Yes, to protect themselves from you as much as the other way around. 
Except for the couple hundred million dead skin cells that slough off into it while you vigorously dry yourself. Hey, there’s something that makes the towel start to stand up by itself after four or five days…
Yep, which is why I said “even if my body is clean”.
To be honest, I think you should set the limit at, say, fifty million dead skin cells and therfore change the towel halfway through drying yourself. No sense in taking pointless risks here.
Me, once a week. One for hair, one for body.
Husband, every two or so days.
Son, once a week.
FWIW, besides the towels, I also dry off in front of a nice, big fan. Helps the process, somewhat (and allows me to dry the butt region with less towel interaction).
I used to use a new one every shower, but now it’s once a week after I realized some years ago how wasteful that was.
Wow. I do it every two weeks – as a couple of people have observed, it’s a huge use of water and electricity to do laundry, and it’s not like they’re dirty. (And yes, I dry my butt, but that, like the rest of my body, just got washed.)
Could there be a better cite? 
Yeah. So let’s say you take seven showers a week. So you now have seven towels in the laundry.
In the summer, I often take two showers a day. 14 towels? Or even 10, if I don’t take a second shower every day? And that’s just for me.
And I am supposed to do all that laundry, on a limited budget? Whatever happened to water conservation anyway?
If you’re taking 14 showers in a week, the additional laundry water involved in washing those towels is probably a pittance by comparison. 
There’s always if its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down.
I change towels every other day.
Probably. But I only do that in the summer, and really only for two months when the humidity is highest. I assume the people here are talking year-round dumping of their towels after one wash?
As for seven showers, I certainly won’t be cutting down on that!
Top loading washer, electric water heater
Electricity: 2.33 kWh ($0.19)
Water: 50 gallons ($0.10)
Detergent: $0.22
Total: $0.51/load
Front loading washer, electric water heater
Electricity: 0.65 kWh ($0.05)
Water: 25 gallons ($0.05)
Detergent: $0.22
Total: $0.32/load
With a gas water heater, the totals are even less: $0.41/load and $0.30/load.
That’s if you have your own washer/dryer, Walloon. I live in an apartment and go to a laundromat.
Once a week.
Do people actually use their towels to dry themselves down in their butt cracks?? I’ve always used TP for that. I have to think it’s much more suitable for the job.
Fresh towel every shower, but I don’t shower every day. Hand towels get changed every 2-3 days.
I don’t like the feel of a used towel. They’re scratchy, and they don’t smell fresh.
Maybe it’s our hard water. When I visited my mom in Seattle, I’d use the same towel two or three times, and it wasn’t scratchy and it smelled fine.
I really want to get a front-loading washer, but I have to wait until this machine dies.
Um. Once every few weeks.
Who wants to hug me?
My washer died last month, so I’ve been going to the laundromat too. Each load is $3.50. I use normal sized towels (not the huge fluffy capable of wrapping around you multiple times things), and my seven towels, wash cloths and scrubber are one load with enough space for the SO’s three or four towels, when I’m washing them. I can afford to do this once a week, and help the earth in other ways.
Eww LOUNE. Keep your E. Coli covered self away from me.