What happens if you don't take a shower for a week?
Do bugs appear inside your skull or something?
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That is exactly what happens. At the end of two showerless weeks, the bugs will have eaten most of your gray matter. (Some people never shower; they take baths. (And if you’re a believer in the French bath and are also bald, you can go forever.)
You start speaking french.
One week without Shower!!I I can’t even imagine that. It is going to be very unpleasant for the person and any around them, but they will definitely save a lot of water and some soap. I don’t think it would be a bother as long as you take care of yourselves properly by washing hands, brushing teeth, and wiping correctly. I had read an article where a person goes six weeks without a wash: The soapless experiment
You can still bathe. There’s no discernible difference if you take a regular bath, a sponge bath or even a whore’s bath in your favorite cologne.
Heck, hunt up an old bottle of Avon and douse yourself…people won’t even get close enough to notice.
In the not so recent past, people only took a bath once a week. This idea of needing a shower or bath every day is a fairly recent phenomenon. As for how stinky you get, it all depends on the individual and the activity level.
I don’t care if you have a desk job or if you’re a construction worker that sweats all day, an unwashed vagina/ballsack is going to stink after a week. Moreso in the second case than the first, of course, but stinky nonetheless.
I would never go a day without showering, let alone a week! On rare occasions when I was camping or for some other reason was unable to shower or bathe I’d be miserable for the entire day. For me, a very hot shower in the morning or after exercising or swimming is essential to my physical and mental well-being.
By the way, I’m a shower person. I don’t like sitting and stewing in my own juices. ;-)
@janbb And any partner you may have.
You stink but save on water bills, if the smelly miser look is what you’re after, then go for it.
You’ll have low water bills and very few friends.
My father hated getting wet. He took showers very rarely. He always gave himself what he called a “whores bath”. Surprisingly, he never stunk.
You will suddenly achieve a lot of personal privacy.
P.S. I think my personal record for showers in a single day is…..three….
You would probably get itchy from the dirt.
I’m assuming you mean not being able to wash at all, including shaving—legs if you do that, and face if you’re a man. You stink, but you don’t usually smell it. You adapt. You will start to itch here and there, especially in the dark, moist places like the crotch and underarms. The first few days of an unshaven face can be very itchy, I’m assuming legs get itchy, too. Your facial pores fill up, you look like shit. If you have a proclivity to acne, it will get worse. Your hair gets greasy, scalp might start to itch. If you incur any wounds, even small ones, you risk minor, local infection. That’s a week. Not so bad, if you’re alone.
During stormy seas (not a metaphor) lasting more than a week, I have experienced this. It’s not very nice, and climbing into your berth night after night after being drenched on deck by salty seas can be quite uncomfortable, especially to the novice. But you’d be amazed what you can get used to, knowing it’s only temporary, if you are preoccupied by more important things. Also, almost everything out here is temporary: the weather, living conditions, even the boat and you. Realizing this helps one get through it. I’m surrounded by water most of the time. I find that Ultra Concentrated Dawn liquid soap is best for bathing in salt water. You come out feeling as if you’ve had a freshwater bath. But in calmer weather, which is most of the time, I have a fine fresh-water shower on board. It is rare that I go a week without a shower. Just thought I’d mention that in case you all got the idea my familiarity with poor hygiene was reflective of my usual routine. Honestly, I bathe daily, sometimes more so and often involuntarily.
@janbb is right, the Swedish word for Saturday is Lördag, meaning “Wash Day.” That was the day mama made her brood jump into a barrel of water and lye soap and scrubbed their ears. In that miserable climate, it was a health risk to do it more than once a week.
And yes, @ragingloli is absolutely right. After just a few days without bathing—and this is really amazing—I find my French improves. Even more so if I’m off Martinique.
Aside from the itching and perhaps some stinkiness, nothing. Hunters in my area skip bathing around this time of year so they smell ‘natural’. No soap, no deoderant, etc…I’m completely used to it.
@ibstubro @flip86 I love the term ‘whore’s bath’, I guess I’m a little immature beecause it makes me giggle every time..lol
Actually, unpleasent as it may be to forego washing, it is more unhealthy to overwash. There are old laws still on the books in some places, making it illegal to bathe unless prescribed by a physician. Marketing is responsible for causing people to be so bathe anxious.
Why would you want to not be clean?
You will stink, and be very unattractive to the opposite sex.
Only if the member of the opposite sex smells differently, @LornaIove!
I usually only shower every other day. More than that and my skin and hair dry out. I don’t have much money or I’d buy fancy moisturizing products.
You’d smell and be itchy.
@Lornalove Why only the opposite sex?
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@Kardamom It would have to be a very big shower!
By the way, helpful tip when camping or otherwise kept from facilities, baby wipes at least help. @Kardamom, you crack me up! @Pachyderm_In_The_Room, Stew inyour own juices? that’s MY expression. Have we met? @LornaIove, I don’t think anyone said they wanted to be not clean. The question simply asks what happens if; I don’t think he’s planning a lifestyle change, are you Mr. Lies? heh heh.
@KNOWITALL my husband calls washing up at the sink an ‘Irish shower’. Not sure where that comes from, but my husband is of Irish ancestry, so maybe there’s a grain of truth there:-)
I’ve always heard it referred to as a “bird bath.”
How do bugs appear in hair anyway? Do they crawl out of the skull? Haha
When I was 12 I didn’t shower for a week and my hair got super oily. I saw a small greyish black bug come out of my hair.
Yes, @illusionslies, I’m fairly sure it crawled out of your skull. But no worries. It was probably just an earwig…you know they can only crawl in one direction. It’s not like something chewed it’s way out.
Obviously not a ‘Twilight Zone’ fan….
@illusionslies Earwigs are so named because they can only crawl in one direction. If one should crawl in your ear, it’s only course would be to crawl out through your other ear. Sheesh. Where have you been?
I once had a colleague who bathed every 2–3 weeks. He was disgustingly greasy and smelly. Office space is close, tight quarters, and it’s no place to get experimental with hygiene. After the guy had quit, his odor remained. We had to put a fresh coat of paint on the walls and have the carpets professionally deep-cleaned.
In Vietnam there was a really big (fat) guy in our platoon who never (ever) bathed. As you know, it is pretty hot there and our eyes would literally water whenever this guy walked by.
I tried to just avoid / ignore him, but some of the more ‘direct’ guys in our unit would scream in his face….“YOU F*CKIN’ STINK !!.....YOU MAKE ME GAG !!!.....TAKE A F*CKIN’ SHOWER !!!”
But he still never bathed.
Mental health professionals can probably explain this, but looking back, it was just sad…
I’m comfortable with skipping a day but only when I know I don’t have to leave the house.
I once watched a TV programme that asked the question “what happens if you don’t wash your hair for a month?” The answer, very surprisingly, was that your hair will end up soft and silky, and not smelly (although it did have a bad smelly/greasy phase during the first 1–2 weeks).
@OneBadApple Yuck.
During his first year of college, my brother-in-law had a roommate who never washed himself or his clothes. The entire dormitory hallway reeked. All the guys suggested, and later demanded, that he take a shower, but he wouldn’t do so.
This sounds very cruel, but a group of guys finally dragged him into the bathroom, put him in the shower (still wearing his clothes; they left him some dignity by not undressing him), and forced him to bathe. No, I don’t advocate violence or anything that even hints of bullying, but I can understand why this happened – it was a last, desperate resort, and much kinder than going to the dean and having the kid evicted.
There must be some mental illness that would make a person want to be so offensively filthy.
From the time I spent living homeless, or “backpacking” as I used to call it, I can tell you what happens.
1— You start to smell real bad
2— You stop smelling so bad, but develop spots on your legs and ass like a rash.
3— You start to smell really fucking bad, you keep the rash, and develop sore legs.
4— You start to smell so bad people can’t go near you, and your ass crack is constantly wet.
5….
You start to smell like satans air freshener, you have a rash all over your legs and back, sore under arms and sore between the legs. Your elbows and knees go real dry and flaky, and you walk around with a moist ass crack, with unshaven beard hair stinging your face, itching like crazy, with hair that is so greasy you start to wish you were bald, because it constantly sticks to the side of your head and forehead and ears.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^WOW!^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Can I be the first to say I’m terribly sorry you had to edure all that. I sure hope life is better for you now.
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