How Does One Make Showers Less Unpleasant?

I too, hated hot weather and humid conditions. Then I moved to a country where it was both very hot and very humid. I NEVER once talked myself into thinking I couldn't stand it. I became heat tolerant. I never ever used my AC even though it was there and available. Cold showers were available because the water was never really cold - cool showers were taken.

I firmly believe that one can condition themselves, a type of personal brainwashing, into being physically intolerant of certain things. I do not deny that there could be physical conditions for some that make them unable to do certain things but we all know how deeply we are conditioned throughout our lives to accept what those who came before have told us.

Try talking permaculture or even a different style of gardening to folks who have done it the "family" way for many years.

Low-Tech Magazine has an article about a kit to convert a shower into a mist shower, so at least you're using a tiny fraction of the water and related energy to heat it, for just as effective result: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2019/10/mist-showers-sustainable-decadence.html

Bonus, that link is for their off-grid, solar-powered web site, which runs on a server using less than 5 watts of power and dithered images to reduce the page sizes by 80% on average. More info about that at https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about.html

I think a "sweat bath" in a dry sauna could be a nice option when it's cold, or with a bowl of water for a sponge bath. I can imagine having a greenhouse next to the house, with a sauna between them, and when you finish you open the door to the greenhouse to help heat it on cold winter nights.

I am not keen on having a shower in winter....and that's with my ability to heat the room up a bit!  I get round it (make it more bearable) by carrying out some physically demanding work beforehand (e.g. maybe a chore you've avoided tackling) so the thought of shedding my clothes is more palatable.

Just workout really hard before you shower.  I actually shower with cold because when I jump in I'm so hot.  If the shock of cold is too much at first I excessively shiver with my whole body while running in place and breath hard through fish lips for 10 seconds and I'm good.  Then I dance while I'm showering.

In fact, muscle recovery is known to be faster and pain is lower if one gets cold af and dances after working out!

Here's a studies findings on the cold immersion benefits aspect:

"8.1.2Practical implications
The  findings  of  this  study suggests  that  if  there  is  sufficient  time  between  sessions (>48  hours),  and  muscular  power  functions  are  of  primary  importance,  recovery interventions  may  offer  athletes  minimal  benefits  in  recovery  over  no  recovery intervention. However, the present data suggests that cold water immersion may be the  best  option  if  coaches  are  concerned  about  the  impact  of  leg  muscle  soreness (DOMS).  If  an  athlete's  approach  to  subsequent  games  and/or  training  while suffering  with  leg  muscle  soreness  is  compromised,  then  the  use  of  cold  water immersion may be an appropriate recovery intervention. In  addition,  if  athletes  are  required  to  perform  multiple  repeat  effort  activities  and there is insufficient time to recover (<48hours) between games and/or training, then the  recovery  intervention  of  cold  water  immersion  offers  more  to  the  athlete  in attenuating  the  effects  of  DOMS,  attenuating  decrements  in  game  related  repeated efforts, players‟ subjective perceptions of tasks, and hastening the return of power in comparison to either passive recovery or contrast water baths.For  players  in  Rugby  Union  aiming  to  attenuate  the  effects  of  fatigue  from  multiple high-intensity sessions, the present study‟s protocol for cold water immersions, of 2 X 5 minute baths at 10°C, should be applied immediately after the game. Further, it should  be  noted  that  this  research  demonstrates  that  contrast  baths  are  less effective  as  a  recovery  modality  than  either  cold  water  immersion  or  passive recovery  with  subjective  measures  of  muscle  pain  and  fatigue,  and  should  be discontinued as a recovery protocol."

Higgins, T. R. (2015). Evaluation of cold water immersion and contrast water therapy for recovery with well-trained team sportathletes: Rugby Union (Thesis, Australian Catholic University). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4226/66/5a9cc0adb0ba8

There are some very good strategies already mentioned.

For me, showering is too much of a pleasure and I have to be disciplined to not extend it too long.

Regarding "feeling cold":

I have the luxury to live in a well-insulated house and even if the heat is not turned on in the bathroom, the room is pleasantly warm from the boiler room below and the shower has doors. I even open the window slightly to let the steam out (to prevent mold in the house).
I have problems with low blood pressure and often feel cold, so my strategies are:
Have a nice hot shower, then turn the water to cold. I take off the shower head (common in Germany) and direct the cold water to all extremities. All in all less than a minute.
Then I take the towel which is quite stiff because of our hard water and dry myself very briskly in the closed shower cabin.

By that time I am quite warm and slip into my clothes.

There is even a German term for this temperature switching called "Wechselduschen" (alternate showering). Germans, especially elderly Germans, love all kinds of cold water stuff like "Kneipp treatments" sauna and stuff (my parents dragged me to sauna as a kid already). My great aunt who lived to 102 washed herself with ice cold water every morning.

Not sure how helpful this really is, but on days when I skip the hot-cold shower I have problems to get my "motor" running and feel more cold than usual. Taking a bath in a tub is a no-no for me, both for the effects of making me lethargic and not wanting to leave the tub ever and feeling VERY cold once I leave it, and because of ensuing IU infections. So showering is the thing.

Does it have to be a shower?  Can it be a wash instead?

(I should mention I'm both poo-less and soap-less;  I only wash with water.  It helps that I only wash my hair once or twice a month too--again, water only;  if necessary I'd wash it separately, fully clothed and standing over the bathroom sink, first thing in the morning.)

We haven't had heating or hot water for a week (and will be waiting at least another week before getting our boiler fixed).  I'm not taking cold showers, and having a wash in the cold bathroom--the draftiest room in our house--is also not working!  So.  I'm taking a sponge bath every night in my own bedroom, next to a space heater we borrowed off a neighbour:  

*I drape my pajamas over the heater which is next to my bed (obviously make sure this is not a fire hazard).  
*I spread my towel on the bed.  
*I boil the kettle:  enough water to give me about two inches in a small bucket/basin, and get a clean washcloth.  
*I sit down naked on the towel with the temperature-appropriate wash bucket and vigorously wash myself with the dampened cloth, starting at my face and working my way downwards.  

I'm sure this method would work for people who use soap:  in this case I'd have a soapy bucket and a rinse bucket, and first wash over with the soapy water and after with the rinse water.  Possibly two washcloths too.

When I'm done, my towel is ready to dry me off (usually only my legs and feet), and my warm pajamas are ready for me.  In all honesty, this is much more pleasant than a hot shower this time of year!  I too, dislike getting out of a shower into a cold room, which is pretty standard for wintertime in our house--I generally prefer a bath which warms both me and the room up...and I've had to forgo baths anyway this winter because I'm hugely pregnant and can't get up and down.  Maybe I'll continue washing this way until I'm free to bathe again.

Summer Morning by Carl Larsson

So few people "sponge bath" as we call G Freden's technique in Canada, that I thought I'd add one caution - always do peri-care (the crotch) last. Do anything really dirty, second to last (my feet in my case!) If you can't use a clean cloth every time, make sure it dries completely between uses (preferably in the sun, as the UV also kills bacteria).

We have lots of perfectly symbiotic microbes on our skin, so we shouldn't be anal about it (yeah - bad pun), but let's try to keep the bad guys contained so we stay healthy.

Jokes aside, I had to help my sister with this procedure when she had serious abdominal surgery last year and simply couldn't manage independently. She wasn't allowed to shower due to massive incisions. It's worth knowing a little about it.

I have a pretty small bathroom. When I close the door, the hot water from the shower heats it up pretty quickly.

I recall a great series of medieval fantasy books called The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (a truly outstanding series of books by the way, I can't recommend them enough!), where a nomadic desert culture would use sweat tents to bathe, as water was too scare to use it for washing. The men and women would strip down and sit in a small tent set up just like a sauna and sweat, and I think scrape a bit with specially shaped stones.

I could see having a small sauna space set up, maybe 6' by 6', where you could heat up masonry and pour some water on it to make some steam, and sweat while washing with a washcloth? Or have that chilly shower nearby, and you heat up to sweating, then jump in the cold shower as long as you can tolerate, then go back to the sauna to warm back up? Maybe that gives you the core temp shock that the ice swimming does?

I live off grid. It gets very cold in winter. But, i can’t live without showers. So here is what I do:
Take 2 plastic gallon jugs full of water.
Pour 1 in a kettle and put it on the woodstove until very hot.
Pour 1/2 of the cold gallon into the empty jug, Pour the hot in. Make sure its nice and toasty in the house. Spray hair with water & shampoo if washing hair, Get a wet soapy  rag. Undress and go outside ( on a fenced in spot for privacy), wash and rinse with warm water. 2 gallons is enough for a full shower for me, but you could do more if you need it. I know it sounds cold, but the key is hot water. I have done this in 10 F and it was fine. I do this all the time, its easy!

One of the things I really like about this place is running across a discussion that opens my eyes in whole new ways. I've never heard of adults not liking showers or anyone getting cold from them. We sometimes take showers as much to warm us as to get clean. I don't really even understand the phenomenon being described unless you folks just keep your houses much cooler than we do (~65F/18C).

Hot water makes me hot. Steam makes the bathroom hot (and we don't even close the bathroom door unless there's company over). Closed windows prevent cold drafts.

Maybe it's because we're fat?

It typically takes two weeks for the body to acclimatise. So the sensible thing to do would be exposing yourself the cold every once in a while.

When my sauna was being constructed, I rode my bike to a lakeside for my daily evening wash. As the autumn progressed, the water got colder and colder, but I sort of got used to it. When the sauna was finally readu, the lake was 54 degrees!!

Good info, Kaarena! Brrr!!! Lake!!!

I've never heard of adults not liking showers or anyone getting cold from them.

At the time the OP wrote the original post, I'm pretty sure he was at Wheaton Labs, taking rocket heated showers in an unheated outdoor facility. In the Montana winter.

We mostly heat with wood, and the heat from the stove doesn't make it through three doorways and around several corners to the bathroom very well. I hate getting out of a shower into a cold bathroom, too, so when our weather is cold, I keep a space heater in the bathroom. If it's really cold out, I keep the heater running all the time, so the pipes don't freeze (this is an old house, and the bathroom is in an addition tacked onto the side of the house after the house was built). If it's only mildly cold outside, I just turn the heater on a few minutes before I start my shower. Makes a huge difference. (If it's one that blows air, you'll want to angle it so it won't blow on you when you are getting out of the shower; even warm air feels cold when it's moving. Better to put one of the radiant heaters in the bathroom, that doesn't blow air.)

If I had a 5' x 10' shower with granite walls and two waterfall shower heads it would be so much more pleasant.

An outdoor shower would be nice also.

Similar to Kathleen, I have a cold bathroom and take cold showers ....

Su Ba wrote:

When showering in a cold climate (our house was often 45° F on a winter's morning in New Jersey), we used an enclosed shower box, complete with ceiling, to keep the heat in. Heat rises and escapes without a ceiling. We had a simple ceiling made from several layers of heavy plastic film-- something we could remove during the rest of the year.

Here in NZ, showers are often enclosed with a shower dome, commercially make rounded lids that trap the steam inside a shower, reducing the condensation in the bathroom.

They are especially popular in rental properties because tenants don’t always turn on the extractor fan or open the windows in winter and the paint on the ceilings and walls flakes and/or get mould spots.

As Su Ba mentions, an enclosed shower box is also very effective in keeping in the heat.

In some older properties, the shower cubicle was indeed enclosed, a moulded unit with just a small gap of about 3 inches above the glass so bathrooms with this style of shower seldom had condensation damage to the walls.

Unfortunately, the colours of the plastic was truely dreadful, dull green, peachy tones so were removed when the owners renovated their bathrooms.

I live in rural Fiordland in New Zealand. We are working on converting a 20yo three car garage built in a remote part of our property into a residential dwelling. It's taking ages. For the last 2 years we've used this little shed my man built as an ablution block.

The bath fails in the winter as the thick steel requires too much energy to heat up. But the gas califont works good enough for for the shower almost all winter-until the tanks freeze on the surface, then we sponge bath inside for a day or two.

Honestly it's been one of the gems of our lifestyle change. Showering while watching fantails and tui squabbling on flax flowers is more effective than therapy!

We do balk if we've left it late and it's frosty out, but it's never as bad as we think it might be.

Oh and cleaning is a breeze (with a breeze!). Just get out the garden hose and a soft brush.

Megan Palmer wrote:

Su Ba wrote:

When showering in a cold climate (our house was often 45° F on a winter's morning in New Jersey), we used an enclosed shower box, complete with ceiling, to keep the heat in. Heat rises and escapes without a ceiling. We had a simple ceiling made from several layers of heavy plastic film-- something we could remove during the rest of the year.

Here in NZ, showers are often enclosed with a shower dome, commercially make rounded lids that trap the steam inside a shower, reducing the condensation in the bathroom.

They are especially popular in rental properties because tenants don’t always turn on the extractor fan or open the windows in winter and the paint on the ceilings and walls flakes and/or get mould spots.

As Su Ba mentions, an enclosed shower box is also very effective in keeping in the heat.

In some older properties, the shower cubicle was indeed enclosed, a moulded unit with just a small gap of about 3 inches above the glass so bathrooms with this style of shower seldom had condensation damage to the walls.

Unfortunately, the colours of the plastic was truely dreadful, dull green, peachy tones so were removed when the owners renovated their bathrooms.

AnnaK Simmonds wrote:I live in rural Fiordland in New Zealand. We are working on converting a 20yo three car garage built in a remote part of our property into a residential dwelling. It's taking ages. For the last 2 years we've used this little shed my man built as an ablution block.

The bath fails in the winter as the thick steel requires too much energy to heat up. But the gas califont works good enough for for the shower almost all winter-until the tanks freeze on the surface, then we sponge bath inside for a day or two.

Honestly it's been one of the gems of our lifestyle change. Showering while watching fantails and tui squabbling on flax flowers is more effective than therapy!

We do balk if we've left it late and it's frosty out, but it's never as bad as we think it might be.

Oh and cleaning is a breeze (with a breeze!). Just get out the garden hose and a soft brush.

Megan Palmer wrote:

Su Ba wrote:

When showering in a cold climate (our house was often 45° F on a winter's morning in New Jersey), we used an enclosed shower box, complete with ceiling, to keep the heat in. Heat rises and escapes without a ceiling. We had a simple ceiling made from several layers of heavy plastic film-- something we could remove during the rest of the year.

Here in NZ, showers are often enclosed with a shower dome, commercially make rounded lids that trap the steam inside a shower, reducing the condensation in the bathroom.

They are especially popular in rental properties because tenants don’t always turn on the extractor fan or open the windows in winter and the paint on the ceilings and walls flakes and/or get mould spots.

As Su Ba mentions, an enclosed shower box is also very effective in keeping in the heat.

In some older properties, the shower cubicle was indeed enclosed, a moulded unit with just a small gap of about 3 inches above the glass so bathrooms with this style of shower seldom had condensation damage to the walls.

Unfortunately, the colours of the plastic was truely dreadful, dull green, peachy tones so were removed when the owners renovated their bathrooms.

I've been considering doing something like this, even though we have an indoor bathroom. We are in Kentucky, and could use an outdoor bathroom for about half of the year.

It's not exactly cold in my house, I live in a very moderate climate, but I hate taking showers, and I get cold when I get out no matter how hot I run the water. I certainly never run it long enough to bring up my core temperature. That's simply too much water. I have no idea how long that would take, there's always one side getting cold.
I suspect it's just that I'm accustomed to baths.
Yes, prewarmed towels help. I once lived in a house where the water heater was in the bathroom, and whoever was taking a shower hung their towel on the hot water pipe while we were in the shower. A treat.
The real problem for me, though, is how do you get your feet clean in the shower? Even when I stop being afraid I'll fall over standing on one foot in a hard slippery place, probably with my eyes closed, I still have slug slime and poplar buds and whatnot stuck to my feet.

Plus, how do you deal with the clammy shower curtain blowing over and sticking to you?

Dave Burton wrote:Even with going poo-less, I still don’t like showers...

I didn't know how to politely ask, so I looked up "poo-less" and was relieved to discover it means without shampoo. But even knowing that, what does not using shampoo have to do with feeling cold when done?

Ellen Lewis wrote:Plus, how do you deal with the clammy shower curtain blowing over and sticking to you?

If it's a metal bathtub as a base, magnets do the trick. If not, I'd put some sort of string at the bottom with plastic clothespins on it and pin the bottom.

Ellen Lewis wrote:
The real problem for me, though, is how do you get your feet clean in the shower? Even when I stop being afraid I'll fall over standing on one foot in a hard slippery place, probably with my eyes closed, I still have slug slime and poplar buds and whatnot stuck to my feet.

Have you considered using a hardwood/bamboo shower mat? One inside the shower and another outside.

As for the clammy shower curtain, fishing weights sewn into the hem of shower curtain helps to stop the curtain from flapping around.

Ellen Lewis wrote:It's not exactly cold in my house, I live in a very moderate climate, but I hate taking showers, and I get cold when I get out no matter how hot I run the water. I certainly never run it long enough to bring up my core temperature. That's simply too much water. I have no idea how long that would take, there's always one side getting cold.
I suspect it's just that I'm accustomed to baths.
Yes, prewarmed towels help. I once lived in a house where the water heater was in the bathroom, and whoever was taking a shower hung their towel on the hot water pipe while we were in the shower. A treat.
The real problem for me, though, is how do you get your feet clean in the shower? Even when I stop being afraid I'll fall over standing on one foot in a hard slippery place, probably with my eyes closed, I still have slug slime and poplar buds and whatnot stuck to my feet.

Because I have a bad back and have to bathe my adult handicapped daughter, I got a bathtub stool for inside the tub (and another one for me to sit on outside the tub while I wash my daughter). Since my back makes it painful to stand for very long, I take most of my own shower while sitting on that stool. It makes it much easier to tend to my feet, too. Something you might consider!

On the shower curtain, you can get them with magnets in the hem that will stick to the inside of the bathtub, if you are taking your showers in a tub (like we do). Not sure what to recommend in a shower stall - I've been considering taking out the tub and replacing it with a shower stall, so it's something I need to think about, too. (I absolutely loathe glass shower doors, so those are not an option. It's much easier to replace a cheap shower curtain a couple of times per year than to keep the build-up from heavily-mineralized water off the glass doors.)

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Good info, Kaarena! Brrr!!! Lake!!!

I've never heard of adults not liking showers or anyone getting cold from them.

At the time the OP wrote the original post, I'm pretty sure he was at Wheaton Labs, taking rocket heated showers in an unheated outdoor facility. In the Montana winter.

Okay, now it makes some sense. I didn't know my attitude and practice regarding showers was so unusual. I normally shower to get clean and have a hot shower only rarely when I"m trying to ease muscle ache.

In the summer, I take a quick shower in cool water to rinse off the sweat before bed. In cooler weather, I shower to get clean, starting with washing my hair in warm water (using a very modest amount of 'poo), followed by a quick loofah rubdown and warm water rinse, ending with a full cold water final rinse. Then I towel off while still in the shower. When I step out onto the bath mat to do a final towel drying, I find the cooler air to be pleasantly bracing. This isn't a sauna experience, but it's leaning in that direction. All in all, it feels healthful and part of what keeps me going strong at 80.

David Wieland wrote:...I didn't know my attitude and practice regarding showers was so unusual. I normally shower to get clean and have a hot shower only rarely when I'm trying to ease muscle ache.

We're all different David! I have a larger than average surface area to volume ratio, and do not tolerate cold at all. If my feet get cold, they can take hours to warm up again.

People talk about living in houses where 50 - 55F is the normal temperature, and if they're cold, they add a sweater. If it's 60 - 65F, I've already got a vest and a sweater on. Many people don't understand just how poorly I'm able to regulate my temperature, and I totally understand the OP's difficulty with showers. I would have been shivering uncontrollably long enough that I would have worried people.

I have never tried a sauna. I suspect I would be able to get my core temperature up enough that I would at least attempt the "rolling in snow" part, but no guarantee I would ever try a second time if I reacted badly. I have to live with the body I was born in, and there are many ways in which it is a wonderful body to have. Be thankful for they one you were given, and hopefully this thread will give you some insight into how other people differ through no fault of their own.

This is one of those "I've been doing this wrong my entire life" expositions.

This is how I now bathe - using utterly PLAIN soap that also doubles as shampoo
and can also be used to wash clothes. No additives, oils or perfumes.

But this is not about soap.

This is about technique and once I tried it, I never went back.

I also bought one of those blobs with a handle. I fasten the mitt
over the blob with rubber bands and this allows me to scrub my
entire back. Extasy, achievement and fulfillment all at once.

My showers now take half an hour and worth every second.
Low as I scrub to keep moist and wash off the dead skin
and high after soaping all over.
I estimate my water usage at about 15 gallons.


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