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

9 months.

I was hiding inside another human being.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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 bit over a month? This was in the winter and I didn't feel unclean/like I needed it so I just kinda forgot.

Close to a month. Depression.

I did change my underwear though 🤷🏿‍♀️

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…

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.

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

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

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

This thread makes my asshole itchy.

Probably close to a month.

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

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.

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.

4 days, music festival.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

4 days: family and work

Just 3 days. Finals week in the university.

Eight days because my city lost water after an earthquake.

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

probably a week

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.

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.

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.