Shower etiquette at the swimming pool

Jagraf

I don't think any of it is about being prudish. It's just what we feel comfortable with and I think chsnging rooms should accommodate varying needs (I rememberca time when lots of stores changed to open changing rooms but you don't see many now as people stopped shopping in them).

To me I guess it's like leaving the toilet door open - it's just one of those things I prefer to do privately.

Pyxis

Jagraf wrote: »

I don't think any of it is about being prudish. It's just what we feel comfortable with and I think chsnging rooms should accommodate varying needs (I rememberca time when lots of stores changed to open changing rooms but you don't see many now as people stopped shopping in them).

To me I guess it's like leaving the toilet door open - it's just one of those things I prefer to do privately.

Torry_Quine wrote: »

I don't think terrible things will happen. I just am not comfortable with anyone seeing my body or indeed seeing other people. Is that really that hard to understand?

I'm the same, Torry and Jagraf. I would hate to have to get showered or dried and changed in front of other people.
The idea of communal changing rooms with no cubicles, as in Amsterdam, is horrifying! So much so that it would stop me going altogether.
When I was in my twenties, I did pluck up the courage to go to a women-only Turkish bath occasionally, but we had to keep pants on. The idea of sitting on a bench that someone else's naked butt had been on was rather abhorrent. I was very self-conscious about my lack of boobs, but did eventually get over it......for a while. Then someone made a comment about how I was like a pre-adolescent up top, and that did it. I never bared myself in 'public' again, until I breastfed my children, (when I actually did have boobs!), and that was under a poncho!

Everyone's different; some people are sensitive about their bodies and some aren't. Consideration for others' feelings is all.

jetplane

chocdonuty wrote: »

I could never strip naked then walk to the cubicle in just a towel,
Nothing to do with being a prude it's just I have a fear of dropping my towel!:eek:
How do you manage to get from the shower, holding cossie and shampoo/conditioner, then unlocking locker, removing dry gear and getting safely to a cubicle without flashing?
I do the full works, seem ridiclulous to shower and change twice but do it wearing a cossie.

All of my toiletries, goggles, hat etc are in a bag so easy to carry and hang on to my towel, I put the bag and my swimsuit inside the cubicle before I open my locker, so always have one hand free to secure my towel.

On a different note, all of this talk about the oldies in the gym etc having less inhibitions,makes me wonder how old is an oldie?

seven-day-weekend

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I've never used mixed sex changing rooms but in the women's only changing room it tends to be the older women who are comfortable with nudity and the younger women who wear cossies in the shower and fiddle round getting changed under the cover of their towel.

Seems like we're going backwards in terms of women being comfortable in their own bodies.

Although of course you always get one like me who finds ANY sort of communal changing room (mixed or unisex) extremely uncomfortable, and then to stand there and shower with hoards of people outside the door, and then of course that's AFTER having been in the utter awfulness that is the the swimming pool.....

.....I think my phobias are showing here, so I'm not going to comment on how I think people should behave in a communal mixed changing room

:rotfl::rotfl:

Pyxis

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Although of course you always get one like me who finds ANY sort of communal changing room (mixed or unisex) extremely uncomfortable, and then to stand there and shower with hoards of people outside the door, and then of course that's AFTER having been in the utter awfulness that is the the swimming pool.....

.....I think my phobias are showing here, so I'm not going to comment on how I think people should behave in a communal mixed changing room

:rotfl::rotfl:

I must admit, I loathed the past trend of communal changing rooms in shops. I think I used one once and then didn't, ever again. You're not even naked, there either. Putting on clothes that may or may not fit/suit you in front of others, plus the security aspect of your bag being nicked while your attention is diverted.......nooooooo!
Very glad when shops realised that fact!

Yes, 7DW, I'm not a natural-born swimmer, am scared of slipping on the wet tiles, and once my glasses are off I can't see anything, (I once nearly walked into the men's changing area as I couldn't see the sign!), so although I'd like to be a better swimmer, those things alone put me off somewhat. Throw into the equation the mixed/communal showering/changing areas and the whole procedure turns into a nightmare, not a pleasure!

Someone give me my own private pool, please!

missbiggles1

Frogletina wrote: »

That would be me...except I did sit on a towel to dry my hair rather than stand. With wet long hair I never wanted to get my clothes on before drying it. This was in a communal changing room where I used to go a few years ago, just women but no cubicles.

I think people have got more prudish over the years. I used to go to a sauna with my mother many years ago which was for women only (council run pool and sauna in a large city). We all stripped off in the communal changing rooms there and used the saunas and showers while naked - no showers in cubicles then. There were a couple of places to change behind curtains but it hardly seemed worth it when we were all naked afterwards.

frogletina

I'd forgotten about saunas!

I used to go regularly in the 70s and 80s and everybody (single sex) was naked. The last time I went (about 10/15 years ago, everybody was in a cossie) which was really weird and uncomfortable.

Jagraf

The thought of a naked sauna ...... Sitting and sweating and then getting up and someone sitting in the same place .....

Although I prefer steam rooms, most are in the same place as the swimming pools now so you can't go naked. I'm in my forties and ive never seen a naked person in a sauna - on holiday or at a pool. Maybe it's because I take my glasses off.

seven-day-weekend

missbiggles1 wrote: »

In a single sex setting and as an older woman it does seem rather odd, if unsurprising.

Maybe it does seem odd, bur some people like their privacy. I have never liked stripping off in front of others, even at school when the communal showers bothered no-one but me.

tea_lover

I'm probably still just about 'younger' (just!) and there's no way I would ever use a communal changing room, or get naked in front of strangers. Not because I think something terrible would happen, but because I don't want to. Which is just as valid an opinion as those that are happy to do so.

missbiggles1

Jagraf wrote: »

The thought of a naked sauna ...... Sitting and sweating and then getting up and someone sitting in the same place .....

Although I prefer steam rooms, most are in the same place as the swimming pools now so you can't go naked. I'm in my forties and ive never seen a naked person in a sauna - on holiday or at a pool. Maybe it's because I take my glasses off.

That also happens when you're wearing a cossie, you know.;) In either case, most people sit on a towel.