I just finished getting caught up on the “Why Are You Always Late?” topic in MPSIMS. There was a great debate on how much time should be spent in the shower and how do you know how long your shower takes.
I didn’t get why it’s so hard to understand that some of us actually know how long our showers take. My shower takes the same amount of time every day. The actual in-shower + dry-off time for me is 6 minutes. I timed myself once just because I was curious and to prove a point to my husband (he takes long showers and has no idea why it takes him so long). I can’t imagine taking a 20-minute shower. What are people doing in there for that long? I’m a girl with long hair. I wash my hair and apply conditioner (2 minutes), let the conditioner work its magic in my hair while I wash my face & shave my legs (1 minute). Then I wash my body. I don’t work in a coal mine, so a once over with either a bar of soap or liquid soap in a pouf doesn’t take more than 2 minutes. Dry off (1 minute). Watch the second hand on a clock to see how long 2 minutes is - it’s longer than you think.
So, what is everyone’s length of time spent in the shower?
My grandson stayed with me for a couple months. He would shower till the hot water ran cold. After a few weeks of this I would give him 5 minutes then shut off the water to the water heater. He complained he couldn’t get a proper shower in that amount of time. Found out from his mother that his normal shower routine including pleasuring himself, sometimes more than once. That was the actual reason he ended up staying with me, his step father put an end the the long showers and it upset him. He got the boot when I found a bottle of expensive Irish whiskey had been watered down after he drank most of it.
To me, shower time is taking away from whatever I’ll be doing once I’m showered. It takes me five minutes to shower and dry. I’m a guy, I don’t shave anything, and I only use Irish Spring bar soap. Starting with my head/hair and lathering everything top to bottom takes a couple minutes. Rinsing thoroughly takes a minute. Hitting the shower with a squeegee takes a minute.
My guess is there are people who every day, use their shower as sort of a relaxing experience, so aren’t particularly concerned with timeliness during it. Even aside from people using it like @racer72’s grandson, a lot of people just enjoy showers and have no real desire to speed them up. I assume the people who don’t know why their showers take 20+ minutes, just aren’t actually focused much on what the task of the shower is, and are just kind of in there chilling out.
Most anyone who has been in the military will at least be capable (even if they choose not to do it) of doing the ultra-fast “Navy Shower”–30 seconds of time getting yourself wet, quick lather (in an actual Navy Shower you turn off the water while lathering), and then 60 seconds of time rinsing the lathered soap off of your body. When that’s about the only amount of time you’re going to get to shower, you learn to make it work, and fast.
When I went to an office, I showered every weekday when I first woke up. I would stay in the shower until I felt fully awake, which sometimes took up to 20 minutes, but usually it was almost exactly 10 minutes, including shaving.
Now that I shower less frequently, I take my time and enjoy it, so 20 minute showers are more common.
If I shower, it means I’m in a hurry, so about 5 minutes, tops. I typically take a bath, though, about 30-45 minutes and have been doing so for close to two decades. I like my baths. Male, 46, if it matters.
What I do is put my clothes in the bathroom for the next day. I wear very casual stuff so it’s not a big deal.
Back when I had to go to the office (pre-COVID) feet on the floor out of bed, put contact lens in, shower, start car to warm it up and get snow off of it took 45 minutes. Or well I gave myself 45 minutes from feet on floor to out the door. So shower and getting dressed is about 15 minutes. I’m a guy but shave in the shower.
I could hurry that up a little bit, but don’t want to because I plan for contingencies. I have been late to my job perhaps 4 times in 30 years.
It’s kinda strange. I always used to get up at 5:15 on the dot. Now I don’t have to, but oddly get up between 4:30 and 5am. I might sleep until 6am on the weekends, but I usually have to force myself to do so.
About 8 minutes for me, including toweling myself dry, and using a small plastic tumbler I keep in there to repeatedly fill it and pour rinse water down the glass walls to rinse off body wash / shampoo to keep soap scum residue from becoming too thick and gunky.
I’m one of those for whom it varies a lot, depending on circumstances and time of year.
If I’m in it for the quick, utilitarian shower, yeah 6-7 minutes and I’m done.
If I’m having monday-itis (even if not on monday) it might go 10-11 while I try to psych myself up. About the same if I wake up with a stiff back or neck from sleeping funny after a cat-o-clock early morning disruption and I’m showering extra hot to soak out the stiffness.
The longest is normally on the occasional coooold winter mornings in CO, where it’s still dark and my cheapness keeps the house around 66/67F. Then you just don’t want to get out of the shower, and maybe 12-14 minutes.
My wife takes that as a minimum, longer if she’s doing a full wash and condition on her longish hair. But her favorite is a 40-60 minute bath with a good book. She’s also why we have an oversized hot water heater for a 2 person home.
I’m in California, so I’m only showering every other day (and I’m retired). But also because I’m in California, I try to shower as quickly as I can. Between 5 and 10 minutes usually – closer to 5 though.
I’ve never timed myself, but I’m pretty sure under normal conditions, it’s under 10 minutes, maybe closer to 5. If I decide to clean the shower floor and/or the doors while in there, it’ll take longer. And if I’m feeling particularly cold, I’ll soak up the heat for a while. But for the most part, it’s get in, get clean, get out. My inlaws are always commenting how quickly I shower when we visit them. Personally, I don’t see the point of lingering very long.
My showers are embarrassingly long, but that’s partly because I shave in the shower. But I know about how long because I hung a clock in the bathroom that I can see from the shower.
I didn’t get the impression that anyone found it hard to understand that some people know how long their showers take. The impression I got was that there were people who found it hard to understand that some other people don’t know how long their showers take.
A shower probably takes me about ten minutes in itself, though I don’t time them, and I often take baths instead in order to soak muscles in hot water. But I’ll be in the bathroom longer than that, because after a shower or bath I need to use a lot of dry skin cream, and then wait until at least most of it soaks into me instead of into whatever clothes I put on afterward. And then after that I have to comb out a lot of long hair.
Probably about 10 minutes, although I don’t time my shower per se. My alarm goes off at 0520, I walk into the bathroom, use the john while letting the water get hot, take my shower, dry off, apply deodorant and brush what little hair I have left and my beard, and put on my watch and glasses. It’s almost always 0537 when I step out of the bathroom.
On the weekends I might take a couple more minutes in the shower itself.
Both my teenage sons take half hour showers. I can’t wrap my head around that.
Having once been a male teenager myself, that’s my go-to assumption… but for half an hour?
Actually, I really don’t want to know. But now that they’re both in high school I may have to start doing the “shut off the hot water” trick just so they don’t end up using it all and / or making everyone late.
Longish hair (thanks, Covid!) which requires a couple of minutes making sure it’s adequately rinsed of shampoo, then conditioner - but I doubt my showers take longer than 10 minutes, likely less.
I do not, however, count time to get dressed afterward, as I always put on a terry-cloth robe to allow my skin to dry thoroughly. Trying to towel-dry everything would just take too long.
Back when I went to an office semi-regularly, I’d toss the robe on, then go do other stuff (eating breakfast etc.), so drying time was effectively zero.
I’m a woman with thick, almost waist-long, hair: my showers are generally more than 10 but less than 15 minutes long and most of that time is taken up by rinsing shampoo then conditioner out of my hair.
If I’m shaving my legs I might literally be standing in the shower close to half an hour, but I have the water off most of that time (just on and off to rinse off the razor a few times) because a steady stream of water is counter productive.
As for drying off, I don’t use a hair dryer unless I absolutely have to, so it takes 2-3 hours for my hair to be completely dry post-shower.
She’s also why we have an oversized hot water heater for a 2 person home.