As the heatwave hits Wales and the cost of living continues to rise, saving water is something to consider. Experts at Natural Resources Wales have called on people to shower for only four minutes to save water and we put this to the test.
Firstly I have medium to long hair which is quite thick and curly and it normally takes me a while to wash it. The running joke in my family was always how long I spent in the bathroom.
I normally shower in the evening and it is part of my routine to wind down for bed, meaning I rarely rush. To see how much time I would need to shave off to reach that four-minute goal I first timed myself having a normal shower.
In total I spent 10 minutes and 42 seconds in the shower with seven minutes and 33 seconds of that washing my hair. This meant I would need to lose around six minutes in the shower and nearly half the time it took to wash my hair, to be finished in four minutes.
As someone who is really not keen on cold water, I often wait a couple of seconds for the shower to warm up before I step in it. Unable to face going straight into cold water, the second time round I did pause for the water to warm up but for less time.
As the water was warm when I entered the shower it is something I will now continue to do to save water, as I realised I don't need to wait as long for the shower to heat up. Once in the shower I tried to wash my hair as quickly as possible, not letting the shampoo or conditioner rest in my hair like I normally would and using smaller amounts of shampoo and conditioner to save time.
Somehow I'd finished washing my hair just as the four-minute timer went off, meaning I had done it but with only seconds to spare. I'd also not washed my body during this time although some may argue your body gets clean while you wash your hair.
It took me a further two minutes and 11 seconds to wash my body, and give my hair one last quick rinse as I was not convinced I'd washed out all the shampoo and conditioner, taking my speedy shower up to a total of six minutes and 11 seconds.
While this was a nearly four-minute decrease on my original time (proving my family right, that I did not need to spend so long in the bathroom) it was not within the recommended four minutes. I have learned that I can definitely decrease the amount of time I spend in the shower, however, I would really struggle to try and have four-minute showers every day especially if washing my hair.
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