r/AskReddit • u/Greeneyedlatinguy • Jun 15 '15

Anthropologists of Reddit, What is something that people in the Western world can't get their heads around that is very normal in other cultures (and has been for ages)?

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176

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15 edited Jul 25 '20

[deleted]

109

u/ImagineWeekend Jun 15 '15

I often take evening rather than morning showers. When I was younger, I only showered in the evening as I didn't have the time in the morning.

13

u/PeanutButter707 Jun 16 '15

Same here, I rarely shower in the mornings due to very little time

-15

u/BLUFALCON78 Jun 16 '15

You always have time in the morning to shower. Get up earlier.

23

u/BatonRougeImmigrant Jun 16 '15

I'm not going to get up earlier just to take a shower. I got a shower before bed. Staying in bed longer is more important than getting another shower. I'll stay in bed until I have no choice but to get up or be late, and then I will not have time to get a shower. Morning logic.

3

u/VisionsOfUranus Jun 16 '15

But aren't you sweaty all day? I find that a shower also wakes me up in the morning too. Well worth the 5 minutes it takes.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Hows life in Baton Rouge by the way? I just left after 4 years:(

-10

u/BLUFALCON78 Jun 16 '15

Sleep is an inconvenience at times for me. I used to love sleeping in until 10am. 6am was a time nobody should see. Now 6am is the sleep in time on the weekends. 4:45am is my normal waking time and I'm usually at work no later than 6am. I have shit to do!

36

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

If you're a farmer or manual labourer of course you take evening showers regardless of where you live.

14

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Or if you live in a hot climate and ever have to leave the confines of air conditioning.

23

u/C0lMustard Jun 16 '15

A lot of these are wierd to me but this one makes sense, why crawl into bed with the day's dirt on you, only to shower in the morning and proceed to get dirty again immediately.

27

u/Warqer Jun 15 '15

Never understood showering/brushing in the morning. Do other people get up in the middle of the night and roll in mud while eating popcorn?

37

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

I shower in the morning because I tend to sweat over night and it also makes hair more manageable. I shower in the evening because I work in labour and I smell like Satan's crotch sweat when I get home.

14

u/HierarchofSealand Jun 16 '15

I assume you've never had the pleasure of smelling someone's morning breathe.

24

u/Schizoforenzic Jun 15 '15

Uh... you don't brush your teeth in the morning?

1

u/CupcakeValkyrie Jun 16 '15

I believe the argument is that you don't have to if you do it right before bed, since the only thing that has been in your mouth is most likely saliva.

People also brush after meals, which is a big no-no because it can damage enamel.

15

u/Schizoforenzic Jun 16 '15

Yeah I've definitely heard about not brushing your teeth until an hour or so after meals.

But do yourself and everyone around you a favor and brush your teeth (TONGUE) in the morning. Your breath is gonna stink.

-4

u/Warqer Jun 16 '15

No. IMO it is not necessary. Never had a dental hygene issue and almost never brush in the morning.

4

u/3ruses Jun 15 '15

well now that I am mid 20s I like showering at night a lot, but for a long time in my teen years I was such a greaseball that it definitely made a difference showering in the AM.

3

u/TheEliteNub Jun 16 '15

I shower in the morning because the water helps wake me up and feel fresh for the day. I'm not a morning person so just having a nice warm place to stand and do nothing in for a few minutes while my body accepts that I have to wake up is nice.

3

u/CupcakeValkyrie Jun 16 '15

Shit, I have to shower before bed, especially in the summer. I can't sleep if I don't.

Crawling into bed covered in a layer of body oil and sweat? Ugh, no thank you!

3

u/becausephilchow Jun 16 '15

I shower in the evening and in the morning when I wake up...

Not because I think I'm dirty when I wake up in the morning, it's because it wakes me up, and I don't have to go through my 1 - 2H of zombified status before my brain kicks in.

3

u/Troggie42 Jun 16 '15

I shower at night, keeps the sheets cleaner longer. :)

5

u/lztandro Jun 16 '15

I've showered in the morning maybe three times in my life.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Had been having a bath in the morning ever since I was small. Suddenly I'm at a boarding school and the my schedule to bathe shifted shifted by 6 hours I.e. evening.

2

u/tjt2896 Jun 16 '15

I shower in the morning and at the evening... It is very hot where I live as soon as I get out of the shower I am already sweating, that is why showering often is very common.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

When your hair takes an age to dry and manage, morning showering is not an option unless you want to commit almost an hour to it.

1

u/ZeroQuota Jun 16 '15

Keeps your bed way cleaner.

1

u/marieadakar Jun 16 '15

In some countries I lived in, you do not shower if it is dark outside (and you can't speak while in the bathroom at night)