Showering every two days: Spain's cultural hygiene divide

Showering every two days: Spain's cultural hygiene divide

Jiajun Yin had a perfectly normal hygiene routine in his home country. Upon arriving in Spain, he discovered that this made him suspicious here. "When I arrived in Spain, I didn't shower every day, not even in summer. I showered every two days," he explained on the podcast Un chino y medio, where several young Chinese residents in Spain have shared how their relationship with water changed after moving there. The seemingly trivial anecdote uncovered a discussion far deeper than soap: how much of hygiene is health and how much is pure social posturing?

Yin himself admits he eventually adapted to daily bathing after observing it was the norm in Spain. But not without resistance. "We usually shower at night to go to bed clean and sleep peacefully. And if you shower in the morning, you go out and get dirty again, right?" he reasons. The most common Spanish response, summarized by his podcast co-host, is different: "I think people here showered in the morning to be clean for the people they would see during the day."

The deodorant not sold in China

The second front of the cultural clash is smell. Spanish illustrator KALTTHER, who participated in the chat and has lived in Japan, said her Asian ex-partner "barely smelled" and did not use deodorant. Her podcast co-host added a statement that sounds like heresy in Spain: "In China, I don't think deodorant is sold." He himself had to ask his mother to send some to him during a stay in Japan.

Perfume is another battlefield. In Spain, it is used almost as a personal signature; in Japan, according to the illustrator, "it is frowned upon to wear cologne because it means you smell bad and are trying to cover it up." Some only resort to it in specific work contexts: "When I worked as a waiter, I wore it every day for work."

Is showering every day bad?

The conversation quickly drifted toward an argument that appears time and again: daily showers as an attack on the skin. "Really, showering every day is terrible for the skin. Bathing properly once a week, washing your armpits daily (and your groin, if you interact with people and work in an office) is more than enough," argues one of the most repeated stances. The underlying idea is that excess soap strips away the natural fat that protects the epidermis, which ultimately generates more sweat and more odor, not less.

Against this, the defense of daily bathing relies less on biology and more on cohabitation. "Going to bed without showering is total slovenliness. You are out all day sweating, you get into bed without showering, and then you bathe in the morning just to get dirty again," summarizes a position that considers the nighttime shower the only one that avoids spreading traces around the house. The morning shower, conversely, is seen as a habit imported from American cinema and copied without thought.

Deodorant under suspicion

Deodorant takes the worst part of the brunt in much of the exchange. Some directly label it a harmful product and argue it only makes sense if you plan to spend the entire day out of the house without stopping. The proposed alternative is the traditional one: wash critical areas daily and reserve the full shower for when necessary.

The issue of body odor generates more friction. One current defends that natural odor shouldn't be so disgusting and that those who react strongly live in a bubble of well-being. Another responds that natural odor is one thing and neglect is another, and that someone who doesn't use deodorant because they just showered will still smell throughout the day. In the middle lies the repeated observation that many Asians sweat less and smell less, which explains why deodorant seems dispensable to them.

What our grandparents did

Historical comparison appears as an argument from authority. Until recently, not all houses in Spain had bathrooms, and a shower or full bath was a weekly event, traditionally on Sundays. "I was born in the 90s but raised by my grandparents, who were born in the 20s, and they always filled the bathtub rigorously on Sunday afternoon," says someone using that memory to relativize the supposed obligation of daily bathing. Partial hygiene — feet, armpits, groin — was the norm in most households, not the exception.

That fact disorients those who associate daily showers with civilization. If our grandparents washed once a week and the world didn't end, where does the current urgency come from? The suggested answer is less sanitary than social: the daily shower functions as a status marker, a way of saying one is not among those who smell. And like all status markers, it is exaggerated.

The balance no one disputes

Beyond the noise, there is a consensus that cuts across almost all positions: hygiene matters, but excess also has a cost. Clean clothes, brushing teeth, and washing critical areas daily; a full shower when the body demands it or when cohabitation requires it. Neither a three-hour bath nor a week without touching water.

The curious thing is that the debate wasn't started by Spaniards, but by those who arrived from abroad and encountered an unwritten rule not found in any manual. The anecdote about showering every two days is, in reality, the story of how a country turns a custom into a sarracena obligation. And of how those who don't comply, even coming from afar, eventually learn to do so.