Since it generally takes a lot (usually copious amounts of exercise and/or stress will do the trick) for my system to generate any body odor, I used to try and avoid bathing whenever possible when I was a kid and would sometimes go 4-5 days without doing so. Now I can’t even go one day without my body retaliating in some way if I don’t scrub down with cleansers for a minimum of 15 minutes (give or take) in scalding water. In some ways, I think my body is, indeed, allergic to its own secretions. On the first and second day without a shower, my skin has a warm glow about it, and my hair isn’t as frizzy and wild as is its wont. But any longer than that, and – as detailed in today’s strip – my skin starts breaking out and my hair becomes an oily mess. It isn’t pretty.
So how ’bout you BOTpeeps? How long can you go without taking a shower before either your body begins to notice or the people around you do?
—
So I’m back from the Emerald City Comicon! Details to follow, hopefully this weekend. And can you believe we’re almost to strip #500!? I’ll definitely be commemorating that milestone here on the site, soon. Stay tuned.
Remember my submarine comment from a while back? So, yeah, about three weeks! Ewwwww!
3 weeks!? that’s pretty good, Jim! heheh. and i’m happy you got the first comment so quickly – now i can go to bed and sleep off this cold!
and since you got the first comment, you get the Shades of Firsting! wear them well: you can see any greasy patches pooling on your face by looking through these before those secretions start causing a problem:
😎
Bro, I got the same problem. I cant go a day without a shower unless I want to look gross.
sorry to hear that, DAS, but happy you can relate. 🙂
The last panel reminds me of when I just begun getting zits and had to start showering every day. I envy my past pre-teen self for having extra time and no zits :/
those were the days, DAS.
I am with jim not that I do it on purpose but hey it does have its adavantages
i would be a pustule-covered mess in 3 weeks, Matt. 😛
Having curly hair is a nightmare! I can’t go without washing my hair unless I’ve straightened it. Even then I have to pray there is no humidity (in Florida!) and hope I don’t get it wet. If I’m lucky, I might be able to get away with 3-4 days depending on the weather.
yeah, i have to spend 15 minutes blow-drying my hair if i want it semi-straight and non-frizzy, Pixie. otherwise: bird’s nest.
I need to shower everyday or else I just feel wrong. Plus, I stink when I don’t shower. I also stink after working out. I tell my wife, “Yep, I worked out and I Smell like a man!” So, whenever I say, “I smell like a man!” it means I stink.
I used to go days without bathing. That stopped when some girl I liked teased me at lunch when I was 11 about how my hair was all greasy and stuff. Nothing like being teased by a girl you like to set you on the right path!
it takes me a good three days to work up enough sweat and stuff to start smelling “like a man,” TPC. and i remember being teased for having dandruff when i was in 5th grade and i would just say my sister threw flour in my hair. now that i think about it, they probably didn’t believe me.
Ha! This is totally my husband. He doesn’t smell unless he has worked out or gone several days without showering. I shower every other day, but I have to sponge bathe in between or I am paranoid that I smell bad (and I’m pretty sure I do).
Have you tried “no poo”? I have a bunch of online friends who have been discussing this recently – you use baking soda to “wash” your hair and vinegar to rinse it, and after a week or two your hair stops making so much oil and you can go a lot longer without washing it. People often swear that their hair has never looked better and is more manageable. A google search should get you specific instructions. Let me know if you try it.
i have to at least wash my face every night and morning or i’ll break out, Shanna. you’d think that i would’ve grown out of pimples once i graduated college, but no.
“no poo”!!? i’m intrigued. i do have some apple vinegar around here that i don’t know what to do with. might give it a try. 🙂
I just use dog shampoo. No soap and a lot cheaper than the human brands. Of course I have curly hair that’s the opposite of most curly hair. Super oily and less frizzy when it’s humid. So I wash it every day.
ya know, whenever i’ve used just regular soap on my hair instead of shampoo (either because i’ve run out of it at home or i’m on the road or whatever) my hair gets all smooth and shiny, Iggy! might have to try dog shampoo. 🙂
Just check the labels for Sodium Laurel Sulphate (the chemical name for soap) and get one without. The soap strips oils from hair, which is why most dog shampoo is soap free, since dog hair is more sensitive to soap.
cool, thanks for the info.
uhh, eew. i shower every day. in the summer sometimes twice a day. I have this awesome thing called a water heater? i can get nice and steamed in. I also have the gallon pump of fast orange it there for stubborn grease/dirt spots when scrubbing hands/arms/legs/belly if it is summer and i’m working on something without a shirt on since it hits triple digits over the summer.
i love just standing in a super-heated shower and getting steamed-in too, Hairball. i do my best thinking in the shower!
Yeah, it doesn’t take long before those pimples start sprouting. 😛
yeah, it’s gross. i wonder if i’ll ever grow out of it. 😛
I can generally go about five days before my hair becomes annoyingly greasy-feeling and I have to take a shower. My skin doesn’t have a tendency to break out though.
And you’re almost at 500 pages!
five days is great, Fijiman! i took a shower yesterday morning and i can already feel the grease building up in my hair. it’s still in “silky smoothness/sheen” mode, though.
and, yes: only one more strip to go until #500! WOO! 😀
I have the same problem! I love my hair on “day 3” but my face on “day 4” is a pizza! Hilarious as always!
heheh. glad you can relate, FunnyShaffer!
Hmm. Not sure. How long one can go without a shower isn’t a question Coolhand ever thought of trying to answer! Heh heh. 😉
heheh. you need to find out, coolhand! i’m sure your workmates won’t mind. 😉
About a day.. Like others I shower twice a day at times, but only if I went running or exercising.
I tend to do most of my showers at the gym, and I tend to forget what a real shower is like after 5 days of that.
I can’t wear the same clothing two days in a row though… Even jeans I have to wash after a day. I also tend to change socks probably twice or three times a day.
Why yes I am OCD at times.
yeah, i can wear jeans about two times before i have to wash them but shirts can only be worn once, Satoshieyes. even t-shirts that i wear to bed must be thrown in the laundry basket after one night’s wearing or my shoulders and back will start to rebel. you got me beat on socks, though: 2-3 times a day! wow! you’re keeping your feet extra fresh! 😀
Totally off topic but I read this blog entry and thought of you right away. I mentioned before how I love how you reply to all your comments and this blog post pretty much explains why that’s important. So, enjoy!
http://www.mattselznick.com/2013/03/07/stop-trying-to-build-an-audience/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=stop-trying-to-build-an-audience
thanks for the link, TPC! great article. i know a bunch of my webcomic peers either shut their comments down completely or don’t engage with their readers, but it’s always been one of my favorite things about having a webcomic! i probably won’t be able to always comment as much as i do now, but keeping communication open with you guys will always be a priority. 😀
Great reed! Thank You!
Shower. EVERY DAY! If nothing else it feels great. Relaxing and cleansing and…
If I could /water price, fixed position of shower, electronics not working under water, etc/ I would be in perpetual state of shower.
when i was a kid i hated taking showers, Maryz, but now i love them! i can just kind of tune out and get some deep thoughts going when i’m alone in a hot shower. 🙂
Welcome back Jef! Glad you had lots of fun at ECC. Also yay~! Early congrats on 500 strips. :3
I usually shower every other day due to my skin. It’ll be extremely dry and irritated after the shower. If I were to shower every day I would be spending a small fortune on lotions and creams to repair the damage, not to mention feeling extremely uncomfortable all the time. With my current set up I don’t have to rub myself down with overpriced goop constantly. As for my hair I wash that every 4 days. Being of mixed ethnicity I gotta deep condition my hair and manage the curls and holy balls that can take hours! Remember in the 50s women would be all “I can’t go out that night I gotta wash my hair?” That’s me. xD
hey, Foxmouse! thanks for the early congrats! can’t believe it’s already been 500 strips. O_O
if i shower too much, i’m the same as you with the dry and irritated skin, compounded by the fact that i take scalding showers and don’t moisturize as much as i should. hope you have fun on your “hair nights” reading or gaming or hobbying or whatever. i wonder if i could get away with using that excuse on nights i don’t feel like going out with friends? 😉
“How long can you go without taking a shower before either your body begins to notice or the people around you do?”
No more than about 36 hours. Then I start to itch and stink and my hair starts to get noticeably oily and itchy. It’s worse on super hot days and I may end up having to grab a quick shower in the afternoon as well.
36 hours is about the limit for me as well, r61.
I’ve gone a week before and somehow the only time that anyone noticed was when a clean freak came near me during a summer camp. Granted that was an extreme circumstance, but for some reason under normal conditions no one really notices.
Given that I’m currently trying to get a job and have a girlfriend now those days are behind me. Which is good, I never realy liked the feeling of my body oils piling up on top of my skin.
i’m pretty much the same way, GB – i can disguise my dirtiness for long periods. until i break out and get all greasy, that is. and, yes: girlfriend & job = must resist pushing boundaries of grossness.
Last panel… That’s how my hair always looks, even right after a shower. Hence why I shave it off as soon as the weather gets warm enough.
heh. if i don’t blow dry my hair right after getting out of the shower, that’s exactly how my hair looks, too, E.A.
XD longest I’ve gone was for a church outing where we followed the same paths the pioneers did going west in Wisconsin. We french braided our hair and went about a week without a good wash (don’t want to mess up some of the best artisenal well water!)
Best thing for it is putting your hair up, or even dry dusting it (although it gets tough to get out sometimes, and you look like a grey mop if you don’t XD)
I wish I didn’t know so much, but my job has super early hours; too cold to ride with wet hair, too early a bed for a shower, and you’re busy doin stuff (often goofin off with yo roomies) for a random midday bath ^^d
that outing sounds pretty cool, JR. and i guess if everyone’s in the same boat as far as cleanliness goes, one wouldn’t need to feel as self-concious about one’s grease levels.
I’ve showered every day for as long as I can remember unless I was on a camping trip where no cleaning facilities existed. I must shower each day for two reasons. First of all, my skin is subject to fungus infections. I’ve had athlete’s foot, jock itch, itchy flaky scalp and nail fungus. Also, in the course of my job I unload trucks filled with dirty clothes and towels coming from anything from restaurants to auto mechanics to sewage treatment plants. In fact, because of this it’s necessary not only for me to shower on work days but to wear VERY strong deodorant as well.
Speaking of nail fungus, once I had it so bad on one of my fingernails that my nail split and kept catching on stuff and pulling. I tried to alleviate this problem by removing the fingernail using a screwdriver and a pair of pliers. This only caused me great pain and the fingernail grew back in its infected state anyway. I ended up seeing my doctor to get pills to treat it. When I told her about removing my fingernail, she looked at me like I was crazy.
aaiiiieeee! just reading your post made my fingernails hurt, Rainey! (and also made me think of that movie The Fly.) i’m fortunate in that i don’t have any fungus problems, but i know people who do and it’s a constant struggle for them, so i feel for you.
I really should point out that the three weeks mentioned way back at the top was for a full shower. You were allowed to wash your face and “pits and bits” in one small sink of water every couple of days. If nobody showered, everybody stunk so nobody noticed!
heheh. thanks for the clarification, Jim. no one wants stinky bits. 😀
Between physical therapy and wheelchair fencing if I don’t bathe at least every other day my wife has me sleeping on the porch…
wheelchair fencing!? i guess i should’ve guess from your avatar, Oz! 🙂
I have to shower every day, but I only wash my hair once every four days or so. It’s a frizzy, dried-out mess if I wash it any more than that. I also take a little hair masque (that you’re normally supposed to rinse out) and rub it into the ends before letting it dry. When I was in school, a boy with long hair (down to his butt) asked me what I use in my hair, and then got grossed out when I told him I don’t wash it every day. I said “no, I don’t–and neither should you, that’s why it looks like that!”. His hair was all dry and scraggly, and broken off at the ends. Never figured out that was from washing it too often. Typically, the longer your hair is, the less often you should wash it.
hmm… maybe i should take your advice, justme, as i wash mine pretty much every day. my scalp actually starts to break out a bit after a couple days, though, so i’m not sure it’d work. my hair’s getting pretty long now, though. almost to my shoulders. might be time for a cut, which would help my hygiene tremendously. 🙂
Have you tried using a dry shampoo? Something like [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004DBUAGQ/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=natdee-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B004DBUAGQ&adid=0TZDJWCP3YX17PFQ1JNP this] or [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003NW8M1Q/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=natdee-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B003NW8M1Q&adid=1HTAN7Q2ZSZGHEBEM0N3 this]. Or even [http://www.amazon.com/Oscar-Blandi-Pronto-Dry-Shampoo/dp/B000Z65DZG/ref=sr_1_1?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1363054545&sr=1-1&keywords=oscar+blandi | this one], if you want to be all fancy.
Spray a little in the roots on the third day, brush it out, and you’re good to go.
wow, my linking skills are just… sad. Those were supposed to be links to the amazon pages for the Suave Professionals, Psssssst, and Oscar Blandi dry shampoos.
thanks for the links, justme – i’ve tried dry shampoos before but didn’t love ’em. still, i’ll check ’em out cuz you never know…
Conditioner! Even on days when I don’t shampoo I still feel the need to use conditioner. Keeps my hair nice and shiny without the need to strip away my hairs naturals oils by shampooing everyday.
But then again I’ve been to shampoo about 5 or 6 times a week, so those conditioner only scenarios I speak of are rarely followed.
i have to use conditioner, Saeed, or my hair turns into a tangled bird’s nest! i have a plastic comb that i run through my hair in the shower, just to evenly distribute the conditioner, too. 🙂
Maybe it’s not just you that’s allergic to your secretions. Maybe you give off histamines in your sweat that cause even the strongest of men to break out in hives and pestilence!
I meant for that to sound more like an awesome superpower than it did…
if there’s a way to make that a superpower, i’ll take it, Psy!
Oh no no no no no no noo. I will not stand for this Bot, frankly because I can’t look at him without being grossed out. D: All he needs is blue hair, some drastic piercings, and he could belong back in high school! Love CF’s face, it’s almost like mine.
Hope you did amazing at Con Jeff!
yeah, it’s gross, Natalie. you’d think i would’ve been beyond my “zit phase” by now! ugh.
and yes: the convention was amazing! did very well, thank you. 🙂
Good heavens HELL NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Are you insane, Mr. Jefbot?!
*sigh* Another good reason to be latinamerican added to my already long list. WE CAN NOT – WILL NOT – STOP TAKING SHOWERS. It has nothing to do with sweat or not. It has to do with with being clean and always looking – and smelling! – our very best! You can be a poor latinamerican, but you’re clean.
I remember when I spend a semester at an USA University as part of my student exchange internship and all my northamerican roommates – thankfully – were clean, but they would dress up with not-so-much clean clothes or at least just “out-of-the-drawer-whatever-shape-they-are” clothes. I guess is a latinamerican thing, our clothes have to be clean and looking nice. It could be jeans and t-shirts, but most of the girls would be surprised that my clothes and overall appearance was always clean and polished. I was thankful to be back in Argentina the next semester. My room mates were nice people, but the fact that they barely cared for how they look or smell was making me really uneasy.
Oh well. Life is what it is, I guess.
yeah, my clothes can get pretty wrinkly, JCB. like, they may look messy but i’m generally very clean because i have to be! my body’s very insistent on that.
Heheh.. My hair is really very long, so I only wash it about once a week, or so. I just have to give it a super through brushing to get all the oils evenly dispersed. I however DO shower about everyother day. Sometimes it gets stretched to three or four days if I’m being lazy. Where I work it’s hot enough for shorts and capris year-round, so I have to at least shave my legs. (and this is in Seattle area, mind. There was a week in January where we were comfortable in long pants. It was heavan.
Also, it was fantastic to see you at ECCC again this year. I hope to see you again next year
you saw at ECCC how long my hair’s getting, emikae – i think it’s about time for a cut, actually, cuz now when it gets greasy, it gets REALLY greasy!
and thanks for coming by the BOTbooth! i’ve already reserved my space for next year. 😀
Well that escalated quickly.
when it happens, it happens, TCG.
Bender can sometimes go three, maybe four, days without showering before his own stench starts to gag him, but if I don’t at least rinse my face every day, my pores get angry. It’s a delayed reaction, so one day of no rinsing leads to angry pores about three to four days later. It’s embarrassing to have pimples in your thirties. Really.
i know how you feel, B_S. i minimally have to sink-wash my face every day. that keeps the zits away for an extra 6-8 hours.
I can go only one day without showering, but if I go two days without showering I start producing my own hair gel and cannot go anywhere without leaving my smell everywhere. It sucks.