This is a judgement-free zone, please be nice 🙃
4 days, music festival.
Not very long as an adult, handful of days, maybe 4 or 5 when very sick.
Get a bidet, and it makes it easier to put a day or two between showers.
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.
We need more details! Who found you? What did you eat?
Couldn’t eat anything. Story below.
Wow, thanks for sharing that story. What were nights like? Were you able to sleep? Did any animal interact with you?
The nights were cold. It was the end of winter, there was snow further up the mountain, but not where I was. I dug down into leaves so I was half buried most of the time. I talked and sang to magpies, there were other animals around. I think I slept a lot of the time, they said I was feverish and in some kind of shock from the broken ankles. Later on I thought it had only been a few days.
What did you drink? I can imagine someone surviving without eating for 3 weeks but no water? Impossible
asdf
Go on… (Sorry just hoping for more info)
Mount Buffalo National Park, 1982. Four of us left the camping area to watch the sunset. I stopped to take a photo and lost the trail. Went running after the others, slipped and rolled down a cliff, landed upright, but felt both ankles pop and break. (The whole park is Australian bush around granite boulders and cliffs). The others thought I had gone back to camp and didn’t report me missing. Next morning the group packed up and hiked to the next camp site, no one noticed I was missing until that evening, so they looked in the wrong place. I crawled to a creek and fell down the gully, drank snow melt, no one heard me shouting and crying. Eventually they gave me up for dead. Three German tourists found me by accident three weeks later, one went to get help. I got a ride in a helicopter, in hospital for two weeks while they fed me through a drip. The school gave me a payout through their insurance on the condition we didn’t sue them. I’m almost 60 now and my ankles still hurt and grind and pop.
Holy fuck that is a wild story. I’d watch the film adaptation.
This is an insane story. I cant imagine the pain you went through. Im so glad the Germans found you.
More crazy he was left for dead. You think they put together a huge search party first.
Wholly hell, that’s wild, I been through that place a couple times. Rough area in parts!
Slap my balls and call me Sally, that’s a heck of a story you got there. I hope it has served you well in many a bar night.
Thanks for responding, sorry you went through that, can only imagine the mental impact it had to have. Hope all is well these days.
It was long ago and far away. I’m fine now, thank you.
What did you eat and drink?
Drank water. Couldn’t eat, moving hurt too much and made me faint.
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!
What length of hair did you have?
Good question to ask! I had short hair then, which is why it worked. Have long hair now and could not get away with it again - start feeling too greasy after a week, and I like my hair silky with conditioner.
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!
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.
I also have LC. I can have a shower. But I take at least an hour to gear up for it. Then I can only do it sitting doen, then I take an hour to find the energy to dry myself off, then I take an hour to gain the energy to get dressed, etc. Tl;dr it takes all morning and I can’t have a shower every day.
I took a shower at 11 am and I’m still exhausted at 5 pm (the summer heat doesn’t help).
This thread makes my asshole itchy.
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.
Close to a month. Depression.
I did change my underwear though 🤷🏿♀️
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.
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.
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.
About 7-8 days, my water boiler broke in mid winter, and I just couldn’t do cold showers at below freezing temperatures. Ended up boiling water and washed at the sink, went pretty alright tbh.
Ye Olde French Bath.
Better than nothing, gets you pretty clean
My grandma called that a whore’s bath. She also had funny sayings like, “it’s colder than a witch’s titty in a brass bra in January.”
A little over 3 months is my record. Mental health issues, naturally! 🥳 🎂 🎉
