# What Happens to People Who Don't Bathe? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 13, 2012, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016 "2012-06-13T14:23:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/41 "2012-06-14T10:47:06Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > No, just up to my neck. > Well, someone had to say it. Thank you, although I’ve always heard, “No, just up to me tits”. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/42 "2012-06-14T11:07:43Z")
Women of the African Himba tribe NEVER wash with water. The men do, but [never](http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/11/world/africa/himba-namibia-inside-africa/index.html) the women, not even after childbirth when they are covered with blood. [Wiki says](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himba): > [@](#): > > The Himba wear little clothing, but the women are famous for covering themselves with otjize, a mixture of butter fat and ochre, possibly to protect themselves from the sun. The mixture gives their skins a reddish tinge. Women braid each other’s hair that they extend with plastic hair that they usually have to purchase, and cover it except the ends, in their ochre mixture. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/43 "2012-06-14T11:39:49Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > I thought it was more grassy plains and rift valley, not a great density of bathing opportunities. What was it like? How often did life 10,000 to 50,000 years ago support getting wet? Wily words, Sir 🙂 Post-glacial humans have apparently near-invariably chosen to live close to water, given the choice. Ample evidence of dwelling sites right next to the shoreline, watercraft, fishing, sealing and seafood gathering from throughout this period suggest that almost everybody got wet on a regular basis. But this last 11 000 years is a blip in the evolutionary scale. However, recent evidence from Southern Africa suggests at least some humans were coastal gatherers already by 120 000 years ago, well before the emergence of us modern humans. These particular early people may have had a substantial genetic role in the whole Out of Africa scenario later. 10 to 50 000 years ago…even the Ice Age people of, say, Siberia, away from any large bodies of water, had rivers to dip into. It’s another matter if they did, though. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/44 "2012-06-14T14:40:16Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > They come to the library. I’ll second that. When I worked for Tulsa City-County Library System we would geta lot of homeless people who wanted to get out of the elements. On a side note They ended up taking the doors off of the stalls in the downtown library because the homeless people would go into the stalls to sleep on the toilets. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/45 "2012-06-14T15:07:10Z")
Another anecdotal story: Labrador guides never bathed in the summer-the reason was the voracious blackflys. The guides used a substance called “fly dope”-it was applied to the exposed skin…and it was felt that the more applications, the better it worked-eventually you built up a nice “glaze”-bathing wold remove it. And very few of them knew how to swim. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/46 "2012-06-14T18:52:10Z")
That sounds distrubingly similar to how you get a nice seasoning on a cast-iron pan. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/47 "2012-06-14T19:59:16Z")
People who don’t bathe? A lot of them can be found on Internet message boards. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/48 "2012-06-14T20:01:00Z")
What constitutes bathing? I can see not using soap, but avoiding water would be nasty. Even before modern plumbing, people would go out in the rain or to the river. I think going without rinsing would be nasty, but soap is optional. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/49 "2012-06-14T22:50:13Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > People who don’t bathe? A lot of them can be found on Internet message boards. I tried bathing once, and deciding that sticking with the message boards is much less trouble. :rolleyes: Note to mods (hint, hint): We need a “smiley” (if you can call it that) like this: :smack: only showing the hand holding the nose. ---
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/50 "2012-06-15T02:33:16Z")
> [@emmaliminal](#): > > My husband and I got into a polite argument on this very subject a couple of days ago – he observed that when I bathe our two-year old, which happens every night as part of The Bedtime Routine, while I dump lots of water over him (which he loves), I use soap only on his butt and privates most days, with soap elsewhere only either when there’s visible schmutz or about once a week, whichever comes first. Husband was worried this would be a health threat, imagining that disease bacteria would grow out of control on an unwashed boy. I told him that it’s actually potentially unhealthy to use as much soap on skin as normal Americans do these days, because a) it strips away natural skin oils, which have a [protective function](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebum#Function), and 2) it washes away the good bacteria just as much as the bad, and the good stuff normally out-competes the bad stuff if you leave it alone. And also that stuff about [challenging the immune system](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis) mentioned above. Though this does not apply when feces or urine are involved, hence the butt soap, or if there’s an infection, or pizza smushed into hair, or what have you. And that once he hits puberty, more soap will be called for when the [stinky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_odor) [apocrine sweat glands](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocrine_glands) come online. > > Husband found my overall argument questionable and asked for cites after we put the kid in bed, apparently mostly because I sound particularly annoying and pedantic when I get to pontificating about science-y stuff like that. ☹ We had to go Google around a bit to settle it. > > Turns out most medical sites, including dermatology ones, if they discuss this subject at all, say something like “For skin health and comfort, use a non-soap cleanser and a moisturizer daily.” What exactly counts as “non-soap cleanser” is not clarified, nor are the specifics of why cleanser might be needed, etc. No cites found there. However, the Wikipedia page on [skin flora](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_flora) supports my science-y talk; husband agreed that I might not have been talking out my ass after all, and agreed it would be OK to use soap on the kid as sparingly as I do, so long as we follow up every bath with [jojoba oil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jojoba#Cultivation_and_uses) as a moisturizer per the American Dermatologists’ Whatever-It-Was site he looked at. So we do. Kid seems to like the rubdown. > > I don’t remember the specifics and had no luck with a quick search, but IIRC the early history of soap advertising campaigns had a lot to do with convincing modern Americans that lack of bathing would lead to all kinds of horrors, including disease, wrinkles, old-maid-hood, and questionable morals. They were basically lying. You might want to look into some of these oils. I’ve always used Jojoba for hair health. > **[Natural Anti Aging Skin Care for Women | Truth In Aging](http://www.truthinaging.com/)** > > Shop for and get honest, constantly updated reviews on all natural skin care & anti-aging products from women at Truth in Aging. Shop or learn more today! ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/51 "2012-06-15T02:42:03Z")
> [@jakesteele](#): > > You might want to look into some of these oils. I’ve always used Jojoba for hair health. > > [Natural Anti Aging Skin Care for Women | Truth In Aging](http://www.truthinaging.com/ingredient-spotlight/five-best-botanical-oils-for-skin-care) Almond oil is absolutely lovely for skin care. However, I suppose with little-uns I should put the disclaimer that currently pediatricians are in two camps about whether you should expose your child to potential allergens or protect them from contact. Lavender is also very nice, if the smell isn’t too powerful for you. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/52 "2012-06-15T20:01:00Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > FWIW I do remember very early examples of man made structures that were made in coastal areas, the trash left showed that seafood was one important staple for prehistoric man. > > [PREHISTORIC SHELLFISH GATHERING](http://www.manandmollusc.net/history_food.html) > > And women. You start feeding women lobster and the next thing you know, they’ll want the vote. 😛 Fair to say that civilization did very nicely near bodies of water, but how often did man and pre-man bathe out there on the veldt ? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/53 "2012-06-15T20:31:13Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Look, we evolved without showers. In a few days you stop getting dirtier. If you work hard and sweat is dripping off you, you wind up not really all that dirty, certainly clean enough for happy skin. The idea that armpits should be odorless is misleading. I have way more trouble with other people’s perfumes than with their body odors. > > Granted, breath can be pretty ugly… We also evolved without computers. What’s your point? And breath can not only get “ugly”, but not brushing your teeth daily leads to tooth decay. I can see having skin issues and what not leading to say, bathing every other day, but as long as I’m able to, I’m still taking my nightly shower. MOST people who don’t bath regularly do indeed stink. (I don’t mean “every other day” – that’s still regularly.) ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/54 "2012-06-15T20:46:19Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > What constitutes bathing? I can see not using soap, but avoiding water would be nasty. Even before modern plumbing, people would go out in the rain or to the river. > > I think going without rinsing would be nasty, but soap is optional. What’s the point of bathing without soap, though? The soap sticks to dirt on your body and that’s how it gets rinsed off with the water. If you’re just washing off with water, you’re not really getting any cleaner. ---
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/55 "2012-06-15T21:04:55Z")
What happens to people who don’t bathe? Same thing that happens to people who do bathe. They die. eventually ---
**Author:** ![solsolsol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@solsolsol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solsolsol)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/56 "2012-06-15T21:17:37Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > What’s the point of bathing without soap, though Radio. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/57 "2012-06-15T21:20:49Z")
> [@solsolsol](#): > > Radio. LOL! That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2012, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/58 "2012-06-16T08:17:08Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > What’s the point of bathing without soap, though? The soap sticks to dirt on your body and that’s how it gets rinsed off with the water. If you’re just washing off with water, you’re not really getting any cleaner. I think the water pressure does knock off some grime, and it may help dilute the sweat. It’s particularly good to get off the dried remnants of sweat, as those are water soluble. Then again, I never once found it to be sufficient. I knew someone who did this, and they always stank. ---
**Author:** ![Wizard\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Wizard\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wizard_One)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/59 "2012-06-17T04:24:30Z")
OK, let’s look on this from an evolutionary perspective. After millions of years in the brush, humans evolved. They then found ways of re-creating rivers and ponds in their environment. Indeed, ancient Jews had baths ran into either communal or later, private baths, where running water was REQUIRED. Not hot and cold running water, only that the bath did not stagnate. That was during the bronze age. During the dark ages, bathing became less common, with some disasters in the midst of the “event”. European winters are NOT bath inducing, to be mild about it. Some ice thing in the early part, some chill thing in the latter part, some black death thing in the middle part… So, we’ll NOT complicate the issue with that age. What is key is one thing: exfoliation. In short, removal of excess skin cells. In the brush, one would have excess skin removed by passing through the brush. That is HIGHLY lacking today. Add to that skin oils, which thicken and harden on the skin, causing adhesion issues with skin to be exfoliated, one sees a trend. Lacking natural exfoliation factors, swimming and hence clearing oils and excess dead epidermis, etc, one ends up with a proliferation of skin and oil mixtures that can quite literally cause wounds in some areas, such as the scalp. In nature, wounds are bad. In current civilization, many wounds can be treated, but THAT is a TOTALLY different topic. So, your question is rather loaded with issues. First, WHAT is bathing? Is it with a bath tub and immersion of most of the body? Is it a “whore’s bath”, aka sponge bath? Is it TOTALLY not cleaning one’s body? For the latter, it IS eventually harmful. One fails to exfoliate fully in the modern world. One accumulates fungi and bacteria which are FIRST “stinky”, then move on to degrading your skin. Skin is nature’s “deflector shield” against bodily invasion of pathogens. But, in the MODERN world, it needs maintenance, as one lacks the brush, branches, rough clothing of at least thousands of years of wearing and immersion in water both moving and stable nature (streams, rivers and lakes). Hence, cleansing IS NECESSARY to remove dead skin and oils that aren’t removed in such a primitive environment. We’ll not even go into odor, which most humans rather don’t like. THAT is an ENTIRE set of articles in itself! ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016/60 "2012-06-17T07:53:54Z")
Another anecdote: I once worked a trailbuilding job with about 15 other people, ages 18 to 25, in designated wilderness areas. We were out in very undeveloped areas for weeks at a time and had no access to showers. In the beginning some of the girls were uneasy about the situation and jumped into a river daily, but as time went on that became less and less common. We had a few solar showers (read: plastic bags painted black on one side) but nobody really bothered to use them much after the novelty wore off. Those few girls aside, most of us bathed once a month or less (on resupply runs) and did our laundry about as often; some of us had two sets of clothing, others just wore the same set (underwear included) day after day. We were required to wear our standard uniforms during all work hours and we were only issued two sets, so we didn’t really have much of a say to begin with. And there were several work sites where jumping into the river just wasn’t a possibility, but we got by anyway for weeks at a time. And at the most extreme side, there were a few men who didn’t bathe for the entire season, several months of it. We literally worked and played in dirt eight hours a day, seven days a week, sweating nonstop and getting covered with soil, sand, mud, etc. all the time. After a few days you really just don’t get much dirtier, greasier, or stinkier. It reaches a limit and stays there, even at the peak of summer as black flies swarmed around every living being. Even the hair grease, mixed with dirt and dust, settles into an acceptable consistency that feels kind of like dry wool. (And there was no conveniently exfoliating brush… I don’t see how that could possibly work unless you rolled around naked in briar patches or such.) We always stank and people’s faces always looked like they just came out of a coal mine, but you get used to it fast. The stench isn’t so bad once you’ve had time to acclimate to normal human scents. And ours hands, prior to eating… we sometimes had a small gravity/siphon-fed hose from the stream and would wash before dinner, but for lunch everyone would eat their sandwiches with the same grubby hands that just did hours of digging, lifting, and petting the crew dog. Health-wise, nobody ever got sick except for this one waterborne parasite that was too small for our water filters; that spread through the group, hit us hard for a couple of days, and left just as quickly. One guy got some nasty foot fungus, but that’s because he only had one pair of socks and he never bothered to dry or switch them out after they got wet, wearing them all day and all night as they rotted around his feet. So, in summary: It was all just fine, if unpleasant. I should note, however, that we did follow modern food sanitation practices as much as possible: keeping things in coolers packed with dry ice for as long as we could, thoroughly cooking all perishables, etc. We also had plenty of toilet paper and pooped in designated areas away from living and eating areas. Even if modern bathing practices are in part skewed by marketing, there are other sanitation and hygiene practices that we did think were important to follow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-dont-bathe/625016.md?page=4)