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Comment by david-gpu | Hacker News Reader

I once hired a contractor that showered once a week. He didn't tell me, it was apparent by his body odor that he bathed on Thursdays.

So, while it might be true that medically we don't need to shower so often, socially it is a necessity if we want people around us to be comfortable in close quarters.

I'll stick to my two daily showers with baby soap, thankyouverymuch. Thankfully I live in a place where water is abundant.

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I’m a twice a day person. When I was in Germany I told my host that I would be showering twice a day and she was aghast — she said that it was unhealthy for the skin and that there was a cost to the environment in terms of water usage and chemicals down the drain.

I hear that, but to me showering goes beyond cleanliness. I do it for the mental health benefits. It’s my time to unplug from the stresses of the day, to think quietly to myself (bathroom ideas are a real thing), and to feel squeaky clean before the day starts and before I go to bed (the mental health benefits of a good nights sleep is significant).

Showering is as psychological as it is physical.

I once went on a camping trip where I couldn’t shower for 3 days. My body felt like it was overheating and I was irritable the whole time.

I used to shower once in the morning, then married a once in the evening person. Now I'm happily in the twice a day crowd. Mornings I wash my hair, evening just to rinse off.

Two daily showers? Isn't one enough? You run the risk of drying out your skin and stripping your hair of its natural (and beneficial) oils.

To each their own. I'm definitely more comfortable with two showers. I have a buzz cut.

I shower up to twice a day on the regular. I’d rather have dry skin than smell of BO. But even though I regularly shower twice a day, I only get dry skin in the dead of winter when ambient outdoor temps are sometimes as low as -25F.

You can also just not get your hair wet. I only get my hair wet when I’m going to shampoo it.

I’m one of the people who needs to shower a minimum of once a day. My stink is profound. Gets worse as the day goes.

It can be better if I apply some antibacterial stuff to my armpits. (Kills all the stink creating biome)

I shower every morning with the purpose of washing my hair, looks ridiculous and feels nasty if I don't. Perhaps it's conditioned to 'expect' it, but frankly I'd rather do it than stop for a period to find out.

I'm curious where you live where "water is abundant". Water that comes out of your shower is the same stuff that comes out of your faucet. It's been carefully purified and disinfected, which costs a lot of energy. Even if you live somewhere (as I do) where water falls from the sky all the time, the water for showers is still not "abundant".

Where I live, the water utility sells water for about $5.00/thousand gallons (or about $1.30/thousand liters, if you prefer).

Given that the utility stays in business, that is enough to cover the costs of the well, the pumps, the water treatment, and the vast network of pipes required to get it to my house.

So, yeah, pretty abundant.

The water that comes out of my tap comes straight out of the ground, without any filters or purification steps. It tastes great, although it does have a moderate iron content. I live in the Great Lakes watershed, where water really is abundant.

I too have a well. For the curious, I estimate that it takes about $0.27 worth of electricity for it to pump 1000 gallons.

Generally in the U.S. and Canada, freshwater is abundant in the Great Lakes regions, so much so that this area is considered a strategic location in a climate crisis.

The cost of residential municipal water in Chicago is US$1.08/m3 [1]. In Toronto, another Great Lakes City, it's US$3.04/m3, ratcheting down to US$2.13/m3 after 5000 m3 [2].

Water in Berlin costs US$1.98/m3 [4] (€1.7/m3).

In comparison, Danish water cost US$6.70/m3 in 2016 [3].

[1] https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/fin/supp_info/utility-...

[2] https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/property-taxes-util...

[3] https://www.dailyscandinavian.com/highest-water-prices-in-th...

[4] https://www.bwb.de/content/en/html/1712.php

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