Should we shower more than once a week?

Jonathan Ross has courted controversy before but the chat-show host has sparked a particularly lively debate by admitting how rarely he showers.

"I resent the fact that I have to shower," he told the "Parenting Hell" podcast, and sometimes go "at least a week without showering". Ross said his wife, Jane Goldman, is the same, leaving them "like a couple of hamsters in their own straw in that bed".

'Goblin mode'

Ross's admission is "jaw-dropping" and "stomach churning" said The Mirror. After learning of his "grim hygiene standards", some have "taken to social media to slam the television personality". One "repulsed" commentator wrote: "Yuk. No wonder his TV show guests sit so far away from him."

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But others have applauded Ross's honesty. "Becoming a member of the great unwashed never felt so on-trend," said Helen Coffey in The Independent, and I felt "secretly vindicated" after he spoke out. I used to be "more scrupulous" but now that I work from home three days a week, "it's all too tempting to go full goblin mode" – defined by Oxford University Press as "a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations".

Amid the "proliferation of wellness culture, clean living and more lotions and potions than any of us could ever need", said Coffey, it's "refreshing" to have "someone in the spotlight holding their hands up and saying that, hey, they're happy to be just a little bit gross".

There are times when a shower is necessary, said Robert Crampton in The Times, "especially in the summer, or after a run, or if you work on the bins". But mostly,  some "judicious flannel work will suffice", whereas "getting fully naked and fully wet is a faff".

'No hard and fast rules'

Ross has stirred up a long-running debate. In 2015, Professor Stephen Shumack, president of the Australasian College of Dermatologists, told The Sydney Morning Herald that "it's only in the last 50 to 60 years" that the idea of a daily shower has "become commonplace". And "the pressure to do that is actually social pressure rather than actual need", she said.

But the "much-touted theory" that if you stop washing your hair with shampoo it cleans itself may not be accurate, said Coffey. She quoted Anabel Kingsley, a trichologist from the Philip Kingsley clinic in London, who said that without regular washing, the hair and scalp "are likely to become coated in dirt, smelly, greasy and flaky", with a "build-up of yeasts and bacteria".

There are "no hard and fast rules", Coffey concluded, but showering less often, "provided you keep fundamentals clean (groin, face, underarms)", shouldn't do any harm. So "why not press pause on the judgement, embrace your inner hamster and go full goblin mode".

Of course, there are limits. Amou Haji, an Iranian hermit dubbed the "world's dirtiest man", died aged 94 in 2022 – after going 60 years without washing with water or soap.