It's a staple of the modern morning routine: Wake up, hop in the shower, lather with soap.
But is that morning scrub-a-dub really necessary?
One man claims not. David Whitlock, a chemical engineer in Boston, has not showered for 12 years.
Whitlock isn't running an experiment in extreme water conservation. Rather, he believes that humans don't need to shower to be healthy, and that a daily soap scrub may actually remove a beneficial type of bacteria that keeps the bacteria that contribute to B.O. in check.
To boost the presence of odor-eating bacteria, Whitlock has designed a bacterial spray called AO+ Mist, which is now sold by the company AoBiome under the brand Mother Dirt. The company hopes this bacterial spritz could reduce the need for products such as soaps and deodorants and potentially even reduce or eliminate the need for showering for those so inclined.
His theory is that your skin will control odor-producing bacteria if left to its own devices, and that soap kills off good bacteria your skin needs.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @07:45PM
12 years . . . that makes me sound so inexperienced. I had thought that going 45 (02013/02/21 - 02013/04/10 ???) or 80 (02014/12/31 - 02015/03/21 ???) days without bathing or showering (just clean clothes once every 1 - 2 weeks, and maybe brushing my hair occasionally) made me a veteran in the pro-dirt camp.
Not sweating much, seems to help a lot; and were it not for other scheduling concerns, I think I probably could have gone 110 - 120 days, instead of bathing on 02015/03/21 ???, but there were other scheduling concerns, and the choices were 80 days or 160 days. For me, 160 days without bathing or showering, was the road not taken. I did not want to experience, double the dirtiness of the halfway point.