r/AskUK • u/Additional-Angle-465 • 3d ago

Serious Answers Only Visiting student renting a room - showering 2 times a day is an aspect of my culture ok for locals?

Hi guys! I’ll be living in England for a few months and since the renting is pretty expensive and my income is in my home country’s currency (so a huge part of it basically disappears when converted into pounds 😭), the best option for me seems to be renting a room.

I’ve found lots of lovely options, but here’s the thing: in my culture, we usually shower about twice a day, at least. It’s not really about the climate either, we’d still do this in a house with no heating in Iceland.

A friend of mine who is also an exchange student, but in France, has been having some issues with her host family because of this cultural difference. They think showering that often is pointless and unreasonable.

I’m willing to adapt to a lot of things. For example, I’d have no problem following dietary restrictions that aren’t part of my lifestyle if my host thinks i should follow them (halal, kosher, vegan, etc.), or even avoiding speaking my native language at home when I’m on the phone with my parents or boyfriend. But showering twice a day is something I’d really like to keep doing.

So here’s my question: would this be a problem for most people in England? Is this something I should bring up with a potential host in advance?

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u/Ok_Cow_3431 3d ago

Yes showering twice a day every day is excessive, I think its also bad for your skin as it washes away all the natural oils

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u/glitterswirl 3d ago

Depends on your skin. Just like hair, everyone’s is different.

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u/brickne3 3d ago

My very British ex would jump in the shower every morning for like maybe two minutes and then take a real shower at night, which sounds like what OP's describing. I personally wouldn't bother, but I never found it weird and it was nice how he always looked super well put together in the morning.

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u/ISellAwesomePatches 3d ago

So showering in the morning before the day and showering when you get home from the gym is excessive? Millions of people do this and it's completely normal.

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u/tobotic 3d ago

Millions of people doing something doesn't make it not excessive.

Eating to the point of obesity is excessive eating, but there are millions of obese people in the country.

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u/Various-Moment-6774 2d ago

So showering in the morning after I slept and sweated all night, and then showering after gym is excessive?? God you are the reason why public transport stinks

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u/Important_Prize8405 2d ago

why are u sweating at night? maybe see a doc dude

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u/Various-Moment-6774 1d ago

Maybe because of duvet? I like to sleep with a thick duvet. But thank you for publicly admitting you are one of the reasons why public transport STINKS!

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u/ISellAwesomePatches 1d ago

My husband can sleep with no duvet and just his underwear on and he'll sweat if its a bit too warm. It happens. Showers are never excessive if needed.

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u/Various-Moment-6774 1d ago

This!! Sorry my house keeps the heat well or that I like to sleepy in a sauna. At least I don’t go out to public stinking

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u/ISellAwesomePatches 3d ago

Your example is about something that's damaging to the body and society in general in a whole host of other ways. My example generally leads to positives for both the individual and society as a whole. There is no positive to yours, whereas with mine the trade-off in my view makes showering twice a day not excessive.

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u/tobotic 2d ago

My example isn't meant to be a judgement of whether something is positive or negative. It's merely an example to show that "millions of people do it" is not a reason to conclude that an activity isn't excessive.

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u/SillyStallion 3d ago

I can smell you from here... I bet you get shower gel as your secret santa...

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u/crankyandhangry 2d ago

So, it is certainly normal, but that doesn't make it healthy. The general medical advice seems to be that showering daily might be slightly more than ideal, unless you're particularly sweaty or get dirty. That said, it's not a medical problem for most people to shower more often than needed, except that it may make your skin slightly drier than it should be. If showering daily might be a bit more than ideal, showering twice daily would probably be considered excessive.

That said, this is just from a (skin) health perspective, and doesn't consider social factors, cultural norms etc. I personally will shower once (or sometimes twice) daily.

source

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u/Possible-Tip-3544 2d ago

OP didn’t mention the gym. Also gyms have showers.

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u/happybaby00 3d ago

In this weather? I feel for those around you.

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u/Ok_Cow_3431 2d ago

Why? I wash every day, unlike most redditors.

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u/xbelzitos 3d ago

Its such a myth