The Benefits Of Bathing

This month Olly Mann extols the virtues of a ritual he once sneered atthe humble evening bath

- Olly Mann

It seems extraordinary to me that one of the first times I was on national radio, it was to profess my preference for showers over baths. Admittedly, I hadn’t been booked on the show because I had ardent feelings on the topic. I was a guest on Richard Bacon’s much missed late-night slot on Radio 5 Live, and my main duties were chiming in with opinions on the day’s news. But at midnight the agenda turned to an anarchic debate of the host’s own devising. The night I was on, it was “showers vs. baths”, and I was expected to take a side.

Nonetheless, at the time—25 years old, working a day job, living in a flat, evenings eating out—it hadn’t occurred to me to argue the case for baths. Showers were where it was at. I hadn’t taken a bath for a decade. Did my apartment even have a bath in it? It did; I stood in it to take a shower. But the only occasion I ran the bath was to fill my goldfish bowl. Baths were for kids. Kids and old people. Showers were quicker, fresher, cleaner, more efficient, more stylish and generally more man-about-town. This was the case I made on-air. Somehow, the debate lasted an hour. I found it easy to argue my case.