Showers: Then and Now
Paul had a terrible time sleeping last night, so this morning I decided he should sleep in. So, while he was sleeping, I fed my girls and myself, started a load of laundry and got a shower.
The only tricky part was the shower.
My bathroom (and hence, shower) is attached to my bedroom. If I wanted a shower, it’d have to be from another source.
So, I just used my girls bathroom/shower. I also used their little girl shampoo and soap.
As I was standing amidst the bath toys and cups and brightly colored bath acoutrements, I realized something.
All you really need for a shower is soap, shampoo, and a water source.
When I was a kid, we had a bar of white or gold Dial soap, a bottle of Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo, and a washcloth in our bathtub. That was it.
My parents’ shower wasn’t actually all that different. The only difference was the shampoo. I think they used V05.
Contrast that to my shower today. We have not one, not two, but THREE shampoos (deep cleansing, moisturizing, and “basic clean”), 2 bars of soap (facial and body), a facial microdermabrasion cleanser, a daily face wash, Dove body wash, and an Avon exfoliating scrub that was a gift.
And that’s just the hair and body products.
We also have a pouf, a shower mirror, my razor, Paul’s razor, and the aforementioned Epsom salts. Before I cleaned out the shower a couple of weeks ago, there would’ve been at least 5 more items to add to this list.
I wonder if it’s really necessary.
I mean, is women’s skin really all that softer, more supple or more moisturized because of these products than it was in 1971? Does my hair look more remarkable than my mom’s when she was my age? Does anyone’s hair look more remarkable (cleaner, shinier, healthier?) than it did in the 1980’s?
I don’t really think so.
I can say with certainty that as I look around at people today, I’m not struck by their apparent care for their hair or skin. Not any more than I was 15 years ago!
“Good hair” and “bad hair.” “Good skin” and “bad skin.”
People still just look like people.
So now I’m wondering. What’s in YOUR shower?
Filed under: General, Catbird, Random Thoughts, SAHM on June 21st, 2006
We share our bathtub with our baby (not because we don’t have two, but so I don’t have to clean two!) and I’m sorry to say that SHE has more stuff on the ledges than my husband and I do! That’s right! Maybe not if you take away all her bath toys, though.
We have a pouf, a washcloth, my shampoo and conditioner (separate), Matt’s shampoo, Dove Body Wash, Dove bar soap, Dove face soap, my razor, and a bottle of Fresh Shower that we keep in there to remind us to spray down the shower when we’re done. Evie has head-to-toe wash but also a bottle of shampoo, and two types of bath bubbles. Our shower is also where we hang all our bathing suits and towels to dry, so it pretty much always looks a mess.
I might also take this opportunity to share that until recently, I never used facial moisturizer. I always had oily skin and never needed it. About 4 months ago my face went from French Fry to Sahara Desert and now I really love my moisturizer, so I’m glad for that and think it serves a good purpose. I’m sure they had that in the 70s though!
I went and counted the number of items on my shower shelf. I had a whopping 13 items sitting there. Five of them were mistakes. My hair looks the same or worse then when I use the generic shampoo from Sally’s. However, I obviously have had a hard time getting rid of them or have been too distracted to really take note of them. Instead as part of my cleaning routine, I wipe the bottles down and put them back. I”ve put them in my daughter’s bathroom so that she can entertain herself concocting and testing a new mix of shampoo, which she will then distribute to her girlfriends with testimonials of its ability to increase the manageability of their hair… Oh, I need to get my supplies so that we can make bath salts this weekend.
Not counting the collection of miniature dye box conditioners which are piling up in one corner of the tub, I can come up with 15 shower products off the top of my head. Whether I need them all or not, who knows! But I think I would feel like I was missing out on a possibly GREAT hair day experience if I didn’t try every product Dove makes. Does the shower radio count? I guess so. Well then that makes 16. Wow, that’s sad. But my skin is so soft! I think…maybe…We’ll go with yes, for now. At least until I find another, even better product.
I had the same realization when we got back to America. . .now I have only 6 things….one razor, 2 shampoos, daily facial cleanser, facial scrub, and a gift body wash too! I don’t think people’s hair or skin look so much different either, but maybe there’s just more diversity of scents thanks to bath and body works!
When I read this (before showering), I didn’t think I had that much stuff in our shower (Matt and I just have a shower in our bathroom). I counted 11 items! We have 3 shampoos, which I rescued from the “no longer usable by teenage girls” shelf in the hall closet, in an effort to economize. Then I counted in the kids bathroom–12 items, and that doesn’t include what Amber would have if she was home.
What struck me as funny was the number of different scents: Chamomile with sunflower and wheat protein, cool citrus basil with papaya and aloe extracts, radiant apricot. Add the tangarine and mango citrus body wash from the kids bathroom and we could serve up fruit salad for lunch! (^_~)
So funny reading what everyone has. We have two bottles of (different) shampoo, 1 conditioner, face soap, body soap, 1 razor (its kinda gross, but ande and I are currently sharing my razor…don’t freak out, Rinnie!), 2 shaving creams, 1 facial skin brightening scrub, 1 body skin brightening scrub, a shower pouf, and SEVEN shower gels by bath and body works. I like options.
and may i just remark that i discovered today that my new expensive shampoo gives me itchy head. not a fan. I am switching back to the under $3.00 variety.
Since we share our shower with Amy and her stuff(see above count of 16 items which is by my reckoning grossly under estimated on her part), we probably have 25 to 30 items of which FOUR are mine (generic shampoo, bar of soap, razor and mirror). There are moments when I am in the shower that I squint out from my soaped up face and get the feeling that I am standing in the middle of Bath and Body Works. Their shelves are hardly more full than our shower.
We have 3 shampoos and 2 cream rinses on our shelf (I’ve been having trouble with tangled hair, so have been experimenting), plus soap and razor. But the girls shower. . . I’ve been teased about. I keep my cleaning products there, so add those to the normal little girls bath stuff, plus soap and shampoo for guests - I just counted and it’s 16 items. (Which actually I guess still isn’t too bad compared to some of the others who have commented!!) We were actually laughing about it at the women’s retreat (Amy, Pam and I) - Erik likes to pack as little as possible and I guess it rubs off into other areas of our lives.
[…] After writing about shower products a few weeks back, I have started paring back my contribution to the numerous items in our shower. Evaluating each product’s function and utility (and the frequency with which I actually use them) has helped me immensely in this process. […]