Primping on the Road

Much like camping, one thing that definitely takes a beating on the road is personal hygiene.  As a solo driver, I was often faced with the choice of getting a shower or getting some sleep.  Sadly, more often than not, sleep won out over the luxury of a shower. 

Now that I've switched to team driving, I get a lot more time to focus on self-care. When we're not running JIT loads, we can usually stop and shower every day.  The trick is to try and shower at shift change (after one driver ends his/her 14 hour day and before the other driver starts) so we're not eating up the other driver's 14 while we shower and eat.

Very few trucks have showers installed in them.  Most of us are relegated to truck stops and service plazas to keep from encompassing the image above.

The most common truck stops are Pilot/Flying J, TA/Petro, and Love's.  Less common, but still well known are Sapp Brothers, AMBest, and Mr. Fuel. 

Whenever we fuel the truck, we use a rewards card to notate how much fuel was purchased.  Purchasing 50-75 gallons or more usually results in a free shower being placed on the card.  That shower is generally valid for up to 7 days and can be redeemed at any other location of the same type (ie, fueling at a Pilot in Indianapolis, IN can get us a free shower that we can redeem in Denver, CO at a Flying J or Pilot). 

The fuel tank on a truck generally holds about 200 gallons, so a typical fill-up is anywhere from 75-150 gallons, depending on the gap between fuel stops. When I was a solo driver, my loads often ran heavy, so I usually only fueled 50 gallons at a time.

At Pilot or Flying J, a shower costs $10.  At TA/Petro, a shower costs $12.  Smaller chain truck stops like Mr. Fuel only charge $5 for a shower.  (I love the prices at Mr. Fuel, but parking can be hard to find sometimes.)

A shower typically consists of a room set up like a hotel bathroom, with a sink, toilet, and shower, freshly cleaned, with clean towels folded and placed on the sink.  Liquid soap is usually provided in the shower, and some places provide a travel size bar of soap along with a breath mint. 

I have a pink gym bag that is stocked 24/7 with my preferred shower supplies.  Items such as eyebrow wax, razors, liquid soap, bar soap, face scrub, tweezers, nail clippers, and all other sundry items are packed into the end caps of my bag.  In the middle of the bag I pack clean clothes to change into after my shower.  The side of the bag holds my shower shoes in a netted pocket that enables them to air dry after each use.

A typical truck stop shower is at least an hour for me.  When it's cold out, I languish in the hot water even longer.  By the time everything is scrubbed and plucked and dried, it's fairly time consuming.  I don't bother with curling irons or any heated rollers, but I do have a large supply of ways to pin up my hair if I don't want it down.

Hair removal is a challenge on the road - with prolonged sitting, exfoliation is a must to avoid painful ingrown hairs.  I'm currently using a combination of the sand paper method and an electric razor to remove hair and exfoliate at the same time.


I'm still working on the logistics of painted nails on the road.  There isn't really time to do a proper mani or pedi in a shower, and the bouncing of the truck on the road makes a manicure en route next to impossible.  For now, I've had to say goodbye to my long nails and just try to keep them trimmed and clean as possible.  Even with a myriad of gloves to choose from, it's hard to keep the road dirt out from under my nails.

Facial care is extremely important.  Road dirt gets in the pores of the face even worse than it does on our hands, and I've been disgusted more than once in seeing the gray that comes off my face each time I scrub in the shower.  I like to use a liquid scrub like St. Ives Green Tea Scrub (it's gentler than the apricot scrub that I used to use in my 20's) or, when I can afford it, L'Occitane Immortelle Exfoliator.