Feb 21, 2011 / Topic Ideas

How long do you think you could go without a shower?

Topic #53

How long do you think you could go without a shower?

Did you know: The modern domestic shower was invented in the early 1800s( via wikipedia). For hundreds of years before that, in most of the world, people went their entire lives without ever taking a shower (and even today some of your coworkers probably still don’t shower enough).

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  3. Don’t be disgusted but I’ve gone two and a half days without a shower. I was traveling to Mexico via churches and there just weren’t any showers to be had! I did the best that I could without one though. Normally, I shower every day though.

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  4. Most I’ve probably gone is about five days, when I didn’t have too much of a choice. When I can “control the circumstances” after about two days I feel overdue for a shower, I couldn’t imagine going without for a month, a year, or my whole lifetime! Afterall, I have a tendancy to shower daily.

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  5. I was in the jungle for awhile and I was glad when there was a rain shower or a river big enough to at least wet my body. But we couldn’t use soap as the perfume in the soap would give us away to the VC.

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  6. As an Indonesian, I always take a shower twice a day. Living in a tropical country makes us perspire along the daytime. Besides, most public places provide plenty of water in the restroom. Thus, there’s no reason to leave your body sticky here.

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  8. This is a great question! LOL. No more than two days. After that, I start feeling gross. It makes me wonder if you get cleaner taking a shower than a bath, based on that fact that it wasn’t invented until the 1800’s.

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  11. Eu poderia ficar sem tomar banho de chuveiro só um dia. Daria para esquentar água e tomar banho de caneca, já fiz muito isso por necessidade.
    Mas tomar um bom banho de chuveiro é muito melhor claro.
    Abraços a todos!
    Mina!

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  13. Need to shower to wake up in the mornings. Missed out once on Christmas day when the turkey became the priority. But for today I have posted random shower memories – from Calcutta to Mexican Hat to Ballater…
    Tempted to blog on “Memorable Toilets” now… will try not to…

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  14. Hey Scott,
    Hang around the “Strassenbahns” in Germany and the “BO” will tell you who showers and who doesn’t. My first impression was that nobody ever showered! 🙂

    In my case, it varies by season. The colder it is, the less I shower. At least twice a week, no matter what! Otherwise, every other day, unless I do a strenuous workout. I say: “P.R.N.”
    Take care, Charlie

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  15. After I had surgery I wasn’t allowed to shower for like a week (or so?) I can’t remember but it was AWFUL! I typically shower every other day because my hair likes it that way 😛

    Now if I had to (like for missions trips or w.e) I could do without it as long as I could wash up somehow….

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  17. At the end of 2009 I spent a month driving up the East Coast of Australia – from Melbourne up to Cairns, then back through the Outback toward Adelaide around to Melbourne again. I was in a small camper van. I was as good as possible with personal hygiene, going in the sea whenever I could, using a bush shower whenever I could. But I tell you, once I hit the top of tropical Queensland, driving hundreds of kms sometimes, in a hot non-air-conditioned camper, then trekking up through some rainforest, I sweated a lot and sometimes there’s nowhere to bathe. Even changing T-shirts and shorts doesn’t help. There was a point after three days without a shower I knew I smelt terrible. I smelt terrible even to me! When you can smell yourself and it ain’t pretty, you need a good clean. You mentioned people going their whole lives hundred’s of years ago without a shower – but their whole lives then were only until they were about 30, and most of the people they knew had died of horrible diseases! 😉

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  18. I recall my mother telling me that my grandfather bathed infrequently (no bathroom except an outhouse, no shower or tub) but that he always appeared very clean, as he shed his clothing and scrubbed outdoors at the pump – at least from the waist up – daily. I have gone a week while traveling in a van, just using baby wipes to wash. I did, however, wash my hair with cold water out of a gallon jug! 3 times. Can’t stand dirty hair.

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  19. As an embedded journalist during the Iraq invasion in 2003, I rode shotgun for CNN in a 7-ton ammo truck, bouncing across the desert with the 2nd Marines Light Armored Reconn (LAR) unit out of Camp LeJeune, and didn’t shower for a month.
    We packed handi-wipes and did rinse out t shirts after about a week, but if you remember, the threat of WMD had us sweating inside chemical suits, so you can imagine what that crock pot smelled like. Upside is that I lost about 15 pounds, and noted that with the hot winds blowing by day, and the chill at night, you don’t really notice your own smells.
    Not with snipers and rpgs, Apaches coming in low to fire hellfire missiles at machine gun nests, your driver gunning down dirt roads with night vision goggles that didn’t work. A thrill a minute, adrenalin and fear.
    A shower would have been nice, but running and gunning, there was no time. After we flew back to Kuwait City, that first hotel shower lasted 30 minutes and off came layer after lawyer of dirt and grime, and it was still coming off a week later.
    I don’t recommend it, but you do what you gotta do, and come to appreciate the young Marines who kept you alive, that every day above ground is a bonus. I’ll skip a shower any day to be shot at and missed.

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  23. Strange that you chose this topic for today. Close to 1pm this afternoon one of our major cities (Christchurch) was rocked by another earthquake. The city is devastated,so far 65 are confirmed dead, countless people are trapped – it is truely horrific. Have just heard over the news that people are not to use showers or baths … until instructed otherwise. Neither can they flush their toilets. It could be days …

    Please pray for them.

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    1. Exactly what I was thinking – what a random, bizarre coincidence in topic choice. I think the answer is you can wait as long as it takes until the water comes back on if you live in Christchurch.

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      1. I live in rural Darfield, 50 kms inland from Christchurch.

        On the day of the early-morning M7.1 earthquake of September 2010, we had no electricity, and no shower. I tried for the first time to wash and moisturise my face using only heated water in a hand basin. It worked, sort of. The next morning, I felt terrible. But the power had been restored, and I had a long shower!

        Six months later, a shallow M6.3 aftershock targeted Banks Peninsula and Christchurch City. Many died, several hundred were trapped in buildings overnight (no shower!), and thousands of displaced refugees from the CBD had to sleep overnight in nearby Hagly Park. There was (and is) no sewerage, and no water for most residents.

        We in Darfield felt the midday quake, but were unaffected. My cousins dropped in after two days for a shower (they didn’t wash their hair!). Also another family were welcomed for showers the next day. But now people have been allowed to take short showers and flush their toilets when necessary.

        Tens of thousands have fled Christchurch to stay elsewhere in the country – mayor Bob Parker says, If you can get away, please do so. My gran is staying here, and many friends are living with others out of Christchurch.

        I maintain that it is a blessing to suffer without a shower for several days as opposed to being trapped and consequently dying under a building!

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  30. I get up in the morning turn on CNBC, the coffee maker, then sit down @ my computer. Then depending on what I see & how long it takes me to act on it, will depend when I take my 1st shower of the day. As a fitness buff, there is usually a 2nd each day. To answer the question, sometimes I don’t get up from my computer til the afternoon for that 1st shower, that’s all I can stand myself.
    Best!

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