What's the longest you've gone without a shower/bath. Why?
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6 months, during high school over the winter. Shower was broken (water would only come out perfectly hot or cold, nothing in between) and parents/landlord would not fix it. I kinda just gave up on it. Nothing bad came out of it. Nobody at home or at school ever said anything or even noticed, as far as I could tell. No, they were not just being polite. I watched everyone closely, as much as an experiment of personal curiosity as anything else, and there were no signs of disapproval, nobody had a clue. I suffered no social consequences whatsoever. Wearing a new set of clothes every day alone was sufficient to stay clean.
Can't decide whether I just have one of those Asian genes that make you not smell, or whether Americans as a culture are psychotically brainwashed by soap companies' propaganda to the point where even the idea of "spending more than 1 day away from shower" is worse than death for them. Never used deodorant either (other than to try it out - just makes me feel gross, sticky, and smelly). Imagine how much money those deodorant companies are missing out on me over a lifetime!
wrote on last edited by [email protected]If I go 6 hours after a shower without deodorant, my armpits usually have started smelling. It ain't just big soap, it's genetics or something.
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This is a judgement-free zone, please be nice
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Three weeks, over a very hot summer. Our office manager had the only key to the thermostat for the whole office, and refused to put the air conditioning on. I stopped bathing in protest. At this time I also commuted by bike (17 kms each way) daily and absolutely stunk. I’m still amazed he took three whole weeks to cave…
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This is a judgement-free zone, please be nice
11 days.
Texas ice storm in 2021 froze the pipes from the well. We had stored water in jugs and the bathtubs in anticipation of the storm, but it was for drinking, cooking, and flushing the toilet.
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Mount Buffalo National Park, 1982. Four of us left the camping area to watch the sunset. I stopped to take a photo and lost the trail. Went running after the others, slipped and rolled down a cliff, landed upright, but felt both ankles pop and break. (The whole park is Australian bush around granite boulders and cliffs). The others thought I had gone back to camp and didn’t report me missing. Next morning the group packed up and hiked to the next camp site, no one noticed I was missing until that evening, so they looked in the wrong place. I crawled to a creek and fell down the gully, drank snow melt, no one heard me shouting and crying. Eventually they gave me up for dead. Three German tourists found me by accident three weeks later, one went to get help. I got a ride in a helicopter, in hospital for two weeks while they fed me through a drip. The school gave me a payout through their insurance on the condition we didn’t sue them. I’m almost 60 now and my ankles still hurt and grind and pop.
Oh man, that's insane story! I can't imagine how hard had you been through in these three weeks surviving alone in the snowy wild.
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Yeah, about the same with cax in 29 palms.
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This is a judgement-free zone, please be nice
5 days.
During my winter break in junior year, I was staying at a farmer’s house. It didn’t have heating, and the temperature outside stayed around -10°C the entire vacation — it was freezing! Taking a shower was extremely inconvenient. Since I wasn’t very active during the day and hardly sweated at all, I ended up going five whole days without a bath. As a southerner who’s used to showering regularly, I couldn’t stand the greasy, uncomfortable feeling anymore. So when I found out there was a public bathhouse not too far from where I was staying, I practically ran over there and treated myself to a long, hot, relaxing bath — even soaked in one! It felt absolutely amazing.
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Probably close to a month.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]same, when i was young. but overdid showering during my 20s and ended with atopic dermatitis.
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A bit over a month? This was in the winter and I didn't feel unclean/like I needed it so I just kinda forgot.
winter wreacks havoc on the skin, since its also dry, people will overdue the shower, and it dries out the skin even more.
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9 months.
I was hiding inside another human being.
Did she ever find out? Or were you really sneaky?
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This is a judgement-free zone, please be nice
This thread is full of "oh shit, these Americans need help..!" revelations, I'm sure.
