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It keeps happening. I take a shower, then discover that I had put my towel in the laundry. Or all my towels are dirty, and I'm reluctant to shower because I don't have a towel (hygiene issue...). Or worse, I forgot to bring a towel with me on vacation. How can I quickly dry off without using a towel?

I tried brushing as much water as I could off my body with my hands, but while that makes it faster, the real time is waiting for the tiny droplets to evaporate or drip off.

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    Doesn't exactly answer the question, but you could prevent the problem by always keeping an extra towel in the bathroom. Then if you forget yours, you just grab the extra. Make sure you replace the extra once you've used it as soon as you change. To remind yourself, hang the extra towel on the door knob as soon as you finish drying, rather than your normal rack. The same thing works for toilet paper rolls -- keep one extra, then hang the empty tube on the door handle or set it by the tap so you don't forget to restock.
    – MichaelS
    Sep 3, 2015 at 4:15

7 Answers 7

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One or more dry hand towels and/or wash cloths will do the trick, especially if you brush water off your body first. You can also supplement with a blow dryer to speed the drying of the remaining droplets. (Not so fun on a hot day, but on a cold morning it's great!)

enter image description here

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  • This gadget may make me sweat, leading me wanna have one more shower ....
    – pambda
    Jul 14, 2018 at 16:05
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    Note: Water dries off you due to evaporation, and not solely from being heated/boiled. Less heat and more airflow is what you're aiming for.
    – bobsburner
    Mar 23, 2020 at 10:37
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I usually don't use a towel after showering anyway. I exfoliate to remove dead skin so I don't need the towel for that. After showering, I brush off excess water while still in the shower, then apply oil (usually coconut or sesame oil, which I keep in the bathroom) to my skin. I typically don't need lotion because of this. My skin dries the rest of the way while applying face moisturizer and brushing teeth and I'm ready to get dressed.

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My solution would be, to get in the clothes which you wear anyway. If you brushed some water of with your hands, the clothes won't be getting soaked. They will be dry after about ten minutes, and no one will know what kind of "trouble" you had...

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At home, any garment will basically do the trick as long as you don't need to put it immediately afterwards. Being on vacation, that would also apply but as you're probably dealing with a limited amount of clothes, you might want to use it only until you buy a proper towel.

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How about rolling around on the bed for a few moments and then getting dressed. The bed clothes will dry (or perhaps get changed in a hotel) on your return.

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Years ago I was in some touristy gift shop and saw an "Authentic American Indian Towel". It was basically just a slat of wood that was (presumably) used by Native Americans to "flick" the standing water off of their skin since they (again, presumably) had no towels.

Whether something like this was really used or the story was fabricated for gullible tourists I have no idea, but it does work.

If you're in a situation where you have no towel, just grab a ruler on your way to the shower. Scrape and flick, and you'll be reasonably dry.

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I know this situation very well.

I thought of using a squeegee (the rubber thing used for wiping windows dry after washing). I'm pretty sure it works better than most other tools like hands, toilet paper or jumping around. It also is easy and economic to clean.

Major drawback will be: You can't use it on your head if the seal is made from rubber or silicone as it will strip off your hairs due to high friction. For the head you will need a special Teflon squeegee.

But I have to concede, I never tried it, but I'm going to, soon.

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  • I've never heard of a squeegee before... I might have to look into this
    – Justin
    Aug 26, 2015 at 18:37
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    I got this word from a german-English dictionary. I thought of the thing a window washer uses to remove all water after washing of the dirt.
    – Ariser
    Aug 26, 2015 at 18:41
  • Squeegee is a term commonly used in the UK - its like a wiper blade for windows that you use yourself. All window cleaners seem to have them now... I've got one in my car with an ice scraper on the other side of the rubber blade.
    – Bamboo
    Aug 28, 2015 at 18:15
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    Bohaaa, so many downvotes. Downvoters please explain.
    – Ariser
    Aug 29, 2015 at 9:41
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    ^ Don't know why, except maybe that he has to carry one with him wherever he goes? I personally loved this answer.
    – Daniel
    Oct 30, 2015 at 15:24

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