You really don't have to make bathing or hair washing a major ordeal. The trick is not to use soap. Soap takes a lot of water to rinse out, esp out of long hair.

For a bird bath, pour about 2 quarts of warm water into a basin. Stir into it a heaping teaspoon (no more) of baking soda. This simple solution cuts through body oils and neutralizes odor wonderfully. You can use it on every part of your body. And you don't have to rinse it off, just wash with it and dry (or evaporate). Your skin will be clean and soft.

For hair washing (I've used it for waist-length hair), use a basin that you can immerse a good part of your scalp into. Use water that is as warm as you can stand, not just tepid, and add about three tablespoons of baking soda. Stick your scalp into the basin and work the soda water well into your hair. Massage your scalp gently while in the water, and use a comb to work it through your hair. Then take your container of warmish rinse water and a cup, and pour the rinse water through your hair.

That's it. Try the bath at home when you're sticky-sweaty-stinky for a real test. Try the hair washing with really dirty, greasy hair. You WILL be surprised.

And dry baking soda makes an excellent deodorant, too. It does wear off with heavy sweating, but it's all I've used since 1985, really. A recycled bath powder and puff is ideal.

I once saw a 'shower' in a campground: a pump garden sprayer, two cheap opaque shower curtains on rings, a hula-hoop, and some cord to hang it from three points from a tree. Tip: don't use it when the wind is blowing.

Sue