5 ms·
Poll: How often do you bathe?
How many times per month do you shower or bathe?
- BLKNSLVR 1y agoI voted 10 but it's closer to 15. Wednesday (night), Friday (night), Saturday (afternoon), Sunday (morning - depending on physical activity, which depends mostly on weather). They're all based on sports activities. For some lucky reason, I don't naturally stink - and I do work with people who would definitely let me know if I did, plus family members where various judgements are pretty no-holds-barred.
- Freak_NL 1y ago15 is a common data point too, because that effectively puts you at once every two days. That's my natural rhythm; any longer and I feel grubby (shaving in particular). I just don't sweat that much I guess. This is a weirdly posed poll though. Per week is much more aligned with people's recurring schedules. I know I shower 3 or 4 days a week, but it's weird to consider this on a monthly basis.
- nirui 1y agoHere's my admiration. If I don't take a shower every two days, my hair will be so soiliy I can't even sleep.
- BLKNSLVR 1y agoI, uh, cough, haven't had that problem for about twenty years now... It's convenient, but I do miss my flowing locks occasionally.
- Tuperoir 1y agoThanks for this poll, I'm baffled to see people not showering every day, but what do you know !
- sgt 1y agoSometimes I just throw some water in my face, shave using the machine, then off I go. Next day I'll shower. Also, remember that fresh underwear and clothes is almost the same as a shower.
- BLKNSLVR 1y agoI do the cold-water face splash every day, it wakes me up good. Can recommend. I can't shave without showering afterwards though, I get itchy (maybe only psychologically) from the (idea of the) little shaved bits dropping on my skin and staying there under my clothes all day. It's one of the very few things I'm "funny" about.
- Freak_NL 1y agoI can't shave comfortably without showering first. Get the hairs soaked for a smoother shave. I wet shave, so all shaved bits get gathered in the razor which gets rinsed of in the basin.
- datadrivenangel 1y agoShaving towel to catch any bits. Like a food bib.
- tokai 1y agoShowering everyday is connected to atopic eczema and allergies. Your skin is the first element of your immune system and showering every day with soap is unnatural and damaging to your skin.
- madmask 1y agoApparently not because I am fine
- barrkel 1y agoI think it's hard to draw conclusions from this level of data without being able to correlate with daily levels and degrees of social contact and intimacy, regional climate and weather, activity levels and exercise, and so on.
- madmask 1y agoEvery day. Now that I am in my own home I actually have a warm bath every evening, it’s a great way to end the day. I can skip one day in rare occasions but feel too uncomfortable going more than that, not because of stink or others noticing but because I just don’t feel clean
- caust1c 1y agoHN has polls?
- mindcrime 1y agoYep. The feature isn't widely advertised, but it's there: https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll
- voidUpdate 1y agoSadly because of mental and physical illness, not as much as I should
- no_moresecrets 1y agoI can relate. Stay strong. Things will be worse before they get better, but it will get better.
- benoau 1y agoSeems to me that if I go to bed dirty then I will be contaminating my bed with all the bacteria and viruses and stuff I've accumulated throughout the day.
- isoprophlex 1y agoEvery day I soak myself in an extremely hot bath, just bobbing around like a spineless deep sea creature. Sometimes I watch old star trek episodes from the bath. An indulgence, a waste of energy and drinking water, is not very nice from a sustainability point of view. But it is one of the day's great pleasures, a nice way to unwind, the dual to my first cup of coffee of the day.
- burgerrito 1y agoI can definitely say that on a hot day I shower like three times a day
- eappleby 1y agoSurprised to so many people showering more than once per day. For people that do that, is that due to morning showers coupled with post-activity shower?
- Enginerrrd 1y agoYes. The activity can be anything from exercise to manual labor, or being exposed to various bodily fluids. (I have kids.) My wife is a nurse and so she usually has a shower after work in addition to a morning shower.
- criddell 1y agoYes. When I ride my bike to work, I shower when I get there. If I do yardwork, I shower when done. Before I go to bed, I shower or take a bath. Sometimes when I'm working from home and stuck on a problem, I'll take a shower to think about it.
- datadrivenangel 1y agoHot summer day (35-40c) with time outside means that an extra shower to rinse off is very nice, and sometimes a third shower before bed to rinse off and get cool is comfortable. Usually that's excessive though.
- owebmaster 1y agoAnd one before going to bed. For Brazilians, ~60 times per month might be the lower end.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- hackeraccount 1y agoWhen the summer rolls around that's not super uncommon for me. Go for a run in the morning - take a shower. Take a walk in the evening - take another shower. It gets hot n' humid in the Summer where I live though. That second shower is pretty quick though. Just enough so that I'm not sweaty when I go to bed because who'd want that?
- 1y ago
- elif 1y agoIt's not that straightforward I don't think. I rinse off before and after the hot tub, and after a run, but I only shower with soap and shampoo 1-2x per week. So am I 10x or am I 50x?
- k__ 1y agoI guess the question is, what does this survey try to find? I mean, a hot tub could be seen as bath, but it might not be related to cleanliness but more of a relaxation thing. Going swimming in a public path that is full of chlorine might have cleaning properties too, especially if you don't swim in the children's pool, lol.
- ruined 1y agoi feel like this scale should have been logarithmic
- dbg31415 1y agoYou shower at night — so your bed doesn’t become a biohazard from all the filth you dragged home from being out in the world (and so maybe your partner will actually want to get dirty with you). Then again in the morning — to wake up (and wash off last night’s sins). And of course after the gym — so you don’t walk around smelling like a teenager. This is all basic hygiene, not advanced calculus.
- qoez 1y agoI don't mean this as flamebait but my pet theory is that showering and washing your hands is the 1800s version of wearing covid masks (except it stuck around as a permanent feature). It's more of a public safety thing you do for other people than for yourself and doing it twice a day is probably way excessive. It's probably closer to once every two days or less depending on how easily you generate body odor.
- k__ 1y agoYes, probably. Especially since you can wash yourself daily without hopping under a shower or in a tub.
- const_cast 1y agoIt depends so heavily on lifestyle and climate. I really, really wish I lived somewhere cooler. Getting essentially 6 months of grueling summer just sucks for sweat. I often feel sticky and gross, because I am.
- aaron695 1y ago[dead]
- seec 1y agoIt's not just for health and safety, it's also to avoid inconveniencing others with body odors. And there is a lot to be said about looking "good" too. I have very oily scalp (dry skin) and annoyingly thin and stiff hairs, if I don't shower daily, I'll look unpresentable pretty quickly. I wouldn't be dirty or unsafe but that's the image people would get... I think you should have social status in your theory. Having access to hot water daily in sufficient quantities to fully bath yourself was not something most could afford, so it definitely made a very obvious class distinction at some point. I'm pretty sure this is why people used a lot of perfume at some point; if you can't bathe to remove the stinks, you can try to cover it with a stronger and (hopefully) more pleasant smell. But as much as I dislike body odor there is a lot to be said about strong perfumes. Some people find it reasonable to cast their odor of choices to a 2-3m perimeter around them; they might be worse because at least in their case we know for sure they had a choice...
- 1y ago
- k__ 1y agoMost of the year, I shower 2-3 times a week, but I wash myself with a washcloth on the non-shower days before going to bed. It's faster, cheaper, better for the environment, and probably better for my skin. However, in the really hot weeks of the summer (we don't have that many of those here), I shower daily, sometimes even two times a day.
- throw0101c 1y agoFor anyone interested in the over use of soap (and other chemicals), this book from a clinical/practicing dermatologist (and medical prof) is worth checking out: * https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35733533-beyond-soap https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35733533-beyond-soap * https://drsandyskotnicki.com https://drsandyskotnicki.com
- agumonkey 1y agoThis should include full remote status, I do shave some days because I'm home and I only go out that day to walk in the mountains. Something I would not do when I had work in office.
- gthompson512 1y agoI usually exercise ~5 days a week and on those days will shower or bathe twice. On days when I am doing yard work or grilling it might bathe 3 times depending on how poorly I planned out my day.
- hallway_monitor 1y agoOut, out, damned spot!
- Netcob 1y agoI struggle with habits a lot, but this is one of the few that work for me. I think the kids call it "habit stacking"? Basically, I have to brush my teeth and shower before going to bed. It's all one package, and I'm very efficient at it. So it's at least once a day, more if I was sweating a lot. Another one: brush teeth before leaving the house for the first time that day. ...that used to work better before working from home. I've added a lot of other habits since then, using an overcomplicated system of deadlines and rewards.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- aaron695 1y ago[dead]
- CrociDB 1y agoThat's a topic I actually put a lot of thought, coming from South America living in Europe, I see an extreme contrast in shower habits. In the north of Brazil, people would take 2~3 "cold" showers a day--most people don't even have warm water, because it's over 30 degrees Celsius pretty much at any time of the day, at any time of the year, so you sweat a lot. Now here, I see people are mostly fine with 2~3 showers a week. Sometimes less. Initially that was a shock for me, until I understood it's a lot related to climate, job, activities, social life, etc, but also because in South America people rely more on the showers for their overall hygiene. They just shower for anything. Ate something too fatty that got your hands and face greasy? Time for shower. In Europe I see people taking more care of their hygiene other ways, like washing themselves, changing underclothes more often, etc.
- electriclove 1y agoWhen people in South America shower 2-3 times a day, do they also change their underwear 2-3 times a day?
- CrociDB 1y agoEasier to not wear it.
- carlos_rpn 1y agoI live in Rio de Janeiro, and I'd hope so. Who would want to wear sweat soaked underwear after a shower?
- qoez 1y agoJust shower with the underwear, two birds
- MrGilbert 1y agoIt somehow made me giggle that you put "month" as reference. I'd hardly be able to wake up if I wouldn't take a shower in the morning. Also, we don't use the poll feature enough! (my 2 cents)
- amriksohata 1y agoCold showers in hot weather actually makes you hotter, as your body raises its temperature when under the cold shower Whilst a hot shower makes your body try to lower its temperature to cool off
- ndsipa_pomu 1y agoThat seems over simplistic. Surely there must be some cross-over point between environmental temperature and shower temperature, so you could take a completely neutral shower that won't affect your temperature at all? Also, I doubt that you could get hypothermia by using close to boiling water in a shower.
- seec 1y agoThere is a cross-over point, it's around your body temp, so usually between 36 and 38C. In France we have thermostatic shower mixer with labeling around this temp, with even a push button lock that can prevent you from going over 38C if you wish. Isn't this common in the US ?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- dvfjsdhgfv 1y agoWhat's interesting is a big representation of users who bathe on workdays only...
- borderprepper 1y ago[dead]
- bryanlarsen 1y agoThe need for bathing varies greatly depending on whether you use soap or not. It's possible to not stink if you don't use soap, but it requires very frequent bathing. In my experience if I actively sweat for any reason and it's been more than 4 hours since my last soap-less bath, my odor will be offensive to some people. If I can avoid actively sweating, I can get through a work day.
- submersed6722 1y agoIs this making a distinction betweeb bath and shower? If yes, I bathe almost never. If no, I bathe (shower) everyday. I came from a South Asian country and we normally have showers every day. I'm continuing to do the same in the Netherlands. Can people sleep without having a shower?
- nicholasbraker 1y agoSame here. Taking a bath is rare (I do have a bathtub though), but I shower every day, sometimes twice a day after sport.
- orwin 1y agoIt really depends on the weather and what I'm doing. When I'm sailing in summer (windsurf/wingfoil), I can shower thrice in a day, easily (I have a 20 minute bike ride with my board and sail). When I'm sailing in a cruiser, probably two showers a week, sometimes none depending on our travel time. Per month statistics are impossible for me, but over a year, probably a bit over 300 times.
- m-p-3 1y agoI'd go with 15 times per month on average, every other day except when I did something physical that day. I was showering daily because of excessive dandruff and dry skin, and what in fact helped was to actually not shower as often.
- nh23423fefe 1y agoalmost always twice a day. wake up in morning, again home for the day. extra for sweating.
- mvdtnz 1y agoA surprising number of stinkers around here. Matches my experience of tech conferences so I guess it checks out.
- Ancapistani 1y agoLots of variables, but I voted "~30". In general, every day. I hate feeling dirty and am self-conscious about odor in general. More realistically, every other day in winter. Winter is cool and dry, so I don't really sweat much. If I'm sitting at home and not doing much physical, it might stretch to three days; any more than that and I feel dirty even if I'm actually not. In the summer, daily is more of a minimum. I live two hours ahead of most of my colleagues, so my day is often split: I'll get up early and do yard work, bathe, then work for the day. If I have to go out for an event or something in the evening, I'll often bathe again if I've gone outside even once. You sweat almost the instant you hit the outside air here.
- jjaksic 1y agoI think many people shower too often and needlessly waste water and heating energy. I shower when I begin to itch or smell. Showering when you're not dirty is wasteful.
- znpy 1y agoI shower every day, ideally in the morning. Nothing really wakes me up like a hot shower. Hot shower and a cup of hot coffee is a great start of the day for me.
- bradlys 1y ago60 could be low. I take showers randomly and for whatever reason I want. It’s mostly for relaxation. But either way, it’s usually a minimum of two a day. One in the morning immediately after I wake up (this is when I actually clean up) and then another in the evening after I workout.
- kristianp 1y agoNow there's a related interesting topic. If you shower once a day, do you do it in the morning or evening?
- birn559 1y agoMorning shower as part of the daily routine is nice. I also tend to feel a bit itchy and my hair/head in particular, so even if I didn't shower, I often still wash my hair (I have a short haircut).