What's the longest you've gone without a shower/bath. Why?

Three and a half weeks, 25 days. More than forty years ago I was lost in the wilderness on a school camp. Broke both ankles and couldn’t walk.

We need more details! Who found you? What did you eat?
- Couldn’t eat anything. Story below.
asdf
- than it got
  You commented only after an hour lol.
Go on... (Sorry just hoping for more info)
- Mount Buffalo National Park, 1982. Four of us left the camping area to watch the sunset. I stopped to take a photo and lost the trail. Went running after the others, slipped and rolled down a cliff, landed upright, but felt both ankles pop and break. (The whole park is Australian bush around granite boulders and cliffs). The others thought I had gone back to camp and didn’t report me missing. Next morning the group packed up and hiked to the next camp site, no one noticed I was missing until that evening, so they looked in the wrong place. I crawled to a creek and fell down the gully, drank snow melt, no one heard me shouting and crying. Eventually they gave me up for dead. Three German tourists found me by accident three weeks later, one went to get help. I got a ride in a helicopter, in hospital for two weeks while they fed me through a drip. The school gave me a payout through their insurance on the condition we didn’t sue them. I’m almost 60 now and my ankles still hurt and grind and pop.
Cant drop that kinda teaser and not give the rest of the story!

Several months now. Maybe a year. Long Covid with ME/CFS has permanently tied me to my bed. I basically spend my time collecting energy to go number 2, which is the last thing I can stand up for. And only because using a bedpan looks about as strenuous as walking to the toilet. And that way my wife can change my bedsheets.

But not being able to shower is awful. I stink. And I have to watch parts where skin is rubbing on skin for infections. Zinc salve and a cotton scarf help.

I also have LC. I can have a shower. But I take at least an hour to gear up for it. Then I can only do it sitting doen, then I take an hour to find the energy to dry myself off, then I take an hour to gain the energy to get dressed, etc. Tl;dr it takes all morning and I can't have a shower every day.
I took a shower at 11 am and I'm still exhausted at 5 pm (the summer heat doesn't help).

About 7-8 days, my water boiler broke in mid winter, and I just couldn't do cold showers at below freezing temperatures. Ended up boiling water and washed at the sink, went pretty alright tbh.

Ye Olde French Bath.
Better than nothing, gets you pretty clean
- My grandma called that a whore's bath. She also had funny sayings like, "it's colder than a witch's titty in a brass bra in January."

Close to a month. Depression.

I did change my underwear though 🤷🏿‍♀️

Guessing something like 5-6 days. Staying at home with no human contact scheduled that is about the limit of my tolerance of filth vs laziness.

About six days while hiking a part of the appalachian trail and camping.

6 months, during high school over the winter. Shower was broken (water would only come out perfectly hot or cold, nothing in between) and parents/landlord would not fix it. I kinda just gave up on it. Nothing bad came out of it. Nobody at home or at school ever said anything or even noticed, as far as I could tell. No, they were not just being polite. I watched everyone closely, as much as an experiment of personal curiosity as anything else, and there were no signs of disapproval, nobody had a clue. I suffered no social consequences whatsoever. Wearing a new set of clothes every day alone was sufficient to stay clean.

Can't decide whether I just have one of those Asian genes that make you not smell, or whether Americans as a culture are psychotically brainwashed by soap companies' propaganda to the point where even the idea of "spending more than 1 day away from shower" is worse than death for them. Never used deodorant either (other than to try it out - just makes me feel gross, sticky, and smelly). Imagine how much money those deodorant companies are missing out on me over a lifetime!

What length of hair did you have?
- Good question to ask! I had short hair then, which is why it worked. Have long hair now and could not get away with it again - start feeling too greasy after a week, and I like my hair silky with conditioner.
If I go 6 hours after a shower without deodorant, my armpits usually have started smelling. It ain't just big soap, it's genetics or something.

Probably close to a month.

Same. World of warcraft was a different place 20years ago
Is it because of the common debuff know as the Sad Syndrome? (aka: Depression?)
- Yeah, probably... I don't know, I don't really want to self-diagnose.
same, when i was young. but overdid showering during my 20s and ended with atopic dermatitis.

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!

A little over 3 months is my record. Mental health issues, naturally! 🥳 🎂 🎉

9 months.

I was hiding inside another human being.

What a fun round of hide and seek right? Good times! 😁
Did she ever find out? Or were you really sneaky?

Maybe three days? I can’t stand not showering.

It's the getting in bed dirty that bothers me. Sticking to sheets keeps me up. I could go a long time if I was camping and what not, but if I'm using sheets .. it bothers me way to much. My feet have always ran warm so if I don't shower I usually have to at least wash my feet so they don't feel stuck to sheets and I get claustrophobic or such feeling like I'm being held down.
- Damn, same here. Couldn't have described the feeling of marinating in your sheets filthy better than you have
I don't think I've gone beyond 4 I feel the same way.
In a hot environment 3 is really pushing it. In a cold environment you can easily do an entire week.

Two weeks while backpacking in New Mexico (unless you count getting rained on every day as a shower)

Regularly being washed by rain is certainly different from not showering at all for two weeks
Yup, same. 2 weeks while backpacking. I did have a washcloth, of course.
- A towel is the most massively useful thing a hiker can have...
Same place for me I'm betting, but three weeks on a longer "choose your own adventure" route. We chose to hike most of every day and cover as much ground as possible instead of stopping at the more "comfortable" areas that had facilities.
I forget the exact distance but pretty sure it was over 225 miles.

About three weeks. But I was in an area where water was scarce and unsafe (Some central African nations)so there were other priorities. Baby wipes and an occasional wash cloth with water we boiled beforehand had to be enough.

But I must have looked and smelled funny when I finally made it back to civilization and walzed into the lobby of a very very posh hotel. That shower was pure heaven, though

If you swim in a pool every day, you don't need to really shower much.

2 weeks. Riding my motobike across the Simpson Desert (including getting there and coming back). Stayed at a country pub in western outback Qld on day 14 and & showerd. Prior to that, had been camping out in the bush.

Spent 2 weeks hiking in around the Red River Gorge, Kentucky and Sheltowee Trace back in the late 80's. Only time I got wet was when it rained, or found a creek to take a dip in.

When I got home, even my own Mother would not hug me. She sent me off to the bath where I stayed for over an hour.

Damn fine country there
- If I win the lottery, I'm building a little house down there.
  Check out Natural Bridge if you are ever in the area!

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.

This thread makes my asshole itchy.

About six weeks. I was attached to someone else's unit at NTC in California for a training excersize with them. There were no showers in the field, and the showers pre and post excersize were colder than a witches tit, and open as a gay mans asshole after all night orgy.

And that wasn't the worst part of the whole experience either.

Yeah, about the same with cax in 29 palms.
And that wasn't the worst part of the whole experience either.
Hmm, was it the 4 hours of sleep a day, or mopp 4 in 115 degree weather?

A week is my usual. I know, I know, but my mental health is a lot worse than my body odour.

I'm really irritated at how depression has made me an expert in cleaning individual parts of my body to prevent stink (pits, privates, hair over side of tub, feet, etc.) all to avoid just stepping into the fuckin shower and getting it all over with at once

Several weeks. Usually I shower before leaving the house so when I was too depressed and anxious to leave the house I felt no reason to take one. But I don't shower as much as most people in general. Once a week maybe unless I'm sweaty or dirty. I also brush my teeth inconsistently. But I've never had a cavity, fungal infection or anything else hygiene related anywhere on my body. I also don't stink in case you're wondering 😅 I disinfect my pits and use deodorant daily, I always check myself and my clothes and I also ask friends sometimes to be sure.

I was in the "I don't brush my teeth consistently but I've never had a cavity so it's probably fine" camp until I got dental insurance and found out I did, in fact, have cavities :[ they had been slowly progressing and I was lucky they got to them before they broke all the way through the enamel
if you have the means to do so, even if you have to look up dental training schools that do exams really cheap, please get your dental exams as close to biannually as you can, you're worth it <3
I've switched my tooth brushing from before I go to bed (it became a mental barrier for going to bed) to doing it after washing my hands when I arrive home.

About three weeks, while I was training to be a truck driver.

I'd gotten my CDL through a trucking company's "apprenticeship" program, which was actually a super-predatory mill they ran to compensate for their insane turnover rate.

The final phase of this company's program, after I'd acquired my CDL but before receiving my own truck assignment, had me driving/riding on a "trainer's" truck for 20,000 miles, while the more-experienced trainer showed me all the ins and outs of life on the road. In theory, anyway.

In practice, I'd learned essentially everything there was to know after a couple of days. Enough to get by on my own, at least.

So my trainer suggested we run the truck as a team operation from then on, running long-distance, time-sensitive loads, forcing one of us to drive while the other slept, in order to burn through my training miles faster. The company was tracking training miles by the truck, not by the driver, apparently.

Rather than driving 400-500 miles per day, I was pushing 1000 miles per day, every day, the truck only stopping for fuel and to work with customers. Between pickups and deliveries, my trainer had this annoying habit of only visiting truck stops while I was asleep, and finding random industrial parks and highway shoulders to park on for shift changes. I never had time to take a shower.

I staved off the stink with copious amounts of baby wipes and Febreeze. I also found out later, that my trainer owned the truck we drove, and my wages were not taken out of the revenue for the loads he ran. So I was effectively free labor for him.

I don't work for that company anymore. I'm still in trucking, but I spend weekends at my house. And I try to shower at least every other day on the road.

This thread was way more interesting to read than I expected!

I am boring, probably 6, 7 days at max

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.

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 month,I was in the woods. there were no baths

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.

Probably pushing 2 months. I was thru hiking the Appalachian Trail and was in full on dirty hippie mode.

This is so cool seeing inspiring stories where I only expected grossness!

Probably about 1-2 weeks, unless jumping in a lake during that time counts. We were in the back country deep in Canada :)

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

Like 4 days, but I was LARPing and I was a sweaty, stinky mess from running around the entire time.

A week at max, high altitude and chilly wind can be daunting.

1 day, I had covid and couldn't move.

You shower every day? Would turn my skin to paper lol
- Often twice a day.

Couple months. Severe depression does that to me and all health care just stops. It's bad.

Not really went without: when our bathroom was being repaired for a whole week, we went to the local swimming pool and used the showers there. Then went for a swim, so was actually quite nice.

4 days: family and work

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

First thing that comes to mind is spending a week camping on the shores of Lake Mead many years ago. Didn't shower for a week, though one could argue that being scoured by lake water when you either go flying off an inner-tube or make a mistake while water skiing, does a fine job of taking the dirt off.

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

4 days, music festival.

probably a week

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.

Just 3 days. Finals week in the university.

Not very long as an adult, handful of days, maybe 4 or 5 when very sick.

A week or two probably, when in the army.

And since wr actually we're responsible for actual foods hygiene, we always got sauna/bathing priority. So never went more than two weeks imo.

Weeks. Washing myself routinely everywhere though. Having a genetical chronic skin illness where being wet sometimes makes your skin itch to the point of wanting to tear it off.

Get a bidet, and it makes it easier to put a day or two between showers.

I don't know, never counted the days. It was a particularly cold winter with barely any social obligations, by the time I decided I needed a good shower my skin was covered in a waxy substance. I think it was about two weeks, most certainly less than three.

Eight days because my city lost water after an earthquake.

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.

This thread is full of "oh shit, these Americans need help..!" revelations, I'm sure.

A day, maybe ?