The experts don’t agree, so what do you think?

>….Only when we really need to, according to Shumack. “A sedentary person can get away with a shower once, twice or three times a week, especially in winter. It varies on your skin type and what you are doing.” If you’re sweaty and dirty, you need a shower, while those with sensitive skins – the elderly and babies – need less showering time.

The daily shower is a modern phenomenon, Shumack informs. “It’s only in the last fifty to sixty years (since the advent of bathrooms with showers) that the idea of a daily shower has become commonplace. The pressure to do that is actually social pressure rather than actual need. It’s become popular because of social need to smell good. But it’s only the glands in your armpit and groin that produce body odour. They’re not all over the body.”

Shumack recommends a one or two minute shower in lukewarm water, focusing on the armpits, groin and any areas covered in dirt. Soap is fine, he says, but not essential, while, in his opinion, “most soap substitutes are probably marketing exercises rather than necessary.”

Greg Goodman, chief surgeon at the Skin & Cancer Foundation Victoria, and professor at Monash University, disagrees.

“Soaps are alkaline and tend to dissolve the skin barrier. The skin surface is meant to be quite acidic and good bacteria like an acidic skin environment. Squeaky clean is not healthy.” Goodman advocates using soap-free cleansers. While he concurs with Shumack that three minutes in the shower is adequate, Goodman is in favour of the daily shower, provided it’s lukewarm.

“It’s important to get rid of the ravages of daily wear and tear, slime and grime and pollution – your body is trying to do that anyway.” Hand-washing is particularly important in the flu season to prevent the spread of infection.

However, our shower water is hardly pure, potentially laden with fluoride, chlorine, heavy metals, pesticides and chemicals, according to Nicole Bijlsma, building biologist, naturopath, and author of Healthy Home, Healthy Family.

She advocates avoiding bubble baths and fragrances, foaming agents and detergents such as lauryl sulphate in body wash and liquid soap. These can irritate and dry the skin.

A controversial hypothesis put forward by Dr John Cannell, founder of the Vitamin D Council in the United States , is that the daily shower might be contributing to reducing vitamin D levels. The theory is that vitamin D3 formed on the surface of the skin in response to sunlight, isn’t absorbed immediately into the bloodstream. Regular showering is thought to wash it off before the body gets a chance to absorb it.<

Full report: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/beauty/how-often-should-we-shower-much-less-often-than-you-think-20150310-140487.html

>….While he concurs with Shumack that three minutes in the shower is adequate

These men are presumably bald. It takes longer than 3 minutes just to wash and rinse my hair, let alone the rest of me.

Mind you I have to do it in the bath, since I don’t have a shower.

Twice a year, whether you need it or not.

>But it’s only the glands in your armpit and groin that produce body odour

What about feet & bums? And the smell of dirty hair.

“The theory is that vitamin D3 formed on the surface of the skin in response to sunlight, isn’t absorbed immediately into the bloodstream. Regular showering is thought to wash it off before the body gets a chance to absorb it”

SIRENS GOING OFF EVERYWHERE

Peak Warming Man said:

“The theory is that vitamin D3 formed on the surface of the skin in response to sunlight, isn’t absorbed immediately into the bloodstream. Regular showering is thought to wash it off before the body gets a chance to absorb it”

SIRENS GOING OFF EVERYWHERE

If we knew what it looked like we could say: “OK I won’t wash that off, it’s vitamin D3 not dirt”.

Mostly showering is a waste of water, it’s pleasant and ‘civilized’, it’s also a habit, as for efficiency of washing in the context of need the truth is it’s largely overkill.

The most efficient (including effort all factored) is a litre or two of water heated and a flannel.

I need the humidity created in the shower – I can breathe heaps better. Also to wash the dust off and to rehydrate :P

>>Nicole Bijlsma, building biologist, naturopath, and author of Healthy Home, Healthy Family.<<

YOU WANT SIRENS! NATUROPATH!!

(Here, have some exclamation marks as well!!!!!)

a variation on what I mentioned is using cold water and in colder weather if one has like slow combustion fire you drape the flannel over the heater until it is hot, even steaming, and this way there’s no need to heat any water at all.

buffy said:

>>Nicole Bijlsma, building biologist, naturopath, and author of Healthy Home, Healthy Family.<<

YOU WANT SIRENS! NATUROPATH!!

(Here, have some exclamation marks as well!!!!!)

:D

!!!!!!!

“A sedentary person can get away with a shower once, twice or three times a week,”….

Not in my world they can’t. Obviously these people have never visited the tropics.

If I’m working in the office, two showers a day is the bare minimum. If I’m mowing lawns and other outside jobs on the weekend, along with dips in the pool and putting the hose over my head, I’ll often have three or four showers throughout the day.

The idea that it’s only armpits and groins making us smell bad is just silly. I’ll give my field clothing to these blokes and let them tell me about body odour. A day of 35C and 80%+ humidity in the rainforest makes me smell horrific. Even my elbows stink. On days like this, I hit the shower as soon as I get home and will have another before I go to bed.

Just because people used to go for days or weeks without bathing doesn’t make it healthier or more attractive. There’s a reason that hippies douse themselves in patchouli, it’s because it smells better than unwashed stinking hippy.

And WTF is a “building biologist”?

Teleost said:

And WTF is a “building biologist”?

An organic architect?

Postpocelipse said:

Teleost said:

And WTF is a “building biologist”?

An organic architect?

The certificate she bought before the naturopath one….

Does this mean that this is a leap year? again!

If I didn’t shower I’d never get to work. I’m a useless slug when I wake up. I need the bright bathroom lights and the cutaneous stimulation of a brisk shower to get me up and going.

I use damp Chinese newspapers for my body wash

it gives my body that natural well informed glow

wookiemeister said:

I use damp Chinese newspapers for my body wash

Before or after they’ve been used to pack cabbages?

Teleost said:

wookiemeister said:

I use damp Chinese newspapers for my body wash

Before or after they’ve been used to pack cabbages?

durian

Teleost said:

“A sedentary person can get away with a shower once, twice or three times a week,”….

Not in my world they can’t. Obviously these people have never visited the tropics.

If I’m working in the office, two showers a day is the bare minimum. If I’m mowing lawns and other outside jobs on the weekend, along with dips in the pool and putting the hose over my head, I’ll often have three or four showers throughout the day.

The idea that it’s only armpits and groins making us smell bad is just silly. I’ll give my field clothing to these blokes and let them tell me about body odour. A day of 35C and 80%+ humidity in the rainforest makes me smell horrific. Even my elbows stink. On days like this, I hit the shower as soon as I get home and will have another before I go to bed.

Just because people used to go for days or weeks without bathing doesn’t make it healthier or more attractive. There’s a reason that hippies douse themselves in patchouli, it’s because it smells better than unwashed stinking hippy.

And WTF is a “building biologist”?

:) Well put though it is true that some of the ex-hippes sing about healing water.

Out in the outback it doesn’t matter if Bruce doesn’t have a Sheila, for after a while the dust blocks all the pores anyway.
When I rode a pushbike 15 km to work in summer, I’d need another shower before I sat down to work at the sedentary job.
Nowadays SWMBO is changed to SHTIS (she who thinks I stink). Lymphoma and chemo put her into a very sensitive state. I need a shower to be able to talk.
My physio reckons I needn’t worry about having to shower before I see her. Brave woman.
Out at White Cliffs the showers give 7 minutes for a dollar. A Scot mate of mine would always be out of the shower in under a minute. I told him he should give the other six minutes to me.

Personally think showers don’t do the job properly unless standing under them for at least 20 minutes. No amount of soaping lasts for long as it all gets washed down the drain. A good bath probably uses less water and soaks all the pores clean. The water all ends up in my garden anyway,

Working in the fields, a face wash in the morning and a shower after work is the usual.

Electricity is the biggie. I turn the off peak off first thing in the morning and turn it back on before bed. Saves a couple of bucks a day.

Children should wash as infrequently as possible because of The Witches.

Some of the people I’ve come across in the courts stink and I mean a putrid stink to the point it makes you feel ill and hangs around in the air for a long time after they have gone. Doesn’t diet play a big part in body odour as well, if you diet is mostly processed junk foods, sugar etc, you smell more

Cymek said:

Some of the people I’ve come across in the courts stink and I mean a putrid stink to the point it makes you feel ill and hangs around in the air for a long time after they have gone. Doesn’t diet play a big part in body odour as well, if you diet is mostly processed junk foods, sugar etc, you smell more

Yes. Diet can play a part.

Cymek said:

Some of the people I’ve come across in the courts stink and I mean a putrid stink to the point it makes you feel ill and hangs around in the air for a long time after they have gone. Doesn’t diet play a big part in body odour as well, if you diet is mostly processed junk foods, sugar etc, you smell more

Depends where you live also. Hot & humid makes sticky smelly people.

Tamb said:

Cymek said:

Some of the people I’ve come across in the courts stink and I mean a putrid stink to the point it makes you feel ill and hangs around in the air for a long time after they have gone. Doesn’t diet play a big part in body odour as well, if you diet is mostly processed junk foods, sugar etc, you smell more

Depends where you live also. Hot & humid makes sticky smelly people.

And dogs. Daisy has no yucky doggy smell. She lies in dry dusty dirt when she’s outside until the grass grows back.

I can smell if people have eaten lamb. It is not offensive, but identifiable. Not sure I can ID much else. I do get very close to people when I am doing ophthalmoscopy. I also know what Old Person smells like. And I’ve always been able to breathe very slowly (I trained myself out of curiosity years ago), so I don’t actually have to breathe when I’m close for a minute or so.

Certain foods make your urine smell as well, coffee and asparagus are two I can think of

Cymek said:

Certain foods make your urine smell as well, coffee and asparagus are two I can think of

And it is fast….at least with my metabolism it is. Inside the hour.

Cymek said:

Certain foods make your urine smell as well, coffee and asparagus are two I can think of

and then there your farts.

buffy said:

I can smell if people have eaten lamb. It is not offensive, but identifiable. Not sure I can ID much else. I do get very close to people when I am doing ophthalmoscopy. I also know what Old Person smells like. And I’ve always been able to breathe very slowly (I trained myself out of curiosity years ago), so I don’t actually have to breathe when I’m close for a minute or so.

We have off peak hot water & when the power goes off after cyclones life gets a bit uncomfortable after a few days.
I just bought one of these for $9.90 to tide us over.

Cymek said:

Certain foods make your urine smell as well, coffee and asparagus are two I can think of

And dehydration.

Tamb said:

Cymek said:

Certain foods make your urine smell as well, coffee and asparagus are two I can think of

And dehydration.

And some medicines.

Premium leather car interiors have to be desmelled for the Japanese market, far from premium they find the smell of leather offensive. Javanese found the smell of the Dutch offensive and they were the original cheese eaters.

AwesomeO said:

Premium leather car interiors have to be desmelled for the Japanese market, far from premium they find the smell of leather offensive. Javanese found the smell of the Dutch offensive and they were the original cheese eaters.

My tow truck driver told me the Indians cars were the worst. Hard to breathe in them.

>Doesn’t diet play a big part in body odour as well..

differerin’ biology, probably, some

I shower twice a day, sometimes three.

After I wake up, during the day if required due to activity or before going out, and before bed.

I shower when I wear my starched whites, which is more or less all the time