Cleanliness and hygiene

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

Drene shampoo in pillow shaped sachets.....

Can still remember that smell.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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!

A twin tub used to be very satisfying to use.
All that steaming hot, sudsy water swooshing around.

@SueDonim
I have very long hair so a long soak gets it wet to some degree which isn't great before bed. I can't be arsed stuffing it into a swimming hat (showercaps don't work as well) and I always let my hair dry naturally or it gets dry and brittle. In fact, I don't own a hairdryer.

LondonGranny I wash my hair in the mornings, usually twice a week, and let it dry naturally, otherwise I look like I've stuck my finger in a live electric socket!

I remember a Sunday night bath, dashing through to stand infront of the electric fire to get dried (no central heating, bloody freezing).
I shower and hair wash daily. I have short hair that I use products on so it needs washing every day. I'm in the shower less than 5 minutes (roughly 2 songs on my phone) . In the heat (on holiday mainly) I would have two showers.
I seldom get in a bath, mainly because I struggle to get out again and it undoes all the relaxation of it ?

Oh dear, I'm going to have folk cringing......one of my many mental health issues is body dysmorphia. Basically my body disgusts me since it changed so dramatically from a nice figure to fat (I am trying to diet) , so bathing or showering is a big deal for me. Sometimes I go weeks without bathing or showering, but I do wash (this can be done without me having to see my body).

I rarely use BO basher, as I don't seem to sweat much either despite going out with my husband on dog walks etc. I know that my DH would be quick to tell me if I ponged so I don't worry too much. This is a far cry from the woman who used to bathe or shower twice daily, but then I'm not that woman anymore.

I have another friend and she showers daily but really smells bad, so much so that last week I had to tell her. I would add that in my opinion, sometimes it's not the person that smells but the clothing. Perhaps it's not laundered frequently enough, or left sitting in a machine too long after washing. Finally in some cases its not this at all but cooking smells. Go into a fish and chip shop, and I can smell that oily fishy smell on clothing for a fortnight, or cut up onions, or make a curry and the cook often smells for ages after. (Notice I don't mention smokers, I'm giving them a break as that's an illness, an addiction, and needs to be treated with sympathy).

Dare I say it but ssome really obese people seem to always have a smell that isn't nice.

This from Wikipedia is of interest as it explains the smelly parts of our skin. It's often enough to do strip washes of these bits.

"In humans, apocrine sweat glands are found only in certain locations of the body: the axillae (armpits), areola and nipples of the breast, ear canal, eyelids, wings of the nostril, perianal region, and some parts of the external genitalia.[8] Modified apocrine glands include the ciliary glands in the eyelids; the ceruminous glands, which produce ear wax; and the mammary glands, which produce milk.[3] The rest of the body is covered by eccrine sweat glands.[9]"

PS I also like to wash and dry under breasts as skin folds like that don't get the air about them.