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Arabs used to wash with dust. Doesn't make you as clean and fresh as after shower, but keeps hygiene problems at bay and one doesn't need to have a working Walmart.
For scientific purposes of this thread, I took a regular hot navy shower last night and measured the amount of water I used. I have a low flow shower head and I wasn't trying to be particularly quick or conservative with the water, just a thourough regular navy style shower (water off while soaping up). My experiment determined that I was able to get super clean and refreshed using exactly one gallon of water.
I was just wondering if it's possible to smell as clean from a shower by just washing up and or not even using water. Is there a way to make a sort of soap equivalent. ***
Yes, there are soap equivalents that can be found from nature but they still work best when used together with water.
Nothing will make you smell or be as clean as soap with water does but there are certain types of minerals or vegetable oil substitutes for soap and water that can be used as personal cleansers for several days to weeks. They will help to keep the skin in relatively clean and healthy condition until you can gain access to plenty of water to wash with. They should only be used as a temporary measure though and after several days of using it you will still have to wash all over with soap and water to remove any residues left over from the substitutes.
Back in the day when we were following Phish the shower problem could get pretty bad. You can store water in a bag that heats from the sun with a nozzle to allow a small stream of water out. You'll need to be quick and need a wash cloth to get everything clean, but it wasn't as stringent as a single gallon. This wasn't the brand used, but its the same thing in concept.
I remember a sociology professor talking about an interesting tribe of people he had visited in the Himalayas. One of the interesting things he mentioned was that they did not use soap and water to bathe. I think he said they used butter. (In any event, it was some kind of fat that they used.)
I don't remember the reason, because this was a long time ago. It could have been water scarcity, but I'm thinking that maybe it had something to do with the temperature.
It seemed gross. It would be so greasy! For many years I wondered about this.
But a few years back I read that oil is better for cleansing than water. Water is actually bad for our skin. Apparently the best facial cleansers are oil-based, not water-based. So perhaps cleansing with butter or lard isn't so bad after all?
Our body odors come from the action of bacteria on the oils we secrete and our dead skin cells.The "Saturday Nite Bath" concept was an advertising gimmick started by the manufacturers of bath tubs early in the 20th century. Before that ,most people bathed only rarely.
Except for the Romans-- they were big on The Baths. They had plenty of water piped in with the famous aqueducts, and the baths were a combination of our health clubs and country clubs-- having social and practical functions.
The Romans didn't have soap. They smeared olive oil on their skin and had their bath-house workers scraped it off with wooden instruments strategically curved to follow body lines. The final squeaky clean was established by toweling off any residual olive oil.
So in the end, they didn't smell like soap, but like Caesar Salad maybe?
I think all this is going to depend on what you are doing and what climate you are doing it in. If you are hiking vigorously through a jungle, you are really going to need some sort of wash of at least arm pits, crotch, and feet, just about daily. If you are in a cool, dry climate and not doing anything strenuous, you can go several days without much of a bath and not get too funky.
At least having 2 pairs of socks, and alternating days with them, let them dry out, maybe hang them on your pack, will help avoid foot problems.
Our body odors come from the action of bacteria on the oils we secrete and our dead skin cells.The "Saturday Nite Bath" concept was an advertising gimmick started by the manufacturers of bath tubs early in the 20th century. Before that ,most people bathed only rarely.
Except for the Romans-- they were big on The Baths. They had plenty of water piped in with the famous aqueducts, and the baths were a combination of our health clubs and country clubs-- having social and practical functions.
The Romans didn't have soap. They smeared olive oil on their skin and had their bath-house workers scraped it off with wooden instruments strategically curved to follow body lines. The final squeaky clean was established by toweling off any residual olive oil.
So in the end, they didn't smell like soap, but like Caesar Salad maybe?
A C-D member has talked about cleansing her face with oil, so I tried it a couple of weeks ago. I really liked the result.
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Bag Showers
