Once I moved out, I figured I earned the right to a nice long shower with tremendous pressure... and so I have gone on my merry way enjoying long showers.
When we moved up here I was super excited by the water pressure we had. It just thunders out of the tap!! But first, we needed a new shower head and my husband came home with one of those low-flow types. I can honestly say that while I tolerate it, I really HATE it. Where is my pressure? Where is the thunderous out-flow of warm water? Yes, I've gotten used to it, but I still resent it. It does the job, but I still threaten it with replacement.
One of the main reasons I dislike it is because I have long THICK hair. I feel like I spend longer than ever under the water, trying to rinse my hair so it doesn't seem like a winning situation. Also, because there is less pressure, I feel like I can't warm up (even with hot water) We are in northern Alberta and a good hot shower should warm me to my toes but I feel like it takes twice as long with this thing. My solution has been to put the plug in the tub while I shower so I'm warming my feet & my head at the same time. It has worked.
Another reason I resent it is because I don't tend to waste water anyways. I'm not one of those people who shower every day, especially in the winter, I generally shower every third day. With thick hair & dry skin, its all I need (unless i was physically dirty)
And this got me thinking about our modern culture's perception of cleanliness! You know the old saying "Cleanliness is next to godliness" and it seems we have taken it straight to heart. Pretty much everyone I know showers every single day! We slather our whole bodies with soaps (most of which are not safe for our skins), shampoo all the nutrients & oils out of our hair & off our skin... and then still complain about how fast we're aging, or how dry our skin is... so then we slather more chemicals onto it trying to reverse the process.
And not just our bodies, if that isn't enough of a water waste. We obsessively clean our vehicles, our windows have to sparkle, the entire floor gets mopped if something is dribbled in one spot. Clean Clean Clean! Water water water!
I know its our culture to have instilled all these "normals" in our minds, but it is shocking how much water we use just for appearances. Not just for cleaning, but north Americans are obsessed with perfect patches of green grass around our homes. We all want that gorgeous, silky soft lawn (that more than 50% do not ever step out on). While I admit, its nice to have great green grass for the kidlets to play on, and to walk barefoot across, it really is just a vanity thing that we all have deemed acceptable. So there goes gallons & gallons of more water, especially in hot areas where grass really was never meant to grow. (And I won't get into the labour involved in maintaining these lawns, nor the chemicals that generally get used to make them more PERFECT than our neighbour's)
Its just a funny thing we westerners do that less developed countries are probably amazed at. Especially where water is scarce and we have it in such abundance that we hardly give it a second thought.
So, while I don't feel guilty for resenting my low-flow shower head, I do get these convicting thoughts of looking at the 'big picture' from time to time. While I don't share all of these "vanities", I do participate in my fair share and its definitely something I will be considering in a new light in the future when it comes to water usage, land usage, and remind me to not take water for granted so much!
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