Take a power shower

A long soak won’t wash with busy Londoners who only have time for a quick rinse. No more bathing around, says Phoebe Luckhurst

A London morning is an exercise in rigid, infinitesimal discipline. You know that if you set the alarm for 6.52 exactly, then you can hit snooze once. When the second alert goes, you must rise immediately — there are exactly 33 minutes before you have to leave in order to make the bus to the Tube. Make-up can take no longer than seven minutes; hair can be jeujed for up to four. Sensible time misers choose clothes the night before and eat breakfast in the office.

Somewhere in this morning routine, Londoners find time for a power shower. Indeed, it’s the only way we ever have time to wash: a survey of 1,000 people — conducted by Homebase — finds that 26 per cent of the UK population never run baths; the figure is almost a third in London and the South-East. Those between 18 and 24 — the time-poor, cash-poor, run ragged generation — are the least likely to bathe instead of shower. Plus wide open evenings for lounging in baths are laughably rare: we’re too busy pinging from office to networking event to dinner, all the while scrolling through emails on our smartphones.

It’s also an attitude thing. Marinating languidly in a warm tub seems like a naff throwback to the self-indulgent feminine stereotypes of the Sex and The City age. These days we’re all about the laidback carelessness of Girls or the quick-squirt-of-deodorant-and-away-we-go attitude of Saga from The Bridge. Power showerers have better places to be: they’re busy, important and successful. Spending 30 seconds under the water is a status symbol.

One colleague maintains she can be in and out in under four minutes; a friend swears by a minute-long blast and maintains she can shave her legs in 30 seconds. Some thrill seekers get a kick out of trying to trim minutes off their time — they know if they miss the whole of the waking up song on Grimmers’ show then they haven’t scored a PB.

If you still find you’re spending too long rubbing Herbal Essences out of your eyes and misplacing the soap, then you need to hone your shower hacks. On mornings when you’re washing your hair, use 2-in-1 instead of separate shampoo and conditioner, and if you share a house with a coterie of other time-poor housemates, cut back on bathroom time by brushing your teeth under the shower head. Girls: learn how to wash your hair and shave your legs at the same time — although don’t get your hands mixed up unless you’ve always been intrigued by a DIY undercut. Make the water slightly too hot or slightly too cold — the discomfort discourages you from hanging around. And avoid shower radios — you don’t have time to warble along to a four-minute song.

Wash your hands of timewasting forever — scrubbing up well needn’t make you late.

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