For many people, the daily shower is part of it – for personal hygiene, but also as a feel-good ritual that you don’t like to be interfered with. In the energy crisis, this becomes a contentious issue.
Cologne – Shorter, colder or less frequent showers – in view of the energy crisis, politicians have been giving “shower tips” for several weeks and praising their own habits.
According to his own statement, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) has had shorter showers since the beginning of the Ukraine war. The FDP politician Wolfgang Kubicki (FDP) showers “predominantly cold”, but also let the traffic light coalition colleague know via “Bild”: “Robert Habeck is welcome to take a shower as short as he thinks it is right.
At least I don’t look at the clock when I’m in the shower. I shower until I’m done.” And Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) reminded: “Even the washcloth is a useful invention.”
Showering is now a daily ritual for many people
For many people, the daily shower is simply part of it – for hygienic reasons, but also to start the day fresh and lively.
Showering for body cleansing only became popular in Europe after the French Revolution. In Germany, the Prussian military acted as a pioneer, having manned showers installed in their barracks from around the middle of the 19th century – as an efficient means of cleaning as many people as possible in a short period of time.
The shower then gained importance in private bathrooms with the advent of gas bath stoves around the turn of the century. In the 1950s and 1960s, most households still had bathing days on Saturdays. Only in the last few decades has daily showers gradually replaced weekly baths.
Nowadays, a shower in the bathroom is standard, there are many variants and with new functions. If you want, you can turn your shower into a real wellness oasis. Manufacturers offer rain showers, steam showers, massage showers, walk-in showers or showers with colored lighting. Taking a shower is also a feel-good ritual.
Cleaning under the water jet is a sensual experience
Stephan Grünewald, managing director of the Rheingold Institute in Cologne, even sees this as a “symbolically charged act” of self-efficacy. “For many people, the morning shower has the function that you first come to yourself, that the “self” awakens from a diffuse dream-lost state,” he explains. “Showering is a sensual experience as a permitted act of self-touch.”
The comfortably warm jet of water, followed by a cold shower and subsequent rubbing down have the effect of a “rebirthing”, a kind of “rebirth in the bathroom”. If someone wants to tell people to limit showering or even replace it with a washcloth, this leads to a defensive attitude, says Grünewald. “The desire for self-efficacy is thwarted.”
The advice to take shorter showers to save energy makes sense. “It becomes problematic when citizens feel like they are being treated like children and are being pushed into taking orders,” says the psychologist. Many people then worry that they will be incapacitated and – in a figurative sense – become a wimp themselves.
Do not shower too long and not too hot
But how much showering is really useful? “That depends on the skin type,” says dermatologist Claus Jung from Germering near Munich. For people with healthy skin, there is nothing wrong with a daily shower. “Someone with very dry skin shouldn’t shower or wash their hair more than every two days,” explains the dermatologist. “You can also clean the most important stinky spots with a mild soap in the meantime.”
In general, people should not shower too long and not too hot, says the expert. That means: You should be done after five to ten minutes, and the water temperature should not exceed body temperature of about 36 degrees so that the skin does not dry out. Cold water, on the other hand, does not harm the skin. dpa
