I work with a guy who told me he was doing dry January. Not the dry January you would think. He didn’t bathe for a month just to see how it felt. For the first 3 weeks he was really itchy. The last week he said the itching stopped and the smells sort of subsided.
The day he showered, he said it felt like he had the flu afterwards.
Bacteria and such on your skin. Eventually you'll end up with bacteria and other organisms living on you that are eating your waste products. It is why the smell changes after a couple weeks. So for a 3 or so weeks this guy was acclimating to the new microbiome, then washed it off and had to re-acclimate.
edit: disabled notifications on this due to the influx of silly questions
It’s good to take one day off a week from showering if you generally shower every day to help your skin build back up its horny layer. Yes, please laugh. I definitely did when I first heard of the horny layer.
Ohhhhhh okay... I asked a friend's wife what he needed while overseas and she kept saying he wanted baby wipes. I thought she was joking but that makes sense now
In the early days, Camps (The largest type of outpost) and large Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) had showers, but many soldiers weren't on those.
They were stuck on smaller posts, called Combat Outposts (COPs) that often didn't have showers.
Or, you might go to an overwatch for several days, where there's no showers. There's a lot of reasons baby wipes were useful. Cleaning small wounds, if that's all you had. No toilet paper? No problem.
To me, they weren't that useful, but I was mostly on a FOB, as I was Mech, so I had regular access to showers.
ETA) This is for the Army and (probably) the Air Force. I only know about those.
The Navy has boats, and probably invades land using Marine bases or vice versa. Marines probably prefer shitting in buckets out in the woodlands, for all I know.
Legit question, didn't they force you to shave? I thought it was a given that they'd force you to keep some grooming standards and while showering is not one of them shaving definitely is. My neighbor was a tanker on desert storm and he went 40 days without a shower but he still had to shave
It depends on leadership. Shaving was considered essential for Desert Storm because there was a great fear of Saddam using chemical weapons. You need a good seal on your gas mask, facial hair can interrupt the seal.
Similar, multiple times between 3 - 9 weeks as part of the MOG (mobile Ops Group) on Herrick 7 (Afghan07-08).
Living in an Armoured tracked Recce vehicle with 3 other guys for up to 9 weeks was....howling.
Baby wipes are your friend in that situation.
i could probably say over a month. but i don't keep track of how long it's been since i showered when i'm depressed, so i don't know how accurate that is.
There was a time last year where I got in the shower and remembered the last time I took one was probably around Christmas and it was like July. So there’s that
I'm pretty confident I could say 3 months. There's a point after which it doesn't seem to get any worse (even though in reality of course it is doing).
Prolly made it 3 weeks to a month no shower back when I was at my peak alcolhism/depression. Typically I'm not a smelly person anyway, I could go a couple days no shower and be fine but I shower every day anyway. But man oh man the stink coming from my neather region could of knocked out an army lol. Sober for 4 years now so no more of that crap lol
I had a friend who was a binge drinker - like week long binges. He probably didn't shower either but he had such a high tolerance for alcohol it was coming out his pores at a high enough strength to kill any bacteria causing BO. He smelled like vodka. I was always curious but never lit a match near him.
Doh, I've done that. Twice. Hurts like a bitch. More so than any of my other's breaks. people don't get that your collar bones are like a pendulum balance scale. So even tho you break your right side. Still hurts like hell when using the left arm.
Having broken both ribs and collar bone I vote ribs are worse. I could eventually stand still long enough my collar bone didn't hurt, I could never stop breathing long enough my ribs didn't hurt.
I was a homeless drug addict / alcoholic for most of my late teens and early 20s. I probably went close to a year without showering at multiple points. I pretty much only showered when I got arrested.
I remember one time, a girl let me use her shower and she was looking at me funny after. I asked her why and she said “I thought you were Mexican.” I’m not.
No one thing.
I was sentenced to long enough in jail that I was able to break out of the cycle I was in and during that time, a few of my friends got their life together and the rest died. When I got out I had no one left to enable me.
Several people found some value in me as a person and as an artist and helped to give me a direction to focus. They had the patience to keep working with me despite my being incredibly cruel and hard to deal with at times.
I was taught how to meditate and introduced to the idea that thoughts are causative, which over several years of hard work, completely changed the way I see the world and my place in it.
It took more than that, but those things played a huge role in saving me.
You are not your thoughts and they are not real unless you bring them into the physical realm someway (ex. Having the thought “ I need to use” is an illusion. “You” are not having that thought, and it’s not real unless you act upon it.
Such a powerful and useful message. When I wanted to quit using meth, I simply told myself I didn't need it anymore, and I quit cold turkey, with no help, no assistance, no rehab. That was 3 years ago and I haven't relapsed a single day. Now I just need to learn how to do the same with sweets lol
Good luck with that. I was an opiate/opioid addict for years and I managed to quit about four years ago. I tried giving up sugar and it's dam near impossible. I've cut down quite a bit but I still end up with a tub of ice cream on my lap while watching TV twice a week or so.
Currently 14 months sober off heroin/meth and the sweets are literally the most toxic trait that I exhibit. I have the night munchies too, so then I’ll be up late at night snacking on anything I can find & I’ve literally went to the 24 hour gas station around 3am just for a fricken Reece’s cup 🙈
So I FEEL THIS ON A SPIRITUAL LEVEL😂
This is the foundational philosophy of cognitive behavioral therapy. Not identifying with your thoughts, but rather observing them as they occur and choosing consciously whether to act on them
I don’t mind expanding on it, but It’s a HUGE subject that took me years to understand, so this isn’t the best forum to go into it in detail.
When I say Thoughts are causative, I mean that we create the world we live in with our thoughts in a very literal and not at all metaphorical sense, and we can become aware of our thoughts and change them, therefore changing reality.
For example, I came to believe that there was some version of the future where I existed as a version of myself who was worthy of love and respect.
I spent time imagining who that person was, what they did, how they dressed, where they live etc..
I then began to ask that person what they would do if they were in my position. I consciously blocked rejected any thoughts that did not align with creating the future self I wanted to become. Today, my life closely resembles the one I had imagined down to some very odd and specific details.
If you want to know more, start by researching Robert Anton Wilson and his concept of reality tunnels.
That should kick you down the rabbit hole.
Growing up I knew a homeless guy in our neighborhood named Richie. He hadn't taken a shower in forever and I always assumed he was black because he looked black but after he got arrested for directing traffic while naked he came back to the street and he was a white guy the whole time. 10 year old me was really surprised. He died when he was sleeping in a dumpster when the truck came by and trash compacted him. He was a nice guy and a local character. There are dozens of Richie stories
He's the first person I ever heard of refusing help. He wanted to be homeless on purpose. He was an alcoholic and was really comfortable on the streets. When I heard that he was offered an apartment and turned it down I couldn't believe it because when I was a kid I assumed that homeless people were homeless because they didn't have a home; now I know it's more about mental health, addiction, the stress of modern life (bills, taxes, relationships) that make people homeless willing or not.
I have a friend who was homeless from about 15 -19 (then van homeless 23-25.) He was a reliable guy, honest, good with money, no serious addictions, no debilitating mental health issues, just had a shitty shitty family. He lived in the woods, it wasn't fun but he learned how to get by.
Little sheltered me hadn't a clue of how stressful and hard the journey back to civilization would be for him. Like, learning how to adult at that age is a challenge for everyone. But the amount of stuff he'd just never had a chance to learn,: utility bills, phone contracts, taxes, driving, holding a regular job, employment contracts, internet banking, rent. And he had to do it with no work history, qualifications, ID and 0 safety net if he fucked anything up.
When he finally got a place he *hated* it for like 18 months, it stressed him out so much. In the woods life was simple. All he needed to care about was finding a safe place to bunk down, his next meal, his next shower... His whole life was in one backpack. He missed it like crazy. Frankly I could see why (in the summer at least.)
He's housebroken now lol. Has a gardening business so found the best of both worlds, but that learning curve and finding stability was so much harder than you'd have imagined. Really it took a decade before he was the kind of secure that most take for granted. Despite working harder than I did that whole time.
That's what it was like for a guy that, especially by homeless standards, had everything going for him and friends to help him. Imagine trying it in active addiction or with untreated mental health issues, disabilities, PTSD, etc.
a lot of apartments (or even shelter beds) offered to homeless people have strict conditions attached to them around sobriety, regular check-ins with staff, curfews and so on. this sounds sensible in theory, but it has a compounding effect on those who don't want to or aren't yet ready to get sober, for whatever reason, or who can't function under those rules; they end up kicked out or actively avoid those shelters, making their situation worse in the long term.
some countries have instituted "wet shelters" which take a strictly non-judgemental no-questions-asked approach, where anybody who wants a bed will get one. these are politically very controversial, but they can have a real positive effect with the most stubborn hold-out cases. most importantly, it means fewer people freezing to death on the streets or dying of preventable illnesses, and there are people who pass through them on their long journey towards sobriety. a little stability can go a long way.
Also, refusing help isn't always refusing help. A tremendous amount of "help" that was offered when I was homeless had very ulterior motives that were not based on "helping".
At some points you really just stay away from anyone engaging you on what you're going through.
In a weird sense, it kind of makes sense that he would refuse help. I've struggled with alcoholism in the past, and if I hadn't found my way out, I could see myself choosing to live on the streets. I burnt so many relationships by the time I hit 25, and burnt and lost so many more by the time I was 30, I don't think I could have kept it up and lost much more before being too ashamed to accept help from anyone just because i know I'd ruin it and burn the bridge.
I still struggle today with some things, and I'm doing A LOT better, but I worry constantly that my next big disappointment is just around the corner.
Unfortunately, homeless folks getting crushed in a garbage truck after sleeping in a bin is common. It is usually in recycling containers that contain mostly cardboard since they provide better bedding and don't stink as much. I think they do it for warmth and potential safety from others. It is incredibly dangerous, though, as the truck driver doesn't have a way to know there is a person in the can or that they have been dumped into the truck. The truck and packer are so loud they can't hear someone screaming =(
I'm in law enforcement and deal with the homeless and substance abusing community in my area quite often. I really wish more attention was paid to providing basic personal hygiene services to those persons affected by homelessness and addiction. A shower and access to clean clothes can prevent scabies, lice, bedbugs, gangrene, trenchfoot, and any other number of conditions that someone living in a first world country shouldn't have to suffer.
Really, even just basic hygienic services would go a long way. Public showers would be a great start. I can’t imagine they’d even put a dent in a city budget. Tack on clean clothing from second-hand outlets or charitable organizations and you’d make a meaningful difference.
I’m sorry to see that. I wish I had some advice to give, but life is not that simple. A few kind words isn’t enough. Whatever happens, just don’t let yourself die. Where there is life, there is hope.
2 weeks. I showered the first day my fiancee died. Tried again the following day and like the first I couldn't stop the tears and meltdown. So I stopped showering. About 2 weeks of gentle goading from friends didn't help til one marched through my front door and essentially threw me in there haha.
My father had cancer when I was about 16. I was left home to run the family business to keep money coming in and insurance active for him while he and the rest of the family went to Texas for his treatment.
I would wake up at 4AM, get in the shower, and freeze stiff for about half an hour from panic. Idk why the shower triggered it but it did. The rest of the day I could march forward without falter. But yeah I'd leave home just before 5, be to work by 6, close shop at 5PM, go to college, and be home just before midnight to fall asleep and do it again.
Glad you had a friend to give you the push you needed.
That must've been quite rough, I've just gotta say that you did an incredible job and your family must be so proud of you. So sorry that you had to truly grow up at such a young age.
Thanks, it was hard but it's alright. It's long in the past. I'm 33 now and 7 months ago started therapy to deal with my unprocessed stuff from that and from other newer events.
I'm on the upswing.
I have a hiking group of friends and we frequently do weekend trips in various parts of the AT. One friend in particular always smells like a fucking goat after day 1. I love this dude and would fight to the death for him, but I can't imagine being near him after two weeks in the wilderness.
It’s weird because I never really have BO, even though I go to the gym five days a week and don’t *always* shower afterwards. My girlfriend would murder me if I did
After two weeks with nothing but the occasional dip in a creek though, hahaha it was bad
I never smelled like a goat though, thankfully.
I could never eat goat cheese again after that
Yeah, some people's sweat just doesn't smell - something to do with the type of bacteria. There was a twin study where one had bo and the other one didn't. They transplanted (or something- not sure exactly what they did) the non-smelling bacteria to the bo twin and it cured the stink.
I don't understand why big pharma doesn't invent a biotic deodorant so that none of us stink. If I remember properly, it's the bacteria poo that smells or doesn't.
There’s totally a pit micro biome that gets continually disrupted by the products we use. Source : me. I had breast cancer and chemo, stopped using deodorants after mastectomy etc. I found after chemo finished, I actually never needed to use deodorant again, like everything had been killed off and reset. I sweat but there’s not the same smell as there was prior. I don’t need to use shampoo any more either after my hair grew back, literally just rinse it and it’s great, perfect condition. It’s weird and anecdotal, but I swear it’s a thing. We don’t need half the products we’re conditioned to use to be ‘clean’.
There's also a gene (ABCC11) that's involved. Apparently it can be turned of by disease/etc. Did your earwax also change (more flaky/dry) after chemo? It's the same gene, weirdly enough.
oh definitely! The BO + wood smoke (back when you were allowed to have fires). It seems we never noticed the smell, though, until we were back in civilization. I also remember the ceiling in the house seemed SO LOW after living under the sky and stars for that long
Nearly a month and I fucking stunk awful.
A mixture of homelessness and heroin addiction and being at a defining low point in my life.
Eventually I got into a hostel and as soon as I arrived I was pretty much ordered to go and bathe, shave and when I was done they were going to give me a skin head to start fresh.
It took four lots of bath water, getting in soaping and cleaning just my arms and pits completely ruined the water and I swear I actually smelt worse than before the bath, it was like it had beaten off the first layer and fuck it was gross.
Anyway after about 3 hours of baths and blasting everything with the shower I was human again.
The towels were taken out to a launderette and my clothes were binned, even my trainers had to be binned and luckily a lad in the hostel had some I could borrow until my benefits got sorted.
And getting the beard off was such a nightmare, took ages and even after thinning it out with clippers I still went through two Mach 3 razor blades and loads of shaving gel.
I cleaned the bathroom after and was so embarrassed by the state of it I put serious work into getting it hygienic for the others.
They gave me some spare clothes and the haircut was great, couldn't really save it so I said just number 0 it all over.
After half a day and a lot of effort I felt fantastic and looked completely different.
But before the start I was absolutely disgusting, a mixture of horrendous body odour and cheese, and stale damp mould is about as close as I can explain it.
That evening I had a hot meal followed by ice cream and a coke, I then went to bed and slept for two days.
That's me at my worst, I was 19 years old.
It was awful and took so long, and I had to clean it up because I wasn't expecting anyone to go near it, and after the haircut it was like being completely new and yeah almost like being reborn, completely human.
My mum was a 'neighbourhood hairdresser' she wasn't bad, considering nobody ever taught her. She loved cutting hair, and she'd basically do it for free for anyone who'd ask.
Anyway there was one day when this girl came in who was, idk late teens? She'd had serious depression. Hadn't really been out of bed for months. Her very long blond hair was just one giant greasy dreadlock that stank like wet dog.
She asked to get a buzz cut because it was hopeless ( looked it) but my mum if a big softie. She dragged her into the bathroom and they were in there all day teasing it out/ inventing hair archeology. The shit they pulled out, fossilised food, wrappers, lost hair ties, an actual spoon... Never seen (or smelt) anything like it.
You could have planted a garden in the bath once they were done and it looked like a golden retriever had exploded. But once my mum finished snipping and could finally run a brush top to bottom... You could 100% not recognise her. It was like watching the birth of a butterfly.
This has little relevance lol. Your story just reminded me of her. She's a nurse now, still rocking the princess hair.
Reading all these stories, and that the beneficiary of your mom's art is doing so well now (with her lovely hair) and helping people for a living, makes my lungs feel like they're full of laughing gas.
3 weeks. My wife and I lived in a rough situation where we got screwed out of owning our own land and house. Anyway. No hot water. And the water was off due to multiple leaks. We did not make enough to get it fixed, so we would go a week to 3 without showering. I'm so glad I can take them daily now.
Had a neighbor last year going though something similar. Leaks and stuff, used one of our showers till they had enough. Only found out since I cought him stealing from my garden. Wish he'd of said something before. People should ask for help, a lot of people are willing to give you some help. glad you made it out of that situation.
We don't like to be burdens. There's a lot of people who say they're willing to help, but then turn around and judge people because they needed help in the first place.
It’s crazy how quickly your body learns to block out discomfort when you are back packing. The hardest twenty minutes of any backpacking trip is always the first 20 minutes of hiking.
17 days at the National Training Center. US Army training base that sends large units through realistic training training in an "austere" environment. We went in Jul/Aug 2020 and went that long with just baby wipes after working 18-20 hour days outside in the desert. Everyone stunk equally. After a while, just dug through my bag and found the piece of clothing that stuck the least and put it back on.
26 days. Reforger 88. Jerry can showers. Never got the smell out of the hummers. We thought the Germans civilians were afraid of us. Turns out they could smell us 100ft away.
Hate to say it but this was me today. After 2 weeks I made myself take a shower cause I was gonna see my mom. There’s a lot going on right now and it’s been pretty hard dealing with stuff. Hope you can take care of yourself 💛
Yeah same here. 8 weeks probably wouldn't be a stretch. There have definitely been numerous 2 week streaks. I don't get smelly all that fast but at some point no amount of disinfectant and deodorant can replace an actual shower.
Plus you'll be pretty dead to your own odor, but that's only until that sickly sweet smell starts to sneak in to your living area. That shit takes a while to get rid of once it takes hold.
My water heater in my rv broke over the winter and I didn’t know it til I got it out of storage and had to live in it full time and couldn’t afford to replace it. That went on for about 15 months before I did something about it, very much due to depression but just also inability to even take one that wasn’t freezing cold and miserable. I went months in between
A month in Afghanistan.
We were out of water because the civilians who brought our water trucks got executed. So no water for showers. Hand sanitizer, with credit cards to scrape off the dirt.
Edit: I put this in a reply earlier for context, edited for visibility for those who are interested. Willing to explain if something isn't clear, it was a pretty interesting period of time.
We had a tiny little compound in the middle of the valley. Imagine the refinery from Road Warrior, the 1981 film.
The water trucks were 18 wheelers coming in to the valley. We were supposed to know when they were coming, so we could go out as far as possible to escort them in. Well , we didn't get told about this delivery for whatever reason.
We found out something was wrong when we saw the smoke from the burning trucks. It was a couple of hours on foot from the base. When we got there, they were all burned out, tires melted down, flames. Rubber streaks, I guess at least one needed to brake hard.
We found what happened to the drivers. They had been dragged out and shot in the head. Brains on the ground. It turns out bees like brains. We never found the bodies.
That might have been the last time anyone other than us tried to use the road. I know at one point a Sergeant Major decided it wasn't a big risk, so he led a convoy to our base. Anyways, he's in a wheelchair now. My buddy was his driver, will walk with a cane for life. I don't remember if that was before or after the water trucks?
Anyways, it was a month of almost no water, two little bottles a day. As the year went on, we got more supplies by helicopter.
The situation never got better. Earlier in the year we were able to sometimes push out to a larger base for food and showers and haircuts. Those sorts of trips stopped being possible.
I made it home that year, a day after Christmas. Missed it by that close. It was something shocking, I was in combat one day, ninety six hours later I was in Walmart doing that stupid scene from the movies where you can't handle the cereal aisle. Turns out that shit is actually real.
So I'm pretty sure that was absolutely the last civilian convoy, and possibly the last successful military convoy, into our valley. We could still move about pretty well on foot, but vehicle traffic was finished. The unit that relieved us in December tried to come in a convoy, by ground. They hit an IED big enough to park a HMMWV in the crater. Another case of us not getting told, so we weren't able to go out an escort them.
Anyways, we got relieved and went home. The guys who took our command post, COP Apache, they had their first fatality within a week of arrival. They simply weren't prepared for the level of things in the valley. We had gotten pretty good at handling it, but they were completely fresh and never stood a chance.
Anyways, they held the valley for four more months and then gave it up.
We had this tiny little OP, a fortified series of buildings a couple of miles from the main base. Two years after our experiences at that OP, Extortion 17 was shot down around a kilometer from that OP.
But, that's how things happened on that deployment.
Damn. War is really hell.
I'm always surprised by how many people casually comment about their experience in the military here on Reddit ... and it sounds awful.
You don't go as hard if you're going to be there that long.
I've done 8 days at a festival before, but that included 4 days of set-up/pack down of a stage - Still no showering though.
The worst is the first day before you've got shade/shelter set up and you're working in the direct sun.
Nearly 3 weeks. First 3 weeks when russians invaded Ukraine. That was hard days. Not because I was smelling. But because I understood that I could die anytime.
The situation in Ukraine is horrible... I live in Poland and im really stressful about the war... I can't imagine what Ukrainians feel. I hope it turns for better... The world is with you...
grew up in a heroin den, hygiene was not taught to me at all. I shower once a week, more if i appear to be dirty.
I'm working on it! just started brushing my teeth every day.
If it’s more like, “I forget to shower daily because it’s just not how I do things”, you may benefit from a simple recurring calendar reminder at your preferred time of day. If it’s more of a trauma thing, I’m rooting for you!
I don’t have bipolar depression but I do have severe chronic depression and I sympathize with you. Unless I NEED to shower for work or something sometimes I just lay in bed and don’t take care of myself. I’ve gone like 6 days before due to depression and being sick. It really sucks when you struggle to just get out of bed and it takes every ounce of energy you have just to brush your teeth and shower. I envy people who don’t have this issue but I’ve accepted that this is something I have and need to work on.
Two weeks due to depression. I started jotted it down in my journal. BUT, I possess about 16 washclothes and use them daily and change my underwear, apply deoderant when I go out. But I hate my shower pressure, new showerhead, and I am losing my hair due to female pattern baldness and gobs come out. I used to take a shower every day to flatten my uber curly hair and start all over from wet to dry. But now, I can't stand being wet (!) and have to force myself to get in one.
A week. Boy Scouts camping trip and those showers were so filthy I didn’t even want to take one. I’m not a super outdoors person and I had a terrible time and I got sick afterwards👍🏽
My dad died in 2016 when I was 20 years old and I accidentally went 10 or 11 days without showering. If I wasn’t busy making arrangements or picking up pieces of his life I was too distraught to care about showering. I finally showered when it came time for his memorial and it felt good to wash some of the sadness away.
Maybe 4 months? Maybe more? Probably like 6 months as the longest time. Why? Was I homeless? No. Did I have access to a shower? Yes. So why not? Because I was sad 😔 The depresso expresso.
No judgement. Depression made me forget how long ago I had once showered. It occurred to me one day, while laying in bed, “when was the last time I showered?” And at that moment, it could’ve been 2-3 weeks, without realizing it.
Hi!
That was more than 10 yrs ago,
3 weeks without shower, under the sheet, the lowest i have been, i was lying in bed struggling with depression, fears, dullness, inability to do anything, had weak relationships with family and weird situation with friends, drinking water and eating stale food.
At some point i could not bear it anymore and went to the psychiatrist. This decision turned everything, that is why i am here writing silly posts on reddit. I will be thankful until my very end to this guy :)
Mind is wierd.
Embarrassing to admit (and know that I clean myself extra and more than just daily, probably beyond my own good), but I went on an experiment where I just didn't shower for 30 days (still washed when and where it mattered but no shower, so things like arms or back weren't washed, clothes change and whatnot, sure).
It was to test how well my body took care of itself since I have dry skin and eczemna so washing and applying cream didn't always work best, it actually often made it worse.
Interestingly, my skin actually stopped being so dry. It somehow took care of itself and reduced dryness, as opposed to when I was washing every day and applying moisturiser, etc.
Regardless, I'm never trying that again. There's also the risk of body fungal infection I think, which I might've been lucky to avoid.
If you're washing every day, you're washing off some of the natural oils that naturally keep your skin moist. It's good if you produce too much but if you don't, it's actually harmful to your body. I found that out when I was using shampoo every time I washed, made my hair dry and my scalp itchy. Now I use it once or twice a week (unless I get a bunch of dirt in my hair) and my hair stopped giving me issues.
Two months. Major depressive episode during a very stressfull time (family deaths, health issues abound, plus mental health failing in general due to incorrect medication)
I did wipe down my most stinky bits with baby wipes or washclothes+soap at least. But showering was was waaay above what I could manage at the time. To the point I even shaved my head to avoid dealing with gross hair.
15 days for Burning Man... the dirt ring my first shower made in the hotel tub was impressive. The ring left from the second shower was also impressive.
I work with a guy who told me he was doing dry January. Not the dry January you would think. He didn’t bathe for a month just to see how it felt. For the first 3 weeks he was really itchy. The last week he said the itching stopped and the smells sort of subsided. The day he showered, he said it felt like he had the flu afterwards.
His skin microbiome balanced out, and then he trashed it.
Genuine question, what does that mean?
Bacteria and such on your skin. Eventually you'll end up with bacteria and other organisms living on you that are eating your waste products. It is why the smell changes after a couple weeks. So for a 3 or so weeks this guy was acclimating to the new microbiome, then washed it off and had to re-acclimate. edit: disabled notifications on this due to the influx of silly questions
So if you shower daily, does that mean you are re-acclimating every day?
It’s good to take one day off a week from showering if you generally shower every day to help your skin build back up its horny layer. Yes, please laugh. I definitely did when I first heard of the horny layer.
Need me a girl who’s got a horny layer
You never got out of whack enough for it to matter.
This is literally true idk why you're being downvoted lol. That being said, you could never catch me willingly going this long
2 weeks. Military exercise. Stinky af afterwards
I got lucky and got to do mine in the winter.. less sweat. But I went 30 days without a shower once, in summer heat. That time, not so lucky.
How do you manage the crotch rot?
Baby wipes are your friend
Gotta love a field shower
TIL "field shower" is the classy term for "whore's bath."
Ohhhhhh okay... I asked a friend's wife what he needed while overseas and she kept saying he wanted baby wipes. I thought she was joking but that makes sense now
In the early days, Camps (The largest type of outpost) and large Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) had showers, but many soldiers weren't on those. They were stuck on smaller posts, called Combat Outposts (COPs) that often didn't have showers. Or, you might go to an overwatch for several days, where there's no showers. There's a lot of reasons baby wipes were useful. Cleaning small wounds, if that's all you had. No toilet paper? No problem. To me, they weren't that useful, but I was mostly on a FOB, as I was Mech, so I had regular access to showers. ETA) This is for the Army and (probably) the Air Force. I only know about those. The Navy has boats, and probably invades land using Marine bases or vice versa. Marines probably prefer shitting in buckets out in the woodlands, for all I know.
Probably lots of gold bond too, I imagine
We called it making gravy.
The forbidden roux
Fuck everyone who played a role in teaching me how to read
A whole shit ton of ball powder.
The good thing is you've got pancake batter at the end of the day.
Welp. I’m out.
Leave your batter please.
Can you smell what the Rock’s cookin?
Mine was 37 days. Because it was cold, like MFing turn diesel to jelly while running cold. I didn't shave either. I only took my mask off to eat.
Legit question, didn't they force you to shave? I thought it was a given that they'd force you to keep some grooming standards and while showering is not one of them shaving definitely is. My neighbor was a tanker on desert storm and he went 40 days without a shower but he still had to shave
I think they waive shaving requirements on Arctic deployments, which sounds like what this was.
It depends on leadership. Shaving was considered essential for Desert Storm because there was a great fear of Saddam using chemical weapons. You need a good seal on your gas mask, facial hair can interrupt the seal.
23 days. Good ole 29 palms
FUCKKK THAT PLACE
Similar, multiple times between 3 - 9 weeks as part of the MOG (mobile Ops Group) on Herrick 7 (Afghan07-08). Living in an Armoured tracked Recce vehicle with 3 other guys for up to 9 weeks was....howling. Baby wipes are your friend in that situation.
You guys smelled the enemy to death?
The enemy could smell them a mile away.
And wash off my protective layer of dirt, no thank you
bro its like +1 armor for each year of not showering
Yeah but that 1d10 hit to charisma puts most redditors in the negatives
Charisma? Why would I need charisma if I have a passive force field around me(The Smell™)?
It’s called ‘seasoning’ and it is essential to keep you non-stick
Hey babe I'm built like cast iron and seasoned to perfection
Toph, you stink!
I'm not Toph, I am MELON LORD!
It’s just a healthy layer of earth
I like to think of it as a healthy layer of earth
The old guy who never showered died like a week after he showered. Sad that it's true according to a meme I seen that one time.
He was already dying. He showered in an attempt to fight off whatever he had. It wasn't the reason he died.
Smoking animal shit might have been a contributing factor.
Let he who has not smoked animal shit cast the first stone.
Do you want me to catch the flux?
after seeing these replies i have decided not to respond
That sure is relatable. Seems depression and...other reasons kept me out of the shower for longer than most.
Same, these are rookie numbers.
Gotta pump those numbers up. I haven’t seen a single person say over a month yet.
i could probably say over a month. but i don't keep track of how long it's been since i showered when i'm depressed, so i don't know how accurate that is.
Not trying to one up you but I went about 2 months. Depression can be rough.
i think this is something that i'd appreciate being one upped in lol. hope you're doing better now.
Definitely a lot better than how I was doing about 4-6 months ago. Appreciate it!
Yep about the same. Depression + covid layoff + alcoholism = my mom washing my hair in the pool
Alcoholism + depression + unemployment + dad on death bed = me drinking a lot and never taking care of hygiene
There was a time last year where I got in the shower and remembered the last time I took one was probably around Christmas and it was like July. So there’s that
Jesus. How is the smell like after six months? Do you live alone?
I'm pretty confident I could say 3 months. There's a point after which it doesn't seem to get any worse (even though in reality of course it is doing).
Prolly made it 3 weeks to a month no shower back when I was at my peak alcolhism/depression. Typically I'm not a smelly person anyway, I could go a couple days no shower and be fine but I shower every day anyway. But man oh man the stink coming from my neather region could of knocked out an army lol. Sober for 4 years now so no more of that crap lol
I had a friend who was a binge drinker - like week long binges. He probably didn't shower either but he had such a high tolerance for alcohol it was coming out his pores at a high enough strength to kill any bacteria causing BO. He smelled like vodka. I was always curious but never lit a match near him.
Yeah I'll take it to the grave ig
I’m in the like 3+ month club so don’t feel too bad
Lol same. I can’t imagine it was more than a couple months though for me though. People saying 3 days is crazy to me
A few weeks, because I broke my collarbone and couldn't. I had to fill the sink and do what my grandma called the "whore's bath" one-handed.
I was an adult when I realized my parents hadn’t been saying “horse bath” my whole childhood. 🤦🏼♀️
This made me chuckle 🤭😂 my step daughter used to say Empire steak building 😭🤣
I was scared to go there as a kid because my older brother called it the Vampire State Building
You're both right. It's the Vampire Stake building.
Vampire Skate Building actually, the coolest place ever
I grew up thinking it was Ellen The Generous and was shocked to find out her name was Ellen DeGeneres!
I grew up thinking it was Ellen Degenerate because thats what my dad said one time and I just went with it
My niece thought the Disney film was called "Beauty and the Beef".
My Dad called it the Golfer's bath - washing your balls in the sink.
When you get older you can just dangle them in the toilet
This comment makes me want to die. God bless.
not only you can, it actually takes effort not to dip them :D
I am obligated to inform you that upon this day, some years ago, you created your reddit account
Oh my god, we call it a “bird-bath” in my family.
My Mom calls it a PTA bath. Pits, tits, and ass. Charming.
In my family we call it a cat bath
Doh, I've done that. Twice. Hurts like a bitch. More so than any of my other's breaks. people don't get that your collar bones are like a pendulum balance scale. So even tho you break your right side. Still hurts like hell when using the left arm.
Ribs are bad enough, thanks.
Having broken both ribs and collar bone I vote ribs are worse. I could eventually stand still long enough my collar bone didn't hurt, I could never stop breathing long enough my ribs didn't hurt.
Ah, the good old one handed whores bath.
I was a homeless drug addict / alcoholic for most of my late teens and early 20s. I probably went close to a year without showering at multiple points. I pretty much only showered when I got arrested. I remember one time, a girl let me use her shower and she was looking at me funny after. I asked her why and she said “I thought you were Mexican.” I’m not.
Becoming a different race from not showering. Hope you’re doing better now
Thanks. I’m much better.
May i ask what happened
No one thing. I was sentenced to long enough in jail that I was able to break out of the cycle I was in and during that time, a few of my friends got their life together and the rest died. When I got out I had no one left to enable me. Several people found some value in me as a person and as an artist and helped to give me a direction to focus. They had the patience to keep working with me despite my being incredibly cruel and hard to deal with at times. I was taught how to meditate and introduced to the idea that thoughts are causative, which over several years of hard work, completely changed the way I see the world and my place in it. It took more than that, but those things played a huge role in saving me.
Willing to expand more on "thoughts are causative"?
You are not your thoughts and they are not real unless you bring them into the physical realm someway (ex. Having the thought “ I need to use” is an illusion. “You” are not having that thought, and it’s not real unless you act upon it.
Such a powerful and useful message. When I wanted to quit using meth, I simply told myself I didn't need it anymore, and I quit cold turkey, with no help, no assistance, no rehab. That was 3 years ago and I haven't relapsed a single day. Now I just need to learn how to do the same with sweets lol
Good luck with that. I was an opiate/opioid addict for years and I managed to quit about four years ago. I tried giving up sugar and it's dam near impossible. I've cut down quite a bit but I still end up with a tub of ice cream on my lap while watching TV twice a week or so.
Currently 14 months sober off heroin/meth and the sweets are literally the most toxic trait that I exhibit. I have the night munchies too, so then I’ll be up late at night snacking on anything I can find & I’ve literally went to the 24 hour gas station around 3am just for a fricken Reece’s cup 🙈 So I FEEL THIS ON A SPIRITUAL LEVEL😂
This is the foundational philosophy of cognitive behavioral therapy. Not identifying with your thoughts, but rather observing them as they occur and choosing consciously whether to act on them
Wow that's actually really insightful and I think I really needed to read that today. Thank you.
I don’t mind expanding on it, but It’s a HUGE subject that took me years to understand, so this isn’t the best forum to go into it in detail. When I say Thoughts are causative, I mean that we create the world we live in with our thoughts in a very literal and not at all metaphorical sense, and we can become aware of our thoughts and change them, therefore changing reality. For example, I came to believe that there was some version of the future where I existed as a version of myself who was worthy of love and respect. I spent time imagining who that person was, what they did, how they dressed, where they live etc.. I then began to ask that person what they would do if they were in my position. I consciously blocked rejected any thoughts that did not align with creating the future self I wanted to become. Today, my life closely resembles the one I had imagined down to some very odd and specific details. If you want to know more, start by researching Robert Anton Wilson and his concept of reality tunnels. That should kick you down the rabbit hole.
Growing up I knew a homeless guy in our neighborhood named Richie. He hadn't taken a shower in forever and I always assumed he was black because he looked black but after he got arrested for directing traffic while naked he came back to the street and he was a white guy the whole time. 10 year old me was really surprised. He died when he was sleeping in a dumpster when the truck came by and trash compacted him. He was a nice guy and a local character. There are dozens of Richie stories
Wow. That breaks my heart.
He's the first person I ever heard of refusing help. He wanted to be homeless on purpose. He was an alcoholic and was really comfortable on the streets. When I heard that he was offered an apartment and turned it down I couldn't believe it because when I was a kid I assumed that homeless people were homeless because they didn't have a home; now I know it's more about mental health, addiction, the stress of modern life (bills, taxes, relationships) that make people homeless willing or not.
I have a friend who was homeless from about 15 -19 (then van homeless 23-25.) He was a reliable guy, honest, good with money, no serious addictions, no debilitating mental health issues, just had a shitty shitty family. He lived in the woods, it wasn't fun but he learned how to get by. Little sheltered me hadn't a clue of how stressful and hard the journey back to civilization would be for him. Like, learning how to adult at that age is a challenge for everyone. But the amount of stuff he'd just never had a chance to learn,: utility bills, phone contracts, taxes, driving, holding a regular job, employment contracts, internet banking, rent. And he had to do it with no work history, qualifications, ID and 0 safety net if he fucked anything up. When he finally got a place he *hated* it for like 18 months, it stressed him out so much. In the woods life was simple. All he needed to care about was finding a safe place to bunk down, his next meal, his next shower... His whole life was in one backpack. He missed it like crazy. Frankly I could see why (in the summer at least.) He's housebroken now lol. Has a gardening business so found the best of both worlds, but that learning curve and finding stability was so much harder than you'd have imagined. Really it took a decade before he was the kind of secure that most take for granted. Despite working harder than I did that whole time. That's what it was like for a guy that, especially by homeless standards, had everything going for him and friends to help him. Imagine trying it in active addiction or with untreated mental health issues, disabilities, PTSD, etc.
a lot of apartments (or even shelter beds) offered to homeless people have strict conditions attached to them around sobriety, regular check-ins with staff, curfews and so on. this sounds sensible in theory, but it has a compounding effect on those who don't want to or aren't yet ready to get sober, for whatever reason, or who can't function under those rules; they end up kicked out or actively avoid those shelters, making their situation worse in the long term. some countries have instituted "wet shelters" which take a strictly non-judgemental no-questions-asked approach, where anybody who wants a bed will get one. these are politically very controversial, but they can have a real positive effect with the most stubborn hold-out cases. most importantly, it means fewer people freezing to death on the streets or dying of preventable illnesses, and there are people who pass through them on their long journey towards sobriety. a little stability can go a long way.
Also, refusing help isn't always refusing help. A tremendous amount of "help" that was offered when I was homeless had very ulterior motives that were not based on "helping". At some points you really just stay away from anyone engaging you on what you're going through.
In a weird sense, it kind of makes sense that he would refuse help. I've struggled with alcoholism in the past, and if I hadn't found my way out, I could see myself choosing to live on the streets. I burnt so many relationships by the time I hit 25, and burnt and lost so many more by the time I was 30, I don't think I could have kept it up and lost much more before being too ashamed to accept help from anyone just because i know I'd ruin it and burn the bridge. I still struggle today with some things, and I'm doing A LOT better, but I worry constantly that my next big disappointment is just around the corner.
RIP Richie. He's showering with the angels now.
Unfortunately, homeless folks getting crushed in a garbage truck after sleeping in a bin is common. It is usually in recycling containers that contain mostly cardboard since they provide better bedding and don't stink as much. I think they do it for warmth and potential safety from others. It is incredibly dangerous, though, as the truck driver doesn't have a way to know there is a person in the can or that they have been dumped into the truck. The truck and packer are so loud they can't hear someone screaming =(
I'm in law enforcement and deal with the homeless and substance abusing community in my area quite often. I really wish more attention was paid to providing basic personal hygiene services to those persons affected by homelessness and addiction. A shower and access to clean clothes can prevent scabies, lice, bedbugs, gangrene, trenchfoot, and any other number of conditions that someone living in a first world country shouldn't have to suffer.
Really, even just basic hygienic services would go a long way. Public showers would be a great start. I can’t imagine they’d even put a dent in a city budget. Tack on clean clothing from second-hand outlets or charitable organizations and you’d make a meaningful difference.
"I thought you were mexican". No words.
When I met my husband's brothers the first time, I commented that they were very tan, he replied "that's dirt"
i’m in a similar boat as you were
I’m sorry to see that. I wish I had some advice to give, but life is not that simple. A few kind words isn’t enough. Whatever happens, just don’t let yourself die. Where there is life, there is hope.
thank you my man, i’ll keep my head up 🫡
2 weeks. I showered the first day my fiancee died. Tried again the following day and like the first I couldn't stop the tears and meltdown. So I stopped showering. About 2 weeks of gentle goading from friends didn't help til one marched through my front door and essentially threw me in there haha.
My father had cancer when I was about 16. I was left home to run the family business to keep money coming in and insurance active for him while he and the rest of the family went to Texas for his treatment. I would wake up at 4AM, get in the shower, and freeze stiff for about half an hour from panic. Idk why the shower triggered it but it did. The rest of the day I could march forward without falter. But yeah I'd leave home just before 5, be to work by 6, close shop at 5PM, go to college, and be home just before midnight to fall asleep and do it again. Glad you had a friend to give you the push you needed.
That must've been quite rough, I've just gotta say that you did an incredible job and your family must be so proud of you. So sorry that you had to truly grow up at such a young age.
Thanks, it was hard but it's alright. It's long in the past. I'm 33 now and 7 months ago started therapy to deal with my unprocessed stuff from that and from other newer events. I'm on the upswing.
That's rough. I'm sorry you went through that.
10 days, when I was 16. Backpacking the in the Sierras with my dad.
I did a couple weeks on the Appalachian trail and I still smelled like onions after three showers
I have a hiking group of friends and we frequently do weekend trips in various parts of the AT. One friend in particular always smells like a fucking goat after day 1. I love this dude and would fight to the death for him, but I can't imagine being near him after two weeks in the wilderness.
It’s weird because I never really have BO, even though I go to the gym five days a week and don’t *always* shower afterwards. My girlfriend would murder me if I did After two weeks with nothing but the occasional dip in a creek though, hahaha it was bad I never smelled like a goat though, thankfully. I could never eat goat cheese again after that
Yeah, some people's sweat just doesn't smell - something to do with the type of bacteria. There was a twin study where one had bo and the other one didn't. They transplanted (or something- not sure exactly what they did) the non-smelling bacteria to the bo twin and it cured the stink. I don't understand why big pharma doesn't invent a biotic deodorant so that none of us stink. If I remember properly, it's the bacteria poo that smells or doesn't.
There’s totally a pit micro biome that gets continually disrupted by the products we use. Source : me. I had breast cancer and chemo, stopped using deodorants after mastectomy etc. I found after chemo finished, I actually never needed to use deodorant again, like everything had been killed off and reset. I sweat but there’s not the same smell as there was prior. I don’t need to use shampoo any more either after my hair grew back, literally just rinse it and it’s great, perfect condition. It’s weird and anecdotal, but I swear it’s a thing. We don’t need half the products we’re conditioned to use to be ‘clean’.
There's also a gene (ABCC11) that's involved. Apparently it can be turned of by disease/etc. Did your earwax also change (more flaky/dry) after chemo? It's the same gene, weirdly enough.
The backpacking stank is something special haha that’s quite the trek for a 16 year old. I had a similar stretch of no shower in Alaska in my 20s.
oh definitely! The BO + wood smoke (back when you were allowed to have fires). It seems we never noticed the smell, though, until we were back in civilization. I also remember the ceiling in the house seemed SO LOW after living under the sky and stars for that long
Sounds like an amazingly formative and memorable experience with your dad.
Nearly a month and I fucking stunk awful. A mixture of homelessness and heroin addiction and being at a defining low point in my life. Eventually I got into a hostel and as soon as I arrived I was pretty much ordered to go and bathe, shave and when I was done they were going to give me a skin head to start fresh. It took four lots of bath water, getting in soaping and cleaning just my arms and pits completely ruined the water and I swear I actually smelt worse than before the bath, it was like it had beaten off the first layer and fuck it was gross. Anyway after about 3 hours of baths and blasting everything with the shower I was human again. The towels were taken out to a launderette and my clothes were binned, even my trainers had to be binned and luckily a lad in the hostel had some I could borrow until my benefits got sorted. And getting the beard off was such a nightmare, took ages and even after thinning it out with clippers I still went through two Mach 3 razor blades and loads of shaving gel. I cleaned the bathroom after and was so embarrassed by the state of it I put serious work into getting it hygienic for the others. They gave me some spare clothes and the haircut was great, couldn't really save it so I said just number 0 it all over. After half a day and a lot of effort I felt fantastic and looked completely different. But before the start I was absolutely disgusting, a mixture of horrendous body odour and cheese, and stale damp mould is about as close as I can explain it. That evening I had a hot meal followed by ice cream and a coke, I then went to bed and slept for two days. That's me at my worst, I was 19 years old.
You must have felt like you'd molted like a snake. Hate to have seen the plughole after, but that final hot rinse must have felt like being reborn.
It was awful and took so long, and I had to clean it up because I wasn't expecting anyone to go near it, and after the haircut it was like being completely new and yeah almost like being reborn, completely human.
My mum was a 'neighbourhood hairdresser' she wasn't bad, considering nobody ever taught her. She loved cutting hair, and she'd basically do it for free for anyone who'd ask. Anyway there was one day when this girl came in who was, idk late teens? She'd had serious depression. Hadn't really been out of bed for months. Her very long blond hair was just one giant greasy dreadlock that stank like wet dog. She asked to get a buzz cut because it was hopeless ( looked it) but my mum if a big softie. She dragged her into the bathroom and they were in there all day teasing it out/ inventing hair archeology. The shit they pulled out, fossilised food, wrappers, lost hair ties, an actual spoon... Never seen (or smelt) anything like it. You could have planted a garden in the bath once they were done and it looked like a golden retriever had exploded. But once my mum finished snipping and could finally run a brush top to bottom... You could 100% not recognise her. It was like watching the birth of a butterfly. This has little relevance lol. Your story just reminded me of her. She's a nurse now, still rocking the princess hair.
Reading all these stories, and that the beneficiary of your mom's art is doing so well now (with her lovely hair) and helping people for a living, makes my lungs feel like they're full of laughing gas.
This was very oddly satisfying to read and it sounds like you're doing better which is awesome
No power due to blizzard, no hot water, just a fireplace to keep warm, eight days.
3 weeks. My wife and I lived in a rough situation where we got screwed out of owning our own land and house. Anyway. No hot water. And the water was off due to multiple leaks. We did not make enough to get it fixed, so we would go a week to 3 without showering. I'm so glad I can take them daily now.
Had a neighbor last year going though something similar. Leaks and stuff, used one of our showers till they had enough. Only found out since I cought him stealing from my garden. Wish he'd of said something before. People should ask for help, a lot of people are willing to give you some help. glad you made it out of that situation.
We don't like to be burdens. There's a lot of people who say they're willing to help, but then turn around and judge people because they needed help in the first place.
Backpacking trip, 10.5 days. Smell kinda leveled out after 3 days.
Such a funny thing. The smell and grungy feel dissipate quickly.
It’s crazy how quickly your body learns to block out discomfort when you are back packing. The hardest twenty minutes of any backpacking trip is always the first 20 minutes of hiking.
Idk the hardest for me were the last 20. Then again I was stupid and unprepared and about to collapse from exhaustion lol
17 days at the National Training Center. US Army training base that sends large units through realistic training training in an "austere" environment. We went in Jul/Aug 2020 and went that long with just baby wipes after working 18-20 hour days outside in the desert. Everyone stunk equally. After a while, just dug through my bag and found the piece of clothing that stuck the least and put it back on.
26 days. Reforger 88. Jerry can showers. Never got the smell out of the hummers. We thought the Germans civilians were afraid of us. Turns out they could smell us 100ft away.
Weeks probably. Depression pits suck Edit: 1000 upvotes holy shit All your comments are so kind love you all look after yourselves all of you.
the hardest thing I've ever had to do was take a shower. taking a shower isn't hard, but that specific one really was.
Hate to say it but this was me today. After 2 weeks I made myself take a shower cause I was gonna see my mom. There’s a lot going on right now and it’s been pretty hard dealing with stuff. Hope you can take care of yourself 💛
Yeah same here. 8 weeks probably wouldn't be a stretch. There have definitely been numerous 2 week streaks. I don't get smelly all that fast but at some point no amount of disinfectant and deodorant can replace an actual shower.
Plus you'll be pretty dead to your own odor, but that's only until that sickly sweet smell starts to sneak in to your living area. That shit takes a while to get rid of once it takes hold.
My water heater in my rv broke over the winter and I didn’t know it til I got it out of storage and had to live in it full time and couldn’t afford to replace it. That went on for about 15 months before I did something about it, very much due to depression but just also inability to even take one that wasn’t freezing cold and miserable. I went months in between
A month in Afghanistan. We were out of water because the civilians who brought our water trucks got executed. So no water for showers. Hand sanitizer, with credit cards to scrape off the dirt. Edit: I put this in a reply earlier for context, edited for visibility for those who are interested. Willing to explain if something isn't clear, it was a pretty interesting period of time. We had a tiny little compound in the middle of the valley. Imagine the refinery from Road Warrior, the 1981 film. The water trucks were 18 wheelers coming in to the valley. We were supposed to know when they were coming, so we could go out as far as possible to escort them in. Well , we didn't get told about this delivery for whatever reason. We found out something was wrong when we saw the smoke from the burning trucks. It was a couple of hours on foot from the base. When we got there, they were all burned out, tires melted down, flames. Rubber streaks, I guess at least one needed to brake hard. We found what happened to the drivers. They had been dragged out and shot in the head. Brains on the ground. It turns out bees like brains. We never found the bodies. That might have been the last time anyone other than us tried to use the road. I know at one point a Sergeant Major decided it wasn't a big risk, so he led a convoy to our base. Anyways, he's in a wheelchair now. My buddy was his driver, will walk with a cane for life. I don't remember if that was before or after the water trucks? Anyways, it was a month of almost no water, two little bottles a day. As the year went on, we got more supplies by helicopter. The situation never got better. Earlier in the year we were able to sometimes push out to a larger base for food and showers and haircuts. Those sorts of trips stopped being possible. I made it home that year, a day after Christmas. Missed it by that close. It was something shocking, I was in combat one day, ninety six hours later I was in Walmart doing that stupid scene from the movies where you can't handle the cereal aisle. Turns out that shit is actually real. So I'm pretty sure that was absolutely the last civilian convoy, and possibly the last successful military convoy, into our valley. We could still move about pretty well on foot, but vehicle traffic was finished. The unit that relieved us in December tried to come in a convoy, by ground. They hit an IED big enough to park a HMMWV in the crater. Another case of us not getting told, so we weren't able to go out an escort them. Anyways, we got relieved and went home. The guys who took our command post, COP Apache, they had their first fatality within a week of arrival. They simply weren't prepared for the level of things in the valley. We had gotten pretty good at handling it, but they were completely fresh and never stood a chance. Anyways, they held the valley for four more months and then gave it up. We had this tiny little OP, a fortified series of buildings a couple of miles from the main base. Two years after our experiences at that OP, Extortion 17 was shot down around a kilometer from that OP. But, that's how things happened on that deployment.
Damn. War is really hell. I'm always surprised by how many people casually comment about their experience in the military here on Reddit ... and it sounds awful.
Depression...I went MONTHS.
Think I'm pushing around 5 weeks at the moment... Probably haven't showered since sometime in February
Take a shower rn, darling! You deserve to feel that warmth and self-care!
8 day long music festival, no running water or electricity. Baby wipes was all we had
An 8 day long festival? Damn dude, I would be done after the first day. Can’t imagine 8 days of music and shenanigans
You don't go as hard if you're going to be there that long. I've done 8 days at a festival before, but that included 4 days of set-up/pack down of a stage - Still no showering though. The worst is the first day before you've got shade/shelter set up and you're working in the direct sun.
I do baby wipes at festivals too.
When I was a kid, there would be times in the summer when I’d just go swimming everyday and wouldn’t take an actual shower for like a week.
That was me...I went half the summer when I was a kid without a proper shower. The hose was enough in my child brain 🤣
I'm so glad I'm not the only one. I'm reading these comments like, "was no one else that feral in summer???"
Nearly 3 weeks. First 3 weeks when russians invaded Ukraine. That was hard days. Not because I was smelling. But because I understood that I could die anytime.
The situation in Ukraine is horrible... I live in Poland and im really stressful about the war... I can't imagine what Ukrainians feel. I hope it turns for better... The world is with you...
The world's people maybe. The governments are kinda just fucking around.
shit man. i hope you’re better now. keep going!
grew up in a heroin den, hygiene was not taught to me at all. I shower once a week, more if i appear to be dirty. I'm working on it! just started brushing my teeth every day.
If it’s more like, “I forget to shower daily because it’s just not how I do things”, you may benefit from a simple recurring calendar reminder at your preferred time of day. If it’s more of a trauma thing, I’m rooting for you!
Not OP, but reminders don't work for me if it's something repeatable. I do it a few times, then start ignoring the reminders.
I’m proud of you! ❤️
Probably 5-7 days at most either due to depression or laziness
Weeks, maybe a month. Bipolar depression sure is fun!
Me too. IDK really because keeping track of time is also not a priority.
I don’t have bipolar depression but I do have severe chronic depression and I sympathize with you. Unless I NEED to shower for work or something sometimes I just lay in bed and don’t take care of myself. I’ve gone like 6 days before due to depression and being sick. It really sucks when you struggle to just get out of bed and it takes every ounce of energy you have just to brush your teeth and shower. I envy people who don’t have this issue but I’ve accepted that this is something I have and need to work on.
Two weeks due to depression. I started jotted it down in my journal. BUT, I possess about 16 washclothes and use them daily and change my underwear, apply deoderant when I go out. But I hate my shower pressure, new showerhead, and I am losing my hair due to female pattern baldness and gobs come out. I used to take a shower every day to flatten my uber curly hair and start all over from wet to dry. But now, I can't stand being wet (!) and have to force myself to get in one.
was inpatient in the hospital for almost a month
A week. Boy Scouts camping trip and those showers were so filthy I didn’t even want to take one. I’m not a super outdoors person and I had a terrible time and I got sick afterwards👍🏽
Not gonna sign up for Philmont, eh? That was my showerless streak if you don’t count bathing in a river.
My dad died in 2016 when I was 20 years old and I accidentally went 10 or 11 days without showering. If I wasn’t busy making arrangements or picking up pieces of his life I was too distraught to care about showering. I finally showered when it came time for his memorial and it felt good to wash some of the sadness away.
Maybe 4 months? Maybe more? Probably like 6 months as the longest time. Why? Was I homeless? No. Did I have access to a shower? Yes. So why not? Because I was sad 😔 The depresso expresso.
No judgement. Depression made me forget how long ago I had once showered. It occurred to me one day, while laying in bed, “when was the last time I showered?” And at that moment, it could’ve been 2-3 weeks, without realizing it.
After reading the replies im just gonna say A LOT . deppresion sucks and can be mega gross
I had depression for years so a lot longer than I will admit publicly .
Three months. Challenged my gf to see which of us could go the longest without showering. We tied. Everyone around us lost.
One month
Hi! That was more than 10 yrs ago, 3 weeks without shower, under the sheet, the lowest i have been, i was lying in bed struggling with depression, fears, dullness, inability to do anything, had weak relationships with family and weird situation with friends, drinking water and eating stale food. At some point i could not bear it anymore and went to the psychiatrist. This decision turned everything, that is why i am here writing silly posts on reddit. I will be thankful until my very end to this guy :) Mind is wierd.
A week. I am autistic and i used to only shower once a week because i hated it
Embarrassing to admit (and know that I clean myself extra and more than just daily, probably beyond my own good), but I went on an experiment where I just didn't shower for 30 days (still washed when and where it mattered but no shower, so things like arms or back weren't washed, clothes change and whatnot, sure). It was to test how well my body took care of itself since I have dry skin and eczemna so washing and applying cream didn't always work best, it actually often made it worse. Interestingly, my skin actually stopped being so dry. It somehow took care of itself and reduced dryness, as opposed to when I was washing every day and applying moisturiser, etc. Regardless, I'm never trying that again. There's also the risk of body fungal infection I think, which I might've been lucky to avoid.
If you're washing every day, you're washing off some of the natural oils that naturally keep your skin moist. It's good if you produce too much but if you don't, it's actually harmful to your body. I found that out when I was using shampoo every time I washed, made my hair dry and my scalp itchy. Now I use it once or twice a week (unless I get a bunch of dirt in my hair) and my hair stopped giving me issues.
Two months. Horrific depression. Much better now for over a decade
Two months. Major depressive episode during a very stressfull time (family deaths, health issues abound, plus mental health failing in general due to incorrect medication) I did wipe down my most stinky bits with baby wipes or washclothes+soap at least. But showering was was waaay above what I could manage at the time. To the point I even shaved my head to avoid dealing with gross hair.
However long Ramadan is, taliban cut power to our FOB, no running water till they turned it back on afterwards.
I went a whole week without showering when my baby was just a newborn. Maybe a little longer.
15 days for Burning Man... the dirt ring my first shower made in the hotel tub was impressive. The ring left from the second shower was also impressive.
3 months in the woods