I've gone 24 hours without using soap. Current status - smelly. Will try showering without soap and getting back to this thread with results.
Haha, get back, yes, but you've got to give it a week or two before drawing any relevant conclusions.
OK, so here's how it went:
Friday
- Morning workout (30 minutes - warmup / power cleans)
- Morning shower before work with soap
- Afternoon workout (1 hr - Front Squats, Weighted Dips, Weighted Pull-ups)
- Didn't shower before bed because . . . lazy and changing sheets on Saturday. :P
Saturday
- Afternoon bike ride (about 4 hrs)
- Afternoon shower w/out soap
Sunday
- Morning workout (30 minutes - warmup / power cleans)
- General housework (2 hrs - mowed lawn, cleaned garage, cleaned kitchen)
- Afternoon workout (1hr -Overhead Press, Deadlift, Weighted Chin Ups)
- Afternoon shower w/out soap
I found that showering without soap kinda works.
I ended up spending about 3x the amount of time in the shower as I normally would because of additional time required in scrubbing the magic triangle (armpit armpit balls/butt) before the stinky smell disappeared . . . so it will totally use more water and likely cost you more to do this. With soap you really don't need to scrub as much or as hard, and the procedure is much faster. I suspect that bathing would probably work better if you're going to try the no soap thing. If you can soak in hot water for 30 - 40 minutes I suspect that the amount of scrubbing you would have to do would be significantly reduced.
If you want to have a quick 5 - 10 minute shower though, there just isn't enough time to get clean smelling.