Cleanliness and hygiene

Well, your armpit and neck are pretty close, I'd say?

They're probably erring on the side of caution, but armpits can be tricky things.

Adding to my post the surgery papers also said no deodorant or creams or anything on my body. Makes me wonder why deodorant would effect surgery on my neck?

Slightly off topic but I remember a product called Femfresh....might be still available I'm not sure. It was a sort of wash cream to use but I really think just to encourage women to spend money on an unnecessary product. I'm quite happy with plain soap and water and generally as we get older our skin becomes drier anyway.

I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings walking into a store and almost ran into a homeless man that was covered in so many heavy clothes he reminded me of a caveman. The smell that came upon me was something I’d never experienced and hope to never again. I’m having parathyroid surgery tomorrow and I have to bathe tonight and tomorrow head to toe with surgical scrub. Avoiding private area. Use antibacterial soap on my hair and have someone wash my back if I need help. Change my sheets and wear clean night clothes and clean clothes to the hospital. I guess you have to tell people to wear clean clothes these days. Infection is such a worry these days.

The OP says she showers after going swimming. I hope she showers BEFORE getting into the swimming pool as well!
For the lady who misses her bidet - you can buy a portable bidet from Amazon. It is basically a bowl which sits over the loo. Fill it with water, sit on it to wash your bits and pieces, then tip the water down the loo. I have one, it's one of the best things I have bought.

As kids it was a Sunday night bath and hair wash, ready for school on Monday. Now it depends on how I feel, if my joints are in a bad way then its a shower every morning to ease things. Otherwise its every couple of days with a strip wash daily unless of course I have doing something like gardening. Use to love a daily bath but like others its the getting in and out.

But I shower every day because I feel good not because I'm worried about smelling of BO! Glad some items like intimate sprays have disappeared from the shelves, another American OTT item definitely not needed!

this thread makes me smile too. I feel it depends as some have said on what you have been doing in a day. Gardening etc and I would come in and have a complete change of clothes and bath etc.

If other activities though find top and tail is adequate. Especially since my menopause I find my skin is more sensitive and actually feel too many baths make it worse. I'm also careful now about which products I use i.e. nothing highly scented.

Strange thing but when my DD was born I developed a sense of smell like a bloodhound. One of the worst 'hygiene' offences in my book is when someone overdoes the perfume in a public place. It makes me personally feel ill, with chemicals etc - but no one seems to consider that a 'hygiene' offence. In my book it is...

all best
painting

I know what you mean about the industry though, Alexa. I’ve never been one for shower gels, body lotions, etc. Just a 2 minute shower with plain old soap and a slick of roll on deodorant does for me. I bought one of those Clay Cure deodorants recently - thinking natural ingredients, less plastic - but I’m finding it messy, even if it keeps those normal odours at bay!

I'm not so sure about that Alexa. L'eau de Teenage Boy or Parfum de Sweaty Feet does not appeal!

Maggiemaybe, I know I'm the same. But at the same time the personal cleanliness industries are too influential for our good.

I think I’d rather be Billy No Mates, Alexa.

Mumsyface, we all should be reflecting on former frugal ways to be hygienic. You are doing so well!
Some of us need to make friends with normal human body odour.

Must admit I certainly like to think that bathing small children every night is a must. Part of the bedtime routine, lovely and clean and relaxed ready for their bedtime story.

Always remember what a farmer friend said about his children;

“I don’t mind how dirty they get in the day, but I do like to see them go to bed clean!

Great idea Liz46 if you haven't got a shower! That's why I think a walk in shower is a must especially when older, it eliminates the problem of stepping into the bath that can be dangerous if not impossible. We swapped our bath tub for one when my late mother in law was living with us and no longer able to get into the tub because of severe arthritis. We have never regretted it!

Once a week baths when I was a pre- teen, but certainly washing of 'bits' in between. There were 6 of us with one bathroom and an old solid fuel boiler - there would never have been enough hot water for a bath each every day.

Recently on MN a poster said she not only baths her young children every night, but showers them every morning too!
The levels of clean-freakery do still astonish me sometimes.

Bath once a week on a Saturday morning back in the 1950s; hairwash over the kitchen sink Saturday evening, and stripwash every evening in between at the kitchen sink too. Clean knickers twice a week!

Now, I have a shower and hairwash every morning, don't feel clean otherwise, even if I know there's just me and I'm not going out or expecting visitors. Clean underwear every day. DH was the same, he was very particular.

I have a bath every day. I suffer from RA and a hot bath eases my aching joints. I find it very comforting when I'm in pain.
However, it's becoming extremely difficult to get in and out of the bath, so I think my bath days are numbered and I will have to start using our wet room, where we have handrails and a shower seat. The floundering whale situation, is not a good look!

When I was a child, the whole family washed once a week in a tin bath in front of the fire, with my mother boiling water on the stove, as we only had cold running water.
We still managed to stay clean and not smell!

When my cousin was ill, his wife used to help him. He could stand up, holding the edge of the sink. His wife bought a paddling pool and he stood in that while she used a flexible hose attached to the taps to 'shower' him.

I have just timed myself; into the bathroom at 6.10. Teeth cleaned, showered, hair washed, dressed, hair blow dried by 6.25. I'm now having second cup of coffee! And I took the bins out.

Phoenix my son and family had their one and only bathroom renovated. They booked into a hotel for a couple of nights but it turned out to be more complicated than expected. He ended up dispatching his wife and family to her mother's, and he moved back home and installed a large washing up bowl, a plastic jug with a spout and a vast plastic sheet in the sitting room. That, along with showers at work had to do, but I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall of the sitting room, as he's 6ft 4 and has size 14 feet!

Its a shame to wash away our natural smells and use flowers and animals musk glands to make us more appealing.

I was a shower every morning girl until we started having problems with the plumbing (the house, not MY plumbing LOL). So now, if I want a good clean, I have to have a bath at night. Often, I'm too tired, so it'll be a shower at the blokes house a couple of times a week, probably one bath at home and in the mornings a top, tail and toes wash. I do wash my hair in the sink too everyday tho.

I could well stink and no one has been brave/rude enough to tell me, but I don't think there is any different.

I did like my morning showers though. They woke me up at 6am, ready for work.

Willow Well, it works well for me, but then I am quick and speedy, only wash hair once and it is not madly thick hair either.

I can't understand how you can turn the shower off while you 'soap up' then turn it back on again - if we did that the water would go cold then too hot before it got to the right temperature again? It also takes me a lot longer than 2 mins - soap all over and rinse it off, wash hair twice and comb through conditioner so probably more like 5 mins. I rarely have a bath.

I do remember Sunday night was bath and hair wash night - I was lucky that I was an only child so didn't have to share the water with anyone and did have Matey occasionally. I bought some for my grandsons when they were here so it's still available.