# Does anyone shower before using a public pool? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 8, 2020, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113 "2020-09-08T18:51:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/1 "2020-09-08T18:51:29Z")
They all have signs about showering, I guess due to state laws. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/2 "2020-09-08T18:56:07Z")
Here in central Europe, attendants actually order you back to the shower if they catch you trying to dip into the pool while still dry. I guess people feel more comfortable sharing the water with you after you washed the worst dirt and sweat off your skin. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/3 "2020-09-08T18:59:47Z")
We shower at home before going to our complex’s pool. Which couldn’t cope with COVID rules so didn’t open this year. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/4 "2020-09-08T19:04:25Z")
which country in Europe is that ? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/5 "2020-09-08T19:06:51Z")
I don’t. I figure the chlorinated water will kill germs more than my dousing myself in shower water will. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/6 "2020-09-08T19:21:28Z")
Certainly it is my experience in Germany, Austria, Iceland Norway and Sweden that showering is absolutely mandatory. Mainly enforced by social pressure rather than the attendants but certainly in Iceland my son tried to sneak in without getting a shower and was kindly, but firmly, told to go and get it done by the attendant. I stood and chuckled with her whilst he did so. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/7 "2020-09-08T19:30:47Z")
There used to be a sign on the door from the locker room to the pool that said we had to shower, so I did. But I never saw ANYONE else do it. Then the sign got taken down and never put back up, so I just stopped rinsing before I got in the pool. Now with covid they encourage people to not use the locker rooms, rather come to the pool with your suit under your clothes and leave wet. They do have overhead deck showers on the pool deck but once again no one uses them. I do use them to rinse off my goggles before I dry off and go home. I always assumed the showering was not so much for germs but to get the product out of your hair and off your skin before you left it in their pool filter. We’ve got a new rec director and a new locker room so I wonder if rinsing off will become more demanded in the future. Probably not, tho. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/8 "2020-09-08T19:31:47Z")
I always did when using the health club pool 2x/week (stopped after COVID). But didn’t lather up - just rinsed off - so I don’t know if that counts. I remember as a kid, the park district pools and HS PE class required it. You had to - at least - be wet. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/9 "2020-09-08T19:59:45Z")
> [@kk\_fusion](#): > > Here in central Europe, attendants actually order you back to the shower if they catch you trying to dip into the pool while still dry. When I was a kid the lifeguards at the YMCA did that, too. That was in the US, North Carolina specifically. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/10 "2020-09-08T20:29:35Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I always assumed the showering was not so much for germs but to get the product out of your hair and off your skin before you left it in their pool filter. This has always been my understanding too. I’ve also seen people, esp. in a jetted hot tub, with suds forming around them. I usually rinse off. It was enforced when I was a kid, in Norway and in the US, then it just became habit. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/11 "2020-09-08T20:30:27Z")
> [@kk\_fusion](#): > > I guess people feel more comfortable sharing the water with you after you washed the worst dirt and sweat off your skin. Exactly this. I mean, unless the shower is prohibitively cold, hot, or otherwise inconvenient, why wouldn’t you? Not doing so strikes me as a little selfish. You’re about to get wet anyway. Then again, if I see people not doing so it doesn’t overly bother me, it’s a huge volume of water and a tiny volume of sweat. I do wonder though whether pools where more people do shower are able to reduce the concentration of chemicals in the water slightly, making for a more pleasant experience for all. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/12 "2020-09-08T20:36:06Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I always assumed the showering was not so much for germs but to get the product out of your hair and off your skin before you left it in their pool filter. They taught us Navy recruits that it was primarily to wash our asses. The showers at the pool in Great Lakes NTC even had a special sprayer for down there. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/13 "2020-09-08T20:51:15Z")
Iceland is 100% mandatory showers before swimming. They tend to use natural hot spring fed pools and don’t chlorinate them, depending on clean people and rapid water exchange. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/14 "2020-09-08T22:31:52Z")
Takes less than a minute. Of course I do. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/15 "2020-09-08T23:50:48Z")
found out recently that saltwater pools don’t use chemicals like chlorine. Saltwater pools are the latest thing for home pools ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/16 "2020-09-09T01:17:33Z")
Salt water pools don’t work just by being salty. The filter system causes the NaCl to disassociate into Na+ and Cl- ions. The Chlorine does it’s thing and then naturally reassociates with the Na+ back into salt when it’s away from the electrical current. > **[Salt water chlorination](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_water_chlorination)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Salt water chlorination is a process that uses dissolved salt (1000–36,000 ppm or 1–36 g/L) for the chlorination of swimming pools and hot tubs. The chlorine generator (also known as salt cell, salt generator, salt chlorinator, or SWG) uses electrolysis in the presence of dissolved salt to produce chlorine gas or its dissolved forms, hypochlorous acid and sodium hypochlorite, which are already commonly used as sanitizing agents in pools. Hydrogen is... ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/17 "2020-09-09T02:50:38Z")
Really? You folks think dirt and sweat is the worst thing in the public pool? ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/18 "2020-09-09T03:09:18Z")
Nope. Why would you think that? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/19 "2020-09-09T04:50:39Z")
This is the first time I’ve _ever_ heard of this being a thing! I certainly never once went in the shower before jumping into the pool as a kid and I don’t remember anyone else doing so either. It’s been many many years since I’ve been to a public pool, is this something that started recently? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113/20 "2020-09-09T05:04:23Z")
I recall doing this once. Pretty sure it was the indoor pool at a hotel in Florida. I remember the big signs in the locker room. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-shower-before-using-a-public-pool/920113.md?page=2)