Showers or baths? And how long do you take?

If I’m washing, I like to shower. A bath is for soaking and relaxing. My bathtub isn’t built for that so I have a hottub for relaxing.

Until all the hot water has been drained from the hot water heater. :slight_smile:

Absolutely. I invariable waken with a fairly bad headache; standing under pounding hot water helps to aleviate it. When I say hot water, I mean HOT water till there ain’t none left for no one else.

Shower every morning, 15-20 minutes (most of which is spent washing my hair). I live in a house with four other women and only one bathroom, so I can’t take as long as I’d like.

On work mornings I spend less than 5 minutes in the shower. I get in, get my hair wet, shampoo the hair, apply soap to the rest of my body, then rinse it all off and step out. Next I shave, brush my teeth, get dressed and get on my way. I don’t like to waste time in the morning. I can’t shave in the shower since I like to see what I am doing, and needing glasses, I wouldn’t be able to see what I am doing even if I had a shower mirror. On days off I take things at a more relaxed pace and I may spend upwards of ten minutes in the shower, especially if it’s a cold morning and I want to enjoy the warmth a little longer.

I experimented with showing the night before, but even by morning I still feel like I need to shower again anyway, and besides, my hair doesn’t look too good and no amount of brushing or combing can make it manageable if I don’t wet it down and let it dry before going to work.

Certainly a shower person, with occasional hot baths to relax (very occasional; I’m 6’1" or so, and the normal tub just doesn’t cut it).

When I lived in an apartment with no a/c, though, I’d frequently run a cold bath and use it as my own personal ‘swimming pool’ to stay cool–hop in and chill with a good book for an hour or two.

Showers for me; normally about 10 minutes; 15 if I’m really dirty and have to soap and shampoo twice. I do occassionally have longer showers on cold winter mornings, or when I’m really tired after sports, just to relax and stand under the hot water and let my mind wander…

I can’t square baths with my conscience; it’s not so much the waste of water as the waste of energy that horrifies me; hot tubs are another thing though, since the guilt is shared. :wink:

I actually have two answers, really. I used to have long hair, and a few months ago I cut it really short, and also bought a TV. Before, I would wash my hair and take a shower about 2 times per week. I’d take a 20-45 min bath every night and read, before I fell asleep.

Now, I have to wash my hair every morning or it looks dumb. I rarely take more that 5 min in the shower, though. I’ve been watching TV before bed rather than taking a bath lately, but I’m still taking 2-3 per week. I LOVE my bath. It’s my passtime and also a method of stress-release. At one point in my life, I was taking 2-3 baths per day, because I was so stressed.

5 minutes if I’m only washing my body, 15 if it’s a hair washing night, and 20-25 if I’m shaving things, too. Much longer than that and I’m running out of hot water.

Sometimes if I have a bad headache or cramps or sore muscles I’ll fill the tub up with the hottest water I can stand and camp out with a book until the water gets cold. By then the water heater has recovered enough to allow me to do a quick rinse under the shower before I get out. I’ll often use the opportunity to do a deep conditioning treatment on my hair, too. Yeah, I’m all about multi-tasking.

Shower, generally twice a day, ten minutes in the morning (mostly to wake up, or it’d be much shorter) and under five in the evening (after lifting at the gym, basketball, outdoor run, whatever athletic was on tap for the day).

I would love to do a scalding hot bath and read for an hour in the evening instead, but that’s not really an option right now, unfortunately. Some day :slight_smile:

I take a shower every morning. If I wash my hair, I’m in there until the hot water runs out (which isn’t very long because I have a small heater :frowning: ). If I’m just soaping and rinsing, maybe 5 minutes.
I take baths when I’m cold, which used to be near every day in New England, but now I live in Florida! Think of the water I’m saving!

When I shower at the gym (unlimited hot water!) I take my sweeeet time. The low water pressure adds to this because I have long, thick hair that takes forever to rinse.

Shower every morning. I take less than 20 minutes to shower and finish my morning hygiene routine: in the shower, wash face, shampoo hair, put conditioner on hair, wash important/stinky bits (armpits, feet, crotch), rinse hair & body and then out. Afterwards, dry thoroughly and put hair in towel turban, put on robe, use toner, Q-tip ears, put on extra face stuff, put on deodorant, put on moisturizer, pull down hair, comb out.

If I need to shave armpits, that goes before the conditioner is rinsed out. If I need to shave my legs, then I do all of the shower routine, skip drying but put my hair in the towel turban, and put 4-6 inches of water in the tub and sit to shave. I never got the knack of shaving standing up, and now that I’m 36 weeks pregnant, it’s even harder. Plus, I’m ridiculously near-sighted (though not as bad as some other Dopers) and have to look really close plus run my hands over my legs to find the missed spots.

Right now, baths are (sadly) pointless. I just don’t fit comfortably at all. I think I need to convince my in-laws to turn their hot tub down to about 99 degrees so I can soak in it instead.

Shower every morning, usually no more than eight minutes or so. I might go years between taking baths, but when I do, I like it and tend to linger until the water gets too cold.

This is me exactly, with the exception that I almost never take baths. My g/f showers in about 7 minutes, and thinks I take way too long. I like to relax a little, I guess. I hate hurrying, with anything.

Shower every morning for about 10 minutes. I rinse, soap, rinse. I have a whirlpool bath tub that’s big enough to lie in, so sometimes at night I love to have a nice hot soak in the tub, turning on the jets and sipping on a glass of wine. AHHHHHH!!! I also have a hot tub which is wunnerful for relaxing with the squeeze. :smiley: The squeeze, me and a bottle of bubbly… that’s what hot tubs were made for.

I shower every day, except perhaps on a lazy Saturday or Sunday. Normal AM shower is less than 5 minutes. I was raised in a house with a lousy septic system, so we learned to be as fast as possible in the shower, I never got yelled at for taking too long, neither did my Father. Mom & Sister were constant sources for yelling by my father. I also never get any grief at hunting camp, as I’m in and out faster than most folks can realize I’ve even visited the shower (not like some OTHERS in the crew… nothing worse than having to wait 30 minutes for a GUY to get ready to head into the woods at 4:30… don’t they know the SUN is about to COME UP!!! HURRY UP ALREADY!)

I also like a good bath. If I’m taking one, expect that the tub will be occupied for at least 30 minutes, and often 45min or 1 hour. It’s a great place to be left alone to read.

Definitely showers. I need one every morning to properly wake up. On the weekends it’s usually afternoon by the time I get around to showering, unless I’m going somewhere. Showers for me take somewhere in the 5-10 minute range. If I’m in the mood for a bath, we sit in the hot tub. Bath tubs are too small to really get comfortable in, I think. Though that could be because I was spoiled as a kid with a huge claw-foot tub to soak in. No other tub compares.

Right now I have to take showers. My (company-provided, can’t whine) apartment doesn’t come with a tub.

Usually I take a shower, but I love the occasional bath. Scalding hot, with what my brother calls “women stinky stuffs”. He says that women like flowery and fruity shampoos, while men basically want one that lasts until the next shower.

I can be in and out of the bathroom in under 5’; under 10’ if I shave my legs completely. The brother who doesn’t like stinkystuffs takes about 20’. I’ve never dared ask what the hell is he doing.

Shower at night for 45 minutes, longer if I shave. I don’t understand how people shower in 10. It takes me 10 minutes to get the shampoo out of my hair, 10-15 to comb through the tangles while the conditioner is on, and another 10 to rinse out the conditioner, and my hair is only shoulder length. I think my water pressure may not be so great. OTOH, I have a 75 gallon water tank so I never run out of hot water.

(I really don’t know what it is about my hair. Once a hairdresser insisted that since it’s so fine he wouldn’t use conditioner. I timed him; he spent 45 minutes trying to comb through it after the shampoo, even with spray on detangler. )

Count me in the shower group, unless I have time to luxuriate in the bath. I’d like that, but I generally prefer to spend that time sleeping.

As for how long I take–I find that it’s 20 minutes, plus-minus about 2, every morning, unless I specifically decide to rush. Somehow I find that annoying.