2mo ago

How do you wash your back?

Inb4 I don't

I'm not asking if you do it, I'm asking people how you do it

Edit: sorry I forgot I posted this and came back to a bunch of answers. I have a torn something in my shoulder that no MRI has been able to find for 20 years so I can't just reach it. I myself use a long cloth, but I don't really like it so I was curious what other people did.

Also, I don't wash my back every shower, but I do get pretty sweaty sometimes and feel like I just have to

61 comments

Reach as far as I can, use trickle-down soapenomics to take care of the rest.
- Part of your back isn't scrubbed.
  
  Guess I’ll die then?
  
  Works for me. Nobody screamed at me for smelling at this spot yet.
I use my hands to wash my back. You?
- Same - I can reach all parts. If I couldn’t, I’d grab a something on a stick.
- Same here. Guess OP is not that flexible.
  
  I dunno. I used to be flexible as hell, but was also too damn broad across the shoulders to get everywhere. That was even before I started lifting seriously; lifting just made the area I couldn't reach bigger.
  Somewhere around 16 I hit a spurt and suddenly couldn't reach a zone between my shoulder blades. It was maybe hand sized. In my twenties, it was about an inch or two bigger, but I could still do all the stretches fully before lifting, and that included shoulder stretches where I could end up almost flat with my arms behind me.
  Nowadays, I'm just old and stiff, and can't scrub anything right on my back.
  
  I have one bad shoulder
I use a scrubbing brush with a long handle.
I don’t. The mind-controlling alien parasite attached to my spine doesn’t let me when I try reaching for it…
- Hi Londo. Hows Centauri Prime these days?
- That's not even a loofah
  
  Might be a regional thing. Where I'm from, that is indeed a loofah. Synthetic, yes, but still called a loofah.
  
  I can't explain the marketing, they call all these things loofahs. Just a normal sponge at the end of mine lol. Mostly just get something on a stick and enjoy the same smug cleanliness.
  
  I made a comment and said lufa but meant loofah and meant this thing not on a stick.
- Doesn't the towel get wet?
A belt-like loofa that you hold on both ends and pull from side to side.
- Yeah. First I ball it up and scrub the perimeter before unfurling it and scrubbing back and forth at different angles.
Bend the arm the ouchholyfuckalmostreach way. Scrub. Then bend the arm the owfuckalmostjesuschrist way. Scrub again. Easy!
- Maybe come over the shoulder from the top right th- ohpffftfortheloveofgodsoapinthemouth pfft pffffft.... PFFFFFFFFT. Done
I’m surprised how few answers actually include actually practical and helpful tools such as a bathing brush with a good long grip to reach just about everywhere. Is this a cultural thing? I swear I’ve seen them in British tv series at the very least, so I know for sure these are a common thing at least in the Nordics and the UK.
But I mean it’s the best. Really gets the old dead skin cells and other stuff off, and the blood flowing. The bristles are a bit rough, but that just makes it that much more pleasurable, you really feel it!
Edit:
These things, surely they are mostly everywhere?
- My wife has one, I don't like to use it, it's too aggressive for me.
  I can reach my back with my arms. To get the spot right between my shoulders I have to reach up and come down from the top with one arm, while using my other hand to grab my elbow and pull it to push my hand low enough to get it more effectively.
I just reach back there. I have these crazy things on my arm called "elbows".
My hands.
I suspect at some point I'll switch to a brush with a handle.
Right hand goes high, left hand goes low, then you criss cross apple sauce
Lather up my partners front and get them to slide up and down on my back. Then it’s my turn!
I got a prehensile penis.
I have a small hammer I use, to lightly chip away at the wall tiles to provide both exfoliation, a back scratcher, and acupuncture all in one.
Big ol' brush.
I also have long scrubby things. Don't know what they're made of, but I think nylon. Basically really long washcloths with a rough texture and strings to hold onto while scrubbing. But the brush does a better job, so I usually only use the cloth ones when I'm away from home because they pack easier.
That's assuming I can't con my wife into getting soaked just to stand there scrubbing me down for a half hour while I continually say "yah, right there, a little harder. Now to the left, oh yeah, that's great, a little more. Now up some, fucking perfect, you're awesome. Now down a little again" and so on until she throws the scrubber at me.
Some arms flexibility would come a long way.
I mean, I assume the water running down my body when I shower is good enough? Can't imagine my back of all places getting so dirty that I need to scrub it.
Like the rest of my body, I use a loofah. I have enough mobility to get to my entire back from one arm.
I try to reach from different directions:
upper left (using my left hand)
upper right (using my right hand)
lower left (using my left hand)
and lower right (using my right hand).
For the regions I missed, I have a soapy mesh/loofah thing held by some kind of rope on both ends and with both hands, I use it to reach the unreachable areas:
left hand upper and right hand lower, loofah going diagonally (like this: \)
right hand upper and left hand lower, loofah going diagonally (like this: /)
both hands lower, loofah going horizontal (like this: —)
I suppose that should be enough, but I only do that once a week. For the rest of the week, I just reach as far as I can and let the soapy water do what it can.
I get my partner to do it for me!
My back doesn't get dirty
Soap the washcloth, hold opposite corners diagonally for what I can't reach, occasionally use a brush for extra measure.
I always wash my back very happily and with a good amount of water.
Japanese exfoliating wash cloth
- Only the Salux brand though. I've gotten knock off ones that were way too smooth.
With someone else's front?
I got long arms and an exfoliating luffa. I just wash every part. There's no part of my back that I can't reach.
I rub my bar of soap on it and then wash it off. Do you not?
The only way anyone should ever do it.
Get a back and shoulder loofah and call it a day (not endorsing this one, just using it as an example of what I'm talking about).
My arms are pretty flexible so I just use my hands & a washcloth.
With a shower just get what I can and hope the spray and soap gets whats left good enough. Sometimes will use a wash rag and I can just barely grasp the corners and get it a bit but not sure its much more vigorous than the spray. With a bath I place the luffa between my back and the back of the tub and move around. That actually should get it pretty good.
Do some yoga my friend!
As best I can.
My joints are over flexible, so i can reach everything just fine.
Water
The only effective way is to find a spouse or partner who actually cares about you.
(now single) Old fart here.
Otherwise this is my current one (they're all about 4/10 IMHO): Exfoliating Back Scrubber for... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C1YZDFFM or something similar
With my hands and a loofah. I'm double jointed in my shoulders and can easily reach every part of my back
I put liquid soap in the palm of my left hand. Turn one the water and put my right hand under, then let water roll off into my left hand. Turn off the water. Wash hands without wasting water. Turn it on to rinse.
There's a guy at my office who would let the water run for the entire five minutes that he brushed his teeth after lunch. I got so sick of it that I printed a sign and taped it to the wall. It said not to waste water and to turn it off while brushing. I haven't seen him doing it since, but I also haven't seen him at all since. I hope he saw it before someone took it down.
Edit: misread the title.

61 comments