I almost canceled this blog challenge, but decided to go on with it after one faithful reader decided to join in, LOL. I have discovered that people’s showers are sacrosanct. I have gotten a lot of semi-annoyed emails about this project expressing that it’s a waste of time, and that showers play a very small part (if any) in water conservation. Mostly, I’ve heard a lot of people say that shortening their showers, or showering less frequently does absolutely nothing for the environment, and that if I really wanted to make a difference, I would stop taking 15 minute showers, even if I only take them every third or fourth day.
And I understand all these opinions about showers. I understand people being confused about my unwillingness to give up long showers, and my willingness to shower less often, instead. I understand them thinking that my efforts (or their own) are a waste of time. And so even though I had already decided to keep the challenge going for myself and my one other participant, I didn’t plan on blogging about it again.
However, when my water bill arrived a few days ago, there was a newsletter from the utility company included. You know what it said? “Your daily shower is one of the biggest water wasters in your home.” After that, I felt confident about continuing my efforts at reducing my time in the shower (which means, in my case, showering less often), and giving this challenge one more plug before it ends on May 31st.
My one participant, Kelli, said she has had some luck with shortening her showers, which is awesome! (Her comments have inspired me to try to cut back to 10 minutes per shower, but that’s a work in progress, LOL!) I think that just taking the time to become aware of how long we spend in the shower is a major step in the right direction, even if we choose not to change at all. I have found that many people have never timed themselves in the shower, and that they tend to underestimate their shower time by at least 5 minutes.
As for me, I have had my challenges. We have been having some warm weather, which is a bit unusual for this time of year (we don’t tend to have a warm spring here), and with all the biking I’ve been doing, I’ve been getting a bit more sweaty than I anticipated. However, my last shower was on Monday, and I won’t be showering again until tomorrow morning (Friday), so yay!
Here’s the funny thing: I visited my sister today, and the first thing she said was, “Wow, you look especially pretty today!” This is the third time she has complimented my looks when I haven’t showered for four days! I told her how “dirty” I was, and she jokingly said, “You should really avoid the shower, then!” She also asked me for my secret at keeping my hair from getting too oily on non-shower days and I gave it to her (rhassoul clay). She’s very excited, as she doesn’t want to have to wash her hair every day anymore. It’s better for your hair and it saves time – what’s not to love about that?! 
It’s May 19th as I write this, and I have taken 4 showers since May 1st. For me, that equals 60 minutes of shower time, which isn’t bad. If I took a 5 minute shower every single day, I’d have spent 95 minutes in the shower, so wahoo! I’ve saved 35 minutes of shower time. Now let’s convert that to water usage. I have a good shower head, though honestly, I don’t remember exactly how efficient it is – I think it is around 2.5 gallons per minute. So that equals about 87.5 gallons of water saved! (This is all assuming I did my math correctly!) Not bad, huh?
So there’s only a little more than a week left of May, but you can still participate. Here are just a few easy, things you can do:
::Time your shower once or twice then leave me a comment about how long your showers are. Totally easy, I promise!
::Cut 2 minutes off your shower time. Just once. Try it.
::If you are truly daring….skip a shower one day. Make it a Saturday, when you don’t have to go out and see anyone, in case you are worried about your appearance. But don’t worry – it’s not as scary as you might think!
I would love to hear from you! Just try one thing – whatever is easiest for you, and report back. You’d make my day! I can say with absolute certainty that getting a little dirty, a little sweaty is not so bad!
your unofficial participant here just because i tend to forget stuff ! i shower 2-3 times a week at most and a couple weeks ago i cut off about 10″ of my hair and man did THAT decrease my shower time – boom boom boom and it’s done, yee haw!!
keep on keepin’ on…those who say you’re not making a difference are full of kaka.
@EcoGrrl: AWESOME! Yay!! Thank you so much for commenting about this. (I will be emailing you asap – owe you a long one. I got super sick last week, and fell about a year behind on emails, LOL.)
As always … amazing! I wish I had your willpower! You rock Y!
@Heather: You rock, too!
Tell us more about this rhassoul clay! How do you use it?
@Kat: Super easy – just sprinkle it into your hair (a little at a time) or onto your fingers and then work it into your scalp very gently. You can reapply until you feel the oil has been absorbed, but I find that one application is usually sufficient. You can use your fingers to shake out any excess, or brush it out. It does leave a bit of clay residue on brushes, but I just wash my brush every two weeks.
i have been trying to convince andrew to cut down on his shower time. I shower about 10min a day, and am trying to figure out how to cut that down (i’m thinking washing my face outside of the shower).
To all those who say it’s a waste of time- they’re ridiculous. Honestly!
According to Ecoholic:
Every minute you spend in the shower you use 15-30litres (3.9 gallons to 7.9 gallons!) of water.
10 min shower= 39-79 gallons
20 min shower= 78-158 gallons
say you take 10min showers, every day, in a year you use up 14,235 to 28,835 gallons of water JUST from showering.
Um. I’d say that matters.
@EcoYogini: Yay, thanks for the support with numbers! Doing the math always helps! I don’t think people realize it until they see it in numbers.
I’m trying to cut back on my actual shower time, too – tough for me, but so far, I’ve shaved 2 minutes! So I’m down to 13 minutes, wahoo!
Update 2: Last week, I visited my parents. I only showered twice because I didn’t feel like it, so I left the water on the whole time. I don’t fell too bad about it since I cut out an entire shower from the week.
I’m trying to get back into a routine since returning home, including Navy showers. So far so good this week.
A major reason I want to try Navy showers is that I walk to school/work four days a week. With Texas weather in the 90s and high humidity right now, walking can make a person quite sweaty! The heat will only get worse as summer begins, so if I can cut down on the amount of water I use, I won’t feel too bad if I have to shower more frequently.
@Kelli: Yay, yay, yay! You rock!! I’m so thrilled to have you participating! If you get the chance, see if you can estimate how much time/water you have saved at the end of the month so I can do a run-down with numbers. Many, many thanks and blessings!!
I didn’t realize this was the update page until too late. Crap.
Well, I’ll say this…I’ve been going with fewer and fewer showers over the whole month, and am now just up to 1 a week. When I posted about skipping hair washings I should have been more clear about that’s what I started doing before reading about this challenge, and my “pushing it further” was to go a whole week.
But it hasn’t worked out so well for me. I have excess sebum, so when I skip washings I get really bad subcutaceous (not sure how to spell that) cysts along my hair line, and they take a really long time to clear up. So not only do I look like I have the plague (blrg!) but it’s kinda painful, too. If I had income, I might be able to purchase things like the clay. I keep my hair in a ponytail all the time but that doesn’t keep the oil from getting to my neck and face. It really kinda sucks. Looks like the longest I can go is 3 days.
@ChrisC: Don’t worry – I knew what your last comment meant and you were absolutely part of the giveaway drawing!
I totally understand the problem you are having. It takes a while for the body to adjust to a new routine. I have to say, though, three days without a washing is AWESOME! For me, skipping one day was all I could do for an entire year. It’s only been recently that I’ve been going three or four days. You should be proud! Way to go!