“Bathroom mirror on the wall, who’s the filthiest of them all?”
As you know, we’ve been asking the Great British & Northern Irish public about their good, bad and downright ugly bathroom habits.
From our favourite shower gels to how often essentials get cleaned, we’ve left no pumice stone unturned in discovering all we can about what goes on in our bathrooms.
But, we couldn’t stop at knowing how often people clean their loos!
We wanted to have a bit of fun and strike up something of a debate about whether men are cleaner than women.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at some male and female clean streak shower habits!
Men or Women – Who Is Cleaner?
Well, we won’t beat around the bush. The short answer is, men. But that doesn’t mean you can abandon our gender-based wash blog right away!
We found that of the people polled, men washed more ‘bits’ of themselves during showering than women did.
Now, perhaps we surveyed a lazier section of the female society than typical but, based on the data collated, we can safely say that we found the men in our poll to be at least a little bit cleaner than the women. And in some cases, a whole lot cleaner.
I’m not exaggerating in saying that a glance at the survey results evoked memories of this classic Friends clip.
Don’t believe us? Check out the graphics below!
Men
What percentage of men cleaned each part of their body?
Women
What percentage of women cleaned each part of their body?
76.9% of the men in our poll stated that they cleaned every part of their bodies during a shower – while women fell behind with just 69.9% saying the same.
That’s just over three-quarters of men and two-thirds of women going from top to tail to make themselves presentable.
The list of shower cleaning habits presents some pretty striking figures on the whole.
Most notably, to my eyes, is actually the cleaning of our ears.
I’m often accused of selective hearing by my other half, but on this evidence, it might be time for me to bite back – given that only half the women we polled admitted treating their lugholes to a cleanse in the shower.
Selective hearing, my foot!
Okay, perhaps women do spend a little more time cleaning their ears outside of the shower – and that might well be the best approach to take – but I’m spinning the available evidence at my disposal to my advantage, and slotting it straight into my domestic falling out arsenal!
Meanwhile, other statistics to grab the eye revolve around our legs, feet and toes. Not as catchy a line as the one from the nursery rhyme, admittedly…
Washing Your Legs – The Great Debate
In May 2019, a harmless Twitter poll sparked a huge online debate about leg cleaning – attracting over 800,000 votes in just a few hours, and even the involvement of Taylor Swift!
It found that plenty of people don’t bother washing their legs in the shower – with 20% of those polled at the time saying they never went that far down when washing.
Many of those surveyed offered the simple explanation that if the water from the top half of their bodies was going to run down to their legs, feet and toes anyway, then why bother subjecting them to a dedicated scrub?
Some obvious logic in that, we reckon. Especially if like me, you’ve hit the wrong side of 30 and a quick glance at the floor causes you back troubles for days, weeks or months.
Our poll followed a similar pattern to before; 80% of men and 75% of women saying that they washed their legs in the shower.
But what about the remaining quarter (or so) – the “leg neglecters”?
Are they right not to spend an age cleaning their legs in the shower, and have the people that wash everything been doing it wrong all along?
As you can imagine, we were intrigued to know whether we should spend a little more or less time washing our pins.
How long should you wash your legs in the shower?
Despite me digging around the internet to try and find some more info about this, there isn’t much in terms of how long you should shower for, and especially not how long you should spend cleaning particular body parts like your legs.
Surely it’s relative to how dirty you and your legs are, isn’t it? You’re sure to spend longer scrubbing your pins after a 90-minute shift marshalling your Sunday League backline than you would after a half-hour swim, for instance.
Similarly so, perhaps you won’t wash your legs for as long after working an office shift as you would if working in a more manual profession, as an electrician for example.
On a basic level, the idea is that if you can see “visible soiling” on your legs, you should probably spend a tad more time tending to them.
There’s no “one wash fits all” approach to follow – it just depends how mucky and how long your legs are!
That said, it is possible to clean your legs (and other parts of your body) too much.
How often should you shower?
No matter if you’re male, female, transgender or non-binary, we all want to strike the right balance with regards to our washing habits.
In short, the best way to prevent bacteria from building on your body is to stick to the basis of a simple shower routine and adjust according to your own personal preferences.
Your face, armpits and private areas should be thoroughly washed at least daily, with other body parts open to interpretation based partly on your day-to-day work and leisure activity.
And if you’re in the 30.1% of women and 23.1% of men who don’t actively scrub any body parts whilst showering, maybe you should think about changing your ways from time to time, especially if visible soiling is afoot.
Washing your body is a good thing. And we all know the benefits of a good shower to awaken the senses.
Just don’t overdo it.
And keep it up males – this is one (unexpected) triumph we should cherish and protect in our severely scarce domestic armory!
If you have any interesting shower routines or stories you would like to share with us, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Big Bathroom Shop team. You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below, or contact us via Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
John trained in journalism before joining the Big Bathroom Shop team. His exceptional journalism skills (and modesty) allow him to meticulously research bathroom topics and bring you the very latest news and views on all things bath and shower related. He’s a dab hand at Scrabble and is currently undertaking a domestic plumbing course to be sure he actually does know what he’s talking about!
