'I often went three or four days between showers or until someone told me I smelled.'<p>.<p>-- Ok I'm sorry, maybe this is superficial of me, but I just cannot fathom consciously choosing to wait till offense overcomes decorum to decide when to shower.
I went alpine camping for a week once (Tasmania), and crossing a stream, the water was so cold it was physically extremely painful. But others in the group didn't mind as much, so I decided to adjust to it.<p>At the end of the week, I was swimming in the water for half an hour, and it didn't bother me at all. A tremendous sense of elevation.<p>While it does remind me of <i>why are you hitting yourself in the head with a hammer? Because it feels so good when I stop</i>, to defeat discomfort is somehow profoundly affirming of freedom and self-determination.
"As for my type, it said I valued autonomy, ingenuity, and will power, and trusted my own reasoning."<p>And have a deep capacity for self-criticism, right?
I started taking a James Bond shower 6 months ago and have not caught any cold since then - <a href="http://artofmanliness.com/2010/01/18/the-james-bond-shower-a-shot-of-cold-water-for-health-and-vitality/" rel="nofollow">http://artofmanliness.com/2010/01/18/the-james-bond-shower-a...</a>
subject line: Why I went without hot water for a year<p>second paragraph: I didn’t really have a clear reason for doing this<p>I'd argue that the blog post pretty well fails to deliver on the promise of the subject line.
Great article.<p>Pretty incredible to think about how almost everything consumed in the developed world is a luxury...yet we tend to think of them as necessities.
> I often went three or four days between showers or until someone told me I smelled.<p>He should have omitted that sentence. It make him sound more like a whacked-out weirdo/dirty-smelly hippie, and undermines credibility of the experiment.
I have a boat, and live on it for extended periods of time (minimum still 2-3 nights a week in the summer, longest stretch was around 2 months). While we have hot water, it is in short supply. We have around 25 gallons at a time and it takes a few hours to recharge.<p>However, after 20 years of doing this I can tell you that you can get by using only a few gallons per shower. If you want to do this for enviromental or budget reasons, these are my tips.<p>1) Use luke warm rather than hot (cold is for masochists). Cold water is usually relatively unlimited.<p>2) Turn it on to rinse, turn off to soap, turn it back on to rinse again.<p>3) A hand held shower head is better than a wall mounted one, you need less pressure to affect the same amount of showering.<p>We also have a solar shower bag to augment the water heater, you fill it up with 10-15 gallons, leave it in the sun for an hour and rinse off with it. We would shower every day and use barely 25 gallons of hot water for 4 people taking showers. Contrast that with at home, taking 10 minute steaming showers where I'm sure I burn through 25 gallons of hot water myself each morning.
Work from home.<p>If you're going to follow this as a regular practice while working with a group of people in a professional environment -- well that's just obnoxious.
<i>I would stand there giving myself little pep-talks out loud, convincing myself to follow through. “Do this. It won’t kill you. It’ll be over soon.” And when I got out of that shower clean and covered in goosebumps I felt stronger and more substantial than when I’d gone in. My resolve had been tested and affirmed.</i><p>I wonder what things I do to test my resolve that I'm not currently aware of. It took him a year to figure it out for himself.
When I was teaching middle school in Namibia, a fellow teacher asked his kids to write something about the wintertime. A common theme was how cold it was, the time when no one wants to shower and they end up smelling bad!
The parents of my college roommate didn't have hot water. They lived in a fairly well-off Connecticut town next door to an ESPN anchor, so money wasn't the issue it was just a personal choice. Showers were a love/hate thing for sure and I always wondered about sanitation. Will water that's not so hot it will burn you be hot enough to kill bacteria?
It's amazing to think of what we do that's governed by society/advertising.<p>I began my own experiment over 3 years ago, where I stopped using shampoo to wash my hair, and instead, wash it every day, but only using water.<p>I've found that my hair is only slightly oily. And by that I mean it has a natural coating - not something you'd notice.<p>It doesn't look, smell, or feel any different to when I used shampoo, but I guess I've saved a bit of money, and
have removed one set of chemicals contacting my skin.<p>I wouldn't say it's changed my life, but there is a sense of sense of happiness(smugness?) in knowing that I don't need whatever they're(advertising) selling.<p>Now, how to over come my addiction to tech...
Really nice energy saving tip I received the other day.<p>"Reduce your water heater temperature from 140<i>f to 120</i>f. you will not notice much difference and you will not have to mix cold water to bringdown the temperature of really hot water."
I also did this for a year. Not really by choice, but simply because I lived in a developing country (Curacao) and my house didn't have hot water. It really was not that big of a deal after the first week.
This reminds me somewhat of how Seneca and other Stoics would deliberately take cold baths.<p>EDIT: To elaborate a little, they would do it in part because they felt that facing uncomfortable situations on purpose prepared them for facing uncomfortable situations not of their choosing.
Part of me has problems with the thought that these things aren't necessary. One thing is to willingly turn down some comfort in order to become more independent in our minds. Another thing completely different is being forced to take cold showers for indefinite time. You would hate it. You would try anything at hand to get a hold on a hot shower.
The more you were forced to take cold showers, the more you would hate your oppressors and the damn cold shower. Specially when you can't see a hint that in the future you will have access to one hot shower.
Does anyone else take cool showers during the summer anyway? Not ice-cold, but cool. I've always thought it was odd that people would take hot showers when it's hot already.<p>I understand the psychological benefits of doing something difficult that you don't need to do. I do it often with physical activity. But denying yourself hot water does not deal a blow to the status-quo. I think the benefits of doing something hard are negated if you shower yourself with congratulations over it. (Note: this is not the same as being satisfied that you did it.)
This is a lot like how I became a vegetarian. One day I just stopped eating land-dwelling creatures. A couple weeks later I gave up seafood for Lent.<p>Though I don't think I'll be going back. Unlike the shower experiment, what I discovered was that not only did I not feel any different, nothing had really changed. I still enjoy my food more and more every day, learning new recipes and finding new restaurants. Main difference is I don't have to worry as much about sterilizing my kitchen.
I do something similar, except I only take cold showers at the gym, before and after using the steam room. At home I take slightly longer warm showers.<p>It takes about a week to get used to cold showers after which the "holy shit" feeling lasts for about 10 seconds, and after 1-2 minutes you enjoy it.
I could imagine doing this if i wouldnt live in Boston, with cheapo room mates that keep it barely above freezing in the winter. I must say i rather enjoy taking cool showers, im not sure that i could do straight up cold showers except when its very warm out.
What is so wrong about body odour? I'm sure there must have been a time, not too long ago, when people smelled like people.<p>Sometimes, I don't shower for 3-4 days. You don't sweat that much if you are hacking away at a keyboard for 12 hours a day.<p>I don't see how showering ever day is hygienic. You are stripping your skin and hair of natural oils,bacteria and whatnot. Then you have to use more substances to fight the negative effects of the above. On top of that, you spray yourself with long-lasting synthetic smells or things that stop your armpits from sweating.<p>I shower every other day, more or less. I don't use deodorants. I don't use colognes, except on rare occasions. Haven't had any complaints from other people.
I find it amusing how many "modern" people would find his choice breathtaking, unimaginable etc. I wonder if the same people are aware of the fact that it really wasn't that many years ago that hot water was a "50/50" in apartment buildings in developed countries.
<i>"One day I was showering there when a friend in the next stall said, “Boy, you must really be enjoying this hot shower."</i><p>I require more information here. Actually... on second thoughts, I do not require more information here.