Hate showering daily? Experts agree, say, 'No proven health benefits'

livemint.com:

BBC report, experts have said that daily showers offer no proven health benefits. They have dismissed this practice as a socially accepted norm aimed at avoiding body odour. While speaking to BBC, environmentalist Donnachadh McCarthy said, “Why are we washing? Mostly because we’re afraid somebody else will tell us that we’re smelling." McCarthy, who now showers once a month, explained that his decision stemmed from his experience spending two weeks with the indigenous Yanomami people in the Amazon rainforest.

He was compelled to do his part for the environment. Upon returning to his London house, he installed a rainwater harvester, solar thermal hot water facilities, and began closely monitoring his water usage. As a result, he gradually reduced his shower frequency over the years with now once a month.

He told the BBC that he rather now opts for washing himself with the help of a clean cloth at the sink adn also uses one cup of water to shave. Further adding, he added, "If you go to an old building, in the bedrooms you'll see these lovely wooden tables with bowls sunk into them. People used water from the bowls, and had a face cloth for the face and body.

... Obviously, having running water is a huge positive. But it means you use much more of it." “I do think a lot of the showering is performative," he added.

Another professor from the Department of the Built Environment at Aalborg University in Denmark stated that we don't shower for health reasons, but rather because it's a social norm. “If you go 100 years back, we didn’t shower every day, because the shower was not a normal thing to have. We don’t shower because of health.