Do I smell?

I take a shower either before breakfast or before bed, just once per day but if I go to the gym (or local lido in summer) I shower there instead.
When we were small it was a tin bath in front of the fire, usually on a Friday night and hair washed separately in the sink.
We had a daily wash too, top half first then clean vest etc and bottom half last.
We lived with my paternal nanny then but when we moved into our own house after dad left the RAF, we could bathe daily.
My daily showers now last about 2 minutes, as I douse myself with water then switch it off, use my brilliant jute scrub mitt with Palmolive or Imperial Leather soap, then enjoy another hot jet of water.
I think some overweight people are inclined to sweat and smell more than skinnier people.
I also hate smelling food on people's clothes and greasy hair is horrible.

A bath and hair wash once a week (sunday evening) in tin bath in front of a roaring fire in the winter, had to be careful not to touch the side nearest the fire as it became quite hot!
Now daily shower and hair wash, apart from today as water supply cut due to burst pipes in the area, thankfully don't have to use kitchen sink for a strip wash!

The amount of water on our planet never changes - it goes round and round the water cycle. (Rain, evaporation, streams and rivers to the sea, evaporation, clouds, then rain again.) So in theory water isn’t a scarce resource.
It’s ensuring water is cleaned, stored then distributed to where it is needed which is the costly bit.
I’m sure it’s not essential to shower daily, but it is becoming the norm in wealthy societies.

Where does the water go? If there is x amount of water in the world and we use it, it must still be in the world surely? If it goes down the drain surely it is still water? One of life's mysteries that I have often wondered about.

It’s the Water Cycle Nonnie if you think back to your school days and drawing it perhaps?

Yes! We drink the same water that the dinosaurs drank!

I couldn’t manage without my daily morning shower in which I wash my body my hair and clean my teeth all flowing away in 5/10 minutes I haven’t bathed for years and no desire to but I couldn’t start my day without my shower

I don't see the point of people showering every morning before they go out.
Surely a bath or shower before bed, to wash of the Dirt of the day is sensible.
Having said that, I agree with some others, it's unnecessary to shower or bathe every single day.
What a bore having to apply moisturiser every time as well.
Nothing wrong with washing in between bathing.
I also agree, too much water is wasted because we are a nation of fusspots.

Too much washing and showering strips the body of all its natural oils which unfortunately a lot of women then replace using products that contain nasty, dangerous chemicals such as parabens. Unless you're a miner or do some other very dirty job, a daily shower is definitely not necessary. People just allow themselves to be conned by the makers of 'beauty' products who want to convince us we'll all be dirty and smelly unless we slather on their overpriced rubbish every day.

The weekly bath of childhood involved lots of boiling up kettles and saucepans and filling up the tin bath in front of the fire, hair washed separately. It would have been far too time consuming then to do this on a daily basis, so we had strip washes in-between and a second hair wash during the middle of the week. Everyone seemed to do similar then to us so we knew no difference. Showering is obviously the quickest way to get clean but a strip wash is just as effective if you want to and have more time. Still enjoy a leisurely soak in the bath to relax though.

Clean freshwater is an essential ingredient for a healthy human life, but 1.1 billion people lack access to water and 2.7 billion experience water scarcity at least one month a year. By 2025, two-thirds of the world's population may be facing water shortages.
It doesn't matter if water on the planet is constant if people use more and more of it, there will be a scarcity. The water cycle is not regulated to accommodate humans and their water needs!

I have what is termed a 'naval shower'. Wet the body and hair, turn off the water. Wash hair, soap all over, turn water back on to rinse. Uses far less water than leaving it running while you do the soapy bit!

I normally have a shower each morning to ‘wake me up’ although I agree that a ‘top and tail’ is perfectly adequate for daily personal hygiene.

I was incensed to discover about micro beads in shower gel. Plastic shower puffs are declared to harbour germs galore and now we are told that many shampoos and shower gels are full of harmful chemicals that are absorbed through our skin (the largest organ in our bodies).

Time for a return to the flannel and soap.

I still enjoy my Saturday night soak in the bath, including body scrub, hairwash, defuzzing etc and it is the thing I most look forward to when we come home from holiday. I also have a midweek shower to wash my hair again and on other days I just wash face, armpits, bum and feet. We only had a weekly bath (Saturday night so we were clean for church!) and a daily rub with a hot, wet flannel as small children, but were told to strip wash and use a deodorant when we reached puberty. The glands that produce the 'B.O.' only really kick in then.

I shower and wash my hair twice a week. As I have eczema that's the most my skin can stand of losing all its natural oils. I've always done it and never been told I smell. I think that there's too much waste of water. I don't have a dishwasher either and I wait for a full load before using the washing machine

I still only wash my hair once a week, wash every day and shower every other day, as my dry skin does best without daily showers.

I think we do need to be concerned by the daily consumption of drinking water, which is also used for laundry, personal hygiene, toilet cisterns, washing up.

Personally, I would like it to be legal here, as it is in the Netherlands to use rain water for flushing toilets and other purposes except washing up and food preparation.

When I was a child council houses in the Glasgow area had two cold water taps in the kitchen, on marked drinking water and the other was for use when cleaning.

Daily shower for me except after Pilate's when a nice soak eases my aching muscles. Frequency depends on your lifestyle IMO but wouldn't ever miss more than one day and it would have to be a strip wash instead. And don't get me started on people who are sexually active but don't shower everyday..... euuugh gross!

An interesting study:

"In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers described having heterosexual male subjects place absorbent pads under their armpits while watching a pornographic film. Subjects then repeated the process while watching a normal film. Then, 19 heterosexual women were asked to sniff the pads of the men who showed the most arousal. The women also sniffed a control pad with a neutral odor and also a pad which contained the hormone androstadienone which is believed to be a sex pheromone.

Researchers used an MRI to monitor brain activity as the females sniffed the pads.

The results were somewhat surprising. The majority of women registered a preference for the pads used by the men who showed the most arousal. The study was the first to demonstrate a connection between body odor and sexual urges among humans."

"A daily shower is not necessary" sorry mabon, but I think that's rather up to the individual to decide. I think it is, and so it seems do many who have posted here. Yes I think we need to mindful of how much water we use when we take that shower. I have read articles suggesting that towels should be washed on a daily basis, I certainly don't subscribe to that one, changing towels so frequently would require the washing machine to be on way more than necessary.

I agree about the towels TerriBull. After all, how dirty can the be when you've just showered?!

A bit shocked by all this bathing . Now we're on a water meter I have reduced my two baths to one a week. We don't have a shower. Have been retired for 4 years so sometimes wash my hair only once a week now rather than twice. I have a strip wash every morning. Knickers changed every day. Face cleansed morning and bedtime. Hope I don't smell , I'm sure DDs would tell me.

Shower every other day and and wash hair.

Shower or bath.....I find it very therapeutic to either soak in a hot bath or to let warm water run over achy joints and back, especially after a long day.

All the same, I find showering to be more practical. My daily shower usually happens in the morning and I use a washcloth and soap before bedtime, just to make sure everything is still fresh at the end of the day. I also take care of my feet regularly and I wash my hair (in the shower) every other day.

Clothes and underwear need to be clean at all times too. I remember the school nuns wore the same habit day after day and they smelled like someone's dirty laundry even though they all looked so clean and tidy.

A note to add....my own mother lost her sense of smell (stroke) in the years leading up to her death. She began having problems with her personal hygiene right about the same time. The inability to smell can impact the need for adequate hygiene, so it's important to follow routines whether or not it feels unnecessary.

At boarding school in the 60's we had two baths per week but they had to be with a friend, ugh! School clothing list was three of everything...one on, one clean and one in the wash, so one pair of knickers(grey interlock) had to last a week. We ALL smelled!!

It's not the water that's running out, it's that there are far too many people on this planet. In fact, that's probably the cause of all the ills in this world. So, unless that is sorted out pretty soon we are, in the words of that dad's army bloke, 'All doomed!'