SeaConquest Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 When they were little, it was part of their bedtime routine. But, now it is much less frequent. In the summer, they swim every day, so they hardly bathe at all. In the winter, once or twice per week. I imagine it will pick up after puberty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonhawk Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 5 minutes ago, happysmileylady said: There’s a difference between odorless and being in need of a good cleaning and I don’t think it’s some cultural construct to recognize that a particular sort of smell indicates the need for a bath. I think though that the needle of what the "particular sort of smell that indicates the need for a bath" IS does change between cultures. Many cultures have a different standard and a different leniency for what can be acceptable. Even different professions probably have different standards. We may all agree that smell C means you need a bath but smell D could be acceptable in some areas. One of my history teacher's favorite stories was talking about his trips to rural area of Europe. He got on a bus and was bowled over by the smell of the people on the bus. They, meanwhile, tried to stay away from him because his perfumy soap smell was overpowering and gross to them. (This was confirmed by his frank discussion with a few other passengers, not his assumption.) I've noticed since we stopped using perfumed soaps and switched to more natural cleaners, my already-sensitive sense of over-perfume has gotten easier to trigger. I'm sure that what now smells normal to me is not what's normal to someone who uses multiple products with scents. I wonder how they perceive me: I'm washed, my clothes are clean, but I don't have the typical markers of "clean" that they are used to. I'm sure some people don't like scentless body odor. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixpix5 Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 My kids are every other day. I think some kids don't start going into tween as early as others so they don't produce as many oils. I think it tends to be kid specific. I have one kid that smells amazing for a week after a bath 😂 then another who I am like "did you wash your hair?" The next day because he is just a more mature kid for his age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 Most people in the house daily. The one with super sensitive skin and babies up to the age where they get dirty when they need it (smell, are visibly dirty, get diarrhea, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 20 hours ago, Farrar said: Once or maybe twice a week? Unless they had been playing in the woods or something, they usually didn't need it too much. They were never naturally smelly as younger kids. When they were babies, every night, part of the routine. By elementary school, we did it when we got around to it. By middle school, they needed to shower more and it was a bit of a hassle to make them. Now that they're in high school, they seem to have woken up to the need to be clean and not smelly. Whew. This almost exactl for my boys. My daughter has always really liked showers and so takes one daily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lulalu Posted January 26, 2019 Author Share Posted January 26, 2019 Looks like baths everyday is not abnormal! But also seems like once to twice a week is common too. That is about where we fall once to twice a week. I just never feel like my ds needs more than that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medawyn Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 The baby gets at least one daily bath, often more. She’s really into self feeding. The others (ages 2-5) usually get one every other day; we have a girls’ night and a boys’ night. The baby and 2 yo also frequently shower with me; it keeps them busy, and it’s easier to actually clean them in there. The 4yo (girl) gets in about 2-3 times a week. I make the 5 yo get in the shower once a week, because I know his hair actually gets clean in there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 My mind is blown that people don't bathe daily. Seriously -- so foreign to me. Do any non-bathers have straight, fine hair? Cause youngest DD and I do, and our hair is worthless on day 2. Stringy, oily mess. Dh showers daily. Heck, he could probably stand a second shower. He just gets smelly. Maybe we're just naturally oily and smelly here... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneezyone Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 12 minutes ago, alisoncooks said: My mind is blown that people don't bathe daily. Seriously -- so foreign to me. Do any non-bathers have straight, fine hair? Cause youngest DD and I do, and our hair is worthless on day 2. Stringy, oily mess. Dh showers daily. Heck, he could probably stand a second shower. He just gets smelly. Maybe we're just naturally oily and smelly here... Nope and curly hair should not be washed daily. The oils take a lot longer to reach the tip of the strand and the hair will dry out and break off. I have to add oils to my hair. Also, my skin is generally dry (unlike DH and DD who struggle with oil and sweat) and my skin would be an itchy, dry mess, lotion or no lotion if I did that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 19 minutes ago, alisoncooks said: My mind is blown that people don't bathe daily. Seriously -- so foreign to me. Do any non-bathers have straight, fine hair? Cause youngest DD and I do, and our hair is worthless on day 2. Stringy, oily mess. Dh showers daily. Heck, he could probably stand a second shower. He just gets smelly. Maybe we're just naturally oily and smelly here... I have very dry hair and it actually looks better if I don't wash it every day. My hair needs a couple of days to build up natural oils. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonflower Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 DD7 and I both have very fine, straight hair. I personally feel compelled to shampoo and condition it at least 2x/week and did every day as a kid. However, DD7, while she takes many baths a day if allowed, only washes her hair when something happens to it, although she gets it wet fairly often. It is much shinier and smoother and softer than mine, because she doesn't strip the oils every other day. It is not as fluffy (on days I shampoo/condition), though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 20 hours ago, Bluegoat said: It used to be really common for people to wash out of a basin of some sort - my great-grandmother did, she lived in a big old house but didn't have her own bathroom, it was a sort of institute for women and there were a lot of spinsters. So great-nana washed every day in a basin. I don't hear of people doing that often now, if they can't have a bath or shower often they don't bathe at all. When I went to the field in the Army I took a plastic sink basin. You really can clean everything in there with a few inches of water. I stood in it to clean my body and leaned over it to wash my hair. For longer stays in the field I washed underwear in it. The guys made fun of me for taking my basin, but usually 2-3 weeks in some of them would sheepishly ask to borrow it. 🤣 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyof1 Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 DD6 has eczema and she gets a bath every other day with special soaps and lotion. If she gets really messy then as often as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 I have dry hair and although I bathe daily I only wash my hair every other day . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 (edited) 10 hours ago, alisoncooks said: My mind is blown that people don't bathe daily. Seriously -- so foreign to me. Do any non-bathers have straight, fine hair? Cause youngest DD and I do, and our hair is worthless on day 2. Stringy, oily mess. Dh showers daily. Heck, he could probably stand a second shower. He just gets smelly. Maybe we're just naturally oily and smelly here... The oil glands in our scalps respond to regular shampooing by producing more oil. In other words if you could gradually cut back on how often you wash your hair you would likely find your hair getting oily less quickly after an initial adjustment period. Edited January 26, 2019 by maize 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 1 hour ago, KungFuPanda said: When I went to the field in the Army I took a plastic sink basin. You really can clean everything in there with a few inches of water. I stood in it to clean my body and leaned over it to wash my hair. For longer stays in the field I washed underwear in it. The guys made fun of me for taking my basin, but usually 2-3 weeks in some of them would sheepishly ask to borrow it. 🤣 Yeah, I learned to be good at this in the army too. I could do it without actually getting undressed too, since there often wasn't any privacy from the men. They were actually pretty anal about making sure everyone washed this way on a daily basis, some of the young guys would just not bother otherwise, and it could pretty easily result in skin infections and such. Not to mention it was pretty gross to sleep in a tight space with some guy who hadn't washed in a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 My kids bathe/shower once a week until they need to more often. Most of them have their father's dry skin. Less frequent bathing helped reduce skin issues. The older three clean up multiple times per week now - probably 3-5 times. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 https://www.sciencealert.com/how-often-you-should-wash-your-hair-according-science Many of us likely wash our hair too often. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMS83 Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 Every other night; I'm trying to get my tween to go daily and it's like pulling teeth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 23 hours ago, maize said: Our per capita consumption of water and pretty much every other natural resource in the US is nothing to brag about for sure; it would be completely unsustainable on a global scale. It isn't actually sustainable on a national scale. Of course this isn't just bathing, it's also stuff like watering lawns and eating food that is water intensive to produce like beef. There really is no room for claims of cultural superiority here. We got 71 inches/182 centimeters of rain last year. That’s over five feet!!!! To the best of my knowledge, nobody has figured out how to truck the excess to areas that need it more. If my daily showering habit is a real resource crisis and all of that extra floodwater can be better used elsewhere, I’d love to hear someone explain how that works because I really don’t know. I may just be ignorant, but until I’m better educated it feels a lot like shaming dessert dwellers for enjoying the sun too much. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellydon Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 Every single day, since 6 weeks old. I am always shocked that people don't bathe daily. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.