Permies Poll: Do you prefer baths or showers?

A conversation with a friend somehow got on the topic of washing oneself and the preference of method. I thought that this may be something of a fun poll for the community.

Let me know what you prefer!

I enjoy hot showers as an indulgence but I try to limit them.

I never really 'got' baths so I always default for a shower if possible.

Showers all the way.  We have rainwater only, so it saves water to shower. In 35 years of living in this house we have never used the bath for it's designated purpose.  I have however, finished hand  woven fabric in it, bathed the dog, used it as a water well to keep pot plants alive over an extended "away" period, and drying various fibre plant parts (no water needed!) Oh, and washing the doona.  

Showers for expediency.  But occasionally I like to have a bath as a treat.

I'm not sure why, but the 'neither' option isn't working for me. I choose neither, not because I don't do them, but because where my preference is depends on my purpose. I shower to get clean, but use baths medicinally, for both mental/ emotional and physical healing, with epsom salts, oils, herbs, and essential oils, with or without the jets.

Bath with a friend also saves water

I know this is about baths/showers. But MY favorite way is a couple rounds in a sauna followed by a shower. Super clean after that.

We also don't always have enough hot water for a bath. Whereas a shower we usually do. But hot water isn't a given for us. and we can go 1 month+ without hot water from the tap. So there is that.

Our shower is outside. I love the shower being outside. Keeps all the moisture outside along with getting to shower in the sunshine/ under the stars

Carla Burke wrote:I'm not sure why, but the 'neither' option isn't working for me. I choose neither, not because I don't do them, but because where my preference is depends on my purpose. I shower to get clean, but use baths medicinally, for both mental/ emotional and physical healing, with epsom salts, oils, herbs, and essential oils, with or without the jets.

There was a Sultan at one time in Turkey that did both, but he took a shower first. His reasoning: "If you take a bath, you are marinating in your own filth." He took a shower first, to remove the filth, and then a bath to relax in. It was during the Ottoman Empire.

I'm in agreement with him, Mark. But, if I could add the sauna (&we are actually already trying to figure out where/ how to put one), my bathtub would rarely be used, except for the occasional need of the jets. All the herbal & essential oil treatments can not only be easily adapted to the sauna(or steam bath), but would then have the benefit of staying in the body, if that's the need, rather than being washed down the drain, into our graywater system.

Ohh, how interesting!

I have not had the pleasure of experiencing a sauna. I'm not too sure how to make that happen, but I'll have to keep my ears open for opportunities.

Shower over bath. Sauna for relaxation and then cold shower to cool off. Bath could do too, but takes too much place. In the sauna i throw water with essential oils or just plain hydrolats on it for medicinal value.

Big time bath fan here, although I use to be more of a shower guy.  This changed several years ago while trying to figure out this strange illness.  

There is some sort of overgrowth or infection in my body, and I have found taking baths with baking soda to be quite helpful.  I am fascinated at the amount of grime that comes off with baking soda in the water.

My baths are taken a bit different, as I think normal baths are recipe for disappointment.  If you fill the water up, it is bound to get cold after too long.  

My solution is to do baths with less water.  Since my bath faucet is backwards hot and cold switched, the hottest water comes out slowly.  This is perfect for efficient baths. I start by filling up with decently hot water a few inches.  Then I get in and turn the water to low so that it trickles in super hot, which just about warms the water up the amount that it cools down. If it gets too hot, I can just turn it off for a little.

Since I don't have much water, I am using small bowls to dump water over my head.  I put at least a quarter of a small box of baking soda in the bath, and it helps pull this grime off my body.  The grime gets loose and becomes slimy crescents underneath my fingernails that i scrape off into the water.

I cannot emphasize the amount of filth that comes off my body just from baking soda. I mentioned a quarter of a box, but often I put nearly an entire box of baking soda in, with a tablespoon or two of borax and sometimes Epsom salts. Occasionally I will put a tiny bit of washing soda as well, which you get from baking the baking soda.

Trickling in the hot water allows me to stay in for extended periods of time, which seems to help my mystery condition.  I have always thought the grime could be candida or possibly precursor to Alzheimer's.  I am a bit young for that, at 45, but something odd is going on.  

Have you ever tried bathing with baking soda?

Saunas have always been enjoyable, but in the last two years I have perfected my sauna process.  Well, it would be even better if I had an ice bath to pair it with, but I have the sauna part down.

Listening to Hubernan podcast, I dove into learning sauna for recovery to help me with Brazilian Jiu jitsu recovery.  Since my BJJ gym was expensive, I went as often as I could.  One or two sessions a week can be tough on the body, and I was going twice a day like ten sessions a week.  At one point, I was too light at 118 pounds, because I was trying to eat vegan to figure out this weird digestion or infection thing. At that low of weight, I was taking a beating and needed something to work.

Sauna was it for me, but I am an extended sauna length guy, and I think I had the process for it.  The first part is a sauna hat, I think they are Ukrainian.  I bought several on Amazon for ten bucks, bell shaped felt hats, and I was very happy with how well it worked.

I had seen a guy using one at the sauna, and was intrigued.  My experience is that this helps protect your head from overheating.  For me, this was important as I wanted to push my heat exposure time longer so thY it would help my body muscles recover. The second part to this kit is a frozen water bottle that was not filled totally and squeezed to take up the empty space.  This bottle fit perfectly on the back of my neck under the sauna hat.  The bottle cap would be toward the crown of my head, and the base of the bottle between my shoulder blades.  Having this frozen bottle on my upper spine allowed me to push my sauna times much longer.

I definitely would consult your physician for lengthy saunas if you have any medical issues or susceptibilities. It goes without saying that I was drinking as much water as I could, but listening to my body became a very efficient timer for how long to stay in.  I haven't gone to that gym for six or eight months, but I am starting up BJJ again next week, and am likely to need the sauna to help with recovery again.

I am a huge fan of sauna.

You know, you asked about washing yourself, and I have found three products that really work well for me. I cycle between them.

Miracle silver bar soap with colloidal silver works very well.  So does Lyme body wash with mandelic acid, even though they don't make sandalwood variant the toasted coconut is nice. My third is a dr bronners liquid, with the peppermint being favorite and baby unscented next.

As I was mentioning a weird grime on my body, these three help me with that.  If someone is dealing with body odor or grime issues would suggest trying the Lume bodywash. I was much more insecure about several issues before I found things that worked for me.  

Perhaps you can see how much this has effected me, by how much I started ranting about baths.  I wasn't even realizing what I was doing or why, but I see it now.

It is likely many others live with the same stress that I had.

I heard that women prefer baths more than men but anyway;
I can use a lot less water showering and even less showering at the gym which is what I've done when in a no water - minimal water situation (and Laundromat)

So showering first, then taking an opportunity to soak in a tub of non fluoridated - clorinated bathwater with pure Epsom salts for 20 minutes assures I am absorbing enough magnesium then the next 20 minutes detoxing (topping up hot water every few minutes) while listening to an audio book or music is pretty heavenly.
I would add sauna if available.

Soaking does get rid of dead skin.

When I have no choice but municipal water, I bath because apparently one inhales chlorine -fluoride at much higher rates from breathing in a shower, although at the gym there is no choice.

As a Finnish person I LOVE the sauna, but we haven't got one (yet?).
Between shower and bath I prefer the shower, since I always find bath water cools down too fast.
Where we're living now, we have a more or less temporary shower in the shed, since the bathroom is still in the making.
With winter temperatures I prefer to wash myself in the kitchen where it's warm thanks to the rocket system, with rocket heated water from a bowl with a washing cloth.
Does the trick just as well and with far less water.

I take a shower almost every morning as my quick get clean and ready for work routine. Through the summer, I'm pretty likely to take another one right before bed, but depends on the day.

We have a giant round soaking tub in which I take a long, leisurely soak roughly once a week. I also hop in for a quick 20-minute soak after my wife or daughter are done with their long leisurely soak maybe another once a week, though it varies a lot. (I agree with the claim that this is therapeutic, though I don't add anything but hot water.)

We also have a sauna building, which we used a lot the first year we lived here but it's full of gardening supplies right now and hasn't been fired up in 18 months or so. Using it feels great, but it's kind of an ordeal.

Jetted bath girl here. I will take showers but nothing is as perfect as a long hot jetted bath to take the aches away.

For the last 20-ish years I've lived in a place where baths are very uncommon.
but when I was a kid, I don't think I took a shower until I went off to high school (boarding school), even when I was working on the farm as a young teen. Showers were for adults, baths were for kids. Then in college I lived in a few houses that had only baths, and that all continued. Only when I lived in a dorm or had access to sports facilities was I able to use a shower.

I do miss my setup in Japan-- shower and THEN bath (because, as mentioned above, no fun bathing in your own filth). The next house will have a Japan-style bath with the water that goes up to your chin.

Carla Burke wrote:I'm not sure why, but the 'neither' option isn't working for me. I choose neither, not because I don't do them, but because where my preference is depends on my purpose. I shower to get clean, but use baths medicinally, for both mental/ emotional and physical healing, with epsom salts, oils, herbs, and essential oils, with or without the jets.

I agree with Carla - seems you might want to add a Poll option for "Both"

IMHO there are good uses for showers, baths, AND 'sponge baths'

Showers make for quick cleanup and are a good hydrotherapy tool (alternating hot and cold several times in succession)
- sadly my shower is plumbed to municipal water (read: chemically treated gick) and I never got around to adding filters to remove at least some of it.

Baths, as Carla mentioned, are great for relaxation and for well-being purposes - other additives: borax (e.g., 20 Mule Team), seawater bath salts, strong ginger tea

Sponge baths - one my favorite methods! As suggested by a doctor / hydrotherapist from the mid 1800's (T. L. Nichols in his book "Esoteric Anthropology") - doing a sponge bath, dousing with water whose temperature is "considerably below that of the body" [Note 1]  then vigorously hand- or washcloth-rubbing every body part for a good while, then drying with a cloth, rubbing vigorously - very invigorating, get's the blood moving...
[Note 1 - Dr. Nicols notes: "A very feeble person may bathe in water at 70 degrees, but those for are more vigorous should use it colder; and the lower the temperature, the more sudden and powerful the shock, and the more rapid and perfect the re-action."]
- my favorite is to do it outside on a sunny day using rainwater - this adds the beneficial effects of exposing every part of the body to the sun

jeff Swart wrote:

I agree with Carla - seems you might want to add a Poll option for "Both"

IMHO there are good uses for showers, baths, AND 'sponge baths'

Totally: with a significant number of this poll having no running water at times, a sponge bath is quicker to heat and less hauling than a bath bath

A shower becomes a luxury worth detouring for, especially before appointments with others

A bath may be a preferred luxury add-on
Soaking requiring a method to maintain temperature

The whole question becomes complicated

Then there's the shower then hot tub option

Plus those who really want a sauna included as part of the clean up ritual

All of the above then merits as an option

Nina Surya wrote:
since I always find bath water cools down too fast.

The solution to this is to slowly trickle hot water in.  You also dont fill the bath, because then a little hot water does next to nothing.  I get in the bath when its a few inches of water, and I have water trickling in almost constantly.  

This works well for me, but your method may vary.

Some mention not bathing in their own funk, but one could always wash in an inch or two of water, empty the dirty soapy water, and refill.  I think that baths are much more efficient than showers.

In a shower you get the benefit of water for a second.  In a bath, you can scoop the water over your body numerous times.  I only think people imagine that showers are more efficient.

I really dislike all of the shower versus bath calculations, because they compare a full tub versus a five minute shower. Even a ten minute shower is less than most people take, and left us be honest that the average american woman would use much more time than ten minutes to shower, shampoo, and shave.  

But, let us use the ten minute low flow shower (same as 5 minutes shower with regular nozzle) versus a full bath.  It is already my contention that this is an inefficient bath technique being compared against a very efficient shower technique, but this other website estimates that about 19 minute shower is about equal to a full bath tub.  This is lowered to ten minutes with a normal shower head that is not low flow.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/how-long-does-a-shower-have-to-be-to-use-the-same-amount-of-water-as-a-bath

I think a twenty minute shower is about normal for a deep clean.  We arent talking about a quick suds and rinse, but one that would compare to a lengthy bath. To me, the average bath matches the average shower, but a bath with minimizing techniques easily is more efficient than a mininizing technique for a shower. A shower is wasteful, and I think there is a campaign to make you think that a shower is the most efficient.

Want to be efficient? Take a shower with the bath drain plugged and use the water.  This is also a valid way to determine how mi h water you use during your shower, just remember that a truthful measurement would come from a deep clean, not a shower rinse.

19 minutes!!! *faints
(although I know that "normal people" do it, it makes my jaw drop)

I got very good at Navy showers when I went away to school-- it was either that or learn to enjoy the shampoo still in your hair when they cut your water off before you were done!
To this day it's a rare shower that I don't take that way (only when I'm sick or sore, basically). Been very helpful during water shortages....

I know people who just get in the shower to stand there, and let the water run over them, not even trying to get clean, until they've been in there long enough to relax all their muscles, and people who are in, out, and thoroughly scrubbed, in less than 4 minutes. Some folks wash their hair in the shower every day, some weekly, some not at all. Some bathtubs are HUGE, many showers are stand-alone, with no tub... Needless to say, I give little to no heed to 'averages', because they mean nada.

I always get cold in a shower. Even uncomfortably hot water doesn't seem to get my insides warm enough to counteract the chill from standing around wet. And a wet shower curtain flapping around and sticking to me is just horrid.
Also I can't figure out how to wash my feet without falling over. In the bath I can soak my feet and also use a pumice stone if they're getting rough.
A shower is OK I guess if I just want to wash my hair quickly. But I can use the laundry sink for that and keep my clothes on.
I don't care about wasting water. It goes to my fruit trees, and they still are getting less water than they would prefer.

We are all in on the shower thing. Ours is about six feet long and three feet wide.  Our house doesn't have a tub, but I've plans to install one, if only for the occasional Epsom salt or other medicinal soak. Well, that and resale value of the home.

If adding a shower, or even a tub, don't forget the safety bars.

SIDE NOTE:

ONE of my big frustrations with home builds is, builders seldom install 2x's behind walls where cabinets, towel bars, grab bars and so on would go.  Having grab bars that are more than iffy suction cups or buried in plaster/rock goes a long ways toward more sincere safety attempts.

If swapping cabinets, it's SUPER simple to cut rock just enough to allow one to sneak in 2x's, into which the upper cabinet screws would mount. I feel a lot more comfortable trusting a cabinet full of Fiestaware when I known the downward pressure has a few more, high shear strength screws to get past before a failure.

A few people have mentioned saunas and sponge baths. Among the desiderata for my dream home would be something like a small Turkish bath (the scrub-room part, not the steam-room). I envision a warm room where you're comfortable sitting naked, but not so hot that you sweat. Then you use a bucket of hot water with a rough cloth or sponge to soap and scrub your body, ending by pouring the bucket over your head. I suppose that it could double as a sauna, but most of the time it would just be used for cleansing at a much lower temperature--when I take a sauna I feel the need to shower after.

I'm not aware of anything like this, but it seems like it would work well where water is scarce and winters are cold (in the summer, an outdoor, sun-heated shower is great). Does anybody use something similar?

We have only a bath in our UK house. In previous houses a long soak in the bath was a delight but here, we have a chilly bathroom, a very small hot water system and no insulation surrounding the bath. A bath in winter is an ordeal and done as fast as possible!  Also, our water here is heavily treated with chlorammonation, not what I want to be marinating in!

The Bulgarian house now has a shower and a generous hot water system, but is also chilly when the weather is cold. That should improve once we live there and the woodstove in the adjoining room is in use. But for now, showering in cooler weather isn't much fun. We do have a chair in the shower to sit on, as we both have  balance issues. While we didn't have a shower there, and even now we do, a sponge bath can be far more pleasant. It's lovely in summer to come in after working in the garden and sponge down then sit soaking my feet in a washbowl.

We'll also set up an outdoor shower there, it's on my list for this year. Though a sponge wash in a bowl is great for not wasting any water at all and I can collect some of the water from the indoor shower for the very dry garden, an outdoor shower will let us make better use of the water.

Bath fan here.  Nothing  gets me warmer, deep to my bones, and really sweating hard, plus I can deeply exfoliate, relax and luxuriate, and like Mr Wallace I use salts in the tub to pull icky stuff out, in my case I am slowly releasing a lifetime accumulation of oxalates, and soaking in epsom salts and baking soda really helps get it out.   So it isnt just to get clean, its to get detoxed and to get really really hot and drive my heart rate up, which is as good as exercising according to various studies.    I do it about once a week.  Daily maintenance is a sponge bath as needed with use of a peri bottle for the nether regions to stay immaculately clean at all times.   It probably helps that I no longer produce BO of any sort, having cleaned up my diet sufficiently and having done enough dry fasting  that the stinkiest toxins have been removed already.   It takes a lot of sweaty labor on a hot day before I even generate a slight whiffiness.  So I would call this "inner cleanliness" and it trumps outer cleanliness, in my opinion.  I do not need very much soap, one triple milled bar has so far lasted me five years.  I use vinegar to neutralize the alkaline salts and soap from my hair.  

Randy Eggert wrote: I envision a warm room where you're comfortable sitting naked, but not so hot that you sweat. Then you use a bucket of hot water with a rough cloth or sponge to soap and scrub your body, ending by pouring the bucket over your head. I suppose that it could double as a sauna, but most of the time it would just be used for cleansing at a much lower temperature-

This sounds a bit like a 'wet room' where the whole room is lined with waterproof materials - Usually there is a shower fitted - no shower tray as the whole floor is the tray - but no reason it couldn't have a seat and a basin. It would need to be heated for me too though!

At our house we only take showers because there was no room for a tub ...

Nancy Reading wrote:

Randy Eggert wrote: I envision a warm room where you're comfortable sitting naked, but not so hot that you sweat. Then you use a bucket of hot water with a rough cloth or sponge to soap and scrub your body, ending by pouring the bucket over your head. I suppose that it could double as a sauna, but most of the time it would just be used for cleansing at a much lower temperature-

This sounds a bit like a 'wet room' where the whole room is lined with waterproof materials - Usually there is a shower fitted - no shower tray as the whole floor is the tray - but no reason it couldn't have a seat and a basin. It would need to be heated for me too though!

Thanks, Nancy. I didn't know this term, but long ago I used one when visiting a friend in Denmark. Their room was larger than I want for my room and heated the same as the rest of the house. What I envision definitely needs to be lined with waterproof materials and have a drain in the floor, but also have a stove to heat the room. So maybe a cross between a wet room and a sauna?

Why be BiPolar? I say both of the above AND Hot Springs,  Saunas, Hot Tubs too, especially in winter, with fond memories of using  "visqueen sheet" after build curtains and duck tape to turn a dormitory six-head open shower cubical steam bath, all ages/orientations invited, 20 occupant steam shower cubical = community & efficient use of energy & time: Command: "Right FACE! Scrub!! and close to majority determines the cold, with holdouts welcome to the diagonal corner. And communal towel drying circles too.

This is such an intersting topic, but I think that the average permie is an outlier on topics like this.  What I mean is that we are more likely to conserve water compared to an average person.  Generally american water use is more than people in other countries, but maybe thats just my incorrect bias.

Those navy showers are quite efficient, but not as comfy in the winter.  When discussing shower times, I am a bit skeptical if someone is thoroughly scrubbed in a 4 minute shower.  Generally scrubbed in 4 minutes I could see.  I just do not see speed running the shower to be very effective cleansing.

Dump and splash:  bucket of water, pot to ladle it over your body, standing amidst the plants.

What is that...shower?

Showers in the summer!
Hot baths in the winter!

Alina Green wrote:Dump and splash:  bucket of water, pot to ladle it over your body, standing amidst the plants.

What is that...shower?

What that is ....... Efficiency
And not the average citizen

Shower. But sometimes a long soaking bath is called for.

Last vote in apple poll was on March 6, 2025