Kate: The Call of Nature

I'm absolutely obsessed with outdoor showers.  I have been since I was a kid and my family used to rent a house on Cape Cod in the summertime.  It was the perfect experience, coming home from the beach all sandy, sunburnt and sweaty and taking a refreshing shower.  There was also Vidal Sassoon shampoo and conditioner in it and, to this day, that smell reminds me of summers on the Cape.

Perfection.

There's something about showering outside that is just so much better than showering in a house.  I try to recreate the experience in my apartment by opening the window in the shower in the summer.  It's a good substitute when you're unable to get to a real outdoor shower, but I have had a couple unfortunate incidents with bird getting too close for comfort, and once my super, Glenn, was suspended outside fixing something in the apartment above me and inadvertently saw me naked.  It was an awkward moment for both of us but, on the up side, I've gotten great service ever since.

My favorite outdoor showers are those that are enclosed enough for practical use (like you can actually have enough privacy in them that you can really shower and not just practice sexy washing your hair and sucking in in case someone sees you) but are low enough that you could see over it if you tried. About six years ago I went to a friend-of-a-friend's house in Laguna Beach, and the normal shower in their house had a wrap-around cut out at head-height, which gave it the feeling of being an outdoor shower even though it was a part of the normal bathroom.  It's difficult to describe, but it was amazing.  It is one of the only reasons that I'd consider moving to California -- weather that allows for an outdoor/indoor hybrid.

When I someday buy a house, one of the number one things on my list is going to be having an outdoor shower or the possibility of building one.  And once I have it, I'm going to keep Vidal Sassoon shampoo and conditioner in it all the time.

xo kate