Morning Shower or Night Shower?

 Do you need to shower every day? Do you shower in the morning or at night? I don't want to start a whole thing like I kind of did with the top-sheet-or-not thing, but I find it interesting.

When I was old enough to shower independently, I always needed to shower in the morning. I would shower even if I was just going out to suntan with a friend and my dad would say that's super dumb, you're showering off the skin barrier that might prevent a sunburn, and he was right but dude, we were oiling up with basically barbecue sauce at that time, so I was undeterred.

I can't remember when I started needing to shower at night (AS WELL AS in the morning, not instead of). I think my heat regulation problems started in my early twenties, so maybe then? The night time shower was quick, basically a rinse off, but I couldn't get into bed without it. 

With my sleep issues, getting up early was even more painful when I had to shower and wash my hair. My hair was oily, though, so skipping it wasn't really great for not feeling gross during the day. My mom went through an annoying stage when I was in high school where she read that if you stopped washing your hair so much it would stop producing oil, and started badgering me to only wash it ever second day. My sister claims that this kind of thing only works with different hair from ours anyway, but I was not interested in testing the theory either way. I fought her until she gave up. 

As I've aged and my hair has gotten slightly less oily, and I've discovered dry shampoo, I've become pretty comfortable with getting up in the morning and just washing my face, since I've showered just before bed. I can go to work, run errands, work out (yes, I did used to shower before going to work out - so dumb), and then shower when I get home (okay, I will still have to shower right before bed, so this isn't a HUGE improvement, but still).

Eve has evolved naturally into showering after dinner, which she's done since she started showering on her own. She's never showered in the morning and has no issues with this. Angus usually showers in the morning unless he's off early, and then he needs to shower after the inevitable workout. For this reason, sharing a bathroom was never an issue for them like it sometimes was for me and my sister.

On the subject of washing stuff, I recently noticed in pictures that one of my eyelids looked slightly swollen. When I thought about it, I realized I don't really 'wash' my eyes. Is that weird? If I'm wearing mascara (not often) I used makeup removed, then kind of rinse off the makeup remover. If I'm not, I think I just kind of bypass my eyes. My eyes are sensitive, and I have to use eyedrops to be able to wear contacts at this point, and I don't like the idea of soap getting in them, but suddenly thinking about how I've been neglecting them in my otherwise quite compulsive - one might say obsessive - cleanliness routine (showering once a day AT LEAST: washing my hands if one even brushes against a garbage can or toilet seat lid: using soap on my cooch, pH balance be damned) kind of icked me out. I got some tea tree eye cleansing towelettes and started using them every second day or so, and running the facecloth I use every night gently over my eyes when I didn't use them. The swelling seems to have gone down, if not the crows feet. 

OH, and while we're at it, facecloth for face or just hands? I used to be only hands, but when my acne was fairly bad I wondered if the slight exfoliating motion of a facecloth might help, and it seemed to. But (see: obsessive) I have to use a clean facecloth every night, so I go through facecloths at a tremendous rate. 

I was getting nervous at not posting in a long time and not feeling up to loading a bunch of pictures, so I thought I would do a 'weird things I think about sometimes' post. I am feeling now like I might have chosen poorly, yet alas, here we are. 

Comments

Nicole said…
I have so much to say.
First, morning shower for me, and I feel like I have had a morning shower since I was probably 11 or so. These days I shower after I work out and walk Rex, which often means 10 am or so. But I am the sweatiest person ever, so I have to shower after workout. If it is really hot and I've been outside a lot I will shower before bed, but usually I just wash my feet (in the summer, when I'm barefoot in the house a lot) before bed. The feet-washing is enough to feel fresh for bed. My kids have always showered at night, it's their preference. This was great when we were in Calgary and just had two bathrooms, it made mornings easy. I definitely shower every day but I don't wash my hair every day because, as I've been clear about, I have trouble with hair shedding and loss. So I wash my hair every three days generally. By the third day, it's in a bun with a hair band. I don't think I could have done that in my oily youth.
I also use soap on the old honey pot, I mean, as long as you're not sticking a bar of soap up the hooha you're probably fine on the PH. Like, is it really any different from washing armpits? You're not GOING in. Or are you? I assume you're not.
I wash my eyes but then I use a ton of makeup.
Only hands for me when washing my face, contrary to your experience I worried the facecloth would irritate my skin. Now it just feels nice and fresh for me to wash with my hands.
StephLove said…
Night showers, every other day, unless I've been in a chlorinated pool. My skin gets itchy if I don't wash the chlorine off, and it's better to do it at the pool, rather than waiting to get home. Even that wait makes me itch. At the beach, I shower every day to get the sand off, but only shampoo every other day. Like Nicole, I sometimes wash my feet (and almost always my face) before bed in the summer. I am inconsistent about wash clothes.
Why can't I remember when I've always showered? I am 99% sure I have been a morning showerer until very recently, but couldn't swear to it. I vaguely remember waking up at like six before high school so I had time to dry my hair before school. Oh yes, and I remember going out to break the skein of ice in the horses' water trough on cold winter mornings, and my still-wet hair would turn into icicles. So: morning showerer.

Now, I mainly shower after I exercise, which is usually mid morning??? Sometimes I shower at night, but I don't love that because I get so hot and sweaty while I sleep.

I have the type of hair that allows me to go several days between washings. It is quite magical. Except then when I DO shampoo it, I lose about a toupee's worth of hair in one go. A different kind of magical.

I wash my eyes with a Neutrogena makeup remover cloth. I also wash my eyes in the shower. It is only recently that I have mastered washing my face without a washcloth, but I prefer it because I am lazy and already feel like I have too much laundry.
Anna aka BeachMama said…
Morning shower here!! I’ve always done it, the rare time I shower at night, I feel really gross by noon. I do wash my face before bed every night before bed so my night creams soak right in there. I also wash ny eyes in the shower every day and hair is an every day thing too. My kids are the opposite, and they think k I’m weird for showering in the morning.
Sarah said…
The only right answer is night shower-- otherwise you gotta change your sheets every day.
ccr in MA said…
I am a morning shower-er all the way! I have to wash my hair daily and it gets greasy by the end of the day otherwise. I wonder if that will change as menopause goes on? And I am a fresh-washcloth-morning-and-night person. I don't really wash right up to my eyes, but I'm in the neighborhood, I guess.
NGS said…
I shower at night, mostly because I cannot possibly move my wake-up time any earlier and if I had to shower and dry my hair before work, I'd never make it to work on time. I must shower every day and feel disgusting if I don't because my body is an oil slick. I was my hair every other day, but acknowledge that it *should* be every day and is disgusting by the end of day two. I am lazy and frugal and that is why I do not wash it every day.

I wear a lot of eye makeup and wash my eyes more intensely than any other part of my face or there would be permanent old mascara there.

I wash my face with a washcloth in the shower at night, but just use my hands when I wash and moisturize my face in the morning. My face must be a perfectly blank canvas for me to put all the makeup on!

Ernie said…
I am a shower in the morning after my workout type. When I was a kid we always bathed at night, but eventually it just became easier to do my hair after a shower vs totally rewetting it to keep it from sticking out all over in the morning. I used a wash cloth as a kid, but I wash my face with my hands now. When Lad lived with us, he would shower before going to workout. It blew my mind and seemed like such a waste of water, because he is prone to very lengthy showers.
Busy Bee Suz said…
I've moved to showering at nigh, after dinner or whatever and just put on clean PJ's. Why do I look SO forward to bedtime now? Getting old!
I wish I could remember if I ever had a routine as a young person, but I can't tell you when I showered at all!
I use a washcloth if I'm washing my face in the sink (always use a face cleanser on my eyes) or just use my hands when I'm in the shower. I hope your eye is better. Maybe you need something special on it to cleanse the makeup?
San said…
I usually shower in the morning after my workout, because I am usually so soaked that I have to jump in the shower right away. I usually use my hands to wash my face but will occasionally also use a facecloth or even a face brush. I go through phases ;)

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