I used to go into the showers barefoot ; I lived in Keeney, Miller, Slater and Metcalf halls.
It seems Miller and Metcalf house much fewer students than in other dorms, like seven or eight people per gender each floor. Seven males share two shower booths. I’m guessing one or two of them wear flipflops into the shower booths, so that means the floors wouldn’t have been too dirty.
The situation in Keeney or Slater would have been worse since more people would have shared each shower booth so the floors would have been dirtier – or maybe not since Keeney had a lot of shower booths per bathroom to begin with…
Do people usually wear flipflops in showers? It seemed that the booths were wiped with clorox type material once a day and the water pressure created by the shower stalls were strong enough for them to clear up any remaining dirt on the floor. Neither were the floors very visibly dirty which would not have been the case if people were wearing outdoor footwear in them in droves.
Not Brown-related but in general, I would think that people would have separate shower shoes or flip-flops. My D had a pair of flip-flops that she used just for the shower and I just bought my son a pair of shower slides at BBB that have drainage holes. I personally wear an old pair of water shoes when I shower at the gym. I don’t want to take any chances on anyone in my family picking up athlete’s foot.
But isn’t daily cleaning and hot water enough to kill germs? A study says that an athlete’s foot germ infested tub with 100,000 times the amount of tinea pedis fungus as there are in showers, but could get nobody out of 100 users infested in a period of six weeks or so although half of them had the fungus on their feet after the period.
It’s only recently that I ever considered wearing anything in a shower – how would you ever get your feet soaped if you were to wear something on them forever? Aren’t showers the only time when you can get your feet cleaned? Of course if the shower shoes were porous and had drainage holes or whatever they would slightly rinse your feet but what if you wanted a thorough soaping of the feet? Besides if you wore flipflops the flipflop surface would be wet and be conducive to germs.
So wearing something in the showers never made sense to me but then I come from a culture where you never wear any footwear whatsoever once you’re indoors, so maybe it’s a cultural thing…but who knows. Same for gym showers where I come from…not many people wore any footwear.
I started out wearing flip flops in the shower and stopped at some point during first year, certainly during sophomore year. I was in a greek house on wriston though so it’s a little different since all of us using the showers personally knew each other. I probably would have been more cautious if I didn’t know the people.
You hold on to something with one hand to make sure you don’t fall while you take your foot out, wash it with your other hand, then put your foot back in the sandal or water shoe (flip flops were definitely the most popular shower shoe choice so it’s pretty easy to take them on and off in the shower). I’m guessing you are a man because otherwise you would know you can get your feet cleaned at a pedicure. (omg, how heteronormative of me )
@iwannabe_Brown: Not sure if being in a frat on Wriston really makes me feel like you were any safer…I know in my house there was plenty of stuff going around.
@bruno14 guess you guys were just dirty, lol. Not a single case of athlete’s foot in my frat in the 3 years I lived in the house. Almost everyone went barefoot.
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