Do I smell?

I don't feel comfortable unless I shower every day but it's a quick shower I'm not in there for ages. The amount of water on the planet is constant so not sure what you are suggesting?

I'm unconvinced that the weekly bath and wash "if dirty" is enough for anyone. We had the weekly bath and hair wash but a stand up total wash down at the sink every night. I remember sitting next to very smelly children at school. I know this still happens as neglect remains with us.
I was shocked when I started work in offices, at the number of people who smelled. Its much more pleasant these days.
I have a quick daily shower.
We don't have a water shortage in this country and if we do, we need to be better organised.

I think in days of yore when most people only washed their hair once a week etc. then everyone was a bit whiffy so it was not noticed. As we became more used to a daily dip and used so many chemicals to dampen our natural smell then it became unacceptable to skip washing. So I think that the answer is probably yes and no!

Clean undies are important too , any one remember in Cider With Rosie. , where the well ran out and the older women turned their knickers inside out to save washing ! Eugh...
The sour smell of unwashed children was a feature of my schooldays

Hi Tanith, I don’t really know what I’m suggesting about planetary water supplies because I have read conflicting information about the amount of drinkable water, whether it is declining and the possible impact on the planet and other communities of excessive water use. You may have more reliable information than I do - I hope so!

A daily shower is the minimum for me and certainly if I have played sport then a shower after that. In previous houses it would have been baths but I rarely have one now so my water consumption has gone down and indeed my water bill has gone down since last year by £60!

I think we're far too fussy. As long as obviously sweaty bits are kept clean that's all that matters.

A daily shower for me, too, but I don’t linger. I remember a bath a week and stripped down washes at the kitchen sink.

Yes daily shower here too, I can't imagine not doing that, although the weekly childhood bath and a daily wash bring back memories and if I remember rightly the flannel seemed to play a very important part in my childhood washing. I think the population as a whole were dirtier then, most people are ultra clean now and a bit obsessed with cleansing per se, so if people smell now, it's more obvious. If we were capable of travelling right back in time, I have no doubt everyone reeked to high heaven. Of course there were various factors to take into account when we were all growing up, I lived in a classic 1930s house with one bathroom and no central heating which was pretty standard, most houses didn't have showers, getting out of a warm bath when the temperature of the house was pretty cold wasn't a pleasant experience.

I remember going to Australia some 30 odd years ago where I heard the frequent jibe "as clean as a pommie's bath towel" so obviously our reputation went before us. My first husband was from overseas and he also commented that he didn't find the British the cleanest race in the world, so I think that there were murmurings about our hygiene from other quarters.

Small children don't have bodily areas that smell, although they get sticky and dirty of course, I tended to put mine in the bath at the end of day as young children, it seemed a lot more satisfactory than a wash and a good way to prepare them for sleep.

I agree MissA. I shower every other day and wash the important bits with a flannel (or sometimes a wipe) on the other days. I can’t see the sense in the washing off of natural oils and spending time replacing them with manufactured ones all the time. Think of the planet. (I don’t think I smell )

Meant to add, bearing in mind the main point of the post, I keep my showers brief, baths I believe do use far more water.

Agree with MissA and Culag - daily shower is not necessary - not good for the skin and certainly not good for the immunity - all the research shows that the increasing incidence of asthma is down to living in an environment that is far to clinical - armpits, bottoms and genitalia should of course be washed every day - personally I think a bidet is much more use than a shower and uses less water - and the planet doesn’t have enough water - the more we have to process dirty water the less energy there is to produce drinking water for those who don’t have it

I thought old people were supposed to smell, violets or rich tea biscuits or roll your own fags..............

My father always used to say "too much bathing weakened a man"

I have a short shower every morning to wake myself up. I must also admit that this saves me making a decision about whether to have one, as I hate making decisions,

I remember the weekly bath, always on the evening after my school swimming lesson. The rest of the week it was a nightly stand up wash at the sink, always with 2 different flannels, one for the face and the other for the rest.

I was brought up with a daily bath, this continued throughout my life. Later on it became bath/shower at one end of the day, bidet at the other. Now I have less baths and showers as my skin gets older, but always substitute a bidet wash and that includes feet.

Iam64, remember that rental accommodation standards were non-existent in the old days. When I was born we all lived in one room with a gas ring on top of the gas fire, and an outside toilet which had no washbasin in it. In order to get water to use whether for drinking or washing, or washing up, we had to knock on the door of the landlord, and fill a container in his kitchen and use a bowl in our room which then had to be carried downstairs and emptied in the outside toilet. There was a slipper bath system at the municipal swimming pool, but it was quite a walk and I am sure one never had the time or money to do it more than once a week, and some people would have found even that a strain on their finances.

A Daily shower is not necessary as long as one has a strip wash regularly. Someone said no shortage of water, seems very selfish to me, it is a vital resource and should be careful of it.

I shower twice a week and have not been banned from anywhere because of smells.

I have very long hair and certainly could not be bothered with getting that all dry more than twice a week.

I use a Mitchum deodorant that keeps me pong free.

Iam64
There is currently a water shortage in parts of London, the South and Midlands, schools have clised and thousands of homes are without water. It's been in the news as recently as yesterday and for some days before. Burst pipes/mains due to the sudden rise in temperature etc.

closed

I appreciate the inclement weather has caused some problems, understandably GabriellaG. That aside, there can be no reason why we suffer water shortages other than mis management.

I shower most days but don’t wash my hair every time. Do that twice a week