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.
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.
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!
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.
What length of hair did you have?
Good question to ask! I had short hair then, which is why it worked. Have long hair now and could not get away with it again - start feeling too greasy after a week, and I like my hair silky with conditioner.
Just 3 days. Finals week in the university.
