Two minute shower, very little soap.
My current showering routine:
1. I get the shower warmed up to a comfortable temperature, not too hot, which dries out the skins also vaporizes impurities in the water which you then breathe in.
2. I just run my hands over every part of the body, rinse everything off, and if I've been out in nature, go a little more slowly and just feel and make sure there are no ticks or any bites.
3. I use a little soap on just armpits, groin area. Soap dries out skin, removes the good bacteria and natural body oils that are part of a healthy biome ecosystem.
4. I dry off with a towel the usual way, wiping. I just read an article that suggested patting down the towel to absorb water instead of wiping, so you don't swipe away the good body oils off your body.
One to two minutes total.
So total operation, maybe about 5-6 minutes, since I wear many layers of clothing, taking them on and off takes most the time.
Doing some more research on not using soap at all for showering, that inspired me to give that a try. That will simplify things even more.
Most days, I don't do anything that would make me sweat heavy, just a light mist. So in a typical week, I'll just shower once or twice. I live in a place that is cold half of the day. If I'm living in a hot tropical area and I sweat a lot, then maybe I'd take a shower every day as described above, just rinsing off with water for a minute.
The important things to take away from this:
1. Most people way over shower, showering every day, lathering up with lots of soap. It dries out their skin, gives them skin rashes, skin diseases, itching. Then they buy moisturers, creams, go see the skin doctor to get prescriptions, etc. People like that owe it to themselves to give this system a try.
2. Most of it is probably motivated by fear of body odor. Rinsing with water gets rid of 80% of the body odor. The 20% BO you don't get rid of, soap doesn't get rid of it either. It just covers it up with some perfume, and you get the illusion of being "clean".
3. I only use soap on my hands, for good hygiene preventing food poisoning and infectious diseases, or if my body gets dirty in a way like being covered in mud and slime that would justify soap.
4. If I am concerned about body odor for social situations, rather than feeling compelled to shower, I sometimes just change into clean set of inner clothes (underwear, shirt). Outer layers of clothes aren't going to sustain much B. O. Remember how bad odors work, it requires moisture to carry the scent. So if you're not sweating, you're wearing clean clothes, you probably aren't going to send out more body odor any differently than if you had showered.
Also, as many people have attested, you're going to have less B.O. when your body's good bacteria microbiome, oils, reaches its own equilibrium instead of having to constantly combat people overshowering with lots of soap.
Article links below contain a lot of testimonial from people who have done this much longer than me, and have cured some of their skin diseases.
The Jacking Hong article (4 min. read) is really good, at least read that one.
https://www.thestar.com/life/2017/03/13/soap-free-for-seven-years.html
Jackie Hong hasn't lathered up in the shower since high school when she discovered soap wasn't a neccessity.
Life
Soap free for seven years
Jackie Hong
By Jackie HongStaff Reporter
Mon., March 13, 2017 (timer 4 min. read)
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‘I don’t smell!’ Meet the people who have stopped washing
A growing number of people are eschewing soap and trusting bacteria to do the job instead – and an entire industry has sprung up to accommodate them
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Posted by u/gegaron
8 years ago
A report on what happens when you don't use soap for 6 months: awesomeness
A household of two adult men and two young girls (4 and 6) switches to daily showering using no soap. Water baths only. The experiment was done to explore the necessity of covering our bodies with complex detergents, moisturizers, fragrances, etc. Quick summary: amazingly, you need virtually no soap. Deodorant and rare hair conditioner remain useful.
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We Asked Experts For 6 Very Good Reasons Not To Shower Every Day
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