Getting caught doing this during the Spanish Inquisition was a one-way ticket to the iron maiden. In medieval times doing it was believed to infect you with the Black Death. Early Christians considered it on par with idol worship. But of course the Romans were all about doing it. In public. For every occasion.
What is it? And no, it has nothing to do with the corporal punishment of monkeys.
It is bathing. Today, not bathing could get you a ticket to Iron Maiden, a butt-metal mosh pit being one of the least-discriminating venues in our society. And though not bathing probably won’t infect you with the Black Death, you might get whatever plague it is that people are so afraid of getting in public restrooms that they must hover six inches above the toilet seat, misting it so it will be extra refreshing upon your arrival.
Bathing John Malkovitch
Not so for Craig Bierko, the guy who’s in all the shows you watch but you never knew his name. In his show, Bathing With Bierko, (named so people would finally stop asking “hey, does that guy look familiar to you?”) he interviews popular celebrities… while bathing. Together. The Romans would be proud. Me, I’m totally with him. Unless there is obvious splatter, I sit naked-cheeked on communal toilets. I don’t mind sharing a fork with someone, even a stranger. I’ll shake anyone’s hand, pat any tot’s head and kiss anyone’s baby, although I do draw a line at kissing my mother-in-law on the lips which is difficult as she is a very insistent lip-kisser.
Hygiene is Overrated
Thankfully I married a man with a similarly laissez-faire attitude. In our family, like our pioneer ancestors, our kids get a good dunk-n-scrub about twice a week. In between weekly baths, we do a “wipes bath,” which is exactly what it sounds like, to keep the kids smelling fresh enough to not alert their teachers to our negligent ways. We’ve also been known to count their weekly swimming lessons, telling the offspring to scrub between their toes whilst sitting on the edge of the pool waiting for their turn to have an intimate moment with a pool noodle.
What the Research Says
This will come as no surprise to you: washing your hands with soap (antibacterial is not necessary, regular does great) and water is the e=mc2 of the health world. Do it. And this is one of those things where I think it is totally appropriate to shame other people into doing it. Toilet seats on the other hand are not actually as germy as people think making the hover manuever we all learned as kids unnecessary. That is unless you just like getting a good quad workout in which case I say your aim had better be impeccable. And while daily bathing will certainly make you smell better – especially if you workout every day – it isn’t necessary for good health.
Now that I’ve spilled my, ahem, dirty little secret now I want to know – do you carry your own paper toilet seat cover in your back pocket or do you seek out the moist seats and figure now you can save $20 and skip your flu shot? And more importantly, could you spill your guts in a bathtub with the man who brought us the made-for-Lifetime Danielle Steel’s Star? What’s your hygiene shortcut?
I totally agree with you! Everyday bathing is totally overrated. I take around 4 or 5 showers a week and am quite unapologetic about it. With a good deodorant, no one notices.
I have no hygiene shortcuts! I in fact have a bit of a (sort of?) secret obsession with showers and oral hygiene. I shower 2 times a day, then proceed to slather myself with various moisturizers- though I have been told to lay off given my insanely dry skin and the fact that I live in what should, by all accounts, be a desert wasteland (i.e. Calgary, AB). I find showering to be calming, and the true 'break' I have each day- plus, I'm a sucker for pretty smelly things, so I need to actually use them if I buy them, no?
This is also reinforced by young children telling me I 'smell like cupcakes', and by hearing similar things from peers. However, I use no perfumes. I don't think your scent should linger when leaving a room, people should only be able to smell you during a hug. Otherwise, you have a body odour problem- be it a nice smell or not, your scent should not precede you. (Someone, please pass this message on to teenage boys, who tend to overdo it, ugh).
I do apply this to the general population also- if you can get by on 2 showers a week, and not have the issue of more than by hug scent, then I am fine with this entirely.
But I do hate washing my hair. I do that only twice a week. But I can also get away with it, given my hair texture.
Teeth wise, I have a rigorous schedule of 'brush, floss, brush, mouthwash' three times a day. I am my dentist's dream patient- which is why I'm still allowed to see him (a children's dentist), even though I'm 22.
I'm too OCD. I shower at least once a day, twice if I can squeeze it in. I can't bathe very often; who has that kind of time?! Plus, even knowing how clean the tub is, I just can't sit where someone's feet go. Even my own. Mostly to do with hair. If I don't wash it every day, it feels nasty, won't stay where I put it, and, being cursed with sensitive skin, if I don't wash it regularly, my skin breaks out.
Well, now that you know way too much about my bathing habits, I'm going to go get ready for work.
Joshua
http://techparent42.blogspot.com
I go both ways 🙂
for myself Im an EVERYSINGLEDAY showerer in that Im also a sweater (and reside in the land of unrelenting sun) but after quickly realizing for my daughter a daily bath tends to dry our her skin (and her hoohah. oh lordy the hoohah dry'age 🙁 ) we do lottsa wipes baths like you do.
the best part is her GIGGLING.
the entirely thing makes her laugh (and me love it more than regular bathing for her for that reason :))
I shower every day. Since I do not do any caffeine, that shower is what wakes my ass up every day.
I'm a soggy mess after I work out, so I HAVE to shower just to feel normal again.
But I'm not germaphobic. Like you, I actually sit on public toilets and don't get too freaked when a passerby sneezes on me.
If I were going to get the Black Plague, I would probably get it from handling the equipment at the gym.
Love the laissez-faire attitude towards germs, as I have it myself. I really do think that minor casual exposure to various common bugs builds up our immunity and works better as a defense against illness than trying to disinfect everything in sight.
For me, cardio day=shower, as otherwise I stink. But days where I just walk and/or do weights I've been known to skip. And when we're traveling in the van with very primitive shower facilities, all bets are off.
Shower every day because I work out and otherwise I feel gross. Also, I like to wash my hair every day because it looks better when it's been washed. I have extremely dry skin, so I'd probably be better off if I wasn't showering every day, but I just can't handle it. And as someone else said – I just enjoy showering; standing under the water is relaxing. As for public toilet seats, if they look clean, I sit.
I'm a germaphobe. Can't stand public washrooms. I've been known to stand by the door, waiting for someone to come in so I don't have to touch the door handle to get out!
That said, if I do not have to go to work or go out in public, I will skip showering, because it drys my skin out.
Of course, I am of the generation who used to all have to use the same bath water once a week ('cause when you're hauling it from the well in 40 below weather, or melting snow for water, you don't waste a drop!) The youngest gets to go first because, theoretically, they are the cleanest…. So it doesn't bother me to have what my mother used to call a "spit bath" in the sink!
My confession is that I don't always wash after using the bathroom. I'm sorry, but I pee about every 20 minutes since the baby discovered where my bladder is, and if I always washed up, my skin would be raw!
I'm with you! I'm not really a sweater and I have really dry skin and hair, I usually shower twice a week. Unless of course I do some cardio. I never liked taking showers more often because it dries up my skin and face really bad. Also I like to take long showers with complete skin/hair care so it would be impractical to do that every day (facial scrub, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, shave, pumice feet, dry, face cream, body cream). On that point I am OCD as I feel uncomfortable (dirty or dry skin) if I skip anything!
As for the dangers of bacteria – I'm totally aware that toilets are not the biggest enemy. In my microbiology lab we went around the campus to test different places for bacteria. We didn't test for what kind of bacteria but rather the quantity or concentrations of total bacteria. We found that the drinking fountains were the worst offenders, followed by the cafeteria tables, and then only by door knobs, faucets and sinks; the toilets were the best of all the places tested. The money we handle every day is much more infected!
Also, I do wash my hands several times a day, but with regular soap. We also had fun testing the bacteria on our hands before washing, after washing with regular soap, and after washing with antibacterial soap or wiping alcohol. There's not a huge difference between washing with normal soap or washing with antibacterial. In my mind the dangers of creating antibacterial-resistant strains of bacteria is much bigger than the need to kill a few more. Unless I'm working in the lab (were I work with human pathogens, not the school lab), then I'm all for antibacterial soap but in there I'm also for double gloving and uniform + sterile gown wearing 🙂
Are we the same person? This is not the first time I have asked myself that question.
Oooh! In college micro class, we cultured bacteria off of various communal surfaces, such as the toilet seat. The dirtiest spot on the whole campus was a professor's mouse pad.
Also, I don't use antibacterial anything, because it actually does more harm than good. It kills off the good bacteria and yeast that live on your skin and can actually make you more susceptible to other infections.
I'm with you. I shower after I have a sweaty workout, but I've been known to not shower a) after a not very sweaty workout b) if I don't work out that day. I always sit on the toilet seat and I don't get a flu shot (although I did back in the days when I lived in the dorms and you couldn't escape the germs). I use a public shower twice a week. I am a tooth brusher and a hand washer. I've been blessed to be very healthy so I guess this combo works well for me.
Interesting thing from a few years ago. Study on brain activity showed that people who take more showers tended retain less information in their brains. Something to do with the constant barrage on the skull. Just FYI for those of us…I mean, you…who shower often. Again, I shower a lot, but most times I don't stand with my head under the flow for too long; my shoulders need more attention than my scalp.
I bathe everyday, but it's much more about feeling "right" and feeling like myself than about being sanitary. Also, I find that I am much less likely to sweat if I bathe on the morning and I'm in favor of anything that will keep me from sweating unless I'm looking to get sweaty. So yes, I do bathe everyday. But my husband, who is Eastern European, bathes either every day or every other day, depending on what he;s doing and what the weather is like, and I don't find him offensive so bathing daily is probably NOT really necessary (but I like it). If i had young kids, I'd probably only make them bathe 2 – 3 times a week because kids don't have B.O. and they generally don't like showers anyway so why impose daily bathing on them unnecessarily?
@Joshua — Interesting study about the relationship between showering and retaining information. Personally, I find that if I don't shower in the morning, I have a hard time focusing during the day — it's like a still feel sleepy or I feel too gross to concentrate on anything. It's all mental, I know, and no one else perceives this "gross-ness" but it is a distracting feeling.
I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
I wash my hands of this blog.
Tsk.
I am not a germ phobe, but I do hover. I guess it is a habit I will never break. As for the bathing. Well, I have very fine, straight hair. If I go longer than 24 hours without a shampoo, I look like a greasy rat. Seriously.
As for my kids, well, I never really worried about bathing them, maybe every other night. But now they shower by themselves and kind of like feeling grown up. So I let them shower nightly. It is 15-30 minutes I get of some quiet time. And if they still have soap in their hair from not rinsing it well enough? Well, hopefully they will just smell that much better. 🙂
And here is one for you to use. In the summer when my sisters and I would be in our little kiddie pool, at the end of the day, mom would come outside with a bar of soap and the shampoo. Nothing like public washing in the driveway!
Our kids get 3 baths a week (unless they go swimming, play in the mud or, um, get spaghetti all over their hair. ahem.)
I shower w/ hair washing 2-3 times a week, but take baths on the other days.
I tend to hover at most public restrooms, but the ones at my gym are SO CLEAN I feel safe settling down.
I do wash my hands A LOT, however. 2 kids. Flu season. Need I say more?
Wow – I must say that I am shocked about the germ thing – I would have guessed you were a germophob. I am not, I sit if it looks clean but always do wash my hands. I shower about every other day and always after cardio. I wish I did not need to shower that often because even though the shower feels great, it feels like I am wasting time and it takes so long to comb out my hair, etc, ugh. I have a terrible habit of forgoing a workout or tennis because I just don't feel like showering after – I need to get over that –
If I'm not supersweaty, I shower about every other day, occasionally every third day, according to the dictates of my hair. It likes to be washed every other day, so that's what I do. I know people who shower multiple times a day, and it just seems like a waste of water to me.
Love the post! On hard core workout days, I do shower BUT I do not always wash my hair which cuts down on shower time. With age, I am losing some hair so I started because of this but also good for environment to save water! Takes lots of time to work out the crap in this head of curly hair. On non workout days, I have been know to put on deodorant & perfume only!
I am pretty lassiez faire as well. The rule is that I shower in between a cardio workout and the next time I leave the house. With the new hair product I have, I can go 4-5 days and it still looks awesome, so I wash about twice a week max. I sit on public toilets unless there is obvious ick. Sometimes I forget to shower/brush teeths if I'm having a lazy weekend in. I do the hygiene thing mostly as a courtesy to others, as being a little dirty/sweaty really doesn't bother me.
My other half is not quite so much. He's been broken a bit, but he still has issues with me eating out of the ice cream container and is super careful about not contaminating anything that MIGHT POSSIBLY HAVE GERMS in the kitchen, and he showers EVERY morning PLUS anytime he might have gotten a little sweaty.
I also believe that the whole antibacterial thing is overrated. People who are TOO sheltered from germs don't build up immunities and pay for it later, IMO.
No shortcuts. 🙂
My main thing is I wash my hands a lot. A LOT…of course I work in a lab.
My skin is so dry that I try and shower every other day unless I've worked out to the point where noone wants to be around me, otherwise it's a quick rinse/wipedown. Ditto for my hair…it's fine every other day. My husband isn't so lucky …he's a sweater. So yeah…he showers after he works out. It's in the marraige deal 🙂
I'm more particular about the whole hand washing before I eat thing. Washing your hands with regular soap for 15 seconds is enough to keep you healthy.
Still get my flu shot…but then I have asthma so I'm supposed to.
I sit. My legs get enough of a workout in yoga – no need to hover.
Showers – my husband always makes fun of me b/c I don't always fit them into my day. I workout, go to work, run errands, but I don't always get in a good scrub. He often showers twice a day -that's enough for both of us, right?
To avoid having to wash my hair, I've been known to sprinkle a little baby powder on my hands and then run them through my hair — especially on the underside. It works wonders for making your hair look less greasy.
I am afraid I have to disagree. I take 2 showers a day as a rule. I feel so dirty if I don't do this.
I sit right down too! You ladies who don't and spray need to clean up after yourselves. You're the ones making the mess! I'm 39 and have never caught anything from a toilet seat.
I take a full shower (shampoo and shave) two to three times per week. Because I'm a Spin instructor, I take a couple quick rinses so my fiance and I can go to bed without the sweat of my labor.
Good to know there is another family out there who follows our bath pattern as well. I have used a run through the sprinklers or splash park as an excuse to let my kids go another day without a bath! If it were socially acceptable to spray some shampoo on them while they are out there, I would.
One of these days my kids may learn that there are those out there who bathe daily and may feel pressure to do so… until then, we will stick with our heathenistic ways!
I shower daily, mostly because I sweat without working out, and being pregnant makes my body produce some horrible output… But I only wash my hair twice weekly. I bathe the little one twice weekly, with hair-washing only happening once weekly, due to her intense fear of water on her head…
I wash my hands most times I use the bathroom (though again, pregnancy makes this a regular routine which results in cracking skin during winter), but find myself washing the most while cooking, as I wash with soap after each step in a recipe… lucky for my family, I guess 🙂
I can only wash my hair about every 5 days, as it is exceptionally dry. Same goes for the rest of my skin.
I wash my face daily – often twice – and my hands many times a day (every bathroom trip, plus any time I go to the kitchen for something.)
I sit to pee, and use baby wipes after I poo.
As for the dryness from washing my hands so often, I use "Look Ma New Hands" by bath and body works, which re-moisturizes them really nicely. Nightly I use Ami-Lactin lotion over my entire body, and Olay products on my face.
As a person with an autoimmune disease, I get incredibly angry when folks don't wash their hands after using the bathroom. Those people, with their fecal-matter-covered hands, are touching things like doorknobs, faucets, keyboards, grocery carts, etc, and it can literally kill me. I try to take precautions against their disease-spreading by washing my own hands that much more often. *sigh*
I shower once a day or once every couple days- mostly depends on a) if I can be bothered to wake up a little earlier in the morning and deal with the chilliness of being naked in my bathroom (my apt is ridiculously cold), b) how bad my hair looks, and c) how strenuously I've been exercising. I'm pretty lax about it.
Washing my hands, though, and brushing my teeth, are something that I ALWAYS do very regularly.
HAHAHA THAT PICTURE IS AMAZING!
Some hygiene is important (hand washing). Some is not (hair washing). And the people who use frightening amounts of hand sanitizer and lysol freak me out. I think they're the ones producing the children with the crazy allergies.
I'm with you here, not too concerned, in general. I wash/condition/de-dread my hair every 3-4 days, and I can only do that when wet, if I don't want it to be difficult. I agree with Lele on sanitizers, not to mention antibiotics. Besides, we are hosts all kinds of bugs, I had to accept that when I learned in bio class the wildlife that live in our eyebrows.
Yep…My hair is really thick and curly and only requires washing about 2-3 times a week, so that's when I shower…I'm ont a big sweater either…
And as far as the toilet…I've been sitting on them for 30 years and never got deathly ill from it…Hovering is pointless.
Wow – loved this post and the comments. My curly hair does better with fewer washings, so I am an infrequent showerer. I used to feel guilty about that, but now I relish the extra time in the morning and have perfected my "I'm saving the environment by using less water" haughty expression.
I do wash my hands a lot – mostly because I have a dog. So maybe I'm using more water than I realize. Hmmm, may need to re-evaluate said haughty expression…
Ever since I got pinworms at Disneyland when I was 6 I have hovered. Wouldn't take $100 to sit. But showers? Eh, optional unless there was a real sweatfest.
Did I touch a weight at the gym (or anything for that matter?) scrub with soap & water FOR SURE (even sans shower)
Now, different topic, but washing the ?e.coli infected spinach? Only for others, not me. Bad Deb, Bad.
And not a lip kisser either- esp with the MIL. 😉
90% isopropyl rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle. Spray liberally after mowing the lawn or any other summer sweat..armpits, upper torso, and neck. It helps evaporate oils and kills germs.