So I skipped my shower yesterday. Don’t look at me in disgust, you’ve all done it. I usually shower at night. My wife talked me into not going to work last night, just as I was starting to get ready (shower) so I skipped it. That didn’t disgust her. What absolutely horrified her is that I didn’t put on a clean pair of underwear anyway.
I figured: If I’m not taking a shower and getting clean, what’s the point of putting on a new pair? I wasn’t going anywhere. But she was unbelievably disgusted that I would wear the same pair of underwear for 48 hours.
We’ve really become overly fanatic about showers and cleanliness. If you’re not sweating and haven’t managed to cover yourself in grease or mud or something else, you don’t need to shower daily. You’ll want to take a swipe at the bits around perspiration-producing areas, of course, and freshen your face and hands to get all the outdoor air gunk off. And it goes without saying that if you’ve been doing the horizontal mambo you definitely need a scrub. But otherwise not.
I have naturally sensitive skin which can very easily get dry. I haven’t had any physician or dermatologist in years tell me anything but that I should shower maybe every second or third day. Baths are supposedly out because they’re even more drying.
As for skivvies, if they are still pristine, why not keep them on for a day at home? If, however, it’s in any way evident that they’ve been worn then they’re best in the hamper.
I don’t know about your particular situation since you have a skin condition, but I beg to differ when it comes to the general public. I speak as someone who works in a profession that often requires making physical contact with the general public (health care).
It seems to me that some people don’t realize just how…fragrant they are to others. We tend to become used to our own scent and don’t notice it the way others do.
So, for that reason alone, I encourage people to err on the side of showering too much, so you don’t end up offending the people around you without realizing it.
Even if I sat in my recliner all day, moving nothing more than a finger on a remote control, I’d still have to shower daily. My hair gets disgusting within 24 hours! And I just feel icky… Some years back when I’d had surgery that kept me from showering for a couple of days, I thought I’d go mad!! It was such a relief when the doc gave me a pass from sponge baths.
As I sit here, my hair is still wet from my morning shower, and I feel refreshed and ready to take on the world, even if I am up at a ridiculously early hour on a day off. If I hadn’t showered, I’d be sitting here offending myself.
I tend to perspire very little (even when hot), and am rather fastidious about keeping my hands and face clean. I would be tempted to think that I could shower every second or third day and no one would know. However like lavenderviolet, I am aware that some people seem to be unaware of their own scent. I’ve met so many people that appear to be completely oblivious to the reek eminating from their bodies. (You’d think they’d notice the wavy “pig pen” lines that surround them everywhere they go!) I think that, like your nose being in your visual field, your body tunes out certain constant sensory inputs.
So despite the fact that I’m quite certain that I don’t stink, I’m rather paranoid that maybe I do and just don’t smell it. I would hate to have someone thinking the same vile things about me that run through my head when I’m forced into the same room with one of those oblivious stinky bastards.
So I’m with lavenderviolet, even if you don’t think you need to shower everyday, it’s probably a good idea. Best to err on the side of caution. No one wants to be the stinky kid.
And good god robardin, skid marks? I learned how to properly wipe my ass as a wee little devil. If I were to ever find a skid mark in my underwear I would be so horribly disgusted with myself that I would burn the underwear and scrub my ass with boiling water and a steel scrub brush.
However if you are staying home and do skip the shower, I don’t see why the 24 hour rule for underwear has to be followed. As long is you haven’t been doing the nasty, and you haven’t been very active (producing sweat and requiring a shower), putting on a new pair of drawers will not make you cleaner.
I guess it might be different for girls. Girl parts produce all kinds of stuff that might sully a pair of underwear. But I tend to keep my undercarriage sparkling, minty fresh so don’t see that my act was as offensive as she made it out to be.
I can provide a cite for that. I have no sense of smell, my Mother isn’t exactly known for her tact, or kindness [towards me], a few years ago she had a habit of coming up to me and shuddering violently, often gagging, then declaring “oh my gawd, you stink”
I didn’t necessarily believe her, but she persisted, I’m convinced on one occasion she even threw up slightly.
So I got up one Monday, didn’t shower, or wash in any way whatsoever. Made an appointment to see the doctor for the next day. I got up the next morning, didn’t shower, or wash, put the same clothes (including underwear) that I’d has on the day before. I went to the doctor, she asked “what’s up?”
I told her “I have B.O.”
She fell about laughing.
D’Mother kept up her onslaught of “You stink”, occasionally she changed it to “your breath stinks”. She once told me I stank approximately 90 seconds after I’d stepped out of the shower. I went to a different doctor, and she assured me that I do not have B.O. in fact I don’t smell much at all.
Swipe areas? It is just easier to jump in the shower for ten minutes and wash them. I love showers and being clean. I’d rather go without underwear than wear dirty ones.
Um, it’s just a second day. I’m not talking weeks here. Plus I put on clean clothes. And fresh underwear every day. And I wash, as I mentioned, the strategic bits. There have been people who lived in my house with me and I have double-checked with them and they’ve told me that I’m not offending.
I hardly think my own physicians would advise me to do it if they thought I had some sort of potential odour issues. In fact my boss just recently told me I smelled nice. So thanks for all the scary cautions, but scratching my skin into a bruised, bleeding mess isn’t my idea of healthy or attractive and that’s what daily showers do to me. But hey, if paranoia’s your thing, go for it.
