Daily or once a week?

I have just been having a debate on another forum (no, not that one, not a green one in fact) with people who seem horrified at the thought of not having their daily bath/shower.

I came out of the closet as being someone who showers once every 3 days (especially in winter). So now everyone seems to think that I must pong. Which I don't - and I would know, as I have an extremely acute sense of smell, and find offensive the smell of booze or cigarette.

So, this is as good a place as any, to find out if I am really such a freak in my personal habits. I have to add that I grew up in a very primitive house, little more than a shack, without running water (you had to go to the village fountain and bring it back in all possible containers). Yet, we kids used to have to wash ourselves every evening, with an elaborate system of flannels, bowls, buckets, and water heated inside the range.

Now I would challenge anyone to sniff me and to be able to determine that I do not indulge in that seemingly sacro-sanct habit of bath every day. I know I smell GOOD!!!!!

In any case, my first husband's (background = English middle) family had their ritual, of everyone having their weekly bath, before teatime on Sundays. So, that was once a week, even worse than what I do!!!!

Anyone else???

I shower daily, but that's mainly because I have very active sweat glands and end up smelling very armpitty if I don't - - I once stopped off at a supermarket after a long day landscaping in hot hot sun, the woman at the checkout asked if I could smell skunk - It was me!

Also I stopped cutting my hair for the winter (been cropped short for gawd knows how many years), it now looks like a rats nest in the morning and needs a hot shower to flatten it down.

Badger wrote: I once stopped off at a supermarket after a long day landscaping in hot hot sun, the woman at the checkout asked if I could smell skunk - It was me!

Don't mislead them like that, Badger .... most folks on the list have probably never smelled skunk!

Bad odors not necessarily the same bad odor. Smelly sweaty human, that'd be mainly butyric acid smell. Bad, nauseating in high concentration, but entirely different from methyl mercaptan (skunk). The first at low concentration rancid butter -- the second in low concentration sort of like burnt coffee. In very low concentration what you smell when there is a gas leak (natural gas has absolutely no odor -- what you smell is the tiny bit of methyl mercaptan they add so that you can smell a leak. But that tiny bit gives you no idea how bad a serious dose of skunk smells!

I do shower every morning, but that's more to wake me up than anything else. I personally find that without a morning shower I'm just lethargic all day (and my hair is a complete mess!). However, if I can just be lethargic all day then missing the morning shower isn't a problem at all! In fact I wish I could get away with showering less, but then I'd just get nothing done.

Mrs C

Only dirty people need to bath or shower every day.

I don't every day, unless I have been doing something really filthy, like delousing hens or shovelling sh1t....in which case a hot shower is needed to ease the creaks in my back!

I wash my hair a couple of times a week, or when I feel it needs it...likewise I wash my body when I feel I need to...I ask close friends and they say I don't smell....well not nasty, anyway!

So - I don't feel such an oddity anymore. I can understand showering every day if you perspire heavily, or do heavy manual work, but when one hardly ever perspires (it takes a lot of heat, or a lot of movement, for me to start perspiring properly) - then I really can't see the need.

Compostwoman, I too reckon that washing hair 2 or 3 times a week is enough - especially with dry hair.

Ironically, was all ready for my shower this morning, turned on the tap to make a cup of tea first, and....nothing....all pipes frozen, not a drop of water anywhere....Outside temperature? Minus 5. Water meter is out, improperly lagged (I din't do it).

Had to go out for an hour, when I came back, miracle of miracles, the water was back on, as the temperature had leapt up to plus 5 - and so far, no evidence of burst pipes!

Mike, thank you for the scientific breakdown on perspiration and smells, I had no idea!

Well shock horror we don't even have a shower in our house. And as we're on a water meter we only have shallow baths once a week. During the week we wash the old fashioned way, by standing in an empty bath and using a flannel, shower gel and a sink full of water. We certainly don't smell bad. Washing my hair in the sink is a complete pain though.

I love going swimming and making good use of their showers instead

me too, kramer...
I'm a seasonal...

Lottie wrote: me too, kramer...
I'm a seasonal...

Yeay its not just me lol

Whats a seasonal?

It means she swims along going plink-pliiink, plink-pliiink, plink-pliiink, and by some clever trickery involving how long to takes for the echo to come back, she can detect and calculate the location of submarines and giant squid and so on.

kramer wrote:

Lottie wrote: me too, kramer...
I'm a seasonal...

Yeay its not just me lol

Whats a seasonal?

seasonal washer.... when working loads in summer ..clean.. when doing OU in winter... not so much..

Wilhelm Von Rhomboid wrote:It means she swims along going plink-pliiink, plink-pliiink, plink-pliiink, and by some clever trickery involving how long to takes for the echo to come back, she can detect and calculate the location of submarines and giant squid and so on.

eh?

If it makes you feel better I'm a once a weeker too just washing in between. I have never once been told I smell even by people I can trust to be honest.

I grew up with a weekly bath and hairwash and thats the way its stayed on average what with being a seasonal too.

I find showers really tiring (am I odd) and I just dont get time to myself to have a bath. If they're all asleep i want to be too so I just wash because I have to.

I have better condition hair than most people I know too because its not overwashed

Lottie wrote:

Wilhelm Von Rhomboid wrote:It means she swims along going plink-pliiink, plink-pliiink, plink-pliiink, and by some clever trickery involving how long to takes for the echo to come back, she can detect and calculate the location of submarines and giant squid and so on.

eh?

I'm guessing sea-sonal

Lottie wrote:

kramer wrote:

Lottie wrote: me too, kramer...
I'm a seasonal...

Yeay its not just me lol

Whats a seasonal?

seasonal washer.... when working loads in summer ..clean.. when doing OU in winter... not so much..

Ah now I get you Yeah I'd be seasonal too by that description. Its too cold in winter to wash unnecessarily ha-ha

bronze wrote:If it makes you feel better I'm a once a weeker too just washing in between. I have never once been told I smell even by people I can trust to be honest.

So I'm normal, then!!!
I have incredibly dry skin (hereditary) and have to lard myself all over with cream when I shower, so it's a bit of a palaver, and I can't be bothered to do it more than once or twice a week. My hair has become much less dry and scratchy now that I only wash it twice or three times a week. Mind you, when I have my shower it's not a quick affair, and I don't welcome knocks on the door ('Have you finished yet?'). It's quality not quantity!

Both my boys used to suffer from dreadful exzaeasmasmmma (gave up trying to spell it years ago... and no, Billy, not "it" ) the doc told me not to wash them... well ...not often, I may have taken it a bit too literally... anyhoo, it really helped their..that word up there^ ... and I'm sure helped to clear it up. They're all clear now...

I must add to my original post, that I *do* wash the "pits and bits" more than once a week... in fact I do them every day, at least...likewise my face and hands get washed every day ( hands more often....)

But in the depth of winter, here, in our insulated but not over warm bathroom?

I shower and wash my hair once a week, unless I am going out somewhere or am especially dirty from work....

No one seems to complain....and I actually smell very nice as my dry skin means I smother myself with my essential oil/ base oil blends to fight off the dryness...

Dandelion wrote:My hair has become much less dry and scratchy now that I only wash it twice or three times a week.

I only wash my hair two or three times a week (in summer) less if I can stay at home and no-one will see it . But I still have problems with a dry/itchy scalp. I think it may now flair up with stress, but I used to have it a lot when I was younger. I use Simple products which have helped, but not much.

Other than smothering with oil (which I hate! Makes my head and hair feel horrid), or tar shampoos which make my hair VERY dry (so goodness knows what it does to my scalp), is there anything natural/cheap I could use to help?

Also, spose I should add, I always have my hair up otherwise easily gets greasy or is SUPER frizzy so cannot do much other with it anyway.

flute wrote:

Dandelion wrote:My hair has become much less dry and scratchy now that I only wash it twice or three times a week.

I only wash my hair two or three times a week (in summer) less if I can stay at home and no-one will see it . But I still have problems with a dry/itchy scalp. I think it may now flair up with stress, but I used to have it a lot when I was younger. I use Simple products which have helped, but not much.

Other than smothering with oil (which I hate! Makes my head and hair feel horrid), or tar shampoos which make my hair VERY dry (so goodness knows what it does to my scalp), is there anything natural/cheap I could use to help?

Also, spose I should add, I always have my hair up otherwise easily gets greasy or is SUPER frizzy so cannot do much other with it anyway.

Hmm Simple contains a few ingredients I would not want to use.....as they would certainly irritate me...such as SLES in the shampoos?

\Wikipedia

Although SLES is considered safe at the concentrations used in cosmetic products, it is an irritant similar to other detergents, with the irritation increasing with concentration.[2] SLES has been shown to produce eye or skin irritation in experimental animals and in some human test subjects.[2] The related surfactant SLS is a known irritant,[4][5] and research suggests that SLES can also cause irritation after extended exposure in some people.[6][7]

I have lots of other sources which say similar, but as they are from organic bodycare websites they might be attacked as biased so I have used Wikipedia.

I have seen a number of clients who have had all sorts of skin/scalp irritations who have found they go away when they switch to SLS/SLES free bodycare products. I am one.

I use Faith in Nature products and have found them excellent.

Maybe worth a try?

I have incredibly dry skin.
For my scalp I have found that washing my hair less is better for it.
It takes a bit for your scalp to adust but it balances out in the end. I managed it quite quickly one year by not washing my hair at all for the summer. The second week was horrendous but then it improved. It was a summer of festivals when I was 18 anyway so being a bit skanky didn't matter so much. It can'y have been to horrible as I met my husband that year.

My hands are anothe rmatter though. My lifestyle means I wash my hands a lot and currently my hands are covered in plasters as its the only way I can intensively moisturise my knuckles enough to stop them cracking and bleeding. So if anyone has any ideas?...

flute wrote:

Other than smothering with oil (which I hate! Makes my head and hair feel horrid), or tar shampoos which make my hair VERY dry (so goodness knows what it does to my scalp), is there anything natural/cheap I could use to help?

Things I have tried over the years which have helped are;
*washing my hair less often (which we've discussed)
*keeping blow drying to a minimum - I leave it to dry by itself for a while then finish it off with the hairdrier
*as CW said, using shampoo without SLS (this sometimes appears on the list of ingredients as Sodium Laureth or Lauryl Sulphate. Another firm who make this is Naked (www.nakedbodycare.co.uk) - available in Boots or from the internet. About £4 a bottle unless there's an offer, but if you're not washing your hair so often it does last. I think Faith in Nature is about the same.
*in the winter, when my skin and hair are much worse, I use a lotion called 'expert dry scalp intensive soothing lotion'. This is a Boots own brand. It's under £5 a bottle - the bottle lasts months. It's a colourless liquid you measure in drops into your hands, then massage onto your scalp when youir hair is still wet after washing. It just helps to make it less irritated.
I think it's a combination of these steps which have helped me - oh, and not having the washing water too hot.

I use products from LUSH. They are more expensive than other shampoos but honestly go alot further. I nearly choked when I paid £21 for a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of conditioner to be delivered but they have lasted nearly a whole year and my scalp isn't sore anymore. The ingredients are all natural and they don't test on animals and don't buy products from companies who test on animals.

EDIT to say I've just looked at Faith in Nature and the products look amazing too. I think I might try them next

I'm a daily showerer, but I do spend most of my time riding, so I'm pretty sweaty by the end of the day. My skin is shot though, head, feet & hands always dry skin, the rest of me oily. Drives me mad!