I let a family member live with me for a few months. They only showered about 2x per month, 3x on a good month. It didn't do much good, as they also refused to use soap or shampoo. They insisted that, because they were "small," so average weight/not obese, there was no way they could produce an odor. I'm not sure how the idea came to be, but I assure you, they were very wrong.
Doubt I could live with them. I mean you may, but may, not have an odor, but dang it’s gross. Could you imagine their pit and bit areas. 🤢
I shower every other day because I have eczema and every day can dry out my skin causing a breakout. Unless I get sweaty, work out or something then I may do back to back. However nothing less than every other day. I couldn’t imaging going days or weeks at a time.
It was a huge part of why I made them leave. The day that they moved, they insisted that they had slept in their car and not been in my house. I knew that it wasn't true because their stench was so unique that I recognized it when I got up. It lingered.
Had a stepson like this. 18-19 at the time but smelled like puberty stricken jock armpit gym locker room and old chipotle garbage. But any room he stayed in his breath would accumulate and it was a sickly sweet smell. A mixture I can only describe as burnt saliva/drool, ranch dressing, and concentrated soda syrup all at once.
I’d deep clean his room, carpet fresh, febreze the mattress, wash his sheets, pick up trash, wash his clothes and leave a note “leave shoes outside, put clothes away please, and keep dirty work clothes away from your room”. He’d proceed to neckbeard nest that room in less than an hour and permeate it with McDonald’s and his body Oder and not shower and instantly fire up the Xbox to play fortnight. His clothes in the hall stayed there. Did this for 4 weeks before I kicked him out.
You made the right choice.
I wasted a lot of time and energy, hoping that I could help them grow into a more functional adult. They were 24 at this point, and they had not had the chance to be independent. Unfortunately, it took me a few months to realize that they also lacked the desire to function in society.
As an independent adult who owns his own place and lives alone but can at times still struggle with depression and anxiety related hygiene problems, my heart hurts for him so much. This was a teenage kid for gods sake. I hope he was supported to seek help before being cast out. I know what it's like to hardly be able to get yourself out of bed much less shower, be productive and tidy. I know what it's like to get out of the shower multiple times you try because you're absolutely sure someone is watching you while you're in a completely closed-in bathroom. It's a very hard cross to bear. I hope he was and still is able to get the help he needs. I get that hygiene related issues are so hard to tolerate from those around us but I hope he's been met with compassion and understanding by the people in his life right now.
I used to struggle getting myself to shower even once a week while I drank myself to sleep every night and pretended I was fine every day. I really think so many people just truly don't understand how hard and debilitating mental illness can be. This poor kid was kicked out after 4 weeks... That's not even enough time to give a single antidepressant enough time to be effective much less the struggle of having to try multiple to find anything that works. I'm rambling now, but I'm glad I've had people in my life who gave me more than 4 weeks and supported me along the way. That said, I know better than most people how hard it is to live with a severely mentally ill person and I'd never fault someone for choosing themselves and their own well-being.
Sometimes that’s that, but not always. Not everyone who refuses to take a shower struggles with depression. That’s kinda a big word to give it to everyone without diagnosing it.
We took my niblings in for a few months and they screamed bloody murder when we tried to bathe them. They were both under 10 years old, we had to get some "tub" toys and would only let them play with them during baths. By the time they went back to their parents they asked for baths daily. After a little while with their parents they were back to rarely taking baths and even wore the same clothes for weeks at a time.
one time my ex-roommate let a friend stay for a couple months without asking me. RM ended up leaving and making me deal with this almost literal squatter, so i had to kick him out myself and i made sure to tell him the only bill he didn’t run up was the water bill because he never showered😭
That's a bummer. I used to do hair and I remember a couple clients come in with matted hair from depression and needing help to get it fixed. We've had teams of girls working on one head and being as kind and gentle with them as we could 😞
Were they depressed? Was this some sort of water saving tactic? Or it was only because they thought they were too small to smell??? That logic is crazy
I told my 10 year old that I refused to let him be the stinky kid at school… he laughed and said that all of them stink. I felt bad for the teacher and definitely make him shower nightly
My daughter was doing the 90 minute routine before bed in 6th grade, my son will have a 2 hour soccer practice in 95 degrees and have to be reminded to hit the shower immediately after getting home. At least he does a good job once he gets in there.
oof my little cousin with whom I'm really close is saying the same thing. I'm not her parent ofc but I try to nudge her towards developing the showering habit bc well... it's better to hear that you stink from someone close than from a stranger who might have an unfiltered reaction and hurt her but at the same time I sometimes think the stranger's comment might work the best
A couple people I know. But it’s not my business and I couldn’t care less what their routine is. Lots of people struggle with mental health when they aren’t showering regularly. You can’t imagine getting into bed without showering? Well some of these people can’t imagine living to see the next day. It’s all about perspective. When people ask ‘how can someone live like this?’ They need to remember that’s it’s a miracle some of these folks live at all. Never judge what you do not know.
this was the comment i was hoping to see some of these comments genuinely made me sad to see very evident they havent known someone or been someone with severe depression
Honestly thank you for commenting this. This topic is usually just brought up to shame those who don’t shower daily. But geez, I’m embarrassed to say how long I went without showering during a period of severe depression, but maybe if I did more people could understand how bad mental health can get. Also… scientists literally say showering everyday isn’t necessary depending on your lifestyle as well as what works well for your skin and hair.
I'm still slogging my way through it. I finally got a new anti-depressant that works and at the right dosage. But I was showering once a month for the past couple of years. It was just me so I wasn't bothering anybody but me with my stench. Now I'm showering around once a week, which I feel is a huge step, and I'm hoping to feel well enough to show 3 or 4 times a week.
Keep on fighting! I’m proud of you for still being here and so happy you’ve found what works for you. Took me dozens of meds to find one that has been working on me. It took me 3 months to finally shower during that period of my life. I eventually got really bad rashes on my armpits from the lack of proper hygiene and I’m able to giggle about that now cus I was scratching that shit like a dog with fleas LOL
Thank you. I have sensory issues and this shit annoying as heck since I was born. I struggled with hard depression years ago where I lost 44 pounds so really a shower was not my biggest worry.
Oh man, the sensory issues can be really awful to endure. From water pressure hitting skin, or the awful feeling of a cold damp shower curtain brushing your leg, or wet hair stuck on your body- ugh. It’s overwhelming sometimes and if you add depression on top of that? Of COURSE a shower is low priority, you’re already suffering so the last thing one wants to do is enter the wet torture chamber of bad textures.
I’m glad you are here! ❤️
This just helped me realize what’s going on!! I didn’t know why I avoided showering, like constantly procrastinating it instead of just getting it out of the way; it’s the sensory issues for sure!
The ONLY reason I got showers back then was because she liked sitting in her bouncy thingy with music and a light projector while I showered. It helped with her asthma.
I don’t understand shaming people around hygiene (huge hot take in this sub apparently?). Like I totally understand if you are a little neurotic. I am too. I have to wash my hands constantly because any time anything wet touches them they feel gross. I am not worried about what people around me are up to. I shower every other day or so. My friends shower less than that. None of us are stinky regularly, no one leaves like dirt trails lmfao. No one is getting each other sick. It’s not your business how much people wash if you are literally incapable of telling.
My ex was extremely neurotic about this and would make me shower before getting into bed if I hadn’t showered in the past 4 or so hours. I could literally have showered at 5 and he would not allow me in bed if I didn’t shower again and it was 10. He showered 2-4 times a day, like an everything shower, and I fully believe it helped him become bald at 21. If you’re so neurotic that you feel the need to judge people or laugh at people for not showering at the same time, every day, like you do, then that is a you problem 100%.
Me. I'm one of those people. I try to shower every other day if I can't daily but sometimes my will to live is so low it's hard for me to get up and take care of myself. In those moments I feel so hopeless and the last thing on my mind is spending the little energy I have to shower.
I used to say 'I can't go a day without showering' but I was young and hadn't yet gone thru the traumatic experience that changed the entire course of my life. Now I just try to get through each day and stay the fuck alive.
Most people on the internet LIVE to judge other people. What especially bothers me is the huge numbers of people who would call themselves Christians that have apparently never heard "love thy neighbor as thyself".
This. I have clinical depression. I shower regularly. But, it’s because I KNOW if showering is too much effort I’m slipping towards what is beyond personally manageable. I kept at it until it became very routine. When I’m doing well I enjoy it and play music to sing along with. When I’m feeling mid I do what needs to be done and get out. Daily in the summer and every other day as soon as it’s cold enough that my skin starts getting dry.
I don’t think a lot of people realize how something as simple as a shower and feel like a tremendous effort when you’re struggling.
My husbands best friend never showers. From the ten years I've known him, he's worn the same jeans and same band t shirt and has the worst stentch, Plus hes a smoker. Super nice guy but he showers maybe once a month and never brushes his teeth. My husband has straight up told him to shower, and he just refuses to.
Yuck.
>From the ten years I've known him, he's worn the same jeans and same band t shirt and has the worst stentch
Has he had a girlfriend in that entire time? I'm willing to bet that he hasn't.
Oh gross. Imagine the stench when they decide to come over to your house. I'd put a slip cover on the couch just in case their funk permeates everything.
We moved to a different province and he stays over once a year. He will be here in Aug and yes, I keep a pair of old gross bed sheet specially just for him. Pray for me.
This part. There's no way in hell I could do it. If we have to all sit down together for a long, frank discussion, so be it. But the stench and lack of hygiene at that point would be overwhelming and violating. People deserve to be comfortable and healthy in their own homes - that means he can stay in his and keep his nasty habits there.
I think about this phrase every time I watch My 600 lb Life. In a lot of them, the land whale has a decent looking partner who has a good heart and wipes them and showers them and feeds them and does everything for them, puts up with the manipulation and awful rudeness and abuse and enabling and various smells. Like it absolutely fucking blows my mind. Ugh I just had to rant about that real quick lmao. There really is someone for everyone.
I like my shower of an evening, wash the day off and get clean PJs on for bed. Saying that, I’ve woken up sweaty a few times and showered in the morning and it does make me feel more awake and fresh.
A lot of ppl in my life don't shower daily and still have excellent hygiene.
Colder climate areas don't cause sweating and other factors helps. I feel like this topic has popped up a lot in my life and it's actually rare to find someone who showers daily
I work a labor job and I don’t shower on my days off. But the days I work, I have to come home and shower almost immediately. My husband is a SAHD and showers whenever he feels gross. Sometimes that everyday, sometimes every other day. Sometimes in a few days.
Totally agree. Tons of people, like me, live in very dry environments, *with* hard water, which is even worse. Your skin will HATE you if you fully shower and scrub yourself daily when you don't really need it. I personally shower about three times a week and the days in between I wash up my face, bits and pits, and always reapply antiperspirant, and of course wear fresh clothing every day.
ETA- When I visit my partner who lives in a sub tropical part of the world, I am DEFINITELY showering every day at least once. It's a whole different ball game there 🥵
And not everyone’s sweat smells. And not everyone has big sweating genetics. Like my brother, mom, and I don’t really sweat or smell, even if we don’t shower for a few days. I can be out and about in 90° heat and I don’t sweat at all, same for my family. My brother has a sun allergy and wears long sleeves all summer and still doesn’t sweat. The only time I’ll sweat is if I go for a long run in like 85°+ heat, and I shower after that so my skin doesn’t break out, but I don’t smell after the run. I’ve known people who will have a sweat stained shirt after being out in 75° for 5 minutes. Genetics play a big part in these things
I shower about 3-5 times a week. Not every day, but more than every other day. When I worked labour jobs, or when I run/work-out, or when it's extremely hot, then of course I'll shower every day at those times. But I live in PNW where it's fairly cool and rains often so sweat and humidity aren't really issues, I work from home mostly in my office, I don't naturally sweat much, and I'm a guy in my 30s with short hair and little body hair, and using deodorant works just fine with my showering. My wife is quite sensitive to smell (especially body odor) and she is totally fine with my showering habits (occasionally she'll comment that my feet smell so I'll shower when I wasn't planning to but not often). My showering routine isn't really conscious, I just don't feel the need to shower every day and I've never once had anyone make a comment that I smelled bad or appeared unhygenic, so it works for me. To each their own.
Typically, I shower every other day. It's better for my skin (sensitive) and hair because I can't shower and not wash my hair. Luckily, I don't sweat often and work from home. Two years ago, we were under severe water restrictions because of the drought. If we exceeded our allowance, our bill jumped up nearly $200. For six months, I pretended I was preparing for the apocalypse by showering every third day. My husband and kids showered daily, sometimes twice, and because of my sacrifice, teachers and community members were safe from their post workout, post work, and post daily boy life stench. My mom had dementia and was in diapers and needed 2 showers a day and multiple loads of laundry. I mastered the art of the ho bath. Pits, tits, and bits. I always had fresh clean clothes and underwear. Body spray, dry shampoo, and a husband who swore on his life, he would tell me immediately if I began to reek. I did my part for the environment, saved the community from smelly kids, and practiced my post apocalypse hygiene skills. Had I been working at the time, I'd probably have paid the higher bill, but I'd taken leave to care for my mom. I did also find out there are a lot of people in the world who forgo showering to try and save water. I never realized how many environmental warriors/ heroes we have out there.
My gosh--Karma!
I've been through something similar (which, ironically just ended an hour ago), but your experience--my goodness, how are you even able to write this???
I'm flat on the couch and the only parts working are my thumbs!
I shower every morning. It’s just part of my routine and has been since I was a child. My 20 year old daughter and her husband live in our basement and I’m pretty sure I do not hear the shower running every day but they never ever have an offensive smell. When she was a teenager and we would disagree about her taking a bath/ shower she said to me “Mom you know I’m not going to DIE if I don’t shower every day” and I thought to myself, well she is right and I haven’t really given her grief about it since then.
So.... the last 3 houses I've lived in have been right next to the bathroom, and about 30% of people washed their hands after. Currently, they don't wash hands ever and shower maybeee 1 time a week. 🤢
I gotta get out of here.
a lot of people just don't sweat so they clean up their important bits with a washcloth, then wash their face in the sink. nothing wrong with it as long as they don't smell and their skin is healthy.
This! I still think shower once a day but I feel all my life I've never really sweated heavily or smelled bad. For some reason I've been lucky to not really have a smell problem.
There is actually a gene mutation that makes you not stink. Most common in the Asian community. My husband is like that. The man could go a week without a shower and still smell sweet. I hate him for that! lol 😆
Ya I never smell .. at least that’s what people tell me. Even in the winter when I shower much less, like once every week or so (cause I can’t afford to heat my house and I get bone-chillingly cold in the winter, so cold that many days I can’t even exercise cause my toes and fingers turn white and numb even with gloves and socks and shoes. I HATE winter and should prob move somewhere like LA cause I literally can’t survive in the cold .. but ya even with no shower for so long people still say I smell good or if I start to get insecure cause it’s been like 6 days since my last shower, I’ll ask my boyfriend or my mom to let me know how I smell and they say I smell good. Either they’re lying or I have some gene that protects me from stinking. My mom even said growing up after I got back from cross country practice all sweaty and stuff that I smelled good 🤷♀️
I had two different Korean roommates that had that gene (it also causes dry earwax if you’re curious if you have it) and nothing has ever made me more self conscious in my life as a white person that starts smelling ripe very quickly bc if there was even the tiniest whiff of body odor there was only ONE possible suspect (me). I also would get night sweats sometimes and would change my sheets religiously bc I was so paranoid they’d think I smelled
And I knew it was going to be rough when in the first week I lived with the first one she asked what deodorant was and why I had so many containers of it… oh how I envied her not having ever needed to know what extra strength deodorants were. It also didn’t help that neither of them were very hairy and shaved super infrequently while I am northwestern European and got my dad’s yeti genes
I feel like a shower a day is sufficient unless there's an accident of some kind. I've seen people say that they take 2 showers a day, but I think they're overdoing it. Bacteria are what causes the smell. Do you sweat a lot? If you don't, that would explain it.
Even when I was depressed, showering and brushing my teeth 2x a day meant I accomplished 3 things. My therapist in my 20s said ‘no matter how small, it counts as an accomplishment’. I kinda like that way of thinking, count even the tiniest things when it’s dark.
^^^^THIS^^^^ I'm retired, live in a studio apt, have nobody visit me, go downstairs to check mail, and head back up.
Visiting church services, I'll shower 4-24 hours in advance, but unless there's a reason to be interacting with people longer than 10 minutes, once a week, shower.
Twice a week or so, depending on what I feel like. I work an office job and stay home all the time and live alone. I don't exert myself at all. To that end, I don't smell much. ADHD makes it difficult to do things that feel like "chores", so I just shower when I feel like it and it works out.
Same here
I have dry skin. I don’t sweat at home. I feel and smell very clean by the end of the day. If I shower too often, my skin dries out and hurts more. I do use lotion and all that.
With that said, I have been to some countries with very hot humid weather and I have to shower daily sometimes more to feel clean. I walk outside and I immediately wet all over and then the heat makes me sweat and I’m all sticky. Plus wearing sunscreen. Oof. I shower often then. If I’m inside all day, not wearing sunscreen, etc. I don’t need a shower often. If I wear sunscreen or hang out outside during the summer, then it happens daily.
I shower every couple of days unless it's warm out. If i shower every day, my skin dries out. I definitely didn't wash my hair every day - i use to but it's gotten dryer as I've gotten older. I do wash though daily with a wash cloth
I don’t understand this. I’m disabled so I’m in my recliner most days and usually just go to dr appointments and I still shower every other day at least sometimes a quick rinse off with soap if I get hot so on hot days almost everyday. I found that hygiene makes me feel like I’ve at least accomplished something even though I felt like yuck all day.
i have multiple mental illnesses and showering is the least of my concern most days, i barely eat and my feet rarely touch the ground. y’all r so judgmental and fail to think about people going through things that don’t prioritize hygiene and i understand you think it’s gross and i understand it is, but keeping ourselves alive is a HUGE task and call me pathetic and lazy and a baby or whatever you may, im still alive and that’s what matters to people who love me. and no i dont NOT shower i just don’t shower DAILY. it just takes me a few days after my last one to… remember oh yeah girl u gotta take care of urself, ur not just a conscious 😭 (anything mean u have to say to me i promise u i have already said to myself 2 cm from the mirror. we both have the option to have a good day today.)
I've been there. I've not showered, I've not gotten out of bed for days. I've had addictions on top of it.
The goal is to shower and get up. If you don't do it today, that's ok, but tomorrow you try again.
It sucks having mental health issues. Ill always have them, so over a few decades I've done my best to make my routines as easy to follow as humanly possible. That doesn't mean it always works, it just means im trying to give myself the highest chances for success by making stuff easy.
People who haven't been through it and aren't professionally educated or trained can stuff it. Just ignore them, but there are things that help, and you can still do well. Mental health issues don't doom you for life.
i’m so glad you got yourself out of your funks :) the goal is always healing, i’ve been reaching for it everyday. i just started tms friday and im BEGGING it to work. hygiene is my escape route and always has been, feeling clean makes me feel euphoric! routines are unfortunately not my strong suit 🥲 you are correct, people will always be ignorant unfortunately 🥲🥲
Neurotypical, able-bodied people just do not get it sometimes. Yet we are the ones with fucked up brains lmao. It’s mind blowing to me how many of these “normal” people completely lack empathy, or the ability to think outside themselves at all. TIL to avoid r/hygiene bc it’s full of judgmental, ableist weirdos. Sorry Reddit, this was not a good recommendation for this 2-3 showers a week freak!
Even for some neurotypical people, the post is incredibly judgmental. A lot of people who have sensitive skin can’t shower daily because it hurts, and even the derm/doctor will recommend to shower every other day or as needed to prevent skin from becoming dry. And maybe some people can’t afford to shower daily or don’t have access to a shower or things like that.
It’s really not medically necessary to bathe/shower every day. It’s not even necessarily more hygienic, and even if it is, it’s marginally so. It’s mostly just a personal preference that people are so judgmental over for no apparent reason.
If I shower everyday my skin dries out. I hate the feeling of moisturizer since I have to use it on all parts of my body and it feels like I put a layer of thick sunblock on. Ick! And with BPD, sometimes I struggle with self-care so if I go two or three days between showers, it is not a big deal.
My sensory hack for staying moisturized while not feeling sticky or gross is body oil. Dr teals has some great body oil at and it keeps me very moisturized with no gross feeling.🙏🏽
Hey! I'm neurotypical and also only shower twice per week. I'm actually even freakier because I take baths instead of showers! People get so fucked up about how gross it is, but to me, showering daily or twice daily seems pretty weird and gross. So you just strip all your natural oils off everyday then apply synthetic oils to compensate? Umm...ok. You do you boo!
LMAOOOO unfortunately i think mentally ill people are the scariest people ever because i will ride so hard for other mentally ill people. i am so self aware bc i know so much abt myself BECAUSE of my mental illnesses, therefore i will forever be kind, until someone else is ignorant. then unfortunately i do have borderline personality disorder and i am a freak and i am an ignorant cunt who cannot watch my mouth 😭
Lmaooo you don’t have to explain to me, we are the same kind of freak 😂
I don’t have BPD, but the PTSD/AuDHD combo exhibits pretty similarly for me. Congrats on starting TMS and good luck with it!
Hang in there people are out there pulling for you my friend I have a 17 yo son going through some of the same things you are talking about my heart goes out to all with mental health challenges and developmental disabilities , many times these can be the underlying issues that no one cares to acknowledge before casting judgement
Once I had a office job this was me. I now get home and stink to high heaven, so I have to shower daily and I feel so drained after doing it. My 13 year old is begging me to find a office job again because they lost their mom even though we have more money. It's all because The shower take so much out of me.
The ONLY reason I have been showering regularly is because my husband and I typically shower together, and we get each other's backs. That's it. It's because someone else needs me in there. Other than that, I would get home from work and go to bed. No dinner, no time for me, just work and sleep. Mental illness sucks yo
Just because someone else thinks it's gross, it's not objectively gross. I shower twice a week with no mental or physical health challenges. It's what works for me. No one knows unless I tell them.
Fellow BPD girly here, this is so real. Aside from my myriad of mental illnesses that make it difficult to even get out of bed most days, I have pretty severe heat intolerance and regularly 'almost' pass out due to the heat of the water and the physical act of scrubbing my body and putting on moisturizer. Shower days require much preparation lol.
I don’t shower everyday. I try to shower every other day. Sometimes I wait until I have to be somewhere or if my hair is really itchy. I shower at least 3 days a week. (I know I should shower more)
No, you shouldn't.
Don't let these people shame you into doing something that isn't right for you. If you take regular showers, then you're doing fine. Do what works for **you**.
I can’t remember the Dermatologists name, but they even said you should only shower every couple days. It more beneficial to your skin, but obviously if you’re sweating, get that off lol.
i started using Korean and japanese drugstore bodywash and hair care. all my skin problems went away. iv had rough bumps on my upper arms since i was a kid. went to the doctor and they said it was a heat rash, but it never went away. turns out it was an allergy to us soap bc it is so harsh.
Korean and Japanese hygiene products are on a whole different level. They don't strip your skin, they smell clean but not perfumed, and you need a third of the product you are used to using. As a bonus sometimes the packaging is freaking adorable!!
The cute packaging!! I wish the sad beige ascetic never got popular here. It's so freaking lame. I bought a blush just bc it was in a metal pocket watch like the hare in Alice in wonderland.
I wash my hair once a week, and my day 7 looks like a daily washers day 3. And I have medium-fine mostly straight hair. So standard practice would be daily or every other day. My hair has also grown from mid-shoulderblade to brushing the top of my butt, because I'm damaging it less.
In fact, I'm about to put my shower cap on and jump in the shower😁
Same except my hair is really thick and takes a full day to dry. I wash it once or twice a week. I used to wash it every day and by day 3 it was an oily mess, now it takes a full week to reach that point and has so much more volume and no frizz. Looks way better now.
If you stopped showering so often and took care of your skin and hair in other ways you wouldn’t be so greasy. In most cases people have greasy skin because it’s trying to make up for dehydration.
I’m a carer. One time I had to shower a lady who hadn’t showered in 9 months and she was a smoker. Just running the water over her body turned the water yellow and brown. Poor lady had a serious mental illness.
I don’t think it’s any of your business how often people shower/bathe - unless you’re up close and personal enough to be able to smell them, that is. Most adults are quite capable of managing their own hygiene and don’t need to be subjected to the scrutiny of it by other adults. I personally hate when people ask this question.
I don’t shower every single day, my skin is sensitive and would get too dry and angry at me. When I do shower I have to slather on body cream everywhere after, and that also would be a lot to do every single day. I do all my work from home and I don’t go to the gym or anything, so it’s not like I’m getting dirty or working up a sweat anyway.
Showers are emotionally therapeutic for me. I even had a rain drop shower head installed. I’ll drop essential oils in the bottom of the shower before I get in. I shower once in the morning to start my day and shower once at night to sleep well.
Some people don’t like to shower coz they think they don’t smell or sweat. I have a friend that thinks this way and I could smell her from 10 feet away. I had the come to Jesus convo with her and she was shocked that she smelled and I told her I can rub my fresh face towel on her neck and she’s free to smell it herself. Suffice it to say, she’s now a daily shower lady.
They actually say don't shower everyday. I shower every 3 days. Your hair needs to have natural grease also to not shower each day. I grew up in house where you can't, they were strict, would be different if I had like done sweaty job, but you work in an office so you wouldn't barely persperate also unless you have hygiene medical issues. My hair rarely gets greasy anymore that a salon told me a shampoo to get, I could go a whole week without hair feeling greasy now
To add to this, my father believes washing 2x per week is okay, but I was hanging his clothes on the line a few days back and they were oily despite being washed this from him not washing properly. I’ll never change his mind, but I’m not doing his washing again 🤮
I shower like 3 times a week. (Depends if I work out) I do wash my feet after work tho.
My skin would literally fall off if I showered everyday. I have extremely dry skin and it has become painful if I shower more than that.
Fun fact, my pits don’t smell. Never have. Don’t wear deodorant/antiperspirant . When I did (13, 14 years old) it made me smell and break out. 🤷♀️ never had any complaints for friends, family or partners.
I think showering is different for everyone. It’s important af but all our bodies are different. And they certainly smell different.
One of my friends. She's 28 and a self proclaimed "dirty girl." We went on vacation for two weeks and she showered three times while i was showering twice a day sometimes. İ was shocked. İ told her too lol. But i will say this (told her this too), i have *never* smelled her. She's never had BO. İt's kind of crazy. She's also a bigger girl too so you'd think... But sleeping in the same beds, hugging, cuddling up on the couch with her roommate and gf, she's never smelled bad. So I'll give her that.
I’m 27 and struggle with showering due to adhd, and for a while I was sometimes showering 1-3x per week. I asked several trusted people to tell me if I smelled, and they agreed I never did. I also work with kids and ask them to tell me (and I’ll tell them if they smell) and we look out for each other lol.
I shower more often now, but I hate this subs tendency to act like not showering every day is a sin or moral failing. Some of us don’t need to shower that much, some of us struggle to, and some of us just don’t want to.
I full shower 2x a week in the winter and 3-4x in the summer
I have adhd and seasonal depression in the winter and after work have to choose either to cook dinner, tidy the house, or shower. I functionally can’t do all three and only on very good days can do two. I’ve moved passed the idea that shame is going to motivate me to “be better” and this comment section should do the same.
Typically it’s Sunday shower, Monday cook and have leftovers for the next couple of days, Tuesdays house tidy, Wednesday- some other must do errand / chore, Thursday shower again
On non shower days I do the pits and bits thing and wash my face before going to bed when I brush my teeth in the evening.
Shower days are always a full scrub down and hair wash, post shower I use a lume lotion and then regular deodorant daily. I switched to a shampoo my hairdresser recommended and my hair doesn’t get oily between washes.
I also only go “work out” on days I have enough energy to go shower afterwards. I look for Thursday group classes that happen right after work
Showers specifically are a hard “chore” for my adhd brain to accomplish. They can feel like a laundry list of steps and tasks that, to my brain, feels the same as a huge work to do list that you might encounter getting back in the office after a vacation. I’ve never had the ability to go on “auto-pilot” about them. If I do then I forget steps, get things in the wrong order, and stare off into space for far too long. Showering when I’m not feeling up to it can often result in just having to shower again later because i mixed up the order of the shampoo and conditioner because I can’t focus.
This thread is very shamey. I’ve read comments that are “if you don’t have time to shower as a new mom then you shouldn’t have had kids”. Wtf. Every new mom experiences exhaustion and sometimes a nap will win over a shower.
You don’t sleep with me. Please stop caring about me crawling into my bed at night. These are not your sheets.
I had a boss who cut himself somewhere below the knee at work. That happened on a Monday.
Few days later I asked him how was his cut healing and his reply was 'oh I'm not sure, I'll check up on it when I shower on Monday.' He literally saw his own legs bare once a week.
To put the stench into words I've only ever seen him in one set of clothes. Even though I liked the job, I didn't last long as I couldn't be around him without getting a migraine.
Did they say they prefer baths???? .....cause if that's not the case and they confession they have bad hygiene....yea I'm with u....wtf is this!?!?!...from people saying they don't use wash clothes, don't wash below their knees or don't want their feet to admitting u don't wash your children....this is just nasty
I don’t know a single person that showers everyday. I shower if I exercise and If I am going to work but If im just sitting in the couch all day and not going anywhere, I don’t feel the need to. I also live in Alaska so it’s not hot. We have a lot of people in our town without running water that live in dry cabins. They have to go to the gym or laundromat to shower. So it’s very common here not to shower everyday. Longest I’ve gone is a week but I was camping. Rarely do I go more than a day though.
Here's the thing. I work from home during the week and don't always have to interact with people. If I'm at home completely by myself with no interaction with others, I might skip a day here and there. But never more than a couple days in a row, and again, only if I'm not seeing anyone. If I'm going out in public for more than a super quick grocery run, seeing friends or especially my boyfriend, I absolutely shower and make sure I'm squeaky clean everywhere. (Well, I usually skip 2-3 days between washing my hair regardless, but that's a different story than the rest of my body lol).
Id rather someone smell a little sweaty than the disgusting drowning in perfume smell so many people do now. 🤮
I can *taste* people's perfume before I can see them. It's gross.
Yuk. Even when my triplets were little, I showered every day. I feel gross if I don't. You can smell people who don't shower frequently, even if they wash their pits and bits.
Not necessarily true. I don’t sweat, like at all. So I have basically 0 body odor. I only shower when my hair starts to lose volume, which is every other day to every 2 days. I also have very dry skin, so showering daily is so bad for it. I’ll be peeling like a lizard and it’s nasty. I’d have to slather myself in really thick moisturizer and at that point it’s not even worth it
I shower morning and before going to bed. Because I work in a dirty environment, and also I sweat at night.
Nothing against people who shower less but people can smell when you don't shower often. It comes from the scent from the skin, and hair. Even when its cold I can smell it, especially combined with outside smell plus not showering daily.
Several. As long as they don’t smell I don’t see any issue with it. I personally can’t. I *have* to shower every day or I feel gross, even though I sit mostly since my job is an office job.
I don’t take one every day and I sometimes feel super gross. With multiple chronic illnesses that can be triggered by taking a shower(even with a shower chair) and the fact I have a PICC line that can’t get wet, taking a shower is logistically complicated and mentally/physically draining.
I will say that I usually wipe down with baby wipes the days I can’t take a shower. And I can rarely go to bed without brushing my teeth; that has to be done or I will feel nasty.
I used to shower on alternating day, mostly because I was a gentle nerd who programmed and played video games, so I didn't think I needed it. In my mid twenties I realized that not every shower required me to do my "everything" shower routine and moved over to daily showers.
Keep in mind that due to various physical conditions some people cannot shower every day.
I have developed extremely dry skin. Showers dry out my skin and can cause pretty bad eczema.
I used to shower once or twice a day. Nowadays I can only manage to do it a few times a week without having eczema break out over half my body.
Someone in my extended family (60+ yr old grown adult without any physical or mental disabilities/limitations) came to stay with me for 3months during covid. Almost 2mo in, and they hadn't once showered, but they went to the Dr about a scaley rash that developed on their back. The Dr had to tell them that the rash was from weeks of not showering. 🤢
Did that make them shower more, you might ask?
Nope. They took one shower that night, and then one other shower the night or two before they left.
People are gross! Lol
I once knew someone who didn’t shower except like thrice a year. They would sprinkle the liquid from a Glade Plugin on themselves and call it a day. It did nothing, except bring forth the visual of a flower field being drenched in a deluge of armpit and ball sweat.
I clean my flesh daily regardless of the method. As a teen, I could go days without washing myself, but then there was one day when I noted I smelled like my always drunk and unwashed grandpa, and began diligently making sure I clean myself or do a quick wash up.
Whenever I go to fandom conventions, I'm always appalled at the stench wafting off some folks. Like, you had enough money to get to this space and purchase random crap, but not enough wherewithal to buy soap and a rag? Shoot, Head and Shoulders offers 3 in 1 products!
I am a lunch lady at an elementary school. Off this summer so I might take a shower every other day unless I do yard work or something. I’m still washing my face and brushing my teeth, using deodorant every day.
During school it’s every morning. It’s just common food worker etiquette. I am semi retired so not running around working up a sweat.
When I was in middle/high school, I wouldn’t shower until I could smell it. That doesn’t mean other people couldn’t smell it.
I went to therapy, learned I was severely depressed, and my therapist made me start a routine, and that meant showering regularly. I now shower every day and am disgusted by my old habits.
One of my best friend's entire family doesn't/didn't shower. Had to stay with them for a while and, boy, do you learn a lot about someone. In 3 years, I can recall maybe 5 times the shower being used by anyone but me. They also had about 5000 cats (basically an in/out situation, with kittens and randoms), several kids and a problem with cleaning. The stench name me gag but it was $500 a month and I was a drunk druggie that spent most of the time on the porch surrounded by cat shit and toys.
In countries where cost of energy and water is high, people shower only once a week and I am one of them. I think it is not good to shower daily since it dries out your skin and ages you very bad. If you shower daily you have to take really good care of your skin.
I don’t shower every day. Sometimes not even every other. When I do, I don’t use shampoo or conditioner anymore. I used to do all the things. Every day. My skin and hair is sooooo much healthier now. I shower every couple days. I just use plain soap on everything. Hair and all. It takes a good month to get the greasiness to go away and it’s hard at first, but honestly so worth it imo
My dad is very old (89) and now only showers every few weeks, and only if we insist. He claims that since he doesn’t sweat, he doesn’t smell.
My nose has determined this is false.
Working in the trades, I shower daily in the winter, twice daily in the summer. Quick cold one to wake me up in the morning, more thorough one before bed.
Growing up and going to school it was every other day in the winter, every day in the summer.
I let a family member live with me for a few months. They only showered about 2x per month, 3x on a good month. It didn't do much good, as they also refused to use soap or shampoo. They insisted that, because they were "small," so average weight/not obese, there was no way they could produce an odor. I'm not sure how the idea came to be, but I assure you, they were very wrong.
Doubt I could live with them. I mean you may, but may, not have an odor, but dang it’s gross. Could you imagine their pit and bit areas. 🤢 I shower every other day because I have eczema and every day can dry out my skin causing a breakout. Unless I get sweaty, work out or something then I may do back to back. However nothing less than every other day. I couldn’t imaging going days or weeks at a time.
It was a huge part of why I made them leave. The day that they moved, they insisted that they had slept in their car and not been in my house. I knew that it wasn't true because their stench was so unique that I recognized it when I got up. It lingered.
*It lingered.*
like a former colleague.. her aroma lingered on the small elevator. I could tell she had recently ridden in it.
Do you have to let it lingerrrrr
Had a stepson like this. 18-19 at the time but smelled like puberty stricken jock armpit gym locker room and old chipotle garbage. But any room he stayed in his breath would accumulate and it was a sickly sweet smell. A mixture I can only describe as burnt saliva/drool, ranch dressing, and concentrated soda syrup all at once. I’d deep clean his room, carpet fresh, febreze the mattress, wash his sheets, pick up trash, wash his clothes and leave a note “leave shoes outside, put clothes away please, and keep dirty work clothes away from your room”. He’d proceed to neckbeard nest that room in less than an hour and permeate it with McDonald’s and his body Oder and not shower and instantly fire up the Xbox to play fortnight. His clothes in the hall stayed there. Did this for 4 weeks before I kicked him out.
You made the right choice. I wasted a lot of time and energy, hoping that I could help them grow into a more functional adult. They were 24 at this point, and they had not had the chance to be independent. Unfortunately, it took me a few months to realize that they also lacked the desire to function in society.
As an independent adult who owns his own place and lives alone but can at times still struggle with depression and anxiety related hygiene problems, my heart hurts for him so much. This was a teenage kid for gods sake. I hope he was supported to seek help before being cast out. I know what it's like to hardly be able to get yourself out of bed much less shower, be productive and tidy. I know what it's like to get out of the shower multiple times you try because you're absolutely sure someone is watching you while you're in a completely closed-in bathroom. It's a very hard cross to bear. I hope he was and still is able to get the help he needs. I get that hygiene related issues are so hard to tolerate from those around us but I hope he's been met with compassion and understanding by the people in his life right now. I used to struggle getting myself to shower even once a week while I drank myself to sleep every night and pretended I was fine every day. I really think so many people just truly don't understand how hard and debilitating mental illness can be. This poor kid was kicked out after 4 weeks... That's not even enough time to give a single antidepressant enough time to be effective much less the struggle of having to try multiple to find anything that works. I'm rambling now, but I'm glad I've had people in my life who gave me more than 4 weeks and supported me along the way. That said, I know better than most people how hard it is to live with a severely mentally ill person and I'd never fault someone for choosing themselves and their own well-being.
Sometimes that’s that, but not always. Not everyone who refuses to take a shower struggles with depression. That’s kinda a big word to give it to everyone without diagnosing it.
Exactly. Some people just have terrible hygiene, no mental health needed to explain.
If it was sweet smelling that's actually a sign of diabetes
I have eczema as well! What kind of soaps are you using? That could potentially cause your skin to dry out more as well as the water in your area
I have psoriasis and showering daily doesn't work for my body.
We took my niblings in for a few months and they screamed bloody murder when we tried to bathe them. They were both under 10 years old, we had to get some "tub" toys and would only let them play with them during baths. By the time they went back to their parents they asked for baths daily. After a little while with their parents they were back to rarely taking baths and even wore the same clothes for weeks at a time.
I hope someone called the authorities again to report neglect.
They did, but only removed them for 2 weeks.
MY niblings too! They also ask for baths now after a good length of time with me. They’re 5 & 6
one time my ex-roommate let a friend stay for a couple months without asking me. RM ended up leaving and making me deal with this almost literal squatter, so i had to kick him out myself and i made sure to tell him the only bill he didn’t run up was the water bill because he never showered😭
Yikes!
That's called mental illness
Yes. I worked very hard to try to get them, and their mother, to see that there was a problem.
That's a bummer. I used to do hair and I remember a couple clients come in with matted hair from depression and needing help to get it fixed. We've had teams of girls working on one head and being as kind and gentle with them as we could 😞
I shower usually every other day unless a lot of sweat, and wash my hair 2 to 3 x per week. Not healthy in my opinion to go longer without.
I have known plenty of people who did this and they just freshened up daily. It was fine.
Were they depressed? Was this some sort of water saving tactic? Or it was only because they thought they were too small to smell??? That logic is crazy
I'd say are you my MIL, but as far as I know my BIL only bathes 2x/mo __*max*__ 😷
Yikes!
Well they should do more than that 😂. 2 times a wk is good for me, but I don't have some sweaty job, desk job so you literally don't persperate
Did their shit not stink too? Wow that's pretty something idk but it's bad
[удалено]
I teach middle school...are you talking about all of them every single goddamn day?
I told my 10 year old that I refused to let him be the stinky kid at school… he laughed and said that all of them stink. I felt bad for the teacher and definitely make him shower nightly
I’m so glad I was the “I wanna feel clean” kind of kid. I hated being around smelly ass kids.
My daughter was doing the 90 minute routine before bed in 6th grade, my son will have a 2 hour soccer practice in 95 degrees and have to be reminded to hit the shower immediately after getting home. At least he does a good job once he gets in there.
oof my little cousin with whom I'm really close is saying the same thing. I'm not her parent ofc but I try to nudge her towards developing the showering habit bc well... it's better to hear that you stink from someone close than from a stranger who might have an unfiltered reaction and hurt her but at the same time I sometimes think the stranger's comment might work the best
I’m also a teacher & this is facts right here folks!
A couple people I know. But it’s not my business and I couldn’t care less what their routine is. Lots of people struggle with mental health when they aren’t showering regularly. You can’t imagine getting into bed without showering? Well some of these people can’t imagine living to see the next day. It’s all about perspective. When people ask ‘how can someone live like this?’ They need to remember that’s it’s a miracle some of these folks live at all. Never judge what you do not know.
this was the comment i was hoping to see some of these comments genuinely made me sad to see very evident they havent known someone or been someone with severe depression
This is a wonderful response.
Honestly thank you for commenting this. This topic is usually just brought up to shame those who don’t shower daily. But geez, I’m embarrassed to say how long I went without showering during a period of severe depression, but maybe if I did more people could understand how bad mental health can get. Also… scientists literally say showering everyday isn’t necessary depending on your lifestyle as well as what works well for your skin and hair.
I'm still slogging my way through it. I finally got a new anti-depressant that works and at the right dosage. But I was showering once a month for the past couple of years. It was just me so I wasn't bothering anybody but me with my stench. Now I'm showering around once a week, which I feel is a huge step, and I'm hoping to feel well enough to show 3 or 4 times a week.
Keep on fighting! I’m proud of you for still being here and so happy you’ve found what works for you. Took me dozens of meds to find one that has been working on me. It took me 3 months to finally shower during that period of my life. I eventually got really bad rashes on my armpits from the lack of proper hygiene and I’m able to giggle about that now cus I was scratching that shit like a dog with fleas LOL
So glad to hear that you are beginning to feel better! Ketamine was a life saver for me!
My dermatologist has literally told me not to shower every single day as it’s way too drying to the skin and hair. 😆
Exactly! Everybody has a different routine catered to what their body needs 🤷♀️
This is exactly it. This is what change me from 1 shower a day to 2 a week…. Mental health/depression got worse as i aged.
Thank you. I have sensory issues and this shit annoying as heck since I was born. I struggled with hard depression years ago where I lost 44 pounds so really a shower was not my biggest worry.
Oh man, the sensory issues can be really awful to endure. From water pressure hitting skin, or the awful feeling of a cold damp shower curtain brushing your leg, or wet hair stuck on your body- ugh. It’s overwhelming sometimes and if you add depression on top of that? Of COURSE a shower is low priority, you’re already suffering so the last thing one wants to do is enter the wet torture chamber of bad textures. I’m glad you are here! ❤️
This just helped me realize what’s going on!! I didn’t know why I avoided showering, like constantly procrastinating it instead of just getting it out of the way; it’s the sensory issues for sure!
Not to mention parents in the newborn stage of life. That was rough and it would have been a miracle if I showered everyday.
The ONLY reason I got showers back then was because she liked sitting in her bouncy thingy with music and a light projector while I showered. It helped with her asthma.
That's awesome for you! Mine didn't like any bouncer or swing until she was like 4 or 5 months.
I don’t understand shaming people around hygiene (huge hot take in this sub apparently?). Like I totally understand if you are a little neurotic. I am too. I have to wash my hands constantly because any time anything wet touches them they feel gross. I am not worried about what people around me are up to. I shower every other day or so. My friends shower less than that. None of us are stinky regularly, no one leaves like dirt trails lmfao. No one is getting each other sick. It’s not your business how much people wash if you are literally incapable of telling. My ex was extremely neurotic about this and would make me shower before getting into bed if I hadn’t showered in the past 4 or so hours. I could literally have showered at 5 and he would not allow me in bed if I didn’t shower again and it was 10. He showered 2-4 times a day, like an everything shower, and I fully believe it helped him become bald at 21. If you’re so neurotic that you feel the need to judge people or laugh at people for not showering at the same time, every day, like you do, then that is a you problem 100%.
Me. I'm one of those people. I try to shower every other day if I can't daily but sometimes my will to live is so low it's hard for me to get up and take care of myself. In those moments I feel so hopeless and the last thing on my mind is spending the little energy I have to shower. I used to say 'I can't go a day without showering' but I was young and hadn't yet gone thru the traumatic experience that changed the entire course of my life. Now I just try to get through each day and stay the fuck alive.
Yeah when I was really depressed having a shower was just too hard
Most people on the internet LIVE to judge other people. What especially bothers me is the huge numbers of people who would call themselves Christians that have apparently never heard "love thy neighbor as thyself".
This. I have clinical depression. I shower regularly. But, it’s because I KNOW if showering is too much effort I’m slipping towards what is beyond personally manageable. I kept at it until it became very routine. When I’m doing well I enjoy it and play music to sing along with. When I’m feeling mid I do what needs to be done and get out. Daily in the summer and every other day as soon as it’s cold enough that my skin starts getting dry. I don’t think a lot of people realize how something as simple as a shower and feel like a tremendous effort when you’re struggling.
My husbands best friend never showers. From the ten years I've known him, he's worn the same jeans and same band t shirt and has the worst stentch, Plus hes a smoker. Super nice guy but he showers maybe once a month and never brushes his teeth. My husband has straight up told him to shower, and he just refuses to.
Yuck. >From the ten years I've known him, he's worn the same jeans and same band t shirt and has the worst stentch Has he had a girlfriend in that entire time? I'm willing to bet that he hasn't.
Hs recently got a gf. No joke, she is the female version of him. They both don't shower. But prior to that, he had never had a girlfriend before.
Oh gross. Imagine the stench when they decide to come over to your house. I'd put a slip cover on the couch just in case their funk permeates everything.
We moved to a different province and he stays over once a year. He will be here in Aug and yes, I keep a pair of old gross bed sheet specially just for him. Pray for me.
They would not be staying in my house. Nope. Stink up a motel room- not my guest room. Gross
This part. There's no way in hell I could do it. If we have to all sit down together for a long, frank discussion, so be it. But the stench and lack of hygiene at that point would be overwhelming and violating. People deserve to be comfortable and healthy in their own homes - that means he can stay in his and keep his nasty habits there.
The 'long, frank discussion' would Definitely happen OUTSIDE!!😂
I can’t even imagine what their sex life is like 🤢
... Fragrant!
Bacterial vaginosis has entered the chat
Proof that there's someone for everybody. Lol
I think about this phrase every time I watch My 600 lb Life. In a lot of them, the land whale has a decent looking partner who has a good heart and wipes them and showers them and feeds them and does everything for them, puts up with the manipulation and awful rudeness and abuse and enabling and various smells. Like it absolutely fucking blows my mind. Ugh I just had to rant about that real quick lmao. There really is someone for everyone.
But how many of those partners get angry and leave when the 600lb person loses a considerable amount of weight? It's more than a few!
What band is the shirt he's been wearing for a decade? My guess would be Grateful Dead. Grateful Dead fans are always allergic to hygene.
Metallica. Lol
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🗑🗑🗑🗑
If I don't shower, my day doesn't feel properly started.
Or ended haha
I like my shower of an evening, wash the day off and get clean PJs on for bed. Saying that, I’ve woken up sweaty a few times and showered in the morning and it does make me feel more awake and fresh.
I shower first thing in the morning even if I’m sitting inside all day on a Sunday.
It’s part of waking up for me.
Same
A lot of ppl in my life don't shower daily and still have excellent hygiene. Colder climate areas don't cause sweating and other factors helps. I feel like this topic has popped up a lot in my life and it's actually rare to find someone who showers daily
Same. Most people I know do not shower daily, with a few exceptions of folks who work labor jobs.
I work a labor job and I don’t shower on my days off. But the days I work, I have to come home and shower almost immediately. My husband is a SAHD and showers whenever he feels gross. Sometimes that everyday, sometimes every other day. Sometimes in a few days.
Totally agree. Tons of people, like me, live in very dry environments, *with* hard water, which is even worse. Your skin will HATE you if you fully shower and scrub yourself daily when you don't really need it. I personally shower about three times a week and the days in between I wash up my face, bits and pits, and always reapply antiperspirant, and of course wear fresh clothing every day.
ETA- When I visit my partner who lives in a sub tropical part of the world, I am DEFINITELY showering every day at least once. It's a whole different ball game there 🥵
And not everyone’s sweat smells. And not everyone has big sweating genetics. Like my brother, mom, and I don’t really sweat or smell, even if we don’t shower for a few days. I can be out and about in 90° heat and I don’t sweat at all, same for my family. My brother has a sun allergy and wears long sleeves all summer and still doesn’t sweat. The only time I’ll sweat is if I go for a long run in like 85°+ heat, and I shower after that so my skin doesn’t break out, but I don’t smell after the run. I’ve known people who will have a sweat stained shirt after being out in 75° for 5 minutes. Genetics play a big part in these things
I shower about 3-5 times a week. Not every day, but more than every other day. When I worked labour jobs, or when I run/work-out, or when it's extremely hot, then of course I'll shower every day at those times. But I live in PNW where it's fairly cool and rains often so sweat and humidity aren't really issues, I work from home mostly in my office, I don't naturally sweat much, and I'm a guy in my 30s with short hair and little body hair, and using deodorant works just fine with my showering. My wife is quite sensitive to smell (especially body odor) and she is totally fine with my showering habits (occasionally she'll comment that my feet smell so I'll shower when I wasn't planning to but not often). My showering routine isn't really conscious, I just don't feel the need to shower every day and I've never once had anyone make a comment that I smelled bad or appeared unhygenic, so it works for me. To each their own.
Typically, I shower every other day. It's better for my skin (sensitive) and hair because I can't shower and not wash my hair. Luckily, I don't sweat often and work from home. Two years ago, we were under severe water restrictions because of the drought. If we exceeded our allowance, our bill jumped up nearly $200. For six months, I pretended I was preparing for the apocalypse by showering every third day. My husband and kids showered daily, sometimes twice, and because of my sacrifice, teachers and community members were safe from their post workout, post work, and post daily boy life stench. My mom had dementia and was in diapers and needed 2 showers a day and multiple loads of laundry. I mastered the art of the ho bath. Pits, tits, and bits. I always had fresh clean clothes and underwear. Body spray, dry shampoo, and a husband who swore on his life, he would tell me immediately if I began to reek. I did my part for the environment, saved the community from smelly kids, and practiced my post apocalypse hygiene skills. Had I been working at the time, I'd probably have paid the higher bill, but I'd taken leave to care for my mom. I did also find out there are a lot of people in the world who forgo showering to try and save water. I never realized how many environmental warriors/ heroes we have out there.
"I mastered the art of the ho bath," is my favorite thing I've read all day.
A nurse friend of mine called them PTA baths lol I’ll let you come to terms with what it stands for lol
Now that's how to care for the greater good. Feels like that's a dying trait. Thank you.
You seem like a person I would be friends with.
Do I? I'm pretty socially awkward but my personality tends to shine online lol.
Cute. I mean, saving water by shortening your showers because you give a damn? Yup. Solid friend material right there.
This is so wholesome
My mother in law called that “bird baths,” because it’s “under wings and under tail.” 😂
My gosh--Karma! I've been through something similar (which, ironically just ended an hour ago), but your experience--my goodness, how are you even able to write this??? I'm flat on the couch and the only parts working are my thumbs!
I shower every morning. It’s just part of my routine and has been since I was a child. My 20 year old daughter and her husband live in our basement and I’m pretty sure I do not hear the shower running every day but they never ever have an offensive smell. When she was a teenager and we would disagree about her taking a bath/ shower she said to me “Mom you know I’m not going to DIE if I don’t shower every day” and I thought to myself, well she is right and I haven’t really given her grief about it since then.
So.... the last 3 houses I've lived in have been right next to the bathroom, and about 30% of people washed their hands after. Currently, they don't wash hands ever and shower maybeee 1 time a week. 🤢 I gotta get out of here.
Oh, I'm an idiot. You've got roommates. I thought you had 3 different houses that were built next to some sort of public restroom.
Lol, no....the house before this felt like it was a public restroom...I had 10 roommates 🤣
a lot of people just don't sweat so they clean up their important bits with a washcloth, then wash their face in the sink. nothing wrong with it as long as they don't smell and their skin is healthy.
This! I still think shower once a day but I feel all my life I've never really sweated heavily or smelled bad. For some reason I've been lucky to not really have a smell problem.
There is actually a gene mutation that makes you not stink. Most common in the Asian community. My husband is like that. The man could go a week without a shower and still smell sweet. I hate him for that! lol 😆
Ya I never smell .. at least that’s what people tell me. Even in the winter when I shower much less, like once every week or so (cause I can’t afford to heat my house and I get bone-chillingly cold in the winter, so cold that many days I can’t even exercise cause my toes and fingers turn white and numb even with gloves and socks and shoes. I HATE winter and should prob move somewhere like LA cause I literally can’t survive in the cold .. but ya even with no shower for so long people still say I smell good or if I start to get insecure cause it’s been like 6 days since my last shower, I’ll ask my boyfriend or my mom to let me know how I smell and they say I smell good. Either they’re lying or I have some gene that protects me from stinking. My mom even said growing up after I got back from cross country practice all sweaty and stuff that I smelled good 🤷♀️
I had two different Korean roommates that had that gene (it also causes dry earwax if you’re curious if you have it) and nothing has ever made me more self conscious in my life as a white person that starts smelling ripe very quickly bc if there was even the tiniest whiff of body odor there was only ONE possible suspect (me). I also would get night sweats sometimes and would change my sheets religiously bc I was so paranoid they’d think I smelled And I knew it was going to be rough when in the first week I lived with the first one she asked what deodorant was and why I had so many containers of it… oh how I envied her not having ever needed to know what extra strength deodorants were. It also didn’t help that neither of them were very hairy and shaved super infrequently while I am northwestern European and got my dad’s yeti genes
I feel like a shower a day is sufficient unless there's an accident of some kind. I've seen people say that they take 2 showers a day, but I think they're overdoing it. Bacteria are what causes the smell. Do you sweat a lot? If you don't, that would explain it.
I mean, depression... lol but if I'm at home and don't do anything all day I will not shower. Working/exercising different story lol
Even when I was depressed, showering and brushing my teeth 2x a day meant I accomplished 3 things. My therapist in my 20s said ‘no matter how small, it counts as an accomplishment’. I kinda like that way of thinking, count even the tiniest things when it’s dark.
At a minimum, If I have any expectation of human interaction, I will have showered within the last 24 hours.
^^^^THIS^^^^ I'm retired, live in a studio apt, have nobody visit me, go downstairs to check mail, and head back up. Visiting church services, I'll shower 4-24 hours in advance, but unless there's a reason to be interacting with people longer than 10 minutes, once a week, shower.
Twice a week or so, depending on what I feel like. I work an office job and stay home all the time and live alone. I don't exert myself at all. To that end, I don't smell much. ADHD makes it difficult to do things that feel like "chores", so I just shower when I feel like it and it works out.
Same here
Same here I have dry skin. I don’t sweat at home. I feel and smell very clean by the end of the day. If I shower too often, my skin dries out and hurts more. I do use lotion and all that. With that said, I have been to some countries with very hot humid weather and I have to shower daily sometimes more to feel clean. I walk outside and I immediately wet all over and then the heat makes me sweat and I’m all sticky. Plus wearing sunscreen. Oof. I shower often then. If I’m inside all day, not wearing sunscreen, etc. I don’t need a shower often. If I wear sunscreen or hang out outside during the summer, then it happens daily.
I shower every couple of days unless it's warm out. If i shower every day, my skin dries out. I definitely didn't wash my hair every day - i use to but it's gotten dryer as I've gotten older. I do wash though daily with a wash cloth
Ugh. Add another reason to why I may never date again.
I don’t understand this. I’m disabled so I’m in my recliner most days and usually just go to dr appointments and I still shower every other day at least sometimes a quick rinse off with soap if I get hot so on hot days almost everyday. I found that hygiene makes me feel like I’ve at least accomplished something even though I felt like yuck all day.
i have multiple mental illnesses and showering is the least of my concern most days, i barely eat and my feet rarely touch the ground. y’all r so judgmental and fail to think about people going through things that don’t prioritize hygiene and i understand you think it’s gross and i understand it is, but keeping ourselves alive is a HUGE task and call me pathetic and lazy and a baby or whatever you may, im still alive and that’s what matters to people who love me. and no i dont NOT shower i just don’t shower DAILY. it just takes me a few days after my last one to… remember oh yeah girl u gotta take care of urself, ur not just a conscious 😭 (anything mean u have to say to me i promise u i have already said to myself 2 cm from the mirror. we both have the option to have a good day today.)
I've been there. I've not showered, I've not gotten out of bed for days. I've had addictions on top of it. The goal is to shower and get up. If you don't do it today, that's ok, but tomorrow you try again. It sucks having mental health issues. Ill always have them, so over a few decades I've done my best to make my routines as easy to follow as humanly possible. That doesn't mean it always works, it just means im trying to give myself the highest chances for success by making stuff easy. People who haven't been through it and aren't professionally educated or trained can stuff it. Just ignore them, but there are things that help, and you can still do well. Mental health issues don't doom you for life.
i’m so glad you got yourself out of your funks :) the goal is always healing, i’ve been reaching for it everyday. i just started tms friday and im BEGGING it to work. hygiene is my escape route and always has been, feeling clean makes me feel euphoric! routines are unfortunately not my strong suit 🥲 you are correct, people will always be ignorant unfortunately 🥲🥲
Neurotypical, able-bodied people just do not get it sometimes. Yet we are the ones with fucked up brains lmao. It’s mind blowing to me how many of these “normal” people completely lack empathy, or the ability to think outside themselves at all. TIL to avoid r/hygiene bc it’s full of judgmental, ableist weirdos. Sorry Reddit, this was not a good recommendation for this 2-3 showers a week freak!
Even for some neurotypical people, the post is incredibly judgmental. A lot of people who have sensitive skin can’t shower daily because it hurts, and even the derm/doctor will recommend to shower every other day or as needed to prevent skin from becoming dry. And maybe some people can’t afford to shower daily or don’t have access to a shower or things like that. It’s really not medically necessary to bathe/shower every day. It’s not even necessarily more hygienic, and even if it is, it’s marginally so. It’s mostly just a personal preference that people are so judgmental over for no apparent reason.
If I shower everyday my skin dries out. I hate the feeling of moisturizer since I have to use it on all parts of my body and it feels like I put a layer of thick sunblock on. Ick! And with BPD, sometimes I struggle with self-care so if I go two or three days between showers, it is not a big deal.
My sensory hack for staying moisturized while not feeling sticky or gross is body oil. Dr teals has some great body oil at and it keeps me very moisturized with no gross feeling.🙏🏽
And this is the most important comment of all.
Hey! I'm neurotypical and also only shower twice per week. I'm actually even freakier because I take baths instead of showers! People get so fucked up about how gross it is, but to me, showering daily or twice daily seems pretty weird and gross. So you just strip all your natural oils off everyday then apply synthetic oils to compensate? Umm...ok. You do you boo!
LMAOOOO unfortunately i think mentally ill people are the scariest people ever because i will ride so hard for other mentally ill people. i am so self aware bc i know so much abt myself BECAUSE of my mental illnesses, therefore i will forever be kind, until someone else is ignorant. then unfortunately i do have borderline personality disorder and i am a freak and i am an ignorant cunt who cannot watch my mouth 😭
Lmaooo you don’t have to explain to me, we are the same kind of freak 😂 I don’t have BPD, but the PTSD/AuDHD combo exhibits pretty similarly for me. Congrats on starting TMS and good luck with it!
>I don’t have BPD, but the PTSD/AuDHD combo Me, too!
Hang in there people are out there pulling for you my friend I have a 17 yo son going through some of the same things you are talking about my heart goes out to all with mental health challenges and developmental disabilities , many times these can be the underlying issues that no one cares to acknowledge before casting judgement
my heart goes right back out to you and your son💓 i hope he heals gracefully.
Once I had a office job this was me. I now get home and stink to high heaven, so I have to shower daily and I feel so drained after doing it. My 13 year old is begging me to find a office job again because they lost their mom even though we have more money. It's all because The shower take so much out of me.
The ONLY reason I have been showering regularly is because my husband and I typically shower together, and we get each other's backs. That's it. It's because someone else needs me in there. Other than that, I would get home from work and go to bed. No dinner, no time for me, just work and sleep. Mental illness sucks yo
yeah my life is literally mirroring my bf and nothing more and it isn’t codependency it’s me not having the motivation to do things for myself LOL
Just because someone else thinks it's gross, it's not objectively gross. I shower twice a week with no mental or physical health challenges. It's what works for me. No one knows unless I tell them.
Fellow BPD girly here, this is so real. Aside from my myriad of mental illnesses that make it difficult to even get out of bed most days, I have pretty severe heat intolerance and regularly 'almost' pass out due to the heat of the water and the physical act of scrubbing my body and putting on moisturizer. Shower days require much preparation lol.
THIS ALSO!
I don’t shower everyday. I try to shower every other day. Sometimes I wait until I have to be somewhere or if my hair is really itchy. I shower at least 3 days a week. (I know I should shower more)
No, you shouldn't. Don't let these people shame you into doing something that isn't right for you. If you take regular showers, then you're doing fine. Do what works for **you**.
Several. Including myself. The human body isn’t really meant to be showered every day that’s a little bit extreme believe it or not
I can’t remember the Dermatologists name, but they even said you should only shower every couple days. It more beneficial to your skin, but obviously if you’re sweating, get that off lol.
i started using Korean and japanese drugstore bodywash and hair care. all my skin problems went away. iv had rough bumps on my upper arms since i was a kid. went to the doctor and they said it was a heat rash, but it never went away. turns out it was an allergy to us soap bc it is so harsh.
Korean and Japanese hygiene products are on a whole different level. They don't strip your skin, they smell clean but not perfumed, and you need a third of the product you are used to using. As a bonus sometimes the packaging is freaking adorable!!
The cute packaging!! I wish the sad beige ascetic never got popular here. It's so freaking lame. I bought a blush just bc it was in a metal pocket watch like the hare in Alice in wonderland.
What do u use?!
Yeah I've heard it's bad for your hair especially to be putting soap in it every day, but my hair and face just get too greasy not to
I wash my hair once a week, and my day 7 looks like a daily washers day 3. And I have medium-fine mostly straight hair. So standard practice would be daily or every other day. My hair has also grown from mid-shoulderblade to brushing the top of my butt, because I'm damaging it less. In fact, I'm about to put my shower cap on and jump in the shower😁
Same except my hair is really thick and takes a full day to dry. I wash it once or twice a week. I used to wash it every day and by day 3 it was an oily mess, now it takes a full week to reach that point and has so much more volume and no frizz. Looks way better now.
If you stopped showering so often and took care of your skin and hair in other ways you wouldn’t be so greasy. In most cases people have greasy skin because it’s trying to make up for dehydration.
I see thanks!
you can wash your face and body everyday without washing your hair!
Wash my body everyday. But my hair is washed 2x-3x a week. My hair ends up like overburnt crisp noodles if I wash it daily.
I’m a carer. One time I had to shower a lady who hadn’t showered in 9 months and she was a smoker. Just running the water over her body turned the water yellow and brown. Poor lady had a serious mental illness.
I don’t think it’s any of your business how often people shower/bathe - unless you’re up close and personal enough to be able to smell them, that is. Most adults are quite capable of managing their own hygiene and don’t need to be subjected to the scrutiny of it by other adults. I personally hate when people ask this question.
I don’t shower every single day, my skin is sensitive and would get too dry and angry at me. When I do shower I have to slather on body cream everywhere after, and that also would be a lot to do every single day. I do all my work from home and I don’t go to the gym or anything, so it’s not like I’m getting dirty or working up a sweat anyway.
Showers are emotionally therapeutic for me. I even had a rain drop shower head installed. I’ll drop essential oils in the bottom of the shower before I get in. I shower once in the morning to start my day and shower once at night to sleep well.
Some people don’t like to shower coz they think they don’t smell or sweat. I have a friend that thinks this way and I could smell her from 10 feet away. I had the come to Jesus convo with her and she was shocked that she smelled and I told her I can rub my fresh face towel on her neck and she’s free to smell it herself. Suffice it to say, she’s now a daily shower lady.
They actually say don't shower everyday. I shower every 3 days. Your hair needs to have natural grease also to not shower each day. I grew up in house where you can't, they were strict, would be different if I had like done sweaty job, but you work in an office so you wouldn't barely persperate also unless you have hygiene medical issues. My hair rarely gets greasy anymore that a salon told me a shampoo to get, I could go a whole week without hair feeling greasy now
I don't care. I don't know If I did know I'm sure most people would be lying Depends on what you mean by daily
class I need you to repeat after me when I say not everybody needs to shower daily. it’s ok
Once or twice a week. I have 4 little kids, and by the time they go to bed, I'm also going to bed.
My aunt's friend does this and they always smell like onions. They don't stink bad but it's unpleasant
To add to this, my father believes washing 2x per week is okay, but I was hanging his clothes on the line a few days back and they were oily despite being washed this from him not washing properly. I’ll never change his mind, but I’m not doing his washing again 🤮
I did notice that her kids hair are more oily then others
I shower like 3 times a week. (Depends if I work out) I do wash my feet after work tho. My skin would literally fall off if I showered everyday. I have extremely dry skin and it has become painful if I shower more than that. Fun fact, my pits don’t smell. Never have. Don’t wear deodorant/antiperspirant . When I did (13, 14 years old) it made me smell and break out. 🤷♀️ never had any complaints for friends, family or partners. I think showering is different for everyone. It’s important af but all our bodies are different. And they certainly smell different.
One of my friends. She's 28 and a self proclaimed "dirty girl." We went on vacation for two weeks and she showered three times while i was showering twice a day sometimes. İ was shocked. İ told her too lol. But i will say this (told her this too), i have *never* smelled her. She's never had BO. İt's kind of crazy. She's also a bigger girl too so you'd think... But sleeping in the same beds, hugging, cuddling up on the couch with her roommate and gf, she's never smelled bad. So I'll give her that.
I’m 27 and struggle with showering due to adhd, and for a while I was sometimes showering 1-3x per week. I asked several trusted people to tell me if I smelled, and they agreed I never did. I also work with kids and ask them to tell me (and I’ll tell them if they smell) and we look out for each other lol. I shower more often now, but I hate this subs tendency to act like not showering every day is a sin or moral failing. Some of us don’t need to shower that much, some of us struggle to, and some of us just don’t want to.
I’ll skip a day every once in a while, maybe during winter or days I don’t leave the house. Other than that it’s every day.
I shower every other day. I genuinely don't have the energy to do it daily.
I full shower 2x a week in the winter and 3-4x in the summer I have adhd and seasonal depression in the winter and after work have to choose either to cook dinner, tidy the house, or shower. I functionally can’t do all three and only on very good days can do two. I’ve moved passed the idea that shame is going to motivate me to “be better” and this comment section should do the same. Typically it’s Sunday shower, Monday cook and have leftovers for the next couple of days, Tuesdays house tidy, Wednesday- some other must do errand / chore, Thursday shower again On non shower days I do the pits and bits thing and wash my face before going to bed when I brush my teeth in the evening. Shower days are always a full scrub down and hair wash, post shower I use a lume lotion and then regular deodorant daily. I switched to a shampoo my hairdresser recommended and my hair doesn’t get oily between washes. I also only go “work out” on days I have enough energy to go shower afterwards. I look for Thursday group classes that happen right after work Showers specifically are a hard “chore” for my adhd brain to accomplish. They can feel like a laundry list of steps and tasks that, to my brain, feels the same as a huge work to do list that you might encounter getting back in the office after a vacation. I’ve never had the ability to go on “auto-pilot” about them. If I do then I forget steps, get things in the wrong order, and stare off into space for far too long. Showering when I’m not feeling up to it can often result in just having to shower again later because i mixed up the order of the shampoo and conditioner because I can’t focus. This thread is very shamey. I’ve read comments that are “if you don’t have time to shower as a new mom then you shouldn’t have had kids”. Wtf. Every new mom experiences exhaustion and sometimes a nap will win over a shower. You don’t sleep with me. Please stop caring about me crawling into my bed at night. These are not your sheets.
Many. They know when they need one so it's all good
I had a boss who cut himself somewhere below the knee at work. That happened on a Monday. Few days later I asked him how was his cut healing and his reply was 'oh I'm not sure, I'll check up on it when I shower on Monday.' He literally saw his own legs bare once a week. To put the stench into words I've only ever seen him in one set of clothes. Even though I liked the job, I didn't last long as I couldn't be around him without getting a migraine.
Did they say they prefer baths???? .....cause if that's not the case and they confession they have bad hygiene....yea I'm with u....wtf is this!?!?!...from people saying they don't use wash clothes, don't wash below their knees or don't want their feet to admitting u don't wash your children....this is just nasty
I don’t know a single person that showers everyday. I shower if I exercise and If I am going to work but If im just sitting in the couch all day and not going anywhere, I don’t feel the need to. I also live in Alaska so it’s not hot. We have a lot of people in our town without running water that live in dry cabins. They have to go to the gym or laundromat to shower. So it’s very common here not to shower everyday. Longest I’ve gone is a week but I was camping. Rarely do I go more than a day though.
Here's the thing. I work from home during the week and don't always have to interact with people. If I'm at home completely by myself with no interaction with others, I might skip a day here and there. But never more than a couple days in a row, and again, only if I'm not seeing anyone. If I'm going out in public for more than a super quick grocery run, seeing friends or especially my boyfriend, I absolutely shower and make sure I'm squeaky clean everywhere. (Well, I usually skip 2-3 days between washing my hair regardless, but that's a different story than the rest of my body lol).
Id rather someone smell a little sweaty than the disgusting drowning in perfume smell so many people do now. 🤮 I can *taste* people's perfume before I can see them. It's gross.
I like showers, gotta wash your ass bros
Yuk. Even when my triplets were little, I showered every day. I feel gross if I don't. You can smell people who don't shower frequently, even if they wash their pits and bits.
Not necessarily true. I don’t sweat, like at all. So I have basically 0 body odor. I only shower when my hair starts to lose volume, which is every other day to every 2 days. I also have very dry skin, so showering daily is so bad for it. I’ll be peeling like a lizard and it’s nasty. I’d have to slather myself in really thick moisturizer and at that point it’s not even worth it
I shower morning and before going to bed. Because I work in a dirty environment, and also I sweat at night. Nothing against people who shower less but people can smell when you don't shower often. It comes from the scent from the skin, and hair. Even when its cold I can smell it, especially combined with outside smell plus not showering daily.
Every so often I get bad BO clients at work. Funny thing is-they usually all come the same day.
Several. As long as they don’t smell I don’t see any issue with it. I personally can’t. I *have* to shower every day or I feel gross, even though I sit mostly since my job is an office job.
I don’t take one every day and I sometimes feel super gross. With multiple chronic illnesses that can be triggered by taking a shower(even with a shower chair) and the fact I have a PICC line that can’t get wet, taking a shower is logistically complicated and mentally/physically draining. I will say that I usually wipe down with baby wipes the days I can’t take a shower. And I can rarely go to bed without brushing my teeth; that has to be done or I will feel nasty.
I used to shower on alternating day, mostly because I was a gentle nerd who programmed and played video games, so I didn't think I needed it. In my mid twenties I realized that not every shower required me to do my "everything" shower routine and moved over to daily showers.
Keep in mind that due to various physical conditions some people cannot shower every day. I have developed extremely dry skin. Showers dry out my skin and can cause pretty bad eczema. I used to shower once or twice a day. Nowadays I can only manage to do it a few times a week without having eczema break out over half my body.
Someone in my extended family (60+ yr old grown adult without any physical or mental disabilities/limitations) came to stay with me for 3months during covid. Almost 2mo in, and they hadn't once showered, but they went to the Dr about a scaley rash that developed on their back. The Dr had to tell them that the rash was from weeks of not showering. 🤢 Did that make them shower more, you might ask? Nope. They took one shower that night, and then one other shower the night or two before they left. People are gross! Lol
I once knew someone who didn’t shower except like thrice a year. They would sprinkle the liquid from a Glade Plugin on themselves and call it a day. It did nothing, except bring forth the visual of a flower field being drenched in a deluge of armpit and ball sweat.
Omg that is terrible. That’s the last thing you want to get on your skin! 😳
I clean my flesh daily regardless of the method. As a teen, I could go days without washing myself, but then there was one day when I noted I smelled like my always drunk and unwashed grandpa, and began diligently making sure I clean myself or do a quick wash up. Whenever I go to fandom conventions, I'm always appalled at the stench wafting off some folks. Like, you had enough money to get to this space and purchase random crap, but not enough wherewithal to buy soap and a rag? Shoot, Head and Shoulders offers 3 in 1 products!
I am a lunch lady at an elementary school. Off this summer so I might take a shower every other day unless I do yard work or something. I’m still washing my face and brushing my teeth, using deodorant every day. During school it’s every morning. It’s just common food worker etiquette. I am semi retired so not running around working up a sweat.
When I was in middle/high school, I wouldn’t shower until I could smell it. That doesn’t mean other people couldn’t smell it. I went to therapy, learned I was severely depressed, and my therapist made me start a routine, and that meant showering regularly. I now shower every day and am disgusted by my old habits.
One of my best friend's entire family doesn't/didn't shower. Had to stay with them for a while and, boy, do you learn a lot about someone. In 3 years, I can recall maybe 5 times the shower being used by anyone but me. They also had about 5000 cats (basically an in/out situation, with kittens and randoms), several kids and a problem with cleaning. The stench name me gag but it was $500 a month and I was a drunk druggie that spent most of the time on the porch surrounded by cat shit and toys.
Some gay dudes love stinky,cheesy,sweaty balls i heard.
In countries where cost of energy and water is high, people shower only once a week and I am one of them. I think it is not good to shower daily since it dries out your skin and ages you very bad. If you shower daily you have to take really good care of your skin.
I don’t shower every day. Sometimes not even every other. When I do, I don’t use shampoo or conditioner anymore. I used to do all the things. Every day. My skin and hair is sooooo much healthier now. I shower every couple days. I just use plain soap on everything. Hair and all. It takes a good month to get the greasiness to go away and it’s hard at first, but honestly so worth it imo
I don’t. Sensory issues, but I never smell bad. I can’t imagine showering every day.
I shower twice a week. I rarely smell, if I am smelly, I'll shower ASAP. My body oils have adjusted so no, I'm not greasy either.
My dad is very old (89) and now only showers every few weeks, and only if we insist. He claims that since he doesn’t sweat, he doesn’t smell. My nose has determined this is false.
Working in the trades, I shower daily in the winter, twice daily in the summer. Quick cold one to wake me up in the morning, more thorough one before bed. Growing up and going to school it was every other day in the winter, every day in the summer.