Lessons Learned from a Year without Showering

As of today, it has been one year since my last shower. Yes, I know that sounds crazy and a year ago I would have agreed with you. I was a regular showering guy for the first 26 years of my life. Well, maybe not every single day, but just about.

So how does a regular showering guy end up going 365 days and counting without taking a shower? It started with a long bike ride across the United States to promote sustainability and eco-friendly living. I set a bunch of rules for myself to follow to lead by example.

The rule for water was that I could only harvest it from natural sources such as lakes, rivers, and rain or from wasted sources such as leaky faucets. And I kept track of exactly how much I used, too, with the aim of showing just how little we need to get by.

I made it through the 100-day bike ride without taking a shower, and for me, that was quite the task in itself. But everything had gone so well that I decided to continue my shower-less streak. I set a goal for six months and when that day passed, I figured I might as well go a full year without a shower.

So here I am now, one year later, to tell you story of my year without a shower.

I might as well bring this up right away. You think I’m really stinky right? You think I smell like some sort of Swamp Monster like this:

Actually, nope. When I say that I haven’t showered, that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t bathing. I swam almost daily in places like this:

And this:

And in waterfalls like this:

And I used eco-friendly, biodegradable soap when I needed to. *(See important note at bottom of article.)

But I learned that by living naturally, I didn’t need cosmetic products anymore. I just used some soap, toothpaste, and essential oils and found that to work real well. This compared to previously using colognes, deodorant, shampoo, lotions, and all sorts of other products full of chemicals. And guess what? I had no lack of friends!

In fact, some even bathed with me.

And I even had some romances in that year.

Nobody thought that I smelled at all. And I surprised myself at how clean I was, just like everyone else.

I realized that water doesn’t have to come from a shower to get me clean. You can wash yourself in lakes.

Rivers.

Or just by sitting in the rain.

But when natural water wasn’t available, I found other places to clean myself without having an impact. Like this leaky fire hydrant in Brooklyn:

Or this blasting fire hydrant in the Bronx:

I learned that I can air dry rather than using a towel. And this meant less laundry, which saved even more water.

And I also turned my bathing time into a time to connect with nature. It became my favorite time of the day, when I would disconnect from the stresses of life and be present with my surroundings.

I learned that the average American uses about 100 gallons of water per day. But I was able to use less than two gallons per day on my bike trip. That’s just eight Nalgene water bottles. (This was not including the natural water and leaky sources that I bathed in.)

Most importantly, I learned to really appreciate every last drop.

Because water gives life to all of us and the animals, too.

When I got home from my bike trip, I resumed life at home but managed to use just 10-20 gallons per day. That is 5-10 times less than the average American uses. I went another eight months without showering and conserved over 5,000 gallons of water and had plenty of fun with friends at the same time!

And when I didn’t feel like swimming, but I needed to get clean, I just rubbed myself down with a cloth and a gallon of water. But most importantly, I learned that you don’t have to stop showering to be a part of the solution. There are many easy ways to conserve water and most are really easy for any of us to do.

You can …
– Avoid factory farmed meat, dairy and eggs.
– Flush the toilet less often.
– Take shorter showers or turn off the water while you’re soaping up and scrubbing down.
– Wash clothes less often and in full loads.
– Turn off the faucet.
– Wash dishes efficiently.
– Install water-efficient shower heads and toilets.
– Get your leaks fixed.
– Grow food not lawns.
– Harvest rain.

How will you choose to conserve water? Start today by picking just one way to conserve and with time do more and more. You’ll likely find it to be quite easy this way. See my guide to using water wisely here.
And if you do all of that, you might start feeling like this!

Photography by Brent Martin
*Note added 09/06/2014: Since writing this article, I have learned that you should not use any soap in natural bodies of water, even biodegradable soap.

Soap does not readily biodegrade in water as it does in soil. If you want to bathe with soap, you should instead take a bucket of water 200 feet from the water source so that the soap runs off of you into the soil where microbes can break down the components of the soap.

Today I use soap on my hands, but rarely elsewhere on my body. It has been one year and almost four months since my last conventional shower and my hygiene is better than ever, even having embraced a nearly soap-free life. (See my natural personal hygiene here.) Learn more at LeaveNoTrace.com.