Showering: Which Side Are You On?

I shower with my back to the shower head for two reasons. I shave in the shower and if I faced the shower head, all of the lather would wash off my face. Secondly, I find, as someone else mentioned, that when facing the shower the water hits your chest but does not easily roll over your shoulder down your back. With your back to the shower head, the water covers your back and very nicely comes over the shoulders and down the chest.

One morning I noticed that my back would start hurting as soon as I got in the shower. I finally figured it out. Standing in the shower with my back to the drain and the shower head, my heels were lower than my toes. A very unnatural position, which was causing the pain.

I mentioned this to Sara, who, of course, told me I was an idiot and that all normal people shower facing the water.

This got us into a debate which I left for you, the readers, to decide.

It was virtually a dead heat. 46.3% of Waxing America readers shower, back to the water, 46.1% shower  facing the water. Twice as many women shower back to the water as face it. Among the men it is almost even.

Shaving in the shower has little to do with direction or gender.

Probably the most significant finding is that almost three times as many men as women wasted their time answering the survey.

Comments

[nonheroicvet]

Showers are for showering, bathtubs are for bathing and sinks are for shaving.

A little known fact is that Janet Leigh was really shaving her legs in the Bates Motel and poor Norman got the blame. I think there is a lesson in that.

[Chris Norris]

Isn't having your heels lower than your toes the whole thing behind Earth shoes? I thought it was good for you?

[Anonymous]

Ahhhh ... BUT if you are showering your privates then I imagine back to the shower head is best at first .. then turn around and wash off!! Quite simple actually.

[caprice]

"Probably the most significant finding is that almost three times as many men as women wasted their time answering the survey." Ah, but how does that relate to the male-female ratio of your readership?

I think I answered as a male, since that's the way my body is. But its survey's like this that show how ingrained the gender binary system is.

[jim guilfoil]

Almost as profound as the dialectical concern for on-side parking among Wisconsin Alliance theorists.
Binary thinkers are not free to recognize such alternatives as the 'whirling dervish' approach to the nozzle.... Or the 'bring the nozzle to the mountain if the nozzle won't come to the mountain' adage....edgewise to the font works for some...shutting off the spray while lathering and shaving is greenly thoughtful...the role of showering in taxation theory is a must for evolutionary economists....and, of course, were there showers on the Ark and was it holy to shower in pairs.
The Soglin epistemology of opposites in showering may approach Marx's use of Hegel in the dialectic theory of surplus value.

[Charlie]

My thoughts exactly, Jim.

[John Foust]

Why more men? See http://xkcd.com/386/ for an explanation.

[Barny]

The survey had no option to select showering in both directions, which is the way I do it. That is the trouble with surveys, they are only as good as how well they are written. As for shaving in the shower, it is a complete waste of time and not to mention, hot water. Here is what works best for a close shave. Shave at the sink immediately upon exiting the shower with a sharp blade and no shave cream. Layers of shave cream gets in the way and impedes the cutting of the whisker. As for your back pain, try stretching your hamstrings and calves once in a while.