Wednesday (night), Friday (night), Saturday (afternoon), Sunday (morning - depending on physical activity, which depends mostly on weather). They're all based on sports activities.
For some lucky reason, I don't naturally stink - and I do work with people who would definitely let me know if I did, plus family members where various judgements are pretty no-holds-barred.
15 is a common data point too, because that effectively puts you at once every two days. That's my natural rhythm; any longer and I feel grubby (shaving in particular). I just don't sweat that much I guess.
This is a weirdly posed poll though. Per week is much more aligned with people's recurring schedules. I know I shower 3 or 4 days a week, but it's weird to consider this on a monthly basis.
I do the cold-water face splash every day, it wakes me up good. Can recommend.
I can't shave without showering afterwards though, I get itchy (maybe only psychologically) from the (idea of the) little shaved bits dropping on my skin and staying there under my clothes all day. It's one of the very few things I'm "funny" about.
I can't shave comfortably without showering first. Get the hairs soaked for a smoother shave. I wet shave, so all shaved bits get gathered in the razor which gets rinsed of in the basin.
Showering everyday is connected to atopic eczema and allergies. Your skin is the first element of your immune system and showering every day with soap is unnatural and damaging to your skin.
Presumably it's also heavily influenced by climate, job and location?
Working in dirty or dusty conditions for example, or if you have a long commute in and out of the city on a train, you don't really want to skip having a shower.
Could be that if I stopped showering for an extended period of time these issues would resolve, but… if I don’t shower daily my eczema quickly explodes out of control, worsening with each day.
I've been led to believe the daily shower is a mostly American thing.
Myself, I shower most days, but that's largely because I'm either in the gym or cycling most days. Sometimes, that means 2x showers, because I'll hit the gym in the AM and cycle in the PM.
Yes, American, indeed. It is a culture of the natives of the Americas to shower (swim in rivers) multiple times a day. Brazilian culture is highly influenced by that. We also brush our teeth multiple times a day.
I think it's hard to draw conclusions from this level of data without being able to correlate with daily levels and degrees of social contact and intimacy, regional climate and weather, activity levels and exercise, and so on.
Yeah, when I was biking to and from work in Texas, I was showering 1-2 times a day during the summer. I'm now working from home in a cooler climate, so it's more like 1-4 times a week.
Every day. Now that I am in my own home I actually have a warm bath every evening, it’s a great way to end the day. I can skip one day in rare occasions but feel too uncomfortable going more than that, not because of stink or others noticing but because I just don’t feel clean
Every day I soak myself in an extremely hot bath, just bobbing around like a spineless deep sea creature. Sometimes I watch old star trek episodes from the bath. An indulgence, a waste of energy and drinking water, is not very nice from a sustainability point of view. But it is one of the day's great pleasures, a nice way to unwind, the dual to my first cup of coffee of the day.
Surprised to so many people showering more than once per day. For people that do that, is that due to morning showers coupled with post-activity shower?
Yes. When I ride my bike to work, I shower when I get there. If I do yardwork, I shower when done. Before I go to bed, I shower or take a bath. Sometimes when I'm working from home and stuck on a problem, I'll take a shower to think about it.
Hot summer day (35-40c) with time outside means that an extra shower to rinse off is very nice, and sometimes a third shower before bed to rinse off and get cool is comfortable. Usually that's excessive though.
When the summer rolls around that's not super uncommon for me. Go for a run in the morning - take a shower. Take a walk in the evening - take another shower. It gets hot n' humid in the Summer where I live though.
That second shower is pretty quick though. Just enough so that I'm not sweaty when I go to bed because who'd want that?
Seems to me that if I go to bed dirty then I will be contaminating my bed with all the bacteria and viruses and stuff I've accumulated throughout the day.
It's not that straightforward I don't think. I rinse off before and after the hot tub, and after a run, but I only shower with soap and shampoo 1-2x per week. So am I 10x or am I 50x?
You shower at night — so your bed doesn’t become a biohazard from all the filth you dragged home from being out in the world (and so maybe your partner will actually want to get dirty with you). Then again in the morning — to wake up (and wash off last night’s sins). And of course after the gym — so you don’t walk around smelling like a teenager. This is all basic hygiene, not advanced calculus.
I don't mean this as flamebait but my pet theory is that showering and washing your hands is the 1800s version of wearing covid masks (except it stuck around as a permanent feature). It's more of a public safety thing you do for other people than for yourself and doing it twice a day is probably way excessive. It's probably closer to once every two days or less depending on how easily you generate body odor.
It depends so heavily on lifestyle and climate. I really, really wish I lived somewhere cooler. Getting essentially 6 months of grueling summer just sucks for sweat. I often feel sticky and gross, because I am.
It's not just for health and safety, it's also to avoid inconveniencing others with body odors.
And there is a lot to be said about looking "good" too. I have very oily scalp (dry skin) and annoyingly thin and stiff hairs, if I don't shower daily, I'll look unpresentable pretty quickly. I wouldn't be dirty or unsafe but that's the image people would get...
I think you should have social status in your theory. Having access to hot water daily in sufficient quantities to fully bath yourself was not something most could afford, so it definitely made a very obvious class distinction at some point.
I'm pretty sure this is why people used a lot of perfume at some point; if you can't bathe to remove the stinks, you can try to cover it with a stronger and (hopefully) more pleasant smell.
But as much as I dislike body odor there is a lot to be said about strong perfumes. Some people find it reasonable to cast their odor of choices to a 2-3m perimeter around them; they might be worse because at least in their case we know for sure they had a choice...
Tropical climates are extremely humid and you'll get sweaty just sitting indoors without air conditioning. As opposed to say, Europe, or even middle east/Australia.
On the positive side, water is abundant in tropical climates. My family of five showers 2-3 times a day, and the water bill comes down to ~$2/month.
Most of the year, I shower 2-3 times a week, but I wash myself with a washcloth on the non-shower days before going to bed. It's faster, cheaper, better for the environment, and probably better for my skin.
However, in the really hot weeks of the summer (we don't have that many of those here), I shower daily, sometimes even two times a day.
For anyone interested in the over use of soap (and other chemicals), this book from a clinical/practicing dermatologist (and medical prof) is worth checking out:
This should include full remote status, I do shave some days because I'm home and I only go out that day to walk in the mountains. Something I would not do when I had work in office.
I usually exercise ~5 days a week and on those days will shower or bathe twice. On days when I am doing yard work or grilling it might bathe 3 times depending on how poorly I planned out my day.
That's a topic I actually put a lot of thought, coming from South America living in Europe, I see an extreme contrast in shower habits. In the north of Brazil, people would take 2~3 "cold" showers a day--most people don't even have warm water, because it's over 30 degrees Celsius pretty much at any time of the day, at any time of the year, so you sweat a lot. Now here, I see people are mostly fine with 2~3 showers a week. Sometimes less.
Initially that was a shock for me, until I understood it's a lot related to climate, job, activities, social life, etc, but also because in South America people rely more on the showers for their overall hygiene. They just shower for anything. Ate something too fatty that got your hands and face greasy? Time for shower. In Europe I see people taking more care of their hygiene other ways, like washing themselves, changing underclothes more often, etc.
That seems over simplistic. Surely there must be some cross-over point between environmental temperature and shower temperature, so you could take a completely neutral shower that won't affect your temperature at all?
Also, I doubt that you could get hypothermia by using close to boiling water in a shower.
There is a cross-over point, it's around your body temp, so usually between 36 and 38C. In France we have thermostatic shower mixer with labeling around this temp, with even a push button lock that can prevent you from going over 38C if you wish.
Isn't this common in the US ?
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 177 ms ] threadWednesday (night), Friday (night), Saturday (afternoon), Sunday (morning - depending on physical activity, which depends mostly on weather). They're all based on sports activities.
For some lucky reason, I don't naturally stink - and I do work with people who would definitely let me know if I did, plus family members where various judgements are pretty no-holds-barred.
This is a weirdly posed poll though. Per week is much more aligned with people's recurring schedules. I know I shower 3 or 4 days a week, but it's weird to consider this on a monthly basis.
Also, remember that fresh underwear and clothes is almost the same as a shower.
I can't shave without showering afterwards though, I get itchy (maybe only psychologically) from the (idea of the) little shaved bits dropping on my skin and staying there under my clothes all day. It's one of the very few things I'm "funny" about.
Working in dirty or dusty conditions for example, or if you have a long commute in and out of the city on a train, you don't really want to skip having a shower.
Myself, I shower most days, but that's largely because I'm either in the gym or cycling most days. Sometimes, that means 2x showers, because I'll hit the gym in the AM and cycle in the PM.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll
The activity can be anything from exercise to manual labor, or being exposed to various bodily fluids. (I have kids.)
My wife is a nurse and so she usually has a shower after work in addition to a morning shower.
That second shower is pretty quick though. Just enough so that I'm not sweaty when I go to bed because who'd want that?
I mean, a hot tub could be seen as bath, but it might not be related to cleanliness but more of a relaxation thing.
Going swimming in a public path that is full of chlorine might have cleaning properties too, especially if you don't swim in the children's pool, lol.
Especially since you can wash yourself daily without hopping under a shower or in a tub.
I think you should have social status in your theory. Having access to hot water daily in sufficient quantities to fully bath yourself was not something most could afford, so it definitely made a very obvious class distinction at some point.
I'm pretty sure this is why people used a lot of perfume at some point; if you can't bathe to remove the stinks, you can try to cover it with a stronger and (hopefully) more pleasant smell. But as much as I dislike body odor there is a lot to be said about strong perfumes. Some people find it reasonable to cast their odor of choices to a 2-3m perimeter around them; they might be worse because at least in their case we know for sure they had a choice...
On the positive side, water is abundant in tropical climates. My family of five showers 2-3 times a day, and the water bill comes down to ~$2/month.
However, in the really hot weeks of the summer (we don't have that many of those here), I shower daily, sometimes even two times a day.
* https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35733533-beyond-soap
* https://drsandyskotnicki.com
Basically, I have to brush my teeth and shower before going to bed. It's all one package, and I'm very efficient at it.
So it's at least once a day, more if I was sweating a lot.
Another one: brush teeth before leaving the house for the first time that day. ...that used to work better before working from home.
I've added a lot of other habits since then, using an overcomplicated system of deadlines and rewards.
Initially that was a shock for me, until I understood it's a lot related to climate, job, activities, social life, etc, but also because in South America people rely more on the showers for their overall hygiene. They just shower for anything. Ate something too fatty that got your hands and face greasy? Time for shower. In Europe I see people taking more care of their hygiene other ways, like washing themselves, changing underclothes more often, etc.
Who would want to wear sweat soaked underwear after a shower?
Also, we don't use the poll feature enough! (my 2 cents)
Whilst a hot shower makes your body try to lower its temperature to cool off
Also, I doubt that you could get hypothermia by using close to boiling water in a shower.