Kinda gross - going without a shower

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jacambece

Assistant Cook
Joined
Dec 6, 2005
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Whats the longest you think you could go with out showering? 4 of my friends are trying to see who can go the longest, we are on week 3 now and i can barly get near them. i wish i could make them stop.

Cambece
 
Gross is not the word.....how about disgusting.
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this is an interesting topic for thru hikers on the appalachian trail. they not only don't shower for weeks at a time, but also have periods where their water supply is limited, so even the most basic washing up is restricted.

experienced hikers have noticed that after a few weeks, your body begins to regulate it's own stink. i guess the odor causing bacteria begins to level out. but you still have a kind of musky, nasty odor about you, of which people at your downwind campsite know that you're coming a minute or 2 before you arrive...
 
I have heard the same thing bucky. I once read an article about a woman who decided to stop showering or bathing completely. She said the first number of weeks (I don't recall how many it was) were hard and she smelled really bad, but after that initial period her body regulated the smell and she and the people who were around her who were quoted in the article claimed she had an oder, but not an offensive one. They had pictures of her and you could not tell she had not bathed. She would wash her face I think, but she had not washed her hair and it looked silky smooth and clean. It was not tangled or matted or gross looking at all.

Personally I don't think I will be trying that anytime soon. The longest I have gone in my adult life has been 4 days and that was while camping at music festivals with thousands of other people who were in the same smelly situation as I was so no one noticed each others stink :sick:
 
oh man that's something i'm never planning on. i cant go more than 1 day without a shower or bath. during the summer i practically live in the shower.
 
I have to take a shower every morning!! The only day that I might go without is on Sunday when I haven't done anything the day before, but laze around.
 
I'm a clean freak, and love to soak in the bathtub at least once a day (good time to catch up on cookbook reading!)

Many times I've had to leave a store or library, due to someone's odor. I always wonder: do they know they are making people's eyes water?

On the other hand, there is nothing more attractive on a man than the smell like he just got out of the shower!
 
I used to live in a house with a bunch of friends. One of them (I knew him through one of the other house mates) we never saw go into the bathroom to take a shower. We are not sure if he ever washed his clothes either. He stank so bad!!! His name was Pete, but we called him Smelly Pete or SP for short. It was so bad that he left a trail of smell wherever he went. You would walk into a room and know SP had been in there within the last hour :sick:
 
T'is a rare occassion for me not to have a shower within any given 24 hour period. Well, unless I sleep late on days off, but as soon as I get up, the first place I go is the shower. I don't become human until I've had a shower.

Especially when I'm not feeling well, i.e. a cold or something. The steam helps relieve sinus pressure and to loosen up any gunk in the respatory system! Then I'm good for a couple showers cuz they help me feel better!

Summertime sometimes requires a morning and evening shower, depending on the day's activities.
 
Some of our firefighters go with out showers on fire assignments. But it usually not because they don't want to take a shower. Sometimes shower units are not available in a timely manner. Crews that spike out on the fireline might not come into the main fire camp for 3-4 days. Also, at times sleeping and eating is a higher priority than taking a shower.

The most I have been without a shower is 3-4 days and not by personal preference. Usually it is related to camping or fire assignments. At least when camping there is a river or lake nearby that you can jump into.

I worked on a fire lookout tower once that did not have bathing facilities. I got really good at having sponge baths and washing my hair by heating water on the propane stove.

I prefer to take my shower in the morning, but at times it is a necessity to take one at night due to how dirty I have got during the day.
 
Hmmm. Intersting line. As you get older, you perspire less and tend to go longer without showering. I can last a couple of days, and only because my showers have become chemical washes to treat ezcema and psoriosis (I'm 50) ... in the winter. Plus I need glasses, so cannot read in the tub. But I'm old enough to remember that once-upon-a-time baths were a weekly event. We (I have three little sisters) would line up and climb into the bath, and would wash each other's hair. At one point in my life, I would wash my pregnant mother after (she bathed daily, but sometimes needed help reaching places ... we lived overseas, and didn't have the modern facilities we're used to now). As for going, on purpose, without bathing ... ugh! The only reason I go a day without bathing is because my skin cannot take the abuse. I'm willing to agree that we as Americans over-deoderize. But trying to say that BO is a good smell? I've lived places where people don't shave, use deodorant, or regularly bathe. It isn't a lovely way to live. PS -- You don't start smelling less, your own nose stops smelling. YOU think you don't stink, but believe me the rest of the world knows you do.
 
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A russian joke:

A group of American tourists come to one of Premier Soviet Farms some where in Siberia. They’ve been shown all kind of amazing things, at the end one of the guys turns to the guide and asks:

Tourist: “How come I have not seen any Showers or tubs in the bathrooms? Where do you wash up? “

Guide: “we bathe in the river.” – The guide replied

T. “River? But what about winter?

G. “Ehh, what’s big deal? Winter isn’t that long!”
 
After reading this thread about showing I can't help but seem to shake the image of "Pig Pen" from Charlie Brown out of my head :LOL:
 
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