Consider showering
92Aella
15jimrandomh
9dkl9
9bohaska
3Tenoke
2Alex_Altair
13Gordon Seidoh Worley
22artifex0
13Gordon Seidoh Worley
5AnthonyC
-3Joseph Van Name
1AnthonyC
1Joseph Van Name
4avturchin
6Neil
0amitlevy49
2avturchin
6Buck
1[comment deleted]
New Comment
Strong disagree. This is an ineffective way to create boredom. Showers are overly stimulating, with horrible changes in temperature, the sensation of water assaulting you nonstop, and requiring laborious motions to do the bare minimum of scrubbing required to make society not mad at you. A much better way to be bored is to go on a walk outside or lift weights at the gym or listen to me talk about my data cleaning issues
4
2
1requiring laborious motions to do the bare minimum of scrubbing required to make society not mad at you
Society has no idea how much scrubbing you do while in the shower. This part is entirely optional.
"Stimulating" here is not quite the opposite of "boring". Many minds are used to said temperature changes, water assaults, and laborious motions, such that they still stimulate, but are easily ignored, leaving much space for thoughts. Showers are boring by consistency, despite stimulation.
A counterpoint: when I skip showers, my cat appears strongly in favor of smell of my armpits- occasionally going so far as to burrow into my shirt sleeves and bite my armpit hair (which, to both my and my cat's distress, is extremely ticklish). Since studies suggest that cats have a much more sensitive olfactory sense than humans (see https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/14/24/3590), it stands to reason that their judgement regarding whether smelling nice is good or bad should hold more weight than our own. And while my own cat's preference for me smelling bad is only anecdotal evidence, it does seem to suggest at least that more studies are required to fully resolve the question.
Depends on whose sense of smell you're optimizing for.
My cats like to sniff each other's butts.
Many dogs love smelling stinky garbage.
I'm not sure I would trust my cats' senses of smell to tell me if I would smell good to other humans.
As someone who very much enjoys long showers, a few words of caution.
- Too-long or too-frequent exposure to hot water (time and temperature thresholds vary per person) can cause skin problems and make body odor worse. Since I started RVing I shower much less (maybe twice a week on average, usually only a few minutes of water flow for each) and smell significantly better, with less dry skin or acne or irritation. Skipping one shower makes you smell worse. Skipping many showers and shortening the remainder can do the opposite.
- A shower, depending on temperature and flow rate, consumes around 10-20kW thermal. It's probably the single most energy-intensive activity most of us regularly engage in other than highway driving. I'm hoping to eventually get a recirculating shower so I don't have to think about this as much, but those are still new, rare, and kinda expensive.
Instead of not taking showers, we should all take cold showers for many reasons.
- You already mentioned the energy usage which is a problem.
- Hot showers increase the relative humidity of the bathroom to 100 percent which is way too high. And that humidity means that you get a lot of condensation in the bathroom too. That is good only if you want the bathroom covered in mold.
- If you take a hot shower that fogs up all the mirrors, you are censoring your own nakeyness. Please don't do that.
- I do not care if people shower daily. But people need to exercise daily. And after exercising, people need to shower. As a corollary, most of the time that people shower should be right after exercising. But after exercising, you are already warm, so the goal is to cool down. This means that everyone needs to take a cold shower.
- Cold intolerance is a major problem. People need to get over it. People who can't tolerate a little bit of cold probably are intolerant in other areas as well. They cannot go mountain climbing because the mountains have snow on them. They can't tolerate hot peppers. And they are afraid of spiders too.
Some of these are going to vary between people. Depending on the weather and the type of exercise, it actually isn't always necessary to shower after. And when it is, a quick rinse may be sufficient rather than a full shower. For most people, sure, it can be cold. For some, circulatory problems make cold showers problematic. For others (including me) cold showers may make it difficult to fully remove soap residue, which can be bad for skin. And if your bathroom is that foggy and covered in condensation when taking a hot shower, please consider turning on/turning up/fixing your exhaust fan, or leaving the door or window cracked.
Whether one takes or should take a cold shower or not depends on a lot of factors including whether one exercises, one's health, one's personal preferences, the air temperature, the cold water temperature, the humidity level, and the hardness of the shower water. But it seems like most people can't fathom taking a cold shower simply because they are cold intolerant even though cold showers have many benefits.
In addition to the practical benefits of cold showers, cold showers also may offer health benefits.
Cold showers could improve one's immune system (though we should).
The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial - PMC
Cold showers may boost mood or alleviate depression.
Scientific Evidence-Based Effects of Hydrotherapy on Various Systems of the Body - PMC
Adapted cold shower as a potential treatment for depression - ScienceDirect
Cold showers could also improve circulation and metabolism.
Cold showers also offer other benefits.
I always use the exhaust fan. It is never powerful enough to reduce the humidity faster than a warm shower increases the humidity. I also lock the door when taking a shower, and I do not know why anyone would take a shower without locking the door. Opening the door while showering just makes the rest of the home humid as well, and we can't have that.
I exercise daily, so out of habit, I always take a shower after I exercise, and most of my showers are after exercise. Even if I spend a few minutes cooling down after exercise, I need the shower to cool down even more, and by taking a warm shower, I cannot cool down as effectively, so I end up sweating after taking the shower. And I sometimes take my temperature after exercise and the shower and even after the shower, I tend to have a mouth temperature of 99.0 to 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. I doubt that people who barely need to take a shower after exercising are doing much exercise or perhaps they are doing weights instead of cardio which produces less sweat, but in any case, I have never exercised and thought that I do not need a shower regardless of whether I am doing cardio, weights, or whatever.
Soap scum left over after taking a cold shower seems to be a problem for you and for you only.
Added 8/20/2025: And taking a hot shower produces all the condensation that helps all that mirror bacteria grow. Biological risk from the mirror world — LessWrong
