Ask Lemmy

This thread is full of "oh shit, these Americans need help..!" revelations, I'm sure.

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.

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.

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…

Like a week? It was at girls camp and I was doing “PTA baths” pits, tits and ass but the water in the showers were ICE COLD, like it was literally the same temp as the glacier lake our camp was at that we were not allowed to swim in for more than ten minutes at a time so we wouldn’t die. Putting my head under that water to rinse my hair was physically painful. There was a huge camp wide hike that me and a few other girls managed to skip out on and we all took hot showers, there was like maybe a dozen of us, and it was glorious. Then like, hours later, everyone comes back and the next morning during announcements they were bitching “some girls stayed back and used all the hot water so the leaders (adults) didn’t have any” like bitch what? We NEVER have hot water, we have painfully cold water, and it had hours to reheat before they even got back, suck it up and stop hogging all the hot water for yourselves! I didn’t feel bad and still don’t twenty years later

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.

9 months.

I was hiding inside another human being.

5 days. was so sick i couldnt even play video games. all i had was mr. beat videos to help me. i stunk like fucking shit on the 5th day but was finally well enough to actually get up and move around. best shower of my life

Get a bidet, and it makes it easier to put a day or two between showers.

Not very long as an adult, handful of days, maybe 4 or 5 when very sick.

4 days, music festival.

Probably a week as a kid, when camping. But I'd swim every day which kinda caps the grossness to an extent.

Also before puberty I'd go days between baths.

A day, maybe ?

My nickname in junior school was "stinky" which probably tells you all you need to know. Grew up poor, primary caregiver had mental health issues and financial troubles meant electricity for hot water was not a regular thing..

I don't remember exactly but my mom who actually worked and did her best those days to support us would have made sure I was bathed on the weekends at least. So one week tops.

I'm still paying for the lack of regular teeth cleaning in my youth. Nowadays I'm pretty fastidious about hygiene, and showering regularly!

Do sponge baths count?

I lived in a van for a while, where I mainly used a wash cloth and a bucket. I had several plastic water bottles that I would pack into a backpack, bring into a public bathroom, and refill under the tap. When I got back to the van, one got mixed with no-rinse soap (that I'd gotten at a camping supply store), and 2 or 3 were used for washing my hair. On occasion I did go to the beach and use the free outdoor showers, but that wasn't a viable everyday solution.

Two weeks, a few times. Backpacking in the sierra, kayaking in Baja, and climbing trips to j-tree. Except j-tree, trips included swims but no soap. DYK salt water kills most bacteria that cause body odor, some salt rash but no odor kayaking in Baja.

This thread makes my asshole itchy.

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!

Just 3 days. Finals week in the university.

Eight days because my city lost water after an earthquake.

Probably pushing 2 months. I was thru hiking the Appalachian Trail and was in full on dirty hippie mode.

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.

probably a week

Probably about 1-2 weeks, unless jumping in a lake during that time counts. We were in the back country deep in Canada :)

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.

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.