Shower me with Wisdom

Here’s my observation for the week… who we are in life is who we are in the shower. Allow me to explain.

There are those of us (you know who you are) who take easily twenty minutes to shower. They climb in… wash up… and then…. They… just stand there and contemplate life. These are the same people who easily take a week to make a decision. They weigh all options contemplate each scenario and then make a decision that they will invariably regret at some point. These people are what I like to refer to as the Water Worriers. They try and sort out their life’s issues with the water beating down on them.

No judgment here (okay… judgment- it’s who I am) but REALLY? Get in the shower and get out. You want to contemplate life… take a bath. It is far more environmentally friendly.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are those individuals who really are the Splash Seekers so to speak. They take 5 minutes to “lather, rinse, and repeat” and are out of a shower without a thought in their head.

My beloved fall s into the former category. He really is a fabulous man… however; his carbon footprint really exists based on the length of his “shower time”. Dude spends a week in there. He sorts his day, aligns his life’s beliefs and emerges with the world’s ponderings solved and his hair washed.

As for me? My inability to “sit/stand still” knows no bounds. You want my attention? Put food in front of me. Otherwise- I’m a woman that cannot be chained. This of course translates into the idea that a shower is a place to get clean. Hell I hate washing my hair more than three times a week because it takes too long. I get in the shower- and start the clock… it’s called speed bathing and I am master class.

So here’s my thought… who we are in life is who we are in the shower. Those of us who make snap decisions and learn to live with them will bathe without a thought and “Splash and Dash” as if it were sport.

Those of us who peruse through life with a sense of intense deliberation and contemplation are the very same people who tend to use up a tank of hot water on the way to self actualization.

Remember that “Jetson’s” episode where Judy Jetson walked into this machine in her pajamas and immerged seconds later “fluffed and folded”? She was instantly perfect- bathed and polished? I remember thinking…”that lucky bitch”…. When technology evolves well beyond what we have right now, I will not be spending my money on moon landings or an extra organ- hell I am getting me one of those turbo shower machines that get me ready in a Judy Jetson minute.

Research on “shower details” has been done by the Shower Power campaign in association with Waterwise- an environmental organization in the UK aimed at reducing water consumption. Women only spend a mere 39 seconds longer in the shower than men. If you think about this girlfriends, we are pretty fast. Our hair is usually longer AND we most often shave our legs and other bits…. 39 extra seconds for all of that? I’d say that speaks to efficiency BIG TIME.
According to the Showerwise survey, the majority of women (71%) take showers of 10 minutes or less. More than a quarter (26%) take showers less than 5 minutes. As for men? 75% take showers of less than 10 minutes and 30% take showers of less than 5 minutes.

There are also intriguing differences on age, with time spent in the shower decreasing with increasing age. The 55s and over (mean shower time: 8 mins, 41 seconds) are five minutes faster than people aged 18 to 24 (mean shower time: 13 mins 26 seconds) with well over a third (39%) of people aged 55 or over even managing to shower in five minutes or less.
The older you are the less time you spend in the shower….

As for baths? A typical bath uses around 80 litres of water whereas the average shower sprays out about six litres a minute. So you'd have to be soaping yourself vigorously for over 13 minutes to use the same amount of water as that bath.
As for the length of a shower- no real randomized trials exist but some cushy research journals suggest that longer showers dry out the skin by cleaning of the body’s natural oils… Personally I think that’s what lotion is for…. And I’m a swimmer so I really don’t care.

SO there you have it dear girlfriends… something to think about the next time you are lathering up and letting that conditioner settle in….