Up until perhaps thirty or so years ago, the only places where you find showers with any kind of regularity would have been prisons, boarding schools and the homes of wealthy people. For some reason, that mystifies all who think about it. The lower and middle classes in South Africa did not embrace showers as quickly as one might have thought. This is despite the fact that shower are by far the most economical option is terms of full body cleansing, both in terms of water consumption as well as effective space utilisation.
Showers are awesome for many different reasons. No bath could ever invigorate and wake a person up as well as shower can. A cold shower is revitalising while a cold bath is just painful. While it may have taken longer than common sense should have dictated, showers have at last taken their place at the top of the pile. Bathing has been relegated to something that is done when you are bored and have too much time on your hands, even the arrival of the spa bath has not even come close to bumping the might shower off the podium.
One of the factors that has swayed so people who were bath fans over to the shower side of the fence is the fact that bathing at the end of a long day’s work is in fact disgusting, especially if you are engaged in some kind of manual labour. The ring around the bath at the end of this so called cleaning ritual is testament to the fact that you have just been soaking in your own filth, and no one could possibly argue that this is a pleasant thought. A shower allows one to scrub and preen and watch all the dirt flow down the drain.
Of course showers also need to be kept clean, all those dirty feet have to leave something behind, but the e regularity with which this has to be done is the real jewel in the showers crown. So while a relaxing bath will always be welcome, everyone prefers their daily shower.