Do I smell?

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 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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

closed

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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,

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

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