April 5th, 2009 | 
Author: For Americans, whose homes include more bathtubs per capita than any other nation, bathing is most simply a ritual of necessity and at times relaxation. In contrast to global practice, Americans bathe daily, the ultimate luxury for anyone almost anywhere else in the world.
In the modest bungalow where I grew up, we children were bathed in an old-fashioned claw-foot tub. I was introduced to the rare shower in our basement where in one corner a plastic curtain created a cubicle around a wooden slatted platform. This shower was primitive and dark, but I relished the sense of my mother’s pleasure while she washed her hair, then mine under gushing torrents of water.
When we moved to California, the Golden State, the bathroom in our pink stucco house held a special perk: a ceiling sunlamp where damp became dry instantaneously. Raising a family of my own, there were a variety of bathrooms, each different yet familial. Bubble-gum-scented bubble soap and shiny Cinderella shampoo sat alongside a metal diaper pail with its Clorox odor (ah, what I would have given for a Diaper Genie!).
Today’s dream bath has become the home spa, where high- end packaging is key. The French design and sophisticated fonts used on labels, nostalgic apothecary-shaped bottles and jars, and pale, whispery colors drive the market. Huge companies like Bath & Body Works and a proliferation of private online businesses cater to a woman’s craving to be pampered. The bathroom, after all, is the one place where a woman is likely to think about only herself; and this is the solution to a stress-induced culture driven by Herculean expectations that a woman be there for all people at all times.
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