Cleanliness and hygiene

Well, I enjoy my evening bath, it relaxes me before bedtime. I'm not going to deny myself one of life's small pleasures, especially when it's been stotting down for days so everywhere around me is flooded!

One thing I miss is drying on the line. It smelled lovely. These days a day on the line in central London smells of traffic fumes. When I go and stay with my bestie who lives in the countrysideI have a real sense of joy pinning things on the line.

It's a lot easer now I have a washing machine rather than a weekly trip to the the bagwash.

I do like a nice clean tea towel and dishcloth, but it's ruddy hard work keeping up with it all, here.

...as do my teatowels. I read something somewhere that said teatowels only needed to be washed once a week which struck me as unhygenic.

I don't wash the flannels daily, to be clear, they go into the laundry basket after a day.

I hate showers with a deep loathing. Too many memories of cold showers and sadistic PE teachers. I wash at the basin twice a day, morning and evening, flannel for armpits and nethers, sponge for face and the rest.
Flannel washed on a hot wash with towels after each day (I have more than one flannel) sponge (a big proper natural one from Greece) soaked in bicarb & water weekly then rinsed and I have a luxurious deep hot bath with nice bath salts or bubble bath while DH listens to the Archers on Sunday. Bliss.
I wash my hair once a week unless I've been doing something that makes it particularly grubby. I found doing it more often than once a week makes it dry and awkward.

My mum was a great fan of Dettol too
If I got a cut or graze (a frequent occurrence) it would also come out, poured into boiling water, cooled, then the cut washed with cotton wool soaked in the Dettol water.

The media is always telling us we wash our body too much, use too much shampoo and lotions, wash our clothes too often and use too many chemicals to clean our houses. Unless you are hot and sweaty, have a mucky job there is no need for all the showering we do nowadays. We were advised to shower instead of baths to save water and energy. How many adults can say they had a bath everyday everyday before or after work we have lost the plot! A bath a shower every few days and a quick wash down daily should do.

Drene shampoo in pillow shaped sachets.....

Can still remember that smell.

When everyone was a bit smelly I guess that it was accepted that a weekly bath was ok. I remember long greasy hair midweek too. Personally it would take a lot for me to give up a daily shower.

Perhaps it would be better for our skin (especially in winter) to shower less often. When we were camping we'd have a 'bottle wash' (large bottle of warm water and some soap) on the campsite loo!:

www.health.harvard.edu/blog/showering-daily-is-it-necessary-2019062617193

Apricity, that explains a lot. A 1930's house we bought in NZ was flooded when somebody forgot their running bath. The bath had no overflow at all - probably meant for outhouse use!

Envious, I think that man might have been the same one that was walking in front of me up the stairs in a shopping mall today. The pong made my eyes water! I hope your op goes well tomorrow.

My mother grew up in a poor inner city suburb in southern Oz in the 1920s and 30s. The rented house had no bathroom, just a tin bath in the laundry outhouse with hot water heated in the copper and then bucketed into the bath. Baths were only on Saturday night and in between they had an 'APC'. Arm pits and crutch.

Like most posters I grew up with the Sunday bath and hairwash followed by daily strip washes at the sink. I used to love having a bath but it couldn't be a ten minute bath for me. An hour long soak with a good book topping up with hot water when necessary was heaven for me as a busy Mum. But I have preferred showers for years and usually a daily shower.
But while having chemo I was so exhausted that I cut the showers down to every other day or every two days the other days just washing the necessities. On a few occasions I couldn't stand long enough to wash so used baby wipes. I was forever asking my DH if I smelt that in the end he said enough and he would tell me if I smelt. He hasn't so presumably I don't smell. Not showering every day also helped my skin because the chemotherapy really dries the skin and I wasnt always up to smothering myself in body lotion.
I think smelly people just dont wash very often or use deodorants. I remember a salesman who worked for the same company as me and reeked of BO all the time telling the boss when spoken to about it that his wife was a nurse and didn't believe in deodorants because she thought they were unhealthy.

I’m new to showering and hate it. So cramped and so difficult to wash the bits which most need it. Then having to wipe down all the walls afterwards because our water is very hard.
I’m surprised at all the strip washes mentioned. My bathroom is, and always has been, too cold to stand in naked. A tin bath in front of a fire sounds much nicer.

Aggie my water is free because it comes from a borehole which goes down into the earth over 120 metres to collect it. But we don't abuse it as all water is precious.

For anyone who is interested in the suggestion that there is a link between using talc and ovarian cancer.

www.nhs.uk/news/cancer/talc-and-ovarian-cancer-what-the-most-recent-evidence-shows/

And as for talcum powder being dangerous well we are all doomed! Our mothers used to finish off our baths with a generous dusting of the white stuff!

I don't mind them selling such products if they sell them on the 'similar to your natural ph' principle but when they suggest we need them not to smell!

You can still get Femfresh powder, though Boots and other chemists don't seem to sell it any more. I buy it on e-bay. The main ingredient is not talc, but maize (corn) flour. I don't use it on intimate 'bits', but find it's excellent for keeping at bay those red marks under the boobs....

Good grief Envious.

When DS had surgery he was supposed to have a bath and hairwash in betadine in the hospital (he was admitted the evening before). Betadine is basically iodine to which he is allergic. That caused a bit if a flap!!!

When I had my recent angiogram, I was advised not to use any deoderant, nail polish, creams or perfume and there was no surgery involved.

Some of those feminine hygiene products are said to be damaging to health - and I think talc was also found to increase the risk of cancer.