How to Shower at College

Unless you've spent a lot of time at summer camp, there's a good chance you've never enjoyed the dubious pleasures of a shared shower. Dorm showers are a little nicer than camp showers, but while summer campers are children with few concerns about privacy and hygiene, college students are young adults. Standards are higher, and you need to know the unwritten "rules" of college showers.

What College Dorm Showers Are Like

Most dorms have large bathrooms for each hall. If you're in a single-sex dorm you may have two bathrooms on your floor available for your use. If you're in a coed dorm, there may be separate bathrooms for each gender or shared bathrooms. In most dorms, bathrooms include multiple sinks, toilet stalls, mirrors, and separate curtained showers.

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If you're living off-campus or in a fraternity or sorority house, the situation may be different. You may, for example, need to take turns using a single-user bathroom. Alternatively, you may need to create a bathroom schedule.

The college shower is both a very private and a very public place. Whether you're in a dorm, an off-campus apartment, or even in a situation where you have your own room but share a bathroom with others, it's important to know how things work so no one gets offended or embarrassed. So how can you make sure you know the do's and don'ts that surround the college shower?

The Do's

• Do wear shower shoes. You may love every person in your residence hall or Greek house, but feet are feet and dirt is dirt. Wearing shower shoes can actually protect you from infections, so make sure you have an extra, shower-only pair of flip-flops at all times.
• Do bring a shower caddy. A shower caddy is a hanging bag or container you carry with you from your room to the bathroom and back again. Find one that works for you so you can always have your shampoo, conditioner, razor, and anything else you might need handy.
• Do bring a towel or robe to wear back to your room. Forgetting your towel can be a nightmare, so hook it onto your shower caddy, or even better, fold it on top so that you never forget one without the other.
• Do clean your hair out of the drain. You're in a shared space now, so treat it with the respect you'd want from someone else and do a quick swipe to make sure you don't leave hair in the drain for the next person.

The Don'ts

• Don't take an unreasonable amount of time. Taking a ton of time in the shower may feel nice for you, but it creates a huge backlog of people who need to shower. Remember that you're part of a community and try to keep your shower time brief.
• Don't shower with a "friend." Having, shall we say, "romantic encounters" in the shower is not only disrespectful to others in your hall, but it's also inappropriate and, perhaps worst of all, pretty darned gross. With all the private spaces that a college offers, take your friend somewhere a little nicer and more personal.
• Don't expect too much privacy. Yes, you'll have your own stall, and most likely it will have doors or a curtain. But you are sharing a bathroom with others, so just be prepared for people talking, using up the hot water, coming in and out of the bathroom, and basically eliminating the kind of privacy you might be used to back at home.