All you Y swimmers, I need some advice! Or maybe I just need to rant. Sometimes I swim at a community pool. There's a BIG sign right before you leave the locker room to "shower before entering the pool" and wouldn't ya know it...not everybody does. Invariably, I end up smalling/tasting lotion, grandpa-strength aftershave, hairspray, deoderant and what have you the whole workout. Don't these people realize what they do? How can I make them stop??? I don't understand why they don't shower. I just don't.
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Originally posted by AnnG
I have always showered before swimming, used to swim a lot at a pool where it was strictly enforced and just got into the habit. Imagine if everyone rinsed off their lotions and hair products before entering the pool, it would stay cleaner. It also makes getting into the water a little easier because I am already wet.
Yup, Ann, that's the whole point of requiring a shower before entering the pool.
As someone mentioned previously in this thread, if you're there with the first wave of swimmers for the day, the showers take 10 minutes to warm up at some pools. My YMCA is like that. So if you obey the rule and wait for a shower to warm up, the other swimmers get the good lanes. We're all in this together, so the tacit agreement is that we all jump in dry, and it has been a long time since anyone has brought anything noticeably offensive into the pool. But one time, HOO Boy! Some "new" older guy joined in, and people had to switch lanes to get away from the overwhelming cologne fumes. Ugh.
Some people do a token "sprinkle" and call that a shower. If you have something that needs washing off (like cologne or aftershave), a sprinkle isn't going to do a thing for you (or the others who have to swim with you. I've seen people "shower" without putting their towel down! (And they keep the towel dry.) The thinking on this approach seems to be: "I look wet, so if the lifeguard is going to yell at anyone for not taking a shower, it won't be me." To that approach I say, "Why bother."
To the question in the base note (How do you tell someone s/he stinks?) Tough question. It lands in the same category as deciding whether or not to tell someone they have spinach in their teeth. The difference in the pool, though, is that you are not just breathing, but vogorously inhaling those fumes. It's a tough call, and I wish I had an answer for you.
Originally posted by AnnG
I have always showered before swimming, used to swim a lot at a pool where it was strictly enforced and just got into the habit. Imagine if everyone rinsed off their lotions and hair products before entering the pool, it would stay cleaner. It also makes getting into the water a little easier because I am already wet.
Yup, Ann, that's the whole point of requiring a shower before entering the pool.
As someone mentioned previously in this thread, if you're there with the first wave of swimmers for the day, the showers take 10 minutes to warm up at some pools. My YMCA is like that. So if you obey the rule and wait for a shower to warm up, the other swimmers get the good lanes. We're all in this together, so the tacit agreement is that we all jump in dry, and it has been a long time since anyone has brought anything noticeably offensive into the pool. But one time, HOO Boy! Some "new" older guy joined in, and people had to switch lanes to get away from the overwhelming cologne fumes. Ugh.
Some people do a token "sprinkle" and call that a shower. If you have something that needs washing off (like cologne or aftershave), a sprinkle isn't going to do a thing for you (or the others who have to swim with you. I've seen people "shower" without putting their towel down! (And they keep the towel dry.) The thinking on this approach seems to be: "I look wet, so if the lifeguard is going to yell at anyone for not taking a shower, it won't be me." To that approach I say, "Why bother."
To the question in the base note (How do you tell someone s/he stinks?) Tough question. It lands in the same category as deciding whether or not to tell someone they have spinach in their teeth. The difference in the pool, though, is that you are not just breathing, but vogorously inhaling those fumes. It's a tough call, and I wish I had an answer for you.
