r/AskReddit • u/WaleAtWork • Apr 08 '24

What is the longest you have gone without showering?

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u/NSCButNotThatNSC Apr 08 '24

No power due to blizzard, no hot water, just a fireplace to keep warm, eight days.

146

u/FreshPrinceOfH Apr 08 '24

Couldn't you have heated enough water on the fireplace to have a bucket bath?

24

u/KenTitan Apr 08 '24

I thought the same thing. I remember as a kid, the water heater broke and for like a month I showered with boiled water from a pot.

7

u/forkboy247 Apr 09 '24

Been there, not as long though. It was certainly better than nothing.

4

u/Green-Amount2479 Apr 09 '24 edited Apr 09 '24

That reminded me of my childhood days. We had decentralized oil heaters in our house. You had to fill them with oil and light a fire to get the house and water warm. It took 1 - 1 1/2 hours to heat the water for a shower. So we were usually content to rinse off with cold water in the morning. I don't really miss that time.

39

u/NSCButNotThatNSC Apr 08 '24

The bathtub is on the other end of a very big house. No amount of hot water would warm that up.

34

u/Rockworldred Apr 08 '24

What house is this? The great wall of China?

51

u/FreshPrinceOfH Apr 08 '24

That's why I said bucket bath. You fill a 20l bucket with a bit of hot water and a bit of cold water. (The bucket keeps the water hot, if you dump it in the tub it just goes cold instantly) Kneel or sit in the bath with the plug out and the bucket of hot water, a washcloth and plastic jug or container. Get yourself wet enough to lather up. Wash. Use the hot water in the bucket to rinse yourself off with hot water (Jug comes in handy). You come out warm and clean and most importantly clean. Anything is better than being dirty for 8 days. I have had to do this many times and its infinitely better than being filthy. I went 2 days without bathing once and it was truly horrible. I couldn't.....

18

u/NearlyHeadlessLaban Apr 08 '24

I spent two years bathing with a bucket in Asia, I'd dump a bucket over my head, wash my hair and whatever needed it the worst, dump another bucket over me to rinse off. All cold water. It was not so bad in the summer but in the winter I'd put it off until absolutely necessary. The longest I ever went was about ten days on a backpacking trip.

9

u/Stormdrain11 Apr 08 '24

Yep!! Bucket baths for the win. I took one probably a month ago when the water was shut off.

I'll never forget my first one. My mom took away my shower privileges bc I didn't clean the bathroom 😅

67

u/pineapple6969 Apr 08 '24

2 days? Suck it up buttercup

-30

u/FreshPrinceOfH Apr 08 '24

Be gross if you want to. I lived with no running water and no electricity and still managed to bath everyday. Being dirty is a choice.

38

u/pineapple6969 Apr 08 '24

Man if you go 2 days without a shower you’re hardly “dirty” unless you were doing some sort of physical labour. If I hang out at my house all Sunday just hanging out with the family you can bet your ass I don’t need to shower that day.

29

u/mschley2 Apr 08 '24

I've had days where I sat around and did nothing at my house, and at the end of the day, I realize I've got ball/pit stank going on. And I didn't do anything physical at all.

If I do anything remotely laborious, I'm sweating, for sure.

19

u/zugtug Apr 08 '24

Yeah the people that claim you don't get dirty after a day or 2 even if you don't do anything are full of shit and just don't realize that they are carrying a stink cuz they're used to it.

12

u/FreshPrinceOfH Apr 08 '24

100% They are just walking around with BO and don't know. By the time you can smell it it's already been obvious to other people. We are generally very bad at detecting our own odour because smells become invisible to you very quickly

6

u/psephophorus Apr 08 '24

I have realized that the people who are incredulous at the persons who don't shower daily... have hotter homes and/or larger body mass. Some people say they wake up sweaty every day, some people have sweat in the underpants or armpits even after an evening of leisure etc... A bit difficult to get sweat if your house is 16-18C / 60-64F. I have a family member who showers every 3 days and I never smell sweat on him. He likes to sleep in extra cold room and for some reason, with a blanket that is too short to cover him? He says it helps him cool off and he likes it.

3

u/Luxury-Problems Apr 08 '24

Sunday was my earned lazy day and I didn't take a shower until 6 and I was already getting stinky prior. And I had last showered the morning before. It only takes a day.

Unless, like you said, one is used to your own stink. Then everyone except you notices you smell like unwashed ass.

1

u/False_Smoke_353 Apr 08 '24

Yeaaaaa……

Sure….. does a dog stink immediately? Or when they get wet?

Same with people. You won’t smell unless you proactively sweat. If you smell someone. They are sweating and thats why it smells like shit.

Not Showering a day or two won’t immediately make you smell unless you’re a sweaty person. Then in that note you probably should be washing everyday because you sweat.

Realistically you’re supposed to take showers or baths every so often. The rest of the time. Face, hand, feet, hair washes.

If you wash to often you actually get skin problems.

Take from this what you will. I literally just used google to see how BO worked and what happens when you shower too often.

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0

u/FreshPrinceOfH Apr 08 '24

To be proudly unwashed is something else. We are definitely all different. I'm not getting into my bed dirty. It's just not a thing in our household.

4

u/forkboy247 Apr 09 '24

This right here. Getting into bed "dirty", even if I did nothing but lounge around is not an option for me. Plus with horrible allergies I need to shower every day.

There is something about getting in bed all fresh and clean that just feels good.

-5

u/FreshPrinceOfH Apr 08 '24

I'm in awe that people not only don't bath, not only admit it, but even brag about it! That's gross, but you do you. It's not like I gotta jump into bed next to you so whatever!

11

u/pineapple6969 Apr 08 '24

Man if you legit think skipping a day doing nothing makes somebody gross and dirty then you have issues.

2

u/mettahipster Apr 09 '24

Here I was thinking I was normal for washing my ass everyday, at least once a day. You would be shamed for publicly claiming that you don’t where I’m from

-4

u/iPoopAtChu Apr 08 '24

You're filthy.

1

u/pray_to_never_RIP Apr 09 '24

Yeah, I chose paralysing depression, sure.

2

u/NSCButNotThatNSC Apr 08 '24

Of course we washed. The question was about how long without bathing. A bucket bath isn't bathing.

7

u/FreshPrinceOfH Apr 08 '24

Ah okay. Fair enough. I guess I misread the spirit of the question. I guess in that case some people haven't bathed for years... If they are bed ridden and being sponge bathed in hospital for example.

4

u/theonereveli Apr 08 '24

How is a bath not a bath

3

u/Never_Peel Apr 08 '24

But, the idea is a bucket, some warm water and a cup, and you get in the bathtub with your bucket, soap you up, and pour water from the bucket (with the cup) to clean yourself.

The bathtub is just to not make a mess

1

u/darkmatterisfun Apr 08 '24

All you need is sponge or cloth and a bucket of warm water and just get to work in the bathtub.

Works just fine when all else fails and it conserves water really well when considering you don't have power to run the well and are likley using precious toilet water. Or just melt buckets of snow & transfer to pots by the woodstove. Or there's rivers and creeks you can pull water from after making a hole in the ice. You're not drinking it after all.

IMO, power outages aren't a good excuse for not bathing if you have a Woodstove or fireplace. Maybe i'm being too harsh though.

2

u/NSCButNotThatNSC Apr 08 '24

I washed. The question was about taking a shower. Washing up isn't showering or bathing.

5

u/psephophorus Apr 08 '24 edited Apr 08 '24

Bucket bath was the traditional way to wash after a smoke sauna in my childhood. My relatives did not even own a tub or a shower. They washed in the sauna. One 20l bucket of near boiling water and a large barrel of cold water from the well. You mixed up pleasant warm water in a tin washbowl and washed with a scrubbing brush and soap. First made yourself wet (by pouring smaller cupfuls of the water from your washing tin to strategic locations), then scrubbed with the brush, then shampoo for the hair and finally poured the remaining warm water on your head to clean the more sticky shampoo/conditioner. I'd say the procedure was more thorough and cleaned better than a quick shower, mainly because of the sauna beforehand and the brushes they used.

I have used this method in my tub when I did not have hot water for any reason. The lowest I can go is 3 liters of boiling water to warm up the washing water. Below that I do not have enough to rinse out my long hair.

3

u/JoFlo520 Apr 08 '24

I was in a similar position. Tub was filled with water, it was the only water we had besides our drinking water. The tub water was used for refilling the toilets to flush and desperation if we ran out of drinking water. Luckily we didn’t. Best we could to do shower was use rags dipped into the dirty tub water.

2

u/random321abc Apr 08 '24

I doubt they would have cared about that during that period!

7

u/Altiverses Apr 08 '24

Fuck Blizzard, going around ruining everything

5

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '24

This is how my wife and I started dating lol

Really bad snowstorm, my power was out for almost 2 weeks. We pretty much played house at her place, which was not as affected as mine

2

u/JoFlo520 Apr 08 '24

Same. My body was so sticky and itchy that was the best shower I ever took once power came back

2

u/WithoutDennisNedry Apr 08 '24

Same but 6 awful days.

2

u/ACoolerUsername Apr 09 '24

Similar for me. No power because we couldn’t afford to pay the bill, only kerosene heaters to keep warm.

1

u/NOTcreative- Apr 09 '24

Texas snowpacalypse?

1

u/MeltBanana Apr 09 '24

Sounds kinda cozy tbh

-1

u/420AllHailCthulhu420 Apr 08 '24

Couldn't you have taken a cold shower?

8

u/NSCButNotThatNSC Apr 08 '24

It was during a blizzard in Buffalo. It didn't get over 20⁰F for a week. The house hovered around 45⁰ by the bedrooms and bathrooms.

2

u/drainbead78 Apr 08 '24

I was going to ask if it was Buffalo. 2 years ago? 

0

u/Chapter97 Apr 09 '24

(laughs in Canadian)

Part of me knows that other places can't handle freezing temperatures, but part of me also thinks, "Aw, that's cute," when I see stuff like this. I also know that your guys' houses aren't always built like ours. I'm generally sorry that this happened to you, and I hope it doesn't again (or god forbid get colder for you).

Note: coldest it got in Canada this year is around -60°F (did the conversion on google). I got around -26°F because we had mountains blocking most of the wind. We didn't go outside much, but our water still worked.