Are communal or gang showers dissapearing?

[seabear]

+1 for the above 4 posts
​

No one mentions the difference in the dynamic of pole showers and wall mounted. With a row of shower heads along the wall you have the semi privacy of facing the wall, there is some of the etiquette from pissing at trough type urinals. The pole shower has you at 90 degrees to three other spaces, much more open, nowhere to hide a boner which is a great worry to some. I have no problem using a pole with strangers, sometimes a conversation will start and others they are not interested but I will avoid when the others round a pole are obviously friends, it feels like butting in. I am cool at wall or pole about skinning back or a quick soapy finger in to make sure I am clean at the back but if I want to clear stubble from my pubic area, just a quick 30 seconds with a disposable razor, then I have to do that against the wall.

My dream would be working soap / shampoo dispensers like in grand gym bathrooms but in gang showers, somehow all the baggage of carying my own spoils being naked for the walk. If I could make one rule it would be all towels must be circular, no corners to tuck in so they can only be worn round your neck!.

 

[jglam]

They are definitely becoming less common in the UK too.

It's a real shame as I think we should all have the confidence to be able to shower with other guys. My school actually had communal showers, but nobody used them in the entire time I was there. I didn't use a communal shower until I was in my early twenties and was incredibly scared at first, but it's a great feeling actually to have that confidence in yourself to shower and change openly.

Not that long ago most male changing rooms here would have had a communal shower. Most private gyms have stalls nowadays though. At local government run leisure centres, communal showers are still pretty common. Some private places still have them too.


I actually had a bit of a shock a few months ago.

I was supposed to attend a good (female) friend's wedding in a golf club quite far from where I live. I had to work that morning so would have to rush there. I asked if there was somewhere I could shower and change and she said that the golf club had lovely showers with plenty of privacy to change...
To my shock when I got there, the shower was completely open and was fairly busy with guys showering in the nude. Anyway, I got on with it and just showered and changed.

I actually googled it afterwards as I could see the changing room was quite new, and a company has puton their website about the project. I'll quote it: ''The open plan male shower area was refurbished with anti-slip porcelain floor tiles and easy to clean Altro Whiterock... The ladies’ showers had to provide more privacy than the gents area.'' (You can see photos of the shower area on the link).
Changing Rooms Refurbishment for Alresford Golf Club, Hampshire - Lan Services

So perhaps it's not all bad.

 

[opinionman]

They are definitely becoming less common in the UK too.

It's a real shame as I think we should all have the confidence to be able to shower with other guys. My school actually had communal showers, but nobody used them in the entire time I was there. I didn't use a communal shower until I was in my early twenties and was incredibly scared at first, but it's a great feeling actually to have that confidence in yourself to shower and change openly.

Not that long ago most male changing rooms here would have had a communal shower. Most private gyms have stalls nowadays though. At local government run leisure centres, communal showers are still pretty common. Some private places still have them too.


I actually had a bit of a shock a few months ago.

I was supposed to attend a good (female) friend's wedding in a golf club quite far from where I live. I had to work that morning so would have to rush there. I asked if there was somewhere I could shower and change and she said that the golf club had lovely showers with plenty of privacy to change...
To my shock when I got there, the shower was completely open and was fairly busy with guys showering in the nude. Anyway, I got on with it and just showered and changed.

I actually googled it afterwards as I could see the changing room was quite new, and a company has puton their website about the project. I'll quote it: ''The open plan male shower area was refurbished with anti-slip porcelain floor tiles and easy to clean Altro Whiterock... The ladies’ showers had to provide more privacy than the gents area.'' (You can see photos of the shower area on the link).
Changing Rooms Refurbishment for Alresford Golf Club, Hampshire - Lan Services

So perhaps it's not all bad.

Such a pity that gang showers are disappearing all over. I felt that showering with the guys from jr high on was important to me as a developing male. It's too bad your high school pals didn't shower.

 

[Toddster]

The guys nowadays are not like the real men of older times. They are very delicate and can't handle being gregarious and manly. Getting naked and horsing around used to be normal male bonding.

 

[jf22]

My old high school had them but no one ever used them. To be honest I wouldn't of when I was that age but now it seems foolish. As I saw someone else say. We all have the same equipment. I don't really get what everyone is hiding. Communal showers are just more practical. I get kind of grossed out by a lot of the curtains and doors to be honest also.

 

[opinionman]

My old high school had them but no one ever used them. To be honest I wouldn't of when I was that age but now it seems foolish. As I saw someone else say. We all have the same equipment. I don't really get what everyone is hiding. Communal showers are just more practical. I get kind of grossed out by a lot of the curtains and doors to be honest also.

That's because the Joker is hiding behind one of the curtains... but I can't tell you which one!

 

[Notsobigbutenough]

Are communal showers common in Spain? At least, I know that Spain is not as uptight about nudity as North America.

They are common in facilities frquently used by sport teams. This particular pool is used by individuals too, but mainly by swimming teams and swimming clubs, so it will probably remain this way. Teams like to shower together.

Gyms usually have a communal showers with 3 or 4 shower heads and also 2 or 3 cubicles to give costumers both choices.

 

[explosionerection]

Wouldn't bother me at all. I showered with a guy I worked with, and we became closer because of it. I also ended up in the open shower with my veterinarian and insurance agent. I saw them in their full glory and they saw me in mine. What's the big deal? At the end of the day, we're all guys with the same equipment.

That's good! love some manly confidence

but it's not true we all have the same equipment. Some men have small dicks and some have fairly large ones, and society idolize big dicks so guys on the smaller side of the scale might be scared to get naked in case they end up showering next to a guy with a big one and because of that feel less manly.

I think it's ridiculous cos the smallest soft dick can get HUGE hard so it's not really an indicator. But guess I´m blessed being a shower so I don't have to worry about it

 

[AHandfull]

It's funny I think the communal showers actually foster a greater camaraderie. We don't often walk around naked in front of strangers so when two guys that don't know each other are showering in the same room and scrubbing parts, all it takes is a good morning, or how we doing, or just some acknowledgment of the weather to start a conversation or break the awkward ice and then I find that suddenly every time you see that guy, everything just feels very open versus that fuzzy wall that was separating us before. Many great friends at my local gym most of them 50 years and older certainly but I wouldn't have it any other way. I was at a gym in California a while back that had five open heads on one side of the shower room and three curtained shower cubicles on the other side which I thought was a great compromise. If you want to hide, you can. If you want to draw your curtain 90% and peak, you can. Why can't there be a hybrid model to satisfy everybody and to optimize the sanitary aspects of managing a shower room and avoiding all of those gnarly corners that are impossible to clean?

 

[explosionerection]

It's funny I think the communal showers actually foster a greater camaraderie. We don't often walk around naked in front of strangers so when two guys that don't know each other are showering in the same room and scrubbing parts, all it takes is a good morning, or how we doing, or just some acknowledgment of the weather to start a conversation or break the awkward ice and then I find that suddenly every time you see that guy, everything just feels very open versus that fuzzy wall that was separating us before. Many great friends at my local gym most of them 50 years and older certainly but I wouldn't have it any other way. I was at a gym in California a while back that had five open heads on one side of the shower room and three curtained shower cubicles on the other side which I thought was a great compromise. If you want to hide, you can. If you want to draw your curtain 90% and peak, you can. Why can't there be a hybrid model to satisfy everybody and to optimize the sanitary aspects of managing a shower room and avoiding all of those gnarly corners that are impossible to clean?

agreed!

how big is your soft dick btw?

 

[AHandfull]

My soft dick is very shmedium. I am a grower and not a shower. I have really big balls but I always resort to a little bit of tugging to show any girthiness or length. Just like most guys who walk into the shower. There are certain days where for some reason I have full girthiness and a great flaccid hang and then there are days where my mushroom seems content to nestle himself on top of big drawn up balls in an otherwise cool shower room. I feel like it's best to just be average and hang around with most other people who are average so no one is intimidated and everybody is on a level field.

 

[opinionman]

It's funny I think the communal showers actually foster a greater camaraderie. We don't often walk around naked in front of strangers so when two guys that don't know each other are showering in the same room and scrubbing parts, all it takes is a good morning, or how we doing, or just some acknowledgment of the weather to start a conversation or break the awkward ice and then I find that suddenly every time you see that guy, everything just feels very open versus that fuzzy wall that was separating us before. Many great friends at my local gym most of them 50 years and older certainly but I wouldn't have it any other way. I was at a gym in California a while back that had five open heads on one side of the shower room and three curtained shower cubicles on the other side which I thought was a great compromise. If you want to hide, you can. If you want to draw your curtain 90% and peak, you can. Why can't there be a hybrid model to satisfy everybody and to optimize the sanitary aspects of managing a shower room and avoiding all of those gnarly corners that are impossible to clean?

You hit the nail on the head. I grew up showering after gym and in college after practice and in gyms throughout my life so being naked with strangers was no big deal. However, if I really look at it objectively, I can see why it might seem odd; here you are, stripping down totally with a bunch of strangers. It's got to be based in the English tradition of boarding schools were it was just assumed it was ok to be naked with other guys. I wouldn't have it any other way, but I know that private individual shower stalls are the norm now. It's a pity... altho.... you can fool around with another guys more easily in a private stall than in an open shower; it just that you miss the camaraderie.