Ahhhh … there’s nothing like a warm shower at the end of a long day to relax us, sooth the muscles, and prepare our bodies for sleep.

In contrast, a brisk, cold shower can reduce inflammation, improve circulation, and relieve pain.

How showers came to be is a fascinating glimpse into history.

A Brief History of Bathing

It’s thought that the ancient Greeks invented the first ‘proper’ shower around 100 BC, although it wasn’t anything like OUR modern showers. Instead, the person being showered would stand on one side of a wall that had a hole in it; a servant would be on the other side, pouring water in through the hole.

The clever ancient Romans scaled things up and by 33 AD, large communal showers were popular, with men and women having separate bathrooms. Bathing was a complicated ritual that took a lot of time, so it’s no wonder they only bathed once a week!

Throughout the Middle Ages, people continued to wash weekly at public bathhouses, as private shower rooms were a luxury only enjoyed by the elite. Peasants without access to public bathrooms used the river to bathe.

Mechanical Showers

The first mechanical shower was designed by William Feetham, a stove maker in England, in 1767. It was operated via a hand pump which forced water into a vessel above your head, then a chain would be pulled to release water from the vessel. The water was then hand pumped back into a tank and recycled.

While servants no longer had to cart heavy buckets of water, it didn’t catch on as people weren’t keen on showering using the dirty, recycled water.

A hundred years later in 1872, a French prison doctor called Dr Merry Delabost was the first to promote showering as a hygiene practice.

He came up with a cubicle design that used just 25 litres of warm water per person, although it was quite different to today’s showers. The needle or cage shower directed sprays of water around the body, rather than from overhead.

By the late 1880s, a ‘rain bath’ was popular for public baths and hospitals. Similar to today’s showers,  the overhead spray came from a circular head pointing down or slanted slightly.

It wasn’t until the 1920s that showers began to appear in new homes in the USA and were no longer restricted to the rich. Forty years later, many homes had both a bathtub and a shower.

While shower curtains are still around particularly in older style bathrooms, they have a tendency to be cold and clingy to wet bodies, so for real comfort and style you can’t go past a glass shower screen!

SHOWERS FTW!

In the fullness of time, bathtubs have fallen out of favour with many modern bathrooms having a shower only. When you consider that showers are quick and efficient – using less water than tubs – it makes complete sense! What do you prefer?!