What Happens If You NEVER Shower?
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
We’ve all gone a day or two without showering, and the campers out there have probably gone
a bit longer.
However, most of us can agree that never showering would lead to some unfortunate, not to mention
smelly, problems.
But what if you stopped altogether?
Let’s explore.
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Now hold your nose, it’s time to ask the question: What happens if you never shower?
First of all, let’s remove one quick loophole from this question: This includes baths.
So to all you ragamuffins out there who thought you had the perfect loophole…
back to the drawing board.
And if anyone comments that THEY would take baths, feel free to laugh at them for not
watching the video.
Let’s start with the issue on everyone’s mind: Smell.
If you’ve ever gone a while without showering, or worse yet walked past someone who’s done
so, you’ll know that it can lead to some pretty funky smells.
Surprisingly, this is not just because of sweat.
Certain types of sweat, like that produced when under stress, can often have an odour
to them, but sweat from exertion generally does not cause a stench on its own.
However, without showering, bacteria will build up, and begin to break down the keratin
protein on your skin.
This, along with other factors like dirt and smelly substances, causes those who never
shower to have a rather powerful odour.
But that’s not all the bacteria would do.
It may sound gross, but the skin is covered in bacteria, known as skin flora.
At any given time, there could be 1000 species of bacteria on your skin.
For the most part, these are beneficial, but there are some harmful bacteria that find
their way onto your skin.
These are normally discarded with regular bathing, but if you never showered, they would
build up, and could cause skin disease.
Furthermore, if the wrong type of bacteria finds a way into the bloodstream, it can result
in horrible infections such as necrotizing fasciitis.
Never showering would also lead to a number of skin problems.
In the short term, your skin would become more oily and dirty, since you wouldn’t
be washing off the normal amounts you accumulate.
This can, however, bring about a number of other issues in the long term.
You could see an increase in acne, with more oil, bacteria, and skin cells around to clog
up your hair follicles.
The bacteria, oil, and dead skin cells would also bring about itching and irritation of
the skin.
One of the most disturbing results of never showering is the potential to develop brown
spots on your body.
This is called dermatitis neglecta, meaning neglect of the skin.
The accumulation of corneocytes, sebum, and sweat can form plaque-like legions on the
skin, and unsurprisingly looks really gross.
So if you stopped showering, you could find yourself looking less like George of the Jungle
and more like Pigpen from Peanuts.
You would also miss out on a number of beneficial effects of showering.
Studies have found showering to help reduce muscle tension, boost the immune system, improve
blood circulation, reduce stress, and even help to treat depression.
These are all relatively small effects, but pretty impressive nonetheless.
This also means that you wouldn’t be able to wash off particularly messy spills.
Just finished a soccer game?
No shower for you, you own that sweat.
Fall in a mud puddle?
Time to bust out the moist towelettes, this might take a while.
That said, showerlessness is not without its benefits.
Showering does cause some damage to the body, particularly when using harsh soaps and shampoos.
Washing one’s body with soap and hot water can strip your skin of its natural oils, and
kill the beneficial bacteria that supports the immune system.
Showering also dries out the skin, and those who shower too often tend to have issues in
this area.
The heat and harsh shampoos also cause damage to the hair, which can reach a very healthy
state without showering.
However, most of the benefits of showerlessness can be gained simply from showering in moderation,
and keeping the temperature relatively low, so there’s no need to stop bathing altogether.
However, life for non-showerers isn’t the smelly wasteland that some believe.
Taking time off showering allows one’s body to restore the natural ecosystems of bacteria
found on the skin.
This is often claimed to counter the smelly effects of sweat, allowing the body to do
what it was meant to do, and smell like a person.
Unfortunately, the body wasn’t designed to make us smell like Old Spice, and as stated
earlier, our noses aren’t accustomed to the naturally smelly odour of the human animal.
This brings us to another point: Many of these non-showerers believe that they eventually
stop smelling.
This is… not exactly the case.
If you’ve ever met someone that doesn’t shower, you may notice that they don’t smell
quite as normal as they think they do.
This is largely because the person becomes accustomed to their own odour, rather than
the odour actually going away.
So if you stopped showering, you’d probably stop smelling yourself eventually…
but the same can’t be said for other people.
And now we return to our question: What happens if you never shower?
Well, the resulting buildup of bacteria, dirt, oil, and dead skin on the body could bring
about a number of skin conditions like acne or dermatitis neglecta, or even lead to a
flesh-eating infection.
And obviously, you will start to smell.
While there are some benefits from a lack of showers, they seem to be outweighed by
the potential problems.
This is, of course, a personal decision, but if you work in close quarters and don’t
shower, you may want to invest in some deodorant.
Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions, I hope this was interesting and informative,
and maybe even inspired you to look into it further on your own.
If you liked this video, please thumbs up and subscribe to the channel down below.
While you’re down there, let me know the longest you’ve gone without a shower in
the comment section down below.
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you
the best of luck, on your quest for answers.