Where it gets as hot as it does here, a person with a private backyard can use the hose to shower. I find this more satisfying than the shower, because a) you don’t end up having to clean a shower stall from top to bottom every time you bathe; b) that cool water is mighty refreshing on a 110-degree day; and c) because you have to put the hose down to soap your hair and body, you just naturally turn off the spigot to do so.

Glad to see you back! Did you survive the end-of-semester crush intact?

I still can’t break my California drought shower habits (run shower for a minute, turn it off, soap and shampoo, turn it back on, rinse rapidly, turn off, apply conditioner, turn on and rinse again).

I see it as a choice to have a long subpar shower with a low flow, or a steaming hot, full blast short shower. For me, being green is just a series of habit modifications, not new gadgets necessarily. Low flow showerheads just don’t really work for me. I don’t know about the toilets, never been tempted to replace mine. We save water in other areas, like not running the water when brushing teeth, the whole flush three times for solids is too weird. Interesting post, thanks.

@ MLR: Fire hydrant! Good idea…there’s one in the front yard, come to think of it. Now all I need is a good-sized wrench….

I am so glad to be a man (have short hair).

I stand corrected on that front, perhaps you would be better suited with a fire hydrant as a shower head and an oven as a dryer :p

I read it, I love your style.

How long a woman showers depends on how long her hair is. My hair used to come about halfway down to my waist. It’s very thick and full, the sort of thing that attracts joyful attention from upscale stylists. If I lived anywhere other than the low desert, it would take over two days for my hair to dry without help from a hair dryer — I know, because this was my experience in San Francisco and in Tahiti. Look around, and you’ll see lots of women with hair halfway down their backs.

Long hair of this nature needs to be shampooed thoroughly every couple of days, and, because it’s been growing for several years and so has many split ends, it needs to be treated with high-quality commercial hair conditioner after every shampoo and with a hot oil treatment about once every month or two. Getting this stuff, especially shampoo (!!!), out of your hair can be a chore. Hard water makes it more difficult; you need to use vinegar or lemon juice to dislodge all the detergent residue. Fail to rinse all the shampoo out, and you get lackluster, even sticky hair. Fail to rinse all the hair conditioner out, and the result will be limp, oily-looking hair, far from the handsome-dude-attracting lure you hope to have flowing from your head.

As for my bowel habits, my dear: if you’re that constipated, maybe you’re the one who needs a checkup. Hee heeeee!!! Did you actually read this before hitting “submit reply”? Naaaahhhhh….. Maybe neither one of is is reading this stuff.

But, I don’t know how you shower, but I have never had to stay in the shower an extra long time. I could see that happening if I used a handful of shampoo or something… but… meh. I think the shower heads work fine, otherwise I wouldn’t sing their praises!

It did take me a week to get used to not having the feeling of hot water piercing through my back, though.

And as far as your toilet usage goes… get yourself checked out! That’s unnatural. If people in Europe don’t have problems (and their toilets use A LOT less water… I know from experience), why should we?

Think of it this way: If you could get yourself to the point where you could use a low-flow toilet effectively… you are probably healthier for whatever you did to get to that point.