This is a judgement-free zone, please be nice 🙃
9 months.
I was hiding inside another human being.
Did she ever find out? Or were you really sneaky?
What a fun round of hide and seek right? Good times! 😁
11 days.
Texas ice storm in 2021 froze the pipes from the well. We had stored water in jugs and the bathtubs in anticipation of the storm, but it was for drinking, cooking, and flushing the toilet.
My nickname in junior school was “stinky” which probably tells you all you need to know. Grew up poor, primary caregiver had mental health issues and financial troubles meant electricity for hot water was not a regular thing…
I don’t remember exactly but my mom who actually worked and did her best those days to support us would have made sure I was bathed on the weekends at least. So one week tops.
I’m still paying for the lack of regular teeth cleaning in my youth. Nowadays I’m pretty fastidious about hygiene, and showering regularly!
Three weeks, over a very hot summer. Our office manager had the only key to the thermostat for the whole office, and refused to put the air conditioning on. I stopped bathing in protest. At this time I also commuted by bike (17 kms each way) daily and absolutely stunk. I’m still amazed he took three whole weeks to cave…
A bit over a month? This was in the winter and I didn’t feel unclean/like I needed it so I just kinda forgot.
winter wreacks havoc on the skin, since its also dry, people will overdue the shower, and it dries out the skin even more.
Like a week? It was at girls camp and I was doing “PTA baths” pits, tits and ass but the water in the showers were ICE COLD, like it was literally the same temp as the glacier lake our camp was at that we were not allowed to swim in for more than ten minutes at a time so we wouldn’t die. Putting my head under that water to rinse my hair was physically painful. There was a huge camp wide hike that me and a few other girls managed to skip out on and we all took hot showers, there was like maybe a dozen of us, and it was glorious. Then like, hours later, everyone comes back and the next morning during announcements they were bitching “some girls stayed back and used all the hot water so the leaders (adults) didn’t have any” like bitch what? We NEVER have hot water, we have painfully cold water, and it had hours to reheat before they even got back, suck it up and stop hogging all the hot water for yourselves! I didn’t feel bad and still don’t twenty years later
5 days. was so sick i couldnt even play video games. all i had was mr. beat videos to help me. i stunk like fucking shit on the 5th day but was finally well enough to actually get up and move around. best shower of my life
Do sponge baths count?
I lived in a van for a while, where I mainly used a wash cloth and a bucket. I had several plastic water bottles that I would pack into a backpack, bring into a public bathroom, and refill under the tap. When I got back to the van, one got mixed with no-rinse soap (that I’d gotten at a camping supply store), and 2 or 3 were used for washing my hair. On occasion I did go to the beach and use the free outdoor showers, but that wasn’t a viable everyday solution.
Probably a week as a kid, when camping. But I’d swim every day which kinda caps the grossness to an extent.
Also before puberty I’d go days between baths.
I feel like swimming significantly amplifies the grossness? I guess it depends on the water
4 days, music festival.
Get a bidet, and it makes it easier to put a day or two between showers.
Two weeks, a few times. Backpacking in the sierra, kayaking in Baja, and climbing trips to j-tree. Except j-tree, trips included swims but no soap. DYK salt water kills most bacteria that cause body odor, some salt rash but no odor kayaking in Baja.
Not very long as an adult, handful of days, maybe 4 or 5 when very sick.
This thread is full of “oh shit, these Americans need help…!” revelations, I’m sure.
5 days.
During my winter break in junior year, I was staying at a farmer’s house. It didn’t have heating, and the temperature outside stayed around -10°C the entire vacation — it was freezing! Taking a shower was extremely inconvenient. Since I wasn’t very active during the day and hardly sweated at all, I ended up going five whole days without a bath. As a southerner who’s used to showering regularly, I couldn’t stand the greasy, uncomfortable feeling anymore. So when I found out there was a public bathhouse not too far from where I was staying, I practically ran over there and treated myself to a long, hot, relaxing bath — even soaked in one! It felt absolutely amazing.