Do you consider it acceptable to shower every other day?

Everyday at least. I go twice sometimes if it’s a hot day.

Perfectly… unless you’re a fisherman/scrap yard worker etc who plans to be in close proximity to many people on the “off work” moments, when it may not be appreciated or considered acceptable.

Personally, i couldn’t bare to do it only every other day

Acceptable to whom? You can answer this about you. Why do you care when I bathe? Or are you asking if it is acceptable for you? How would we know?

In a word: No.

I know people that shower every other day and that is fine with me as long as you aren’t sleeping in my bed! I shower every single day and I like my clean sheets! Great Question!

Yes. It all depends, really. I shower every day that I go to work. On weekends I often don’t shower or shave. One or two days usually doesn’t make me stinky, unless I’m sweating a lot, in which case I shower. My hair sometimes gets a little weird from being slept on and not thoroughly wetted after, but it takes a few days to really get so greasy that someone would notice.

In short: if you don’t stink and your hair isn’t greasy, shower when you feel like it.

Sure, why not? You big stinker

@NUNYA They’re still not clean, btw

I think it depends on the person. I know that some people, in the really cold dry months are told to only shower every other day because their skin is in such bad shaped. But in really humid weather, I can’t imagine it would be a good idea. I think the absolute minimum should be every other day.

It all depends on the weather and the humidity and how much activity i have had for the day or expect to have. normally, its one shower a day for me. although, in the winter when its really cold outside and i have not been active, i will skip a day taking a shower. this does not mean i do not take of my persoanl hygiene. i wash essential body parts and apply new deodorant and shave, no matter what. weather, activity and humidity all play a major part in daily showers. another thought: somewhere, i read an article that if you wash your hair everyday, you will lose your hair faster, is this true?

Everyday on summer, every other day at winter.
I like to go to sleep clean :-)

I used to shower every other day. Nobody knew or noticed until I told them. Even then, they couldn’t tell, I never smelled bad and my hair was never too greasy.

Do I think it’s acceptable? Absolutely? Do I think people make too big a deal out of it? Absolutely.

@john65pennington: I don’t think you’ll lose your hair faster but it will dry out faster.

I could careless about someones hygiene. As long as you wash your hands after the bathroom and don’t smell like a rotting corpse, by all means, never shower for all I care. Well, unless you’re a female that I have other plans for. Then you better be clean, lol.

Depends on if I remember or not.

yes it is. i have to shower twice a day. i’m always getting pissed or pooped on or blood on me from an animal at my work. but i guess for some people it’s okay not to. i wsh my hands about 35 times a day.

Once a week in “the field” is a blessing.

There are times in the year where I shower every day and other times when I shower every other day. I don’t feel self-conscious about it either because I’m a very clean person by nature. In essence, yes, it is acceptable to shower every other day, in my opinion, if you practice good hygiene skills and take good care of yourself.

@ubersiren. Interesting article. Thanks for sharing that.

Doesn’t bother me one bit, unless the person is especially greasy, sweaty, or smelly. I think the average person can get away without showering daily. In fact, I just read an article that said showering every day isn’t especially good for your skin. Here, I found it.

Personally…no. And I’d much prefer to be around someone who showers every day. That’s just my personal opinion.

Only if you’re not interacting with any other people on the non-showering day. I occasionally skip the shower on my work-from-home day. But if I was going out, or anyone was going to see me that day, I wouldn’t even dream of it.

In my opinion, everyday showering is a must.

If you want to keep your friends,it’s best to shower everyday ;)

@Facade Well of course they are not totally clean. I’ve slept in them. lol :) But they smell much better when they don’t smell like week old garbage from someone not showering and crawling between the sheets. Thanks Facade. :-)

I must wash my privates daily. Otherwise, I don’t have to do a full shower (with hair washing) daily

I would if I could, but I can’t, so I don’t. I shower every day.

I wash my bits and bobs with soap and hot water daily; In winter, I shower once or twice a week in order to shampoo hair. Otherwise, my skin looks like an alligator’s.

In summer I will dash under the shower briefly and more often.

@gailcalled haha, “bits and bobs” that just sounds funny. :)

Yes, it’s acceptable. As long as you don’t smell, I don’t see what the big deal is.

I shower every day except when I’m with my dad where the bathroom is stinkier than me.
Do I consider it acceptable? Nope.

I think it is fine under normal conditions.

I will sometimes shower but put my hair up and skip washing it for a day or two – it makes getting ready a lot faster and my hair does not need to be washed every day.

@StupidGirl just because the bathroom stinks doesn’t mean you’re not getting cleaner. Ever tried bathing yourself out of a sink? Well, when you’re living in a van outside of work and the only way to bathe is the bathroom when everyone has gone home, you learn to either deal with the stink (in which I couldn’t) or take what you can get.

I see several people who are adamant that one should shower every day…..I have to ask, “Why?” To me it’s another one of those “Go completely overboard on something pointless” things that we Americans tend to do. Like with “germs.” OMG! We have to spend our whole day wiping germs off of toys and door knobs! It is completely harmless to shower every single day, unless you’re getting dirty and sweaty every single day…and even then it’s not for health reasons as much as it is for the comfort and convenience of people around you….

@Val123, @casheroo the problem is that many people who smell don’t realize they smell. Most people are pretty terrible at detecting their own body odor. Therefore, better to be safe than sorry.

I can’t believe people are saying you should shower everyday, even twice a day! What!? Every second day is fine, there’s nothing disgusting about it. Obviously if you can see and smell that you’re dirty then take a shower but twice a day, now that’s just a waste of water. Try using an antiperspirant if your so worried that people might think you smell.

@Val123 I don’t think you meant to say “It is completely harmless to shower every single day…”

@Snarp Arg! Yes! In fact, just as with over cleaning, one almost wonders if showering every single day might not be that healthy.

@MrItty If you aren’t doing anything strenuous to cause yourself to sweat, body odor isn’t going to become a problem for at least a couple of days, especially if you use deodorant, which I’m sure we all do. I only shower every other day, and there has never been a problem….if there was, I’m sure that someone in my family, my kids, my husband, someone would have said something after all these years!
Anyway, BO is a social issue, not a health issue, and I’m getting the impression from many people that they don’t think it’s healthy to not shower every day….

@Val123 the question was “Is it acceptable…?”. That, to me, means socially. Health is another matter.

The people I worked with in Germany definitely did not shower every day. More like once a week. They did get a little smellier than I would have liked, but it wasn’t awful. The cleaning ladies, on the other hand, smelled so bad that after they left the building smelled worse than it did before they cleaned.

Then there were the Russian ice skaters and circus performers I worked with. I don’t know how often they bathed, but it was not often enough given their level of daily exertion.

@Val123 I also don’t think anyone was suggesting (or at the very least, I wasn’t) that shower-every-day is a universal rule, or that there aren’t exceptions to the rule. Some people naturally perspire more, some people have jobs that cause them to sweat and stink more. Others don’t. For those people, showering less often might be completely acceptable. But that’s a decision that can only be arrived at through experimentation. And I personally wouldn’t want to undergo the experiment.

@MrItty But if the question is social acceptability, which I agree it seems to be, then the frequency of showering isn’t really the issue. There’s no way someone you don’t live with can know how often you shower unless you tell them or you stink. So as long as you don’t stink or have greasy hair, then you have not done anything that is not socially acceptable, even if you shower once a week.

@Snarp concurred, actually. The way I interpret the question is more like “Do you find that if you skip a day of showering, you are socially unpresentable to the outside world?” To which my answer is, “Yes”.

@MrItty I’m just wondering why some people are so adamant about showering every day! There is no health or social reason for it, really. It’s just a matter of personal choice. I understand that we love, love the clean feeling of having taken a shower and slipping into clean sheets at night! But that’s nothing to be adamant about it. Like @jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities said, “In my opinion, everyday showering is a must.” It’s not for health reasons, and if you don’t do much, it’s not even for social reasons. So why is it a “must”?

I can go one day without showering, but if I go more than a day without showering I usually develop a very unpleasant itch in a very unpleasant place.

@Snarp Yes…same here.

@Val123 You said you “understand that we love, love the clean feeling of having taken a shower”. For many people, myself included, it’s more that we hate, hate the dirty feeling of having not taken a shower. Some people don’t feel “right” until they’ve showered.

It’s a feeling. Logic need not apply.

@MrItty ;) Right! With that understanding though, there is no need to be adamant about it, unless you’re just talking to yourself! Because it’s all about perception…I find that if I give myself a once over with a wash cloth in key places (which I do, often, before bed if I didn’t shower that day), I pretty much have that same “I just took a shower” feeling….

I can go either every day or every other day. If I have my period, then I prefer once a day (sorry if that is tmi).

@answerjill GA. There are any number of things that will cause me to want to take a shower, even if I had one just the day before!

Typically, I shower every other day. Unless I’ve sweated a lot or used a great deal of hair product, there really isn’t a reason to do it more. I’ve even asked my husband, aka Mr. Brutally Honest, if there’s a scent issue and he says no. And it’s not something he would lie about.

every day. my girlfriend likes it that way ha.

Only if I’m not going anywhere.

…acceptable to shower every other day….

Every third or fourth day if you live in France…

@MrItty I have an insanely strong sense of smell, I know when I smell or not. I also don’t need to shower, as I don’t participate in any high activity (I stay at home with my son). I also think using soap and shampoo every single shower is ridiculous..very drying for the skin. I also don’t use deodorant because I don’t seem to sweat anything smelly (I do use it in the summer though). Every persons body is different.

Yes. It’s resource-conscious behavior, something more people will have to take into account in the future. Suppose every citizen of the world (so we are talking about 6.8 billion people) want to have a warm daily shower. Where does all the water come from? And the energy? Will all people be able to afford this? When will solar panels be a commodity? The demand for oil will increase. Every other day is a good compromise, but there are exceptions. Athletes are an example.

Modern hygiene is a blessing. Sustainable development is a blessing. What we need is “smart hygiene”. Washcloth can make you very clean as well.

Half flush/full flush functions are already outdated. Even better are flush-manual-stop versions of this. They are very common in Europe.

Depending on bladder function people pee a little bit every time (very often) or pee a whole lot a few times a day only. Half flush might be too much or not enough. Ideally a toilet would detect this automatically.

A good option for the future is replacing valuable drinking water with rainwater or desalinated water, but having two systems makes building a house more expensive.

At The Dollar Store, 7 washcloths cost $7.00. I use five a week. It’s an easy and workable system as mattbrowne suggests. And fewer showers save on skin lotion and oil.

you know what else saves on skin lotion and oil? Not buying skin lotion or oil. I think that’s a siginficantly bigger modern-luxury waste than taking a shower.

@MrItty: Woman have always used emollients of some kind; I would speculate that the further back you go historically, the more fundamental the emollient was….pressed oils from olives, almonds, lavender, etc; rendered fat from coconuts, fowl, piggies; butter, etc.

@gailcalled they didn’t go to Bed Bath & Beyond or Linen & Things and pay obscene prices for their olives and lavender.

True and nether do I. I save a lot more by using some lotion and some oils than what I would spend on water and electricity with the daily shower.

Nothing like a little rendered lard, I always say.

There is also bees’ wax, lanolin, shea butter, bag balm,and oils from dozens of plants and all the nuts. Our food coop sells them (save the lard) at reasonable prices in unfancy bottles or containers.

@gailcalled A’ight. I can find absolutely nothing to argue with in that post. That’s somewhat remarkable for me, actually. :-P

@MrItty: Well, shet ma mouth.

I usually shower everyday, after my wife is finished taking her bath for at least an hour everyday!! Then it’s my turn.Some days when I am not feeling well I will skip my shower!!
My Grandaughter went to Italy about five years ago on a student exchange program. Then her friend comes and stays with her for a week. Well, when she went to Italy and stayed with her friend, she noticed her friend did not take a shower. She asked her if she could take a shower, because most Americans shower every day or two? Her friend could not believe that she wanted to shower, everyday, she said to my grandaughter that they only take a shower or bath once a week in Italy..It was funny the way she told the story to me, her and I were laughing so much, still remember it to this day, always brings a smile to me when I think about it..Thank You..

@MrItty – Signficantly bigger modern-luxury waste? Can you back up your claim? Don’t underestimate the amount of fossil fuels required to heat up water (if solar panels are not yet installed). Comparing resources and waste is complex. I recommend this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_cycle_assessment

@mattbrowne 1) I specifically said “I think”, not “It is a fact that”. 2) Are you somehow under the impression that fossil fuels weren’t burned in the obtaining, processing, manufacturing, shipping, and purchasing of the oils and creams?

@MrItty – Yes, you said that you think that the oils and creams are a signficantly bigger modern-luxury waste. I’m trying to investigate whether this is really so.

Life cycle assessment considers all required resources and I quote the article:

A ‘Life Cycle Assessment’ (also known as ‘life cycle analysis’, ‘ecobalance’, and ‘cradle-to-grave analysis’) is the investigation and evaluation of the environmental impacts of a given product or service caused or necessitated by its existence.

In the case of the oils and creams this means that fossil fuels are burned in the obtaining, processing, manufacturing, shipping, and purchasing. The question is, how much?

You need 4.18 kilo joules to heat up 1 liter of water 1 degree Celsius. Suppose an average daily shower requires 100 liters. That’s 418 kJ per degree Celsius. Suppose the water in the pipe entering your house is 15 degrees C and the average shower temperature is 45 degrees C. That’s 12,540 kJ per day or 4,577,100 kJ per year. Okay, now we need to ask @gailcalled how much oil and creme is needed per year. And we need to get the data for obtaining, processing, manufacturing, shipping, and purchasing. Of course we also need look at the other resources of the additional showers. Water supply and the management of waste water is expensive.

@mattbrowne: You want me to do a data base of the amount of skin lotions and oils I use per year? Not a chance. Perhaps two 14 oz. bottles of each annually, but I am guessing.

When I lived with a French family during the summer after my HS graduation, they turned off the hot water in the warm weather. The only bathtub was filled with coal. After two weeks of fussing with cold water and the bidet in my bedroom, I discovered the public showers. What a blessing.

The family had been grumpily boiling kettles of water so that I was able to wash my hair weekly. I continued to wash my clothes by hand in cold water in the little bedroom sink, and hang them out my bedroom window to dry.

I had the same sheets and pillow cases on the bed for 8 weeks. It was an experience.

We Americans are so selfish sometimes.

@Snarp Agreed. We have way too much of everything.

Market economy will take care of that. We don’t have to wait very long and hundreds of millions more middle class Indian and Chinese folks will enjoy showers and air conditioning and air travel and road trips.

Then tens of millions of Americans will knock on @gailcalled‘s door asking about washcloths and her oil and cream regimen in order to lower their electricity and heating oil bills. Others will install inexpensive solar thermal panels on their roofs. Ever been to Greece? From April till October people there enjoy warm showers without paying a dime for electricity and heating oil. Not a single new home is built without them. I don’t see why this can’t work in California, Kansas, Texas or Alabama. I’m not talking about expensive photovoltaics. I’m talking about a bunch of pipes heating up water. Sure, you need a plumber to get it installed. Bottom line: ROI is impressive, especially after the economic crisis when we can expect rising oil prices.