What's the longest you've gone without a shower/bath. Why?
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Several months now. Maybe a year. Long Covid with ME/CFS has permanently tied me to my bed. I basically spend my time collecting energy to go number 2, which is the last thing I can stand up for. And only because using a bedpan looks about as strenuous as walking to the toilet. And that way my wife can change my bedsheets.
But not being able to shower is awful. I stink. And I have to watch parts where skin is rubbing on skin for infections. Zinc salve and a cotton scarf help.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]I also have LC. I can have a shower. But I take at least an hour to gear up for it. Then I can only do it sitting doen, then I take an hour to find the energy to dry myself off, then I take an hour to gain the energy to get dressed, etc. Tl;dr it takes all morning and I can't have a shower every day.
I took a shower at 11 am and I'm still exhausted at 5 pm (the summer heat doesn't help).
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If you swim in a pool every day, you don't need to really shower much.
Chlorine is nature's soap.
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This thread was way more interesting to read than I expected!
I am boring, probably 6, 7 days at max
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Spent 2 weeks hiking in around the Red River Gorge, Kentucky and Sheltowee Trace back in the late 80's. Only time I got wet was when it rained, or found a creek to take a dip in.
When I got home, even my own Mother would not hug me. She sent me off to the bath where I stayed for over an hour.
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Like 4 days, but I was LARPing and I was a sweaty, stinky mess from running around the entire time.
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Chlorine is nature's soap.
-ze germans
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a month,I was in the woods. there were no baths
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A little over 3 months is my record. Mental health issues, naturally! 🥳
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A week or two probably, when in the army.
And since wr actually we're responsible for actual foods hygiene, we always got sauna/bathing priority. So never went more than two weeks imo.
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Several weeks. Usually I shower before leaving the house so when I was too depressed and anxious to leave the house I felt no reason to take one. But I don't shower as much as most people in general. Once a week maybe unless I'm sweaty or dirty. I also brush my teeth inconsistently. But I've never had a cavity, fungal infection or anything else hygiene related anywhere on my body. I also don't stink in case you're wondering
I disinfect my pits and use deodorant daily, I always check myself and my clothes and I also ask friends sometimes to be sure. -
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wrote on last edited by [email protected]Probably about 1-2 weeks, unless jumping in a lake during that time counts. We were in the back country deep in Canada
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probably a week
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Yup, same. 2 weeks while backpacking. I did have a washcloth, of course.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]A towel is the most massively useful thing a hiker can have...
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Two weeks while backpacking in New Mexico (unless you count getting rained on every day as a shower)
Same place for me I'm betting, but three weeks on a longer "choose your own adventure" route. We chose to hike most of every day and cover as much ground as possible instead of stopping at the more "comfortable" areas that had facilities.
I forget the exact distance but pretty sure it was over 225 miles.
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wrote on last edited by [email protected]About three weeks, while I was training to be a truck driver.
I'd gotten my CDL through a trucking company's "apprenticeship" program, which was actually a super-predatory mill they ran to compensate for their insane turnover rate.
The final phase of this company's program, after I'd acquired my CDL but before receiving my own truck assignment, had me driving/riding on a "trainer's" truck for 20,000 miles, while the more-experienced trainer showed me all the ins and outs of life on the road. In theory, anyway.
In practice, I'd learned essentially everything there was to know after a couple of days. Enough to get by on my own, at least.
So my trainer suggested we run the truck as a team operation from then on, running long-distance, time-sensitive loads, forcing one of us to drive while the other slept, in order to burn through my training miles faster. The company was tracking training miles by the truck, not by the driver, apparently.
Rather than driving 400-500 miles per day, I was pushing 1000 miles per day, every day, the truck only stopping for fuel and to work with customers. Between pickups and deliveries, my trainer had this annoying habit of only visiting truck stops while I was asleep, and finding random industrial parks and highway shoulders to park on for shift changes. I never had time to take a shower.
I staved off the stink with copious amounts of baby wipes and Febreeze. I also found out later, that my trainer owned the truck we drove, and my wages were not taken out of the revenue for the loads he ran. So I was effectively free labor for him.
I don't work for that company anymore. I'm still in trucking, but I spend weekends at my house. And I try to shower at least every other day on the road.
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Probably pushing 2 months. I was thru hiking the Appalachian Trail and was in full on dirty hippie mode.
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Spent 2 weeks hiking in around the Red River Gorge, Kentucky and Sheltowee Trace back in the late 80's. Only time I got wet was when it rained, or found a creek to take a dip in.
When I got home, even my own Mother would not hug me. She sent me off to the bath where I stayed for over an hour.
Damn fine country there
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About six weeks. I was attached to someone else's unit at NTC in California for a training excersize with them. There were no showers in the field, and the showers pre and post excersize were colder than a witches tit, and open as a gay mans asshole after all night orgy.
And that wasn't the worst part of the whole experience either.
And that wasn't the worst part of the whole experience either.
Hmm, was it the 4 hours of sleep a day, or mopp 4 in 115 degree weather?
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Just 3 days. Finals week in the university.
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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!
