I have never washed my hair without a shower or a full tub or at least a giant sink where i can put my head under the faucet. To me, a sponge bath is face, arms, under-boobs, legs, pits, crotch. And i washed my hands separately, probably both before and after. But I’ll skip the back (too hard to reach) and the hair (no way to rinse).
Because it’s already a tedious and rather unpleasant process. You never feel properly washed or rinsed, and you get cold fast. Wiping a thin film of water over your body that’s going to evaporate quickly and make you even colder is not appealing. The few times I’ve had to do it when the hot water wasn’t working and I had to heat up water on the stove was a very frustrating ordeal.
Yeah, it’s not a luxurious hot shower, that’s for sure. But if the water is hot and the room is at least room temperature, it is endurable.
Why?
Has this hypothetical filthy animal been mud wrestling or something?
I fail to see the need for the fire hose to be turned on like at county lockup, plus maybe some delousing powder for an otherwise civilized person.
Then again, I don’t clean septic tanks for a living, and wear freshly laundered clothes.
With a ‘sponge bath’, it’s generally the sponge (and more often I think a flannel washcloth) that’s doing a lot of the work. I don’t know how many people shower just using their hands to apply and rub in the soap/shower gel (quite a lot, I think) but with washing in a basin, a coarse textured cloth or sponge to apply lathered soap, then wash it off, is the bit that makes it work at all.
I was born in 1961 in MN. My parents built our house the next year. We had one bathroom with a tub, no shower. Later, after 2 more girls were born, my dad built another bathroom in the basement with a shower. Most of my friends didn’t have showers in the 60s, just tubs. We were a middle class, blue collar family as were most of the families in the area.
Kids had bath days. Until we were older, we kids were happy with one bath a week! My sisters and I had a bath every Sunday night, my best friend had a bath every Saturday night.
We had showers but no one used them. I took two showers before going to college. I only recall my father taking one shower and my mother took none as far as I know. We each took maybe two baths a week.
Maybe you got sweaty?
Some people, famously Queen Elizabeth, took a bath once a month whether she needed it or not!
I used the cloth (natural sponge works too if one is provided), get some scrubbing action that way.
BTW I must point out that in an actual bathroom with a drain, unlike that hotel room, you can just dump a bucket or ewer of water over your head, even if there is no shower head. People had figured this out long before they came up with fancy plumbing.
Perhaps many of us have heard stories about old-timers in e.g. Sweden who, when staying out in the country, would go down to the lake with a bar of soap even in the winter, but I am not sure quite how customary that was, plus it’s not environmentally friendly…
Yeah, I’ve done this when the shower was out of order.
Also the convenience of standing under a continuous running stream of warm water is a luxury we take for granted. In times when I have needed to conserve water or energy for one reason or another, I’ve used the Submariner’s Shower method. Turn on the water long enough to get thoroughly wet, then turn it off, soap myself all over and turn the water back on to rinse off.
That has always been my method of showering. I have never stayed in a submarine.
well they did go down to the lake, and not drive down - so there was this envirmental effort
I feel cheated … what, no powerdrill?
Hey, not all of us sweat a lot! I, for instance, only sweat once a year - I start sweating in April and finish in October.
That’s a typical California shower.
They make biodegradable soap, shampoo, etc that’s safe to use on bodies of water.
Tub baths are more difficult for Seniors. Their balance is not as good.
We put in several grab bars in my mom’s shower. There’s no way she could climb in and out of a tub.
we did that in Army but with bucket
I’ve also heard it referred to as a “bucket bath”.
Huh. I’ve often given myself a quick sponge bath, but never used a bucket (always a sink with running water) and certainly i wouldn’t do that anywhere near a bed. I’ve never heard of a “bed bath”, but would thank that’s something a nurse does to a bedridden patient. So, maybe a special case of a sponge bath.
When you’re on an extended hiking/camping trip where you may have to haul your water from a “source” a considerable distance to where you pitched your tent you quickly learn to conserve water. The bucket holds the water you’re using for washing.
I bathed closer to the water source, and farther from my campsite, when i used to do that. 
So i guess i have used a bucket, or maybe a water bottle. But mostly i do sponge baths at the end of dance weekends, when I’ve checked out of my hotel room and don’t want to be toooo sweaty on the plane. Or sometimes at the airport after a very long flight, because i feel gross.
And only because it’s not convenient to find a shower, of course.