showering nude?

[malkin]

Do what makes you comfortable and don't worry about it. IMHO, walking around naked, without a towel, in a single-sex locker room is acceptable and no one else should be shocked/offended by it. People can choose to towel up or go au naturel. If someone wants to look/judge, then that's their issue.

This.

Also in an unfamiliar place I would (do) probably take cues from others and do what seems normal in that space, since I don't care very much. I will also wrap up more if I am freezing!

[jessmarimba]

I always find campground showers interesting, last summer's bike tour half of the showers took tokens that you had to get from the host and half took quarters. Sometimes, I just take two water bottles full of hot water into the stall and take a water bottle shower. I am not one who has to have clean hair when touring two bottles works just fine.

You just gave me awful flashbacks to scout camp. Wow. We had an outdoor shower setup, with 4 partitioned showers that were private with little dressing areas, but were open on the top and under the plastic walls. The center portion was inhabited by a horsefly nest or something - if you picked the wrong shower and turned on the water, they'd start swarming and biting. Definitely ran out of the shower naked and screaming on more than one occasion. Also, I had really long hair as a kid (down to my butt) and I wore it in braids at camp so it wouldn't turn into a rats nest. But at 7, with no mirror, I couldn't part it by myself. So I would unbraid half, wash and condition, then rebraid and switch sides. My counselor once yelled at me because she thought I wasn't washing my hair in the shower since I always went in and came out with it braided. I was so insulted I threw a temper tantrum and made her smell my hair

We never showered in gym though. Our school was built in 1930 and the locker room was never updated, the girls showers were disgusting and were pretty much used as equipment storage. I imagine the guys showers were probably nicer because the sports teams would use them.

[channlluv]

...Also, I had really long hair as a kid (down to my butt) and I wore it in braids at camp so it wouldn't turn into a rats nest. But at 7, with no mirror, I couldn't part it by myself. So I would unbraid half, wash and condition, then rebraid and switch sides. My counselor once yelled at me because she thought I wasn't washing my hair in the shower since I always went in and came out with it braided. I was so insulted I threw a temper tantrum and made her smell my hair
...

That is so darn clever. Seriously. What a smart way to handle not being able to part your hair yourself.

Roxy

[lhayes]

I don't post here much, but have been reading for years--feel like I know some of you!

At any rate, I grew up swimming and playing sports (am 51 now) and never thought anything of walking around a locker room full of naked girls. High school, Y league, age group league, and then college. My non athlete roommate came into the locker room after a college meet once and was astounded that we were all naked--and she was a nursing student!

Started back swimming in my late 30s and was astounded at the women who brought young boys into the locker room at the Y. One lady took a picture of her son in the locker room, and I am certain I am in the background in some state of undress! I got more modest at that point! Now in the very nice gym that I frequent, I see most women trying very hard not to be seen in anything but a fully clothed state. I go with that just to be polite, but it strikes me as funny.

While visiting a friend in LA (I am in NY) we went to a Korean spa where all the women are naked in hot pools, saunas and such, and then were massaged and 'scrubbed' in a communal room with others. It was interesting, and not the least bit uncomfortable for me. When in Rome....
Laura H.

[AppleTree]

hahaha I'm an older woman and feel very shy about public nudity too.
I remember having serious issues in the gym locker room, to the point of skipping showers. Now I'm 60 and a deterrent to going to a swimming pool is the locker room!!
It's in my head, I know that.

All this brings back such (maybe not so good) memories of junior high school gym. We also used to try to get out of showers by claiming we were on our period, and if we thought we could get away with it, would walk into the shower room, get our arms and legs wet and call it good.

[Eden]

There really are different attitudes world round....

I just came back from Japan, where we visited an onsen (hot spring spa). There are still places there that have communal bathing for all sexes and this one did in one of the baths. I didn't end up sharing with any men - mainly because I wanted to use the one outdoor bath and that one was sex segregated on a time schedule. The women's time in it was at the same time that the big indoor bath was both sexes. When I did go in the big pool at a shared time I was the only one there anyway.....

I did bathe with plenty of other women though, there and at several other places that had communal bathing (one was a Buddhist nun - I thought for a moment I went into the wrong changing area, because they shave their heads and at first glance I thought she was a man....) and swim suits or towels were not allowed in the pools. Basically people are polite. No one even really looks at you intentionally, much less openly stares.

As far as our work locker room goes.... we only have 4 shower stalls. Each one does have a little curtained vestibule, but really, it is much more rude if you do change in there..... we all have to share and we all need to get to work, so if it's politeness you are worried about, take your clothes off before you get in there and clear out as soon as you are done showering and have dried off enough to not drip every where. I solemnly promise that I don't see more than pink/tan blobs without my glasses on, so I'm not looking at you.

[Pax]

I don't post here much, but have been reading for years--feel like I know some of you!

At any rate, I grew up swimming and playing sports (am 51 now) and never thought anything of walking around a locker room full of naked girls. High school, Y league, age group league, and then college. My non athlete roommate came into the locker room after a college meet once and was astounded that we were all naked--and she was a nursing student!

Started back swimming in my late 30s and was astounded at the women who brought young boys into the locker room at the Y. One lady took a picture of her son in the locker room, and I am certain I am in the background in some state of undress! I got more modest at that point! Now in the very nice gym that I frequent, I see most women trying very hard not to be seen in anything but a fully clothed state. I go with that just to be polite, but it strikes me as funny.

While visiting a friend in LA (I am in NY) we went to a Korean spa where all the women are naked in hot pools, saunas and such, and then were massaged and 'scrubbed' in a communal room with others. It was interesting, and not the least bit uncomfortable for me. When in Rome....
Laura H.

Very similar to my experience (I'm 51 too).

I've never liked wearing clothes, as a child I took them off all the time to run around nekkid, as a teenager/young adult I wore as little as the law allowed, now as an older adult I still don't like wearing clothing but make allowances for other people. The gym remodeled a few years ago and went from shower trees to separate stalls, since the new norm at the gym seems to be to cover up, I wear a towel in the locker room now.

[GLC1968]

I was the person who commented on 'random older person' and by that, I meant it was usually someone older than about 65 who clearly didn't care what other people thought about them. It's not that they were flaunting themselves, but more that they just think about it. I do think it's probably partly due to maturity, but probably also due to comfort with being there. I mean think about it, how many 65+ year-olds do we know who workout regularly at a gym? Maybe most of those who do, have been doing so all their lives and therefore, the locker room is a very comfy place for them? Who knows, I'm just throwing out ideas here...

I will say that I am much more comfortable being naked in a locker room now than I was when I was a teen. I don't think it's body image as much as it's 'social norms'. When I was a teen, all the girls were modest. None of us walked around naked. It may have been different had I been on a swim team in HS, I suspect. Now I find that if everyone else is naked, I don't care if I am too. If everyone else is doing the 'towel dance', then I try to be a bit more modest myself. Social pressure. I like it when other people are comfortable around me...always have. I will go out of my way to ensure that I'm not making someone else uncomfortable, but I'm weird like that.

[badger]

It's a mixture here. There are pools with an option of open showers or stalled, and there are those with no stall options - such as the one I go to. Some women take their suits off to lather up, others just seem to "rinse" or lather over/around their suits (which to me seems a bit daft).

I would normally towel up from shower to change rooms because there are often small children. It's not because I think they should be hidden from nudity, but I hate that the little boys gawk at you because, I guess, they're not often used to seeing women other than their mothers naked.

Once in the changing area, most everyone lets everything hang, but I've noticed that young tweens go into stalled change rooms.

In Japan, peoplebathe in the nude with others (obviously same sexes). What bothers me about the whole thing is you sit on these little stools to wash yourself, and I'm all paranoid about my bits touching the same place some other person's bits touched. I'd want to disinfect first...

[withm]

A recent issue of Adventure Cyclist Magazine had this article about riding in Iceland, where the subject of "naked showers" comes up. The writer mentions being publicly chastized for not cleaning certain parts of his anatomy sufficiently prior to entering the geothermal pools.

You can read it here:

http://www.adventurecycling.org/reso...st_Wallack.pdf

[Biciclista]

thanks for the article, Withm! I really enjoyed it. EEEK!! what a crazy ride.

And I would not put it past me to change in a bathroom stall. . .(in other words, I would if i had the opportunity)

[Irulan]

I work out at a smaller facility, and it tees me off no end that people use the toilet stall for changing instead of the changing area. The changing area has curtains, chairs and hooks but they are small is all. It's not like we don't have a changing area.

[lph]

I skimmed through the article, and I'm looking forward even more to going to Iceland now I've been there before for one summer, but that was as a dirt poor student with very limited options to do things.

While I've never seen anyone inspect (or chastise!) anyone here for their showering routine, swimming pools here are big on everyone showering and washing well before entering the pool, and they have a point. At the pools where people don't wash well in advance, more skin particles and hair go into the water and they have to use a lot more chlorine to keep the water clean enough. I hate that, the chlorine smells and makes my skin dry and irritates my eyes.

It's been very interesting reading this thread, especially the posts mentioning how social norms have changed over the years.

[Biciclista]

I want to know how they knew he didn't clean his butt. (re: the Iceland article)

[Jolt]

I want to know how they knew he didn't clean his butt. (re: the Iceland article)

It sounds like they had somebody actually observing people showering, so the "observer" didn't see him clean his butt. In other words, I don't think it was that anyone saw dingleberries .