This Is the “ideal” Amount of Time to Spend in the Shower
Showering is one of the biggest uses of water in a typical residential home, according to the EPA. You don’t want to use too much water in the shower, but you need more than a few minutes to get completely clean. So where is the balance?
Short showers are good for the skin
Dermatologists recommend taking short showers. If you have skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis, hot water can be irritating, as can soap and other products you use in the shower. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends showering for less than 10 minutes if you have itchy skin, and if you have psoriasis, you can go further and limit showers to five minutes. (Warm water is better than hot water, which will also help you save energy.)
But you need to get clean
A five-minute shower doesn’t mean you have to stand under the shower head for four minutes and then lather a little at the last minute. Good hygiene is important; if you go to the shower, make sure you wash what needs to be washed .
This may mean that it will take much more than five minutes. Those of us with long hair may need to spend 10 to 20 minutes there to wash and tidy and comb out tangles (the job is best done while the conditioner is on damp hair ), not to mention about shaving your legs. Perhaps some of this work can be done when the water is off, but if you don’t want to give up long, hot showers, you may be able to counteract the damage to your skin and environment by drinking less water. One shower a week is hygienic enough for most of us, and better for our skin anyway.
I’m calling: Eight minutes – time to beat
A lot of shower advice seems to center around five minutes as the ideal time to shower. But if dermatologists agree on five to ten minutes, and some of us need more time, maybe we should aim for the middle of that range. Eight minutes turns out to be the average shower time for most of us, which means that if you can shower in seven minutes or less, you might feel like an A student. Five minutes? Great, I’m proud of you.
When it comes to water flow, standard shower heads use 2.5 gpm, but all WaterSense labeled heads use 2.0 gpm or less. So you can shower for 6.2 minutes with a low flow head and use as much water as a person showers for five minutes with a standard head. Since you also use less hot water, you also save energy.
So to benefit both your skin and the environment, get an efficient shower head, lower the temperature, and don’t spend more time in there than you really need to.