Where do the numbers come from?

Not everyone showers the same way. A woman with long hair needs twice as long as a man with short hair – not because she is less efficient, but because her hair requires more time to wet, shampoo, and rinse. A 2025 study by Dezeure et al. found that hair length is the single biggest factor in shower water consumption – more significant even than the duration of the shower itself.

ShortShower's timer splits the shower into three phases: wetting (water on), shampoo and body wash (water off), and final rinse (water on). The water-off phase is the key insight – it can save up to 30 to 50% of water per shower, because you soap up your body and hair without standing under the stream. This is the segmented showering method, endorsed by Hansgrohe and EPA WaterSense.

Dermatologists are actually quite generous: according to Cleveland Clinic and KOHLER LuxStone, the optimal shower with hair washing takes 7 to 15 minutes, and a quick rinse without washing your hair 4 to 5 minutes. ShortShower deliberately goes one step further – our times are shorter (for adults, the full shower with hair washing takes about 3 to 5 minutes), because saving water is the priority. Repeated testing with different people shows these durations are perfectly enough for a thorough wash. Your skin benefits too – showering for more than 10 to 15 minutes strips the skin's natural sebum and its natural moisturizing factor (NMF), leading to dry skin and brittle hair. And if you think our times should be different, write to us: support@safeafter.app.

Children and babies follow different rules. European guidelines (Blume-Peytavi et al., 2016) and the American Academy of Dermatology recommend shorter baths: 5 to 8 minutes for infants and 5 to 10 minutes for children aged 6 to 11. Children's skin is especially sensitive and washing too long damages its natural protective barrier. For infants with atopic dermatitis, researchers even recommend adding bath oil only in the final 2 minutes to avoid disrupting the skin's pH during the earlier washing phase.

Ecology and skin health point in the same direction. Every minute in the shower uses 7 to 9 litres of water. Cutting just 2 minutes per day saves over 5,000 litres per person per year – roughly the volume of 3,500 water bottles. EPA WaterSense and StarBath US data confirms that if every American cut their shower by just 1 minute, over 165 billion litres of water would be saved each year. ShortShower does the counting – you just shower smarter.