Bath or shower - how often ?

My formative years were spent in a house without a bathroom so I was taught how to have a stripwash with just a basin of water and a flannel. My skin is excessively dry and I just don't like being wet, even rainwater on my face results in a horrid tight feeling.

I usually shower every other day but sometimes less frequently, and wash my hair every six days. I'm confident that I'm clean and non-smelly. My skin thanks me.

DH showers every morning and bathes every three or four nights (this ritual involves a glass of single malt and chill out music on the iPod). He is blessed with very normal skin that can take any amount of soaking

Have to shower everyday or I feel dirty. I still get the occasional night sweat. I am paranoid about developing an 'old woman' smell!! When we moved into this house DH asked for only one thing, a shower cubicle that has an inbuilt radio, LED lights and converts to a steam room complete with aromatherapy oils. It makes showering a joyful experience

Like the rest of you, the menopausal dry skin can be a problem but I always use a good quality body butter after. Lovely scent too.

So I am a sweet smelling gran.

Have to start the day with a shower and a coffee, not together though, wouldn't want the shower water to dilute the coffee, something in the house needs to be strong!

Gosh you are a clean lot!!!

I shower twice a week and wash my hair once a week - it is long and is a pain to get dry.

In between showers I have a thorough wash each day.

No-one has yet told me I smell! - well not so far!

Does anyone else find that moisture cream and similar leave them with a sticky feeling no matter how much or how little is used? The effect of the bath or shower is wiped out by this. Even used at night it seems to rub off on bedding so defeats the object for me.

My dream bathroom would be a wetroom. When we have stayed in hotels with them it was fabulous and you could sit down to scrub your feet without worrying about losing your balance.

Yours sounds brilliant too jud and everyone seems to have better water pressure than us.

A dream though. Will have to make do with small shower cubicle for now.

I was just going to say that I hate wet rooms because I hate getting too wet, if that makes any sense. But now I've read back along this thread I'd better go on to say that I can of course see their benefits to less mobile people and will probably be wishing I could have one myself one day. Am I redeemed? I would really love Jud's magical shower cubicle though.

I shower at least once a day and just wouldn't feel right without doing so. Each to their own I suppose. I prefer soap to gel and a shower normally only takes me two minutes - I hate going into the bathroom after my OH, who stands there soaping himself forever and leaves the bathroom dripping wet and steamy from floor to ceiling. A long, luxurious soak in the bath - scenty bubbles, candles, facepack, book and all - is a weekly treat.

Washing my hair's a different matter for me. I put it off because I don't like getting water on my face, so usually make do with once a week. Thank goodness for dry shampoo.

Agus I suppose I'm just lucky as my skin and hair don't seem affected and I've had this routine for over 20 years. I'm very careful to rinse every bit of product off in the shower and always moisturise (the bits I can reach) afterwards, and I put a drop of baby oil in the bath. I don't have a bath every night -just after a stressful day and I turn the lights out and light scented candles.

Sounds like bliss!
I have an electri chair that goes in the bath, but as the bath is oval it doesn't fit very well. Darling daughter always takes it out when she comes and I can't lift it back in.
Consequently I haven't had a bath for a year ( the last time she took it out)
She also puts a child lock on the kitchen cupboard, but puts it on back to front so I can't undo it. Infuriating child ( 41 in March)

It is just the luck of the draw or genes probably Anya. I have always had very dry skin and just feel so uncomfortably tight skinned and itchy so discovered that oils were necessary whenever I had to bathe or shower plus the scent of whichever oil I use leaves a lingering perfume on my skin. Ergo, I am smelly but it's a pleasant smell.

DH showers daily and does the soaking in a bath forever it seems, complete with music and Herald crosswords. He laughingly calls what I do, a waste of water as I bathe for 10mins and can't wait to get out of the water!

I do not really see the need for so much showering and washing. No wonder skin gets dry! IN the middle of a heat wave, when I am likely to sweat I do shower more often, but otherwise I think twice a week is quite enough.

I use a Mitchum deodorant, which lasts ages and means you do not have to shower so frequently.

I sniff the armpits of my clothes to make sure they are not sweaty before putting them on - what a slut I am!

I had a very posh friend at uni who really shocked me when she was getting dressed - she had run out of pants and went to the bottom of her wardrobe where she had flung the old pants and sniffed each one to see which might be best to use again!

I wonder a bit about all this bathing and showering that has happened since hot water was more freely available. What effect may it have had on the rate of divorce and broken relationships? The pheromones we emit have a part to play in pair bonding, but we wash them all assiduously away.

Well I'm just off to wash away some of those pheromones before Mrs. P starts moving her chair away from me.

Someone asked a couple of pages back if anyone had ever used public baths. I used to use our local one regularly when we lived in Nottingham in the 60's. We had no bathroom (and no inside toilet, either) so I used to walk along to these baths where you were allowed a half-hour for your bath. They were lovely old, deep baths with unlimited hot water which gushed from big brass taps. I used to lie there and luxuriate in Badedas bubbles (my 'then' DH used to work for a company that made this and he used to get it cheaply ).

I so wish I knew the secret to being able to wash ones hair weekly it would be bliss not to have to dry and straighten my very curly hair every other day. I've tried leaving it but it looks like I've combed grease through it if I don't wash it often. I've tried most things over the years, special shampoos, dry shampoo I tried moving the washing day forwards by a day for a month but even OH said my hair looked awful after 3 days and he doesn't notice much.. nothing stops my hair looking dreadful if its not washed often..
So any tips/secrets ladies , how do you keep your hair looking ok without actually washing it?

My hair used to get a bit greasy when I was young but these days is quite dry. I'm not sure how old you are, tanith - perhaps hair gets drier with age! One thing to look forward to, at least
My hairdresser gasped when I told her I washed my hair most days and said that twice a week was plenty.
I tend to wash it 2-3 times a week now; I can adjust the shower head right down so my hair doesn't get wet when I shower. However, most days I have to tussle with it to stop it looking like 'bed head', so I damp it a bit anyway.

When I was at boarding school we had a rota for baths. Two a week was all that were allowed with only the wartime ration of hot water! This would be in 1955/6. I can't remember how many inches of water it was but I do remember it wasn't enough to cover you!

I'm 66 rosequartz on the day I don't wash my hair I wear a rather 'fetching' shower cap and do as you do and adjust the shower onto my shoulders instead of my head that way at least I get away with washing it every other day.. or occasionally when I'm feeling very lazy I leave it au natural and go curlytop for a couple of days but everyone says I look like I've had a 'granny perm', (no offence to anyone who perms their hair) so straightening is a chore that has to be done.
I can live in hope that the greasiness will dimish with age...

The other days was a strip wash at a line of basins. No curtains or cubicles or in the dormitories.

The convent I went to in early 60's only allowed boarders one bath a week, lukewarm and 3" water, measured by a nun before the user got in, clad in a white muslin gown from head to ankles so the body was covered. One gown per six girls, so second bather onwards had to put on a soaking wet article [yuck!]
One of my BF was a boarder and she would come home with me as often as permitted for a decent bath!
All boarders' letter from and to home were heavily censored, so I would smuggle them out.
Really sounds Dickensian but true

Sounds rather like my Friary except no mulin gown.
How does one wash in a gown?

Goodness knows Galen, BF said she'd take it off as soon as the nun left the room - and the nun was likely to return to check at any point - detentions if transgressing by adding more water, removing gown etc.
They also had to sleep with arms outside the bedcovers and with a nun in the same room as 4 girls.
Sounds like dignity and privacy were non-starters.....

Have you tried having much shorter hair or much longer hair, tanith?
Sympathies. One of my daughters has ultra curly hair, basically ringlets everywhere. She now has it much longer, to try and disguise the curls a bit. And uses a variety of products. But she still has to wash it quite often. 3 times a week?

I did have it much longer when I was younger but got too tired of the faff of it, so now its below my ears but I have toyed for ages with having it cut really short... my OH hates the idea but its growing on me and I might just surprise him one day

The first school I went to was run by nuns and they told me that they bathed in a robe to stop them seeing their bodies and thinking "worldly thoughts" - what twisted thinking! Even at the age of 5 I asked them why if god had made their body they should be ashamed of it - they shut me up pretty quickly! I did not stay at that school very long!