In the old American West, the Saturday night bath was a ritual women, children and cowboys all enjoyed. They’d fill up a metal tub with warm water and take a bath in the order of least dirty to filthiest because each bather used the same bathwater as the person before them.
Are you a bath person?


Or are you a shower person?

Please choose either bathing OR showering — not both. I realize you
likely use both, but which one — bathing or showering — best defines
you and why?
How often do you cleanse your body? Every day? Twice a week?

Only when
you cowboy up on Saturday nights?
Do you use bar soap or a liquid cleanser? Do you exfoliate and
moisturize after?

If you are a bather — do you use any special oils or other totems of
relaxation and beautification?
If you are a showerer — do you shower to relax or do you just want to
get in and out as fast as possible?
Do you wash your body parts in a certain order each time?

29 Comments

  1. i don’t have a bathtub in my house, but i know i’ll prefer it over showering any day. i’d love to read and soak in a bath every day and use all the lovely scented bath soap and whatnot.

  2. Hi David,
    I’m a “shower person.”
    I take a shower every morning to wake up. I use bar soap and moisturizer afterwards.
    Sometimes I might take a second shower the same day, if I have been gardening or involved in another activity that makes me grubby. Fortunately, I don’t live in the desert where water is at a premium or there are bans on using a lot of water! 😀
    I guess I would describe myself as a typical American, i.e., obsessed with cleanliness.
    Donna

  3. sulz!
    I’m with you on taking a bath to read and relax. I have only lately discovered that delight. When I was growing up, “Baths were for women; men took showers.”

  4. Hi Donna!
    I, too, am a shower person. I like to get in and out. I do prefer the “soaps that moisturize as they clean” because it saves me a step. 😀

  5. Hi David
    It’s a shower most days but it’s purely functional – wake me up and get me clean.
    I prefer a nice long soak in a bath with a book, some music and possibly a glass of vino 😉
    Cheers
    Mike

  6. Mike!
    Akismet ate you for breakfast! I fished you from its clutches! 😀
    Right! Shower = Fast clean!
    I have learned to use a hot bath to relax. It lowers blood pressure. It provides moments of silence in a loud day.

  7. David,
    I am a showerer in the morning and a bather at night. My preference has always been for baths but, since I usually end up soaking for an hour or so, I sacrifice those for showers in the morning to get some extra sleep.
    But baths are the best and definitely my favorite!
    My methods are tailored to whether I am showering or bathing. When I am taking a shower in the morning, it goes something like this:
    1. Stumble blindly into the bathroom, grumbling/coughing/cursing about how early it is, and turn the shower on
    2. Hear the water running, be reminded of the need to pee
    3. Alleviate the need to pee
    4. Climb into the shower and squeal with pain, since flushing the toilet turned the water temporarily scalding
    5. Stand under the running water for about two minutes, still too sleepy to function
    6. Consider not getting out of the shower
    7. Wash face
    8. Shampoo hair; repeat
    9. Condition hair
    10. Consider not getting out of the shower
    11. Select which fruit/flower/plant I would like to smell like today, pour that particular product on shower puff and lather
    12. Sit down in the tub, water running on back, and shave legs
    13. Really consider not getting out of the shower
    14. Invariably knick knee/ankle/Achilles tendon while shaving; curse loudly
    15. Lather rest of body; rinse
    16. Really, really consider not getting out of the shower
    17. Exfoliate; rinse
    18. Brush teeth; lay down in tub while brushing; decide maybe I should not get out of the shower
    19. Stand up, spit out toothpaste, rinse allover
    20. Sigh and decide I had better get out of the shower
    When I am taking a bath in the evening, it goes something like this:
    1. Open a bottle of wine; pour a glass
    2. Go into bathroom, wine glass in hand; turn the faucet on as hot as possible; drink wine
    3. Trip over Brutus, who always comes in the bathroom and tries to jump in the tub when I am preparing to take a bath; spill wine
    4. Yell at Brutus that “It is not Booboo’s bath time!” as he laps up the spilled wine
    5. Drink remainder of wine in glass; refill
    6. Hook up the Bose SoundDock and ipod
    7. Spend five minutes hunting the remote to the Bose SoundDock; drink wine
    8. Return to bathroom with remote; pour in bubble bath
    9. Drink wine
    10. Trip over Brutus again, who always follows me around like a shadow
    11. Yell somewhat slurred curses at Brutus
    12. Refill wine gla…oh screw it, bring bottle to bathroom
    13. Light candles; turn out bathroom light
    14. Put ipod on Shuffle; giggle that ‘shuffle’ is a funny word
    15. Climb into tub; stub toe
    16. Drink wine
    17. Sigh loudly and soak for five to forty minutes; drink wine
    18. Shampoo hair; form hair into mohawk, get shampoo in eyes and curse drunkenly
    19. Dunk head underwater to rinse shampoo from hair; forget to hold breath and inhale soapy bathwater
    20. Drink wine
    21. Skip shaving; I no longer care if my legs are hairy and for some reason I’m having trouble seeing straight
    22. Drink wine
    23. Fall asleep
    24. Wake up, finish off wine and stumble out of tub!

  8. EMILY!
    You.
    Are.
    Soooooooooo!
    FUNNY!
    Seriously… if you ever post a comment like that again.. DON’T! Post it as an article instead! You are too funny and too talented to be wasted here in a comment on my silly article! :mrgreen:
    I can see your Brutus and my Jack The Cat are very different influences indeed! Jack runs at the sound of any running water — while Brutus runs to the call of the liquid in the great hope to slurp up some of Emily’s spilled Dionysius! Heh!
    The “not shaving your legs part” skeeved me out a little — but I understand your need to be Brutuslly honest and so — I swallow my vomitus and keep reading…
    I just love it when you stumble! 😆

  9. Hi David!
    I started the comment and just kept going and going and going and…ha!
    I am not sure an article on my bathing habits would really be that awesome. “My Name is Emily McRae and I’m a Dirty Girl Who Needs a Bath” might draw some viewers, though… :mrgreen:
    Jack The Cat is probably a lot smarter than Brutus, too. No matter how many times I yell “It is not Booboo’s bathtime!” and shoo him out of the bathroom, he is always right behind me trying to sneak into the tub the next time. He also sits outside the shower in the mornings and every once in a while peeks his head through the curtain to see what I am up to. If I’m not watching, he will jump in!
    Having hairy legs sort of skeeves me out too, but by the time I’ve had a few glasses of wine I don’t really give a darn. Plus, I don’t think I should be handling sharp objects while intoxicated. :mrgreen:

  10. Emily!
    Yah! Love how you kept going with your comment! Bwa-hee! 😉
    Yeam — your article title would get lots of hits, yeah! 😆
    Jack The Cat cares only about food. If he thinks you’re hiding food in the shower, he will follow you up to the point of actually getting wet — then he’ll hide and you won’t find him the rest of the day. 😀
    Alcohol heals all hairy legs – have ’em or not — just pass the vino and all will be well. Bwee-hee!

  11. Hi David,
    Emily should definitely turn her bath and shower musings into an article. I thought she was hilarious!
    Hi Emily,
    YOU WERE HILARIOUS!
    Donna

  12. Hi Emily,
    A suggestion for your title to the article:
    I DON’T CARE HOW DIRTY I AM!
    (Is this too risque? :D)
    Write more humorous articles, you definitely have a talent for it!
    Donna

  13. Ironically I have just got out of a bath ………. bliss
    I am a bath person most of the time – showers are the exception on holiday to get salt water out of my hair after I have been in the sea.
    Bath products of choice are Lush .
    And I wash my hair in the kitchen sink because it is now very long and the kitchen has much better water pressure than the bathroom!

  15. Hi David,
    I take more showers — every morning when I’m getting ready to seize the day. But, I always like to have a good soak in the bath tub on the weekend with seriously hot water that loosens up all the muscles and makes one feel nice and refreshed.
    When we were picking out bath fixtures for our new house, we got a whirlpool tub with jets for soaking, in addition to the regular shower/tub combinations.

  16. I am shower person.
    Here – twice a day, in India – thrice.
    Either a crispy cold flow of water after a 100 degree F working day or a nice hot stream on a -20 degree F evening.
    It’s heaven.
    It drains out tiredness along with the dirt. Helps me to fall asleep. Works like a sedative. Helps to clear my thinking. And so on…
    I can use a bar soap or a liquid – anything.
    A “bath” is something special I guess! 😉

  20. Chris!
    Yeah! You’re smart to get the thrashing water in your new tub! That is incredible. It’ll really loosen up all those tight muscles — especially in the lower back!

  22. Hi David,
    I think water rejuvenates me.
    I take a quick shower in the morning just to wake up, a ‘real shower-shower’ when I come back in the evening, and in India you have to take a shower before going to bed – it’s boiling hot!!!!

  23. Hi David!! Long time no speak – or should that be peek?
    Anyway, I’m a bath person. Showers are an absolute no no for me, unless I’m sunburned, then the cool flow of water helps to cool my skin down.
    I love the whole thing of getting in the bath, with my hair in a knot on top of my head, with a glass of wine in one hand, and a good book in the other. I use Lush products a lot, their bubble bars are especially divine. Imagine a bubble bath smelling of Toffee and chocolate. It smells good enough to eat!
    I now have to wash my hair kneeling down with my head over the bath. My hair reaches to my waistline and is too long to wash any other way comfortably. Unless it’s one of the few occasions I hit the shower in the summer lol.
    I bath every night, though not always just to soak. I feel that a bath relaxes me much more than a shower and is a good way of helping to drop to sleep. (Remember, I’m the insomniac.)

  24. Poor little Jack the Cat; a slave to food!
    Hey everybody, thanks for the kind words! Glad you liked my silly little ramble…
    Katha, sorry about the shirt! Heh! No more coffee while reading Urban Semiotic!

  26. Dawn!
    It’s so nice to hear from you again! I hope you are doing well.
    I’m going to have to check out those Lush products. Wowser! What fun!

  27. Emily —
    Jack is a slave to food. He thinks about it 24/7. He’s a massive, muscled, brute with big muscles and lots of fur — so I understand the need to feed the engine.

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