For a time so long I’m too embarrassed to disclose it fully, I thought baths and baths alone were for washing my entire body and showers were for washing (mostly) my hair. Once it was supposed that I had outgrown baths as the default method of washing, trouble ensued; I did not take to showers the way other children evidently did. There were times I was literally bent over backward to wash my hair when there was no other option but to shower. It was perhaps because of discomforts like these that I grew to hate showers and basically stopped using shampoo for many years. My hair was short then, so it didn’t matter. As I grew it out, shampoo reappeared—though not every time. I would often take a shower from outside the shower, keeping the curtain mostly closed but sticking my head into the stream of water to get it nice and soaking wet for the sake of appearances.
The way I “showered” would contribute to my belief that I was allergic to water. Aside from my wretched lack of comfort, another reason I hated showers was the itching that (almost) always came afterward. It would plague me about 10 minutes after I got dressed, last anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour, and fade away so slowly as not to be noticed. The itching was confined to my chest, my arms, and my legs—the same areas of my body I couldn’t avoid getting wet when I showered more properly. I let this fester and continue for a length of time I can’t possibly recall, and I’m glad I did. If I hadn’t, I might not have rediscovered soap.
What prompted me to start using soap in the shower, I cannot say. I know that the itching stopped once I used soap to shed the invisible layers of caked dirt on my body. I know that the itching stopped once there was no more moisture trapped between my body and dead skin. I know that the itching stopped when I dried myself off properly and didn’t give my skin the chance to be irritated. I know that I have felt relief from the itching only for a few months as of this writing.
So, the longest I’ve gone without a shower? Depending on your perspective, the answer ranges anywhere from a few days to a week to 33 long and miserable years.
With care,
~ Grigori