What does your shower water temperature say about you?

[Ensign Edison]

A. Freezing cold - What the hell is wrong with you? Will you put on a hairshirt when you get out of there?
B. Cold - Either it's sweltering out or you're me and oneironaut's been wearing those boots again
B. Lukewarm - Me, I'd prefer the cold. Why not let a cat lick you all over?
C. Perfectly balanced in a zen-like serenity between hot and cold - you are the Messiah
D. Hot and steamy - Either it's chilly out, you have company, or you're pretending you do
F. Boiling hot - So hot you need a safeword and a friend standing by with bandages

Me, I'm somewhere between 'D' and 'F'. :cool:

[Ensign Edison]

:smack: How silly of me. Of course, that should A, B, 3, C, D, 5.

[Dusty]

Thinking about it just now, I can be rather funny. For baths, I like the water as hot as I can stand it, but for showers, I prefer it cold. Not freezing, mind, I do mix in some hot water, but a temperature somewhere in the low 70s (Fahrenheit, obviously). And I tend to inch it colder and colder while I'm in there.

So, B sliding up to, but not reaching, A.

[MrJackboots]

Somewhere between D and F for most of it - then cranked down to between A and B for the last minute or so. At one point or another I got the idea that this would keep me from getting sick. It seems to work okay.

[Hal Briston]

Woohoo! I'm the Messiah!

[Rhiannon8404]

Woohoo! I'm the Messiah!

Yeah, uh huh, me too.

[Ensign Edison]

Woohoo! I'm the Messiah!

How do you do it? Can you actually achieve it, or does it require constant adjustment? I find that the perfect temp a moment ago is a little too cold right now...

[NinjaChick]

Morning showers: I'm generally the messiah, apparently, because I'm not awake enough to really notice the temperature. For the last five seconds or so, I just turn off the hot water, because that actually wakes me up.

Post-workout showers: Start lukewarm, to let myself cool down and stop sweating so much. Then as hot as I can stand.

[DMark]

When taking a bath, the water temperature should only blister the skin slightly.

When taking a shower, the water temperature should produce enough steam to raise the humidity in the house to slightly less than 99% - used to have the water hotter, but those micro storms in the kitchen wrecked havoc on the appliances.

If my hot water heater ever dies, just call me stinky until Home Depot comes and installs a new one. Next time I might opt for that 50,000 gallon tank model.

[irishgirl]

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot.
Same for baths.

I turn the hot tap all the way up, and add just enough cold to make the water pressure go from "pounding power shower" to " needle-like jets boring into my skin".

That way I take about 5 minutes and feel really clean. Nothing worse than a drip-drip lukewarm shower.

[Hal Briston]

How do you do it? Can you actually achieve it, or does it require constant adjustment? I find that the perfect temp a moment ago is a little too cold right now...I guess it's one of those minor superpowers. I turn each knob once, kick on the spray, and it's a perfect temperature every time.

It's no x-ray vision or telekinesis, but I'll take it.

[Tikki]

I'm a Messiah with traces of cat slobber. If you knew my hot water heater, you'd err on the cool side too.

[mrald]

F so my SO has to be an A :D

[Lionne]

I'm a D. At the end of the shower, I turn the cold water off and boil myself for a couple of minutes. Aaahhh.....

[Barbarian]

F. I wake up each morning (or evening, or whatever) with very low body temperature. Then I'm expected to get out of the shower dripping wet, which will freeze me again? Forget it. I can handle the cold the rest of the day, but I need that kickstart in the morning.

[Johanna]

That alphanumeric scale is too confusing for me to use, so I'll just say I keep it between lukewarm and moderately warm. Lukewarm is preferred.

What this says about me: I hate having itchy skin in winter!

In general, the less heat used in the water, the better it is for skin and hair. Lukewarm water says: good skincare matters to me.

[Stark Raven Mad]

A. Wakes me up, the way even Plax in an eye does.

[Stark Raven Mad]

A. Wakes me up, the way even Plax in an eye does.

:smack: Doesn't. I meant doesn't.

[Amazon Floozy Goddess]

Totally F for me. I like it so hot that it almost hurts.

[Suburban Plankton]

I range from D to D-. If the air temp. is particularly cold, I'm an F.

[ladybug]

I'm somewhere between C and D.

[silenus]

I'm right there with AFG. Warm to hot at the start, getting used to it while I soap and shave, then as hot as possible for the last blast, then leap out and frighten the cats.

If its 90 degrees outside, then cool to medium.

[FaerieBeth]

Woohoo! I'm the Messiah!
*bolding mine

Now I know why the Messiah always has his hands inside his robe.

[Jonathan Chance]

Blisteringly hot. So hot that Lady Chance insists on going first to shower because, while she likes lukewarm showers, the water heater won't be capable of that for a while after I'm done. I have used, wastefully, I admit, all of the hot water our extra large heater has during some showers.

Call me a lobster and boil me, baby.

[Ensign Edison]

I'm a Messiah with traces of cat slobber. If you knew my hot water heater, you'd err on the cool side too.

I wouldn't be so sure - I'm a shower masochist. And I see from this thread I'm not the only one...

[Tikki]

OK, let me put it this way--I'm a Messiah with traces of cat slobber and I'm sane. ;)

[Richard Pearse]

My water heater seems to be an on or off type thing, it is run by gas and requires a certain water flow to get it to turn on, that water flow then makes the shower too hot.

So I shower with cold water only. The actual shower temperature varies with the weather. Sometimes the cold water is quite hot itself, so that's fine, other times it's a bit cold, I deal with it.

[scr4]

F.

It just means I grew up in Japan.

[monica]

I'm mostly between a D and an F, learning towards the F.

[gigi]

Fall/Winter/Spring: For my routine morning shower, around D. Hot but not extreme. For the shower over the weekend when I haven't showered for a couple of days, or for a shower when I really want to get energized, F.

Summer: Lukewarm for the morning routine, lukewarm gradually changing to cold and ice-cold to cool down from the weather.

[elfkin477]

C-D. Although, given I consider D to be when I occasionally scald myself (hey, the red marks fade after a few hours), maybe my idea of "perfect temperature" is most people's D to begin with.

[Ensign Edison]

That alphanumeric scale is too confusing for me to use, so I'll just say I keep it between lukewarm and moderately warm. Lukewarm is preferred.

What this says about me: I hate having itchy skin in winter!

In general, the less heat used in the water, the better it is for skin and hair. Lukewarm water says: good skincare matters to me.

I read it's especially important on the face, and I'm trying to deal with my intense need for a very, very hot shower and my wish to stop boiling my face every day. So now I just stay in til the water gets lukewarm on its own and then do the face. :D I really don't know anything about skincare or stuff like that, but I know an excuse to take a 20 minute shower when I see one.

(Does anyone know where to find a basic primer for folks who are totally lost in the skincare aisle? Google = a lot of people trying to sell me things.)

[Marley23]

D. Hot and steamy - Either it's chilly out
It means I hate waking up, but if I've got to do it, I want to get in a shower that's as warm or warmer than the bed I left. By this means, I can slowly drift upward toward consciousness and be less annoyed when I go face the day.

[gigi]

(Does anyone know where to find a basic primer for folks who are totally lost in the skincare aisle? Google = a lot of people trying to sell me things.)Do you have "problem skin" at all? Like, oily or dry patches, irritation or inflammation? There are plenty of gentle skin cleansers for normal skin; try them out and see which ones your face likes. Seriously, I just sampled and over a couple of days could tell what felt good. Right now I use an off-brand version of Noxzema (in a similar blue tub) because it is a simple cold-cream type cleanser but Noxzema was a little too strong.

[Anastasaeon]

I am also the Messiah. I turn the shower on and let it run while I get undressed and any other minor thing I may need to do before stepping in, so I can test it before I allow my holy royal toesies to set foot in the tub.

My husband, however, seems to love it scalding, and has gone so blasphemously far as to call my temperature "cold"!

No way. I know cold. The building's water heater broke down a couple weeks ago, and while waiting for it to be fixed, I needed to take a shower. I figured eventually my body would get used to the temperature. YOW! Ice cold! Hell, I'm into kinks as much as the next person who's into kinks, but this had my arching my back away from the stream as though it were liquid fire, trying to at least get my hair washed and the soap rinsed off. I didn't have a spare couple of years necessary to get acclimated to the temperature, so I just wove in and out of the stream, screaming. I stepped out of there shivering, covered in goose bumps, gasping for breath and angry as hell. But I was awake with no coffee.

[AHunter3]

Our apartment's hot water heater was replaced 3 years ago. The new model, on hot-only, produces something that is only nominally a liquid (most of it turns to steam on impact) and raises actual second-degree burn blisters if you don't dilute it.

I dilute it, but I'm still in D territory, and for a brief interval before I get out, I aim it at my back muscles and run in to F# zone.

[YaWanna]

Another Messiah. (Some of us must be wrong...[/Dire Straits])

(Does anyone know where to find a basic primer for folks who are totally lost in the skincare aisle? Google = a lot of people trying to sell me things.)


cthiax, I recommend you go to this website (http://www.cosmeticscop.com) and look up some of the recommendations. I will tell you that Noxzema contains several known skin irritants. I personally use Cetaphil skin cleanser.

[Ensign Edison]

Another Messiah. (Some of us must be wrong...[/Dire Straits])

cthiax, I recommend you go to this website (http://www.cosmeticscop.com) and look up some of the recommendations. I will tell you that Noxzema contains several known skin irritants. I personally use Cetaphil skin cleanser.

Oh nice, she has a men's skin care section. Actually, I do use Cetaphil now, so I guess I'm ahead of the game. I just don't know about, like, exfoliators and moisturizers and all that metrosexual jazz. Thanks for the tip.

[even sven]

F! So hot everyone asks me "what the hell is wrong with you?" I'm a human heat sink. I've been in paradise ever since I moved in to an apartment with an infinite central water heater and a bathroom heater just like a hotel.

cthaix, you may also want to try nothing at all. I have great skin that rarely gives me trouble, but whenever I even think about putting soap on it, it freaks out. Fancy moisturizers and stuff of all types will screw up my face for a week. It's a shame, because I'm a total make-up slut and the industry could probably make fortunes if I could use their overpriced snake oil. But alas, it's nothing but a splash of water for me.

[Lucretia]

D leaning towards F here. Which can cause problems, because my beloved Bluesman and I shower together most mornings, and he's more of a B to C kinda guy.

[FilmGeek]

I'm a D leaning toward F. I Love the heat.

I have to take short showers if I want to keep my relationship strong. I use up a lot of the hot water. We keep our water heater turned all the way up. Out of the kitchen tap it runs about 150 degrees. It's a bit less in the shower.

I get red patches on my chest from the heat.

As for faces, I never wash my face unless I'm really dirty (after softball, say). Otherwise it's just water for me.

[Feydeau]

Between Perfectly Balanced Warm and Hot for me.

[Sleel]

Usually C to D. Summertime here sucks with its hot muggy nastiness, so I usually take a lukewarm-to-cool shower in the summer. On the few occasions when I go to an onsen (Japanese bath) I can go in the hot-hot water for a while, but then I have to take a cool shower afterward.

I've had to bathe with cold water quite a few times. It sucks.

I didn't have a modern water heater in my first place in Japan. When I moved in, I had a 50 year old boiler that sucked water from the tub, heated it, and pushed it back into the tub. It had two main problems: 1) The temperature depended on your timing. Too early and it was mostly cold still, too late and you needed to mix in some cold with the hose from outside so you didn't scald yourself. 2) I didn't trust it not to blow up and kill me. In fact, the guy I asked to see about putting in a new water told me that it was dangerous and that I was lucky it hadn't exploded yet. That was the main reason I was able to get the school to put in a new water heater. It still took a couple of months from that inspection, so around December I had hot water. Until then, I had to bathe by pouring cold water over me.

That, and long camping trips have given me my fill of ice-melt baths. Water that's too hot makes me itchy and sometimes even sick to my stomach, so that's not for me either. Balance is in for Sleel.

[bubble pop electric]

F. I'm a bit red when I get out, and I itch later. But it does clear your sinuses.