Can’t say for sure but I would estimate about 2 weeks. I suffered bouts of severe depression between the ages of 14-20. There were days on end where I only got out of bed to go to the toilet and maybe to hydrate/feed myself and showering seemed a pointless waste of energy (as did everything else).
Excluding times of mental ill health it would be 4 days during various festivals: Reading 02, Leeds 03, Rockness 07-09.
Moved MPSIMS --> IMHO.
Two weeks or so in the hospital with rods through my leg. First thing I did when I got home was take a looooong, hot bath (with the leg hanging over the side of the tub).
16 days. Field exercise in the Mojave desert. I hated not washing clothes more than not bathing.
9 days, camping and fishing in Alaska. Probably the most scary, fun vacation I’ve ever had.
I went about two weeks between showers while suffering from postnatal depression. I have a picture of myself during that time and my ordinarily brown hair looks like black and gold tiger stripes.
Two weeks camping in northern Ontario. I think I washed my face after heating some water over the fire about twice–I just could not take having a dirty face ANY MORE. And washing my face in an ice-cold stream of meltwater was painful.
Oh, I think I splashed through some streams at one point, but all that did was wash some of the dirt off my boots. Good times. Never had a shower as wonderful as the one I had when I returned home. I think I was forty minutes in there, washing my hair twice and shaving and enjoying the steam and generally feeling like a million bucks in gold.
As a result of plain and simple laziness - probably about 5-7 days.
After back surgery and before I found out NOT to take the painkillers and muscle relaxers at the same time - about a week and a half til I was coherent enough to figure out how to run the shower.
Ten days, while in the military.
Ten weeks, while in India. I did my best to stay clean, though, washing from a bucket and a cup every morning. That was one awesome shower when I got home, though.
I also went weeks between showers in Bulgaria a few times, when my pipes froze in the winter. I would schlep water from the town fountain, heat it up in the electric kettle, pour my hot water into the washbasin, and then use a cup to pour the hot water over myself. It was very classy. One thing that made life worth living was that my town in Bulgaria is famous (in Bulgaria) for its hot springs. There are several hydrotherapy centers, and one of them has an indoor poor with mineral water from the hot springs open to the public for a small fee. So occasionally I would go there and go swimming in the pool (warm for the first time in weeks!) and then shower in the locker room. Very exciting stuff.
Me too. I smelled like a bear. It was a luxury to find a body of water to wash some of the funk off.
I’ve had a few go-rounds with cellulitis. My temperature goes above 103 F, and I get delirious, and this lasts for a few days. I have to be helped from the bed to the bathroom (fortunately I retain enough memory to be able to use a toilet when I’m put on one) but I really cannot be trusted in a bathtub/shower situation, so I get sponged down. I really don’t know how many days the longest period lasted, as I’m in no shape to count, even. But next time my temp goes above 102, my husband and I have agreed that he’s taking me to the hospital.
That’s for involuntary. For voluntarily going without a shower or bath, I guess two or three days, while camping or something. Usually I’ve gone to campgrounds that do offer minimal shower facilities.
About six days when I was first laid off and in a deep, deep depression. Basically sat at my computer and surfed the internet all week.
I don’t think I really smelled all that bad, didn’t exert much energy so no sweat. My hair was so short it couldn’t really look greasy or matted.
I’ve gone similar amounts of time without a shower on paddling trips but there was swimming or at least a quick “river bath” at some point.
About, four days? When I was in the hospital a few years ago. And yes, it was involuntary. It sucked.
Five days, when the ice storm hit almost exactly two years ago. No power meant heating water on the gas stove to wash hair and body because everyone up here has wells (which run via electric pumps) rather than city water. It was definitely involuntary.
Long enough that I would have to try to remember dates. Continuously, probably a year and a half. You did say “full body shower or bath”. I was (as I hope would be obvious) getting washed up regularly during that period. Let’s just say the reasons are medical (same health issues as I’ve mentioned in the past on SDMB, just not in the mood to reopen the conversation - search if you wish).
Ten days. I attend a spiritual camping festival each year in August, and I’m the set-up coordinator (responsible for the physical infrastructure), so I show up early and leave late. There are occasionally people with solar or propane-powered showers, but some years I haven’t taken advantage of that, just done a “whore’s bath”/“pits and bits” washing every day.
Spent 4 months camping/hiking in the Pacific Northwest. Didn’t smell very good by the end of it.
I think about two weeks. It was in 1998 when the Longford Gas Plant suffered an explosion and cut off the state’s gas supply for something like 20 days. Like most other people in the state, we had all gas heating, cooking and hot water. Until the gas supply was restored, we resorted to heating water in the electric kettle and washing with that. My brother was the only member of the household who went to the extent of filling a bath with kettle-heated water, 1.7 litres at a time.
Approximately a month while in the Army on winter maneuvers in Germany.
After a week or so, there ain’t no snow safe to melt within 50 paces of any of the tents. And you wouldn’t want to see what ringed the bases of most of the trees.