In Defense of the Bath
People love to tell me why they hate baths. You’re sitting in your own filth! Baths are mussy and fussy! They take entirely too much time—a shower is both faster and better! Well, these people are staunchly, resolutely, almost impressively wrong.
To argue practicality when discussing a bath is to miss the point entirely. When you were a kid, a bath had one purpose—to get you clean. But when you’re an adult, baths are all about the process. Surrounding yourself with water and good-smelling stuff and, yes, maybe even a candle is the single most calming and transporting act I know, even when it takes my fingers a few hours to unprune afterward.
Those mental benefits are accompanied by physical ones. There’s even a medical term for bathing: balneotherapy. “Especially if the water contains therapeutic additives, soaking in a bath can be beneficial to the skin,” says dermatologist Joshua Zeichner. Baths have also been said to improve circulation, increase oxygen to your brain, boost your metabolism, and reduce muscle pain. Mentally, baths have been shown to decrease stress, relieve anxiety, and help you sleep better. And though ice baths are more than a little bracing at first, even short ones, like the kind athletes take after strenuous workouts, have similar effects in the long term, says chiropractor Jonathan Leary, CEO of Remedy Place, a wellness club in Los Angeles.
I’m a fan of the classic bath—warm, long, filled with Epsom salts for muscle relaxation and oils like eucalyptus and lavender for aromatherapy. I also prefer to take one in the evening, when I can allow my body to decompress and my mind to finally relax. “I think the nighttime bath is most important,” agrees Vivianne Garcia-Tunon, vice-president of development at The Well, a wellness club in New York City. “It’s about setting that ritual to get you to fall asleep faster.”
That’s the beauty of a bath: It’s a choose-your-own-adventure situation. You can even buck the system and take morning baths like skincare writer Bart Kaczanowicz, who favors them because “it’s a recharge station to start the day.” No matter what you do, make sure to commit. Macaulay Culkin once told us he takes nearly hour-long baths! Yours should be at least 20 minutes.
What you do with that time doesn’t matter. I’ve taken calls, streamed movies, read books, listened to whole albums, and meditated—all while in a bath. What does matter is that you allow the bath to do the work, and you lean into it. Baths are powerful, and the feeling you get after taking one makes you crave another. And in case you were wondering: It’s even better if you don’t rinse off afterward. It’ll help all those oils and other ingredients you added nourish your skin. Plus, it’s not a shower. It’s a bath. That’s the whole damn point.
This article appears in the April/May 2021 issue of Esquire magazine.
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