6 Things That Happened When I Stopped Showering

I know a lot of people who are obsessed with being clean. One of my friends in high school would shower morning and night because she said the water helped wake her up and she also didn’t want to get into bed dirty. I always thought this was extreme, but I wouldn’t blink an eye if someone told me they showered and washed their hair every day. I used to be that person.

But a few weeks back I read an article in The Atlantic called “I Quit Showering, and Life Continued” that got me thinking there might actually be something kind of odd about our compulsion to bathe so frequently. The author, James Hamblin, a journalist and a doctor, decided to stop washing his body with soap for a full month to find out if he would actually turn into a “smelly beast” or if his body’s ecosystem would become balanced and he’d just smell like a normal person. The thinking goes that by aggressively washing off the oils our skin produces, we disrupt the delicate balance between oil and bacteria on the skin. When these microbes are out of whack, B.O. becomes more noticeable, and our skin flip-flops between unbearably greasy and super dry instead of finding an equilibrium.

Intrigued, I decided to give it a go. Aside from the potential health benefits, I was also attracted to the prospect of lowering my eco-footprint by using less water and washing fewer polluting soaps down the drain. Being less gutsy than Hamblin, I set my sights on starting with one shower-free week. About three years ago, I cut my showering down to every other night—and have been known to go two or three days between washes. Still, cutting it out completely was a scary jump, the prospect of feeling gross and itchy very real. Determined, I hung up my wash cloth and set about mentally preparing myself. The rules of the game were no shampoo or soap at all—including face wash—and no other body products of any kind, like perfume or lotion. Not being able to wash my face meant that makeup was off the table, too. I could only use soap to wash my hands, because, you know, hygiene. Here’s how it went.

My Hair Was A Greasy Nightmare

As predicted, my hair turned into a disgusting greaseball midway through the week. I typically only wash my hair two, maybe three times, per week. This is partly because I’m lazy and mostly because I’ve found that going longer between washes cuts back on frizz and makes my hair healthier, but three nights without a shampoo is about all I can stand. I’ve heard all about the benefits of going “no-poo” for your hair and scalp, but I’ve never been able to deal with the greasiness long enough to find out if it would actually work for me. Unfortunately, that experiment takes much longer to start seeing results, so I just had to live with an itchy scalp and a permanent messy top-knot.

I Didn’t Smell (Too) Bad

Given that I chose the hottest, most humid week of the summer to try this experiment, I was pleasantly surprised that my B.O. didn’t get overwhelming, just like Hamblin predicted. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t smell as sweet as I normally do, but my natural stench didn’t repulse me or (as far as I know) anyone else. Since I work in a shared office and generally have to interact with society on a daily basis, one of the caveats I made for myself at the start of this challenge was that I wouldn’t give up deodorant, though I did switch from my usual antiperspirant to a plant-based stick, which did a decent job of masking the scent of my sweaty pits. Still, I likely would have smelled much worse if I didn’t work in an air-conditioned office and if I actually had the motivation to do rigorous physical workouts. Were I a runner, things may have turned out very different.

I Didn’t Break Out

Giving up my favorite face wash was the thing I dreaded most about going sans soap. I’ve had horrendous acne since about the minute I hit puberty, but two months ago my face suddenly and mysteriously cleared up. To keep it that way, I religiously use a pimple-fighting arsenal of cleansers, makeup remover, exfoliating scrubs, and moisturizers. I thought a week of not washing would be an open invitation for all that bacteria and inflammation to pop back up, and I dreaded the constellation of deep, painful cysts I was sure would cover my chin by day three. Surprisingly, there was nary a pimple in sight up until the very end, when I developed a couple of small zits that I would classify as “no big deal” on the Richter scale of breakouts.

Being forced to give up pore-clogging makeup probably contributed to my clear skin, but the unexpected positive outcome makes me wonder why I even bother with my vanity-full of daily products. Curious if other people have ever had this result, I did a quick Google search and discovered that not washing your face with soap is actually an increasingly popular alternative remedy for acne. It’s called the Caveman Regimen, and the thinking goes that using a soapy cleanser once or twice every day dries your skin too much, causing your pores to produce extra oil that winds up contributing to breakouts. While I’m not sure I’d ever go full-on Caveman, I’ve completely stopped using face wash in the morning and my face is much less oily throughout the day.

I Felt Frumpy

Going without makeup was a boon for my complexion, but it didn’t do much for my self-image. While I believe that women definitely don’t need to wear makeup in order to look and feel beautiful—or even just presentable—not wearing foundation and mascara to work made me feel underdressed, the same way forgetting to put on earrings does. Then when my hair got too greasy to leave down, I put it up in a messy bun, where it remained until the end of the week. Not being able participate in my usual grooming habits made me gravitate to the most basic items in my wardrobe, too, right down to my underwear. I’m typically a jeans and v-neck kind of person, but this week I embraced it wholeheartedly. There wasn't any point in putting in the effort to dress up when my hair and face looked like I’d just gotten back from a hike.

I Got More Exercise

According to Hamblin’s article, the average American spends two full years of their life in the shower, and he makes the case that there’s so much else we could be doing with that time besides cleaning our already clean bodies. I typically shower before bed, and while that 15 minutes (including blow dry) every other night adds up, that small amount of extra free time didn’t make a noticeable difference in my daily routine. But what did impact my day was the suddenly empty time I used to spend primping in the bathroom each morning. Now that I wasn’t washing my face, applying makeup, or battling my hair into submission, I was on the road 10 or 15 minutes earlier than usual, which gave me time for a short walk on the trail by my office before heading into work.

Related: This Is Your Body On Walking

I Counted Down The Days Until It Was Over

Two years ago, I spent 10 days hiking in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks, during which time I showered exactly once. Given this record of being extremely dirty for over a week, I thought that not bathing for seven days of minimal physical activity wouldn’t be that bad. Not so. I was constantly dwelling on how long I had to wait before I could wash my hair again. The thing is that when you’re camping and hiking, personal hygiene standards pretty much go out the window, but conquering trails in national parks is not my real life, as much as I sometimes wish it were. During my soap-free experiment, I was especially conscious of not doing anything that would get me too gross because, let’s be real, sometimes you just need soap to scrub off dirt—that meant that hiking and fishing were both off the agenda for my weekend plans. I didn’t need to be clean in the mountains because the people around me were just as sweaty and dirty as I was, but in the suburban world where I work in an office, eat in restaurants, and go to the movies, society’s collective tolerance for crud is much lower. We probably don’t all need to be so worried about smelling and looking gross, but it sure feels good to be clean.