How do I take a shower every morning?

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Yep. AS isn't my only disability. A quick 7-minute shower does what 20 minutes of physical therapy would do.

Fresh sweat is relatively odorless. It's when bacteria starts to form on your skin that you start to stink. You have to get that off you.

I'm a professional. I work in an office. I have to shower before every workday. I'm also a pretty serious cyclist. I always shower after a ride. On weekends, I may only take one shower, after the ride. But, bacteria that formed overnight while one sweats in one's sleep can cause saddle sores, similar to diaper rash, on the butt during a long ride, when new sweat forms. Moisture + existing skin bacteria is a bad mix. So I may shower even before a ride, and then after, in hot weather.

Luckily, on most autism tests, I outscore the average NT when it comes to lack of sensory issues. I'm actually pretty sensual, so I really enjoy the feeling of a shower. Outdoor showers in warm weather are even better, if there is one available.

I don't think this is really an autism issue as such there are plenty of people who hate to get into the shower or bath.

To all of them I say if you don't wash you stink.

I let important things slide myself but a shower is one thing I will not let slide.

This made me chuckle. My wife is from Portugal and doesn't understand why I don't shower at least once a day. I say because I'm not sweaty or smelly

Like the poster I quoted above when I grew up there weren't showers in many houses at all. It was a bath once a week. We didn't share the bath water either.

For me it isn't anything other than I can't be bothered to shower every single day. Sometimes I will shower 2 or 3 times a week. Sometimes it gets to a fortnight. More a motivation thing really, not being too busy, just being lazy I guess.

Have you considered showering at night instead or every other day?

When I was younger, I hated the way water felt hitting my face, so I avoided taking a shower. Now I still don't like doing it, but I am paranoid about body odor if I don't take a shower everyday. If I really don't feel like showering, I don't go through the whole routine, just wash the smelliest areas. I can't go longer than 48 hours without a shower though.

What if you just wash your pits and pubes in the morning and shower when you feel like it?

The problem is not keeping a routine, it's having a 2-hour morning routine and still being able to leave home at a decent time (i.e. be able to get places at 8:30 or 9 AM). Here is my insane morning routine if I do take a shower:

1) Wake up, use washroom, brush teeth, put on contacts (20 min)
2) Make tea and eat breakfast (10 minutes)
3) Play with cats and feed them (15 minutes)
3) Full shower (~40 minutes)
4) Pick wardrobe and put on jewelry (10 minutes)
5) Put on makeup (10 minutes)
6) Prepare lunch/snack (10 minutes)
7) Pack bag, make sure everything is there, put on shoes (10 minutes)

Total: ~ 2 hours

This is the ideal scenario; I am not a morning person and can be quite slow at doing all these things. It's overwhelming.

Then I come back in the evening at, like, 8 or 9 pm and go deep into something relaxing that I don't notice at least 2 hours pass. By the time I "wake up", it is quite late and then I realize the next morning will be even more laboured as I will be sleep-deprived once again...

I am obsessive and everything needs to be done "just so", otherwise my brain somehow just starts to shut down and I slowly go into that zoned-out mode where productivity is impossible...

I don't like the transition in and out but I HATE bad smells and I feel like I stink if I skip a day

Depends on how long it takes you to dismantle it.

I don't know what to say, showering is just part of my routine and has been all my life. I can't go out in public without doing it, I was called out on BO once when I was very young and I never wanted that to happen again. I enjoy it, it is the perfect place to think and I can spend a long time in the shower just staring not washing myself just caught up in my thoughts and working out my problems in my head. When I don't have anything to do I might put it off to later in the day because I am caught up in something else but I can't be around other people without cleaning up. I can feel it on my skin and see it in my hair especially if I don't shower, my hair turns to like pure grease in less than 24 hours it seems.

Just do it and get it down with, it doesn't take to long. After a while it will be routine and you might start enjoying it.

I don't see why it would be necessary to take a shower every day, unless you're really getting that dirty every day. I mean sometimes I do go too long without a shower....but at my best I still only shower maybe every other day if that. Why do you 'Have' to take a shower every morning without fail....guess I don't undestand how it really effects the lives of these people you have to see if you aren't able to keep up with taking a shower every single morning without ever even missing one. So perhaps try and keep up on the showering but don't beat yourself up over it if you don't manage to do it every day....you aren't letting anyone down.

Also though just a thought but though it initially may feel a bit sticky to shower when its hot...I usually feel less like that when I get out and have washed any lingering sweat and such off my skin.....but even so don't see why it would be necessary to shower every day.

See I think society puts way, way to much stock into that.....lol people have a smell, its a natural occurrence doesn't mean i think everyone should walk around filthy but people are going to sweat, have BO and even fart and burp....so if being a little smelly is an offense serious enough to be shunned, and respected less over then this society really is pathetic.

Also though some work is going to leave you smelly, should people who work on painting houses or in construction, or worse people who work on septic/sewage systems have no respect because they smell bad when they get off work and have dirty clothes....Should you seriously lose respect for someone because they show up to work. school or some event and have some BO a couple times? I just don't see the reasoning for that 'OMG you have BO that means your not worthy of respect!' is seriously a common way to think? Aside from all that I take showers and wear deodorant and I still get sweaty and end up with BO when in public sure I've had some not so nice looks probably over that from snooty looking people but I just give them a look of 'if you gotta problem with me say it.' But yeah I would not want to associate with people that base their level of respect for me on how I smell since at times no matter how much effort I put into battling BO it still persists.

I get if someone is entirely filthy and what not even the most tolerant person in the world is going to be bothered by the smell, and probably be of the opinion that person really needs to shower or something and soon....but people seriously lose their respect for someone over body odor alone? even if aside from that the person is fairly clean....just maybe the deodorant wasn't strong enough like what happens to me all the time. Maybe I should start wearing man deodorant instead of the stuff for women...I mean I was ranting some but yeah BO can be unpleasant so its not like I try to go around smelling bad, but it happens so I just hate to think people would judge me as something inferior or whatever just because they happen to smell BO.

Instead of taking a shower every morning do it every evening, right before going to sleep.

For me it is the only way I can take a shower with my sensory issues. They tend to be way worse in the morning. When I wash myself after waking up I can never feel I am clean because my morning skin mixed with water seems to get sticky and rough no matter how much soap I use (and no, I usually don't sweat at night, the feeling is not related to being sweaty, it is just sensory issue). I don't have this problem in the evening, when my skin is already "solid".

Also, putting on clothes on the just washed skin increases my textile sensitivity and makes me sweaty because the body temperature is never the same as water so it has to regulate. In the evening I just put my light sleepshirt on and my body temperature gets fine by itself, especially since it is already regulated by being active all day. At night the bedding keeps my temperature, and every morning my body has to "remind" how to do get warm by itself again.

Morning shower is even worse when I have to wash my hair. Not only I can't make it feel clean (same problem as the one with skin - ''sticky and rough" feeling) but I also have to use hairdryer. I hate the sound, the feeling of hot air on my skin, the way my hair temperature and humility changes... I can never know if they are already dry or just warm. And it is a waste of time. When I wash hair in the evening I just let it be and go to sleep with wet hair, they dry by the morning without any afford of myself.

Btw. No matter when you take the shower remember to use antiperspirant regularly. I do it in the morning, when I am putting my clothes on.

I shower on the 1st day of the work week, then the 3rd and the 5th. I don't shower in the weekend, unless I'm meeting people (which I never am). I hate showering. Though I adore the feeling after the shower. I do office work and in the summer I'm in the A/C almost all the time. I wonder if I stink because I don't shower every day, though. I wash my armpits every day.

Add feet, face, genitals, and hands to that list, and all will indeed be well.