wash your intimate parts. I suppose I should get some unperfumed soap for that purpose.

I also grew up in a Scottish tenement, where we only had a kitchen sink. We only got hot water if we boiled the kettle. Strip washes were the only option. I was sixteen before I lived in a house with a bath. My mother was one of nine children, and they grew up in a two roomed tenement with only the kitchen sink, and an outside toilet two floors down. When I say two rooms, I don’t mean two bedrooms, just a kitchen/living room/bedroom and one other room, obviously a bedroom. These two rooms were just referred to as the room, and the kitchen. As another P said, the kitchen sink was used for everything, though each family got a slot once a week, for the outside wash house, where the stone boiler had to be filled, then the fire had to be lit underneath to heat the water for the laundry. Luckily, nobody had that much clothes, towels and bed linen etc in those days. How things change.

I buy large adult bath wipes on line from Age Co which is the on line shop for Age the UK. DH uses them all the time and I use them a couple of times a week if I havent got time for a bath.
They would be great for travelling. The packet seals well. I have just had a box of 25 packs delivered. But I will look at the Tesco ones

I have recently been almost completely immobile for 10 weeks after a major operation. Being wheeled into the bathroom to wash at the handbasin was my only option.
It was such a palaver but I absolutely kept myself clean. Once a week my sister came to wash my hair for me which was a godsend.

What a fabulous thread. I thought I was probably the only one who still did this. I would like to shower or bath more often but physically could not manage it. So wipes and bowls of soapy water it is for now. I also time them according to my (very limited) social calendar!
Suspect. as many have said we are too clean now - but that's being duped by advertising of all these perfumed things we are supposed to buy. YUK!
Even as a teenager I felt deoderants / well, anti-perspirants were not great. We are supposed to perspire and I don't think they are good for us.
So thank you OP for a really interesting and reassuring thread.
PS. Not used it yet but I bought a child's garden pool to catch any excess water whilst I am 'at the sink'.

I agree, too much washing doesn't do your skin any good at all. I just wash armpits and legpits, with the occasional shower, but I also have a soak on the hot tub every other day.
Hair washing is something that doesn't need doing so often either, in fact if you leave your hair, it will become greasy, but then leave it for another week or two, and lo and behold, it sorts itself out. I've got mine to behave for a week in between washes now.

We replaced bath with a shower 3 years ago and much preferred it. Unfortunately last August I had to undergo a Nephroscopy (kidney drain, permanent) and can no longer shower without attendance of DH who has to cover tube site with a waterproof dressing, being unable to shower, bathe or even swim. Most days I have to strip wash if he’s not around.

Yes, I do. Spread a large shower sheet/bath towel on the floor and it’s quicker and easier than a shower. Also maintains skin integrity/ph balance - and I hate washing and conditioning my hair more than twice a week.

I now feel guilty for showering daily and washing my hair every other day.

In hot weather I shower morning and before bed/before going out to eat.

But you go to the gym regularly GG13 a different kettle of fish from say,
me.

A couple of years ago I had to strip wash for over 18 months and I had no central heating or hot water. I used a special washing up bowl and a jug at my kitchen sink . I stripped off and stood on a bath mat. I had to boil two kettles and washed my hair first and then the rest of me in order with feet last. I was my brought up on a northern farm in the 1950s so I am no stranger to a lack of facilities. We didn’t even have an indoor loo back then.
The strip wash worked fine but it was chilly standing at the sink in the winter. Oh how glad I was when I was able to have hot showers and baths. I will always appreciate the luxury of my now fully working bathroom.

Another one who grew up with no indoor water and had a weekly bath in front of the fire. I can still get in and out of the bath ( just) but I find showers more difficult- and have always hated them ever since school days!
Between baths I wash ‘ pits and bits’, but I don’t call it a strip wash as I don’t strip naked. I do a bit at a time, to avoid getting cold. My water bill is quite low and my skin does not dry up.

Saturday night was bath night when I was growing up. Tin bath in front of the fire, it took ages to fill so once full was used by all the children, one after another. We put on a weird plastic thing like a doughnut to stop shampoo running in our eyes when our hair was washed whilst we sat in the bath. Does anyone else remember this?