[Augustine23597]

Why do many senior citizens view a daily shave (for men) as virtually mandatory, while daily bathing of the whole body is pretty much a matter of personal preference? The only reason I shave is that I am out in the working world; if I were retired, I would not shave at all except occasionally to trim areas of my face where the beard is very sparse. Yet retired senior men ‘have’ to shave daily, it seems. Moreover, if you go back and look at attitudes 60 to 75 years ago, a daily bath or shower was not seen as mandatory. A Boy Scout book I read from the 1940s urged a soap bath two or three times a week. I would feel dirty if I did not shower daily. My father worked as a physician’s aide when he was growing up, and the doctor took a bath once a week, yet shaved every day. Aside from the obvious impediment of inadequate plumbing, why do people of all ages not bathe daily? I would much rather have clean hair and a full beard, washed daily, than be meticulous about my facial hair and have the rest of my body unwashed.

User Detail :  

Name : Augustine23597, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 39, City : Columbia, State : SC, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Bill]

I am or will be 69 in April. Wore a shirt suit and tie for more than 40 years and showered and shaved every day. I guess I would skip Saturdays at times. Loved to take a shower; it was a great way to start the day. I even wore a shirt, suit and tie to church for 30 of those years. When I retired six years ago from a stressful job, I just sort of fell right into it. I thought I might have problems, but retirement was the right thing for me. I continued to shower every day but cut the shaving down to every other day plus Sunday. Recently I have found myself not showering every day, especially in the winter, and going as much as four days without a shower or a shave. In the cold weather I find that I can do this with no discomfort, odors or problems. If I have an appointment or lunch date or any other function to attend I would never think of not showering and shaving. I would guess most weeks I shower and shave every other day or every third day, always including Sunday in there. No complaints from anyone, including my wife, children, friends, neighbors and dog. I feel entitled to let down a little bit on these daily chores, especially the shaving. If I felt dirty I would shower, and I do so more often in the summer. I live in a neighborhood with a lot of retired people and have several retired friends. I know for sure that not all of them shave every day, and none of them have beards. Yet they do not look bad unshaven, nor do I.

User Detail :  

Name : Bill, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 68, City : Lansdale, State : PA, Country : United States, Occupation : Retired, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Raymond C.]

I think there are two answers to why senior citizens shave every day. First, it has become a habit after doing it almost every day while we worked. Second, we think it makes us look neater. There is probably a third reason for some (like me): My beard looks lousy. As you get older and much less active, you do not sweat very much, and you aren’t in a very dirty environment, so bathing may not be needed daily.

User Detail :  

Name : Raymond C., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 57, City : Portsmouth, State : VA, Country : United States, Occupation : Retired, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Carak19223]

I am really surprised that you consider yourself a senior at 57! Maybe it’s because you’re retired? I am 60 and still working full time, will not consider myself a senior until at least 65! I think older people should be very careful about this business of not bathing every day. It is true that as you get older your hormones decline and things like underarm odor tend to decrease (but not necessarity disappear!). However, this does not mean that overall body odor will decrease. What DOES decrease for many seniors is the ability to detect it! My great-aunt decided to stop bathing every day because she thought she no longer smelled – she did, but her nose no longer worked. Unfortunately other people’s noses did… It’s better to shower every day (and wash clothes after a day’s wearing) whether you can smell yourself or your clothes or not, just to be safe! I intend to keep doing this into my dotage, with the unfortunate examples of my great-aunt and a number of other seniors I know in mind…

User Detail :  

Name : Carak19223, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 60, City : Boston, State : MA, Country : United States, Occupation : high-tech professional, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Robin29588]

I guess it really revolves around the definition of clean. If you define clean in terms of the absence of dirt, then it is easy to see why some people might think a daily bath is unnecessary. When you wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants, basically the parts of your body that are likely to get dirty are your hands and face, as they are the only exposed parts. Hands and faces are generally washed more frequently than the rest of the body, anyway. So becaue the other parts are less exposed, they get less dirty and have less need to be washed. If you define clean as not only having an absence of dirt, but also an absence of odor, then many people by nature ‘need’ a bath every day in order to be adequately clean. However, some people seem to sweat only minimally and therefore don’t become odorous as quickly as others. Combine that with the fact that most marketed soaps basically rob your skin of moisture, drying it out and making too-frequent bathing almost painful for some with sensitive skin, and you can see that there are reasons people might think a daily bath is unnecessary.

Shaving is a different issue. A clean-shaven face is more the rule than a full beard, as a full beard requires some dedication to grow, not to mention time. Dedication toward keeping yourself presentable, either through shaving daily or maintaining a well-groomed beard, garners respect. An unshaven, stubbly face represents a middle ground between these societal standards of presentability and seems to convey a notion that the man either lacks the dedication to grow a beard and stick with that decision or lacks the dedication to shave daily to keep himself presentable. A stubbly face, thus, may appear to be an unacceptable middle ground that may convey a sense that the man is lazy because he refuses to put in the required effort or dedication to choose and stick with one of the two societally preferred facial grooming options.

User Detail :  

Name : Robin29588, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 25, City : Pittsburgh, State : PA, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Lindsay]

Old people do not participate in half of the activities as younger adults do. Having a bath everyday is not required for them unless they put off some bad odor that is not controlable. Active older people should shower daily, but I see it excusable for an old person just to take a bath and not wash their hair. More less it is probably women who just take baths and wash there hair ever blue moon.

User Detail :  

Name : Lindsay, City : Cleveland, State : MS, Country : United States, 

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