One aspect of higher energy prices and climate change is that this uniquely American requirement of a daily shower has to go out the window. I was reading a tip at Lifehack called how to develop a non-optional mindset and a daily shower was listed along with changing a poopy diaper as a non-optional thing.
Q. Why do you take a shower each and every day? (please tell me you shower every day!)
A. Because programmed into your ‘how-to-live-your-life’ hard-drive is a command that says you must wash every day. For you, it’s not an optional behaviour, it’s part of your normal running pattern. As a result, you have no motivational problems and no discipline issues when it comes to your personal hygiene (I hope). It’s just a thing you do on auto-pilot. The thought of not washing doesn’t occur to you because cleanliness is one of your non-negotiable habits.
I didn’t take a shower this morning and even though I rode my bike to work (and home last night) I don’t think I’m approaching poopy diaper status. I willingly submit to any sniff tests. I’m quite sure I don’t smell like I took a shower recently, but I’m not offensive. I just smell like a person. Get over it.
One result of the Coming Global Shitstorm it is the end of hygiene as we know it. TEOHAWKI. We are going to have to get used to the way humans smell.
Say it with me
TEOHAWKI
TEOHAWKI
TEOHAWKI
God damn right!
My children will require no reeducation in this area whatsoever. They bathe only when we catch them stinking. Especially the boys…
what about you, Rev? Did you take a shower this morning?
Yeah, I think lifehack missed the mark on that one. IMHO, unless you are an unusually filthy person, a daily shower doesn’t really compare to a poo diaper in demanding attention.
I like to maintain a little bit of oily funk in the winter.
However, in the summer, I’ve been known to shower twice a day, just to keep cool, really. Whatever this CGS brings, it’s got to bring down air-conditioners before showers, right?
I know some people here who only drink two or three small glasses of water a day (and no other liquids), every day, in part because the water quality is so unbelievably bad and they don’t have/can’t afford a purifier. Sometimes also see Really poor people trying to like bath or little kids play or whatever in some little stagnant pool of filth. It’s fucking crazy. personally, i shower every day. i think you can shower really quick and not use hardly any water. i don’t have an air conditioner. the temperature now is over 100 daily.
Dave, that is very hard to imagine what you describe.
People who care about such things have told me they get wet, turn the shower off to soap up and then turn the shower back on to rinse off. I think I will start doing this.
Well, I say “in part” because I know people who do have access to clean drinking water but still follow the same practice of only a couple/few small glasses of water every day – traditionally it is not a culture of consumption the way it is in the West. Still, i agree it’s hard to imagine….
No. No shower for me today. If you could see me you would believe it.
On a multi-day visit to my grandparents’ home during my stinky teenage years, my grandfather casually remarked to my mom that I seemed to shower a lot (daily). His routine, I later found out, includes one shower every 3-4 weeks! He cleans himself up first thing every morning – sponge-bath style – and I have never noticed that he smells bad. It’s worth considering that a shower strips away useful oils from the skin and hair, which the body then replaces. Most of us have accelerated our oil production through frequent showering to the point that we have come to rely on the shower to rid us of excess oiliness. It’s probably best to wean ourselves of this routine gradually, lest we drown in our own oils. I’ve been reducing my showers recently by alternating morning and evening showers, sort of a 36-hour rotation.
Can I shave? Because I really need to shave everyday.
Mike, you gotta shave. Lets not get crazy here.
For a long time now, I’ve showered only once or twice a week, supplementing with a sponge bath as necessary. Last summer as part of the sewer replacement project in Saint Paul, we had the water turned off for a while. I found that I could comfortably do my entire morning cleaning routine — brush teeth, shave, wash — with about a cup and a half of water. I don’t force myself to do this anymore, but it did change how I approach washing: I am far more mindful of the water that I use, and I use cooler water than I used to. No more hot showers for me.
Now I just need to shave less.
I only shave and take showers because I have to hang around kids who smell like poopy diapers.
are you really sure that america is the only country where people shower every day?
I was just wondering if there are any actual statistics on that. I asked a few people around here. Everyone I asked “takes bath” every day, and says that the people they know do the same every day. Most people don’t actually have showers (like the actual shower head), so they use a bucket with a scoop.
I spent a couple of minutes on the Google. This http://www.wateraid.org/international/what_we_do/statistics/default.asp site claims that :
1. North Americans use 400 Liters of Water, Per Person Per day.
2. European use 200 Liters of Water, Per Person Per day.
3. 3rd World uses 10 Liters of Water, Per Person Per day.
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I don’t know if this is true or not. Figure that India has 1 Billion People. People can be grouped into different economic strata. The poorest (and this is just my own very rough estimate) 200 Million are unimaginably poor – they have absolutely nothing. They have no house, no education, clothes that are rotting off their bodies, no water, no food, nothing.
Then, of the other 800 Million who have at least something, figure that 500 Million of those are in the very lowest economic strata i.e. “people who have more than nothing” – they may have some job that pays $1-$2 a day and that is for a whole family. They work in some industry or farming or cleaning or factory or hotel or something. They have some sort of house/shelter (not 4 walls or sturdy concrete or whatever, but something). These 500 million have access to running water (not clean water, but figure, visually, it is at least usually water color). Then, figure 200 million are the “Middle Class”, supporting a family on a salary of $100-$300 per month. These people have houses with more than one room, a motorcycle or even a car, etc. Then, the final 100 Million (the upper class) are more wealthy than that.
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Anyways, the point is, I figure that, for the 800 Million that are not in the destitutely poor range, I would estimate that most of those people are taking a bath (in the method mentioned above) every day – maybe 2 times a day in the hot season. But I could be wrong. I think it would be difficult to really get an accurate statistic in this situation. People that I asked take a bath 1 or two times a day. But this may just be the people I know.
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