- A recent article in New York Magazine referred to our era as “the age of bathfluence.”
- People on Instagram, generally women, create increasingly elaborate baths to post on the platform.
- While baths contribute to their overall image of an aspirational lifestyle, the people posting the photos generally rankle at being called a “bathfluencer.”
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Deborah Hanekamp, @mamamedicine on Instagram, was at the beginning of an 8-year shaman apprenticeship in the Amazon when she was introduced to ritual baths, or contemplative bath routines. For her, they were a healing experience she could easily incorporate into her life, even with a “tiny Brooklyn bathtub,” she told Business Insider in an email.
Now, she’s fully embraced baths for healing, and she has different baths for different needs. She even sells a $111 bath kit, designed to be used across 4 baths, which is currently out of stock.
Baths – particularly lavish baths with bath bombs, flower petals, perfumes, and other additions – are popular on Instagram right now. Not only do influencers and celebrities post photos of glamorous bathtime setup, they also often explain their routines in extreme detail. As Rachel Syme wrote in New York Magazine, “I now know more than I ever thought possible about the bath-time habits of strangers.”
For many people, especially in crowded cities, bathtubs are a luxury. Gothamist and The New York Times have written about the bathtub as an expensive status symbol in New York City. Many apartments don’t have tubs, and those that do are often old or dirty, so there’s an aspirational element to liking photos of a stranger’s elaborate bathtime setup.
Model Summer Dawn Miller takes a bath every day, as she told Violet Grey when describing her bath routine. As New York Magazine pointed out, she initially told the website that she adds a full bottle of hydrogen peroxide to a bath, but after commenters on Twitter questioned it, that point disappeared from the piece. In an email, she told Business Insider "I didn't invent this. Hydrogen peroxide oxygenates the body and its incredibly stimulating. I do it when I have hydrogen peroxide to spare as you need an entire bottle."
While she maintains her belief in the power of hydrogen peroxide baths, Miller is skeptical about being a "bathfluencer."
"Who coins these terms? Bathfluencer is a silly word that I wish I would have invented... I hope that I influence women and girls to pamper themselves everyday," she told Business Insider in an email. She clarified that she sees her bath routine as a minor part of her overall role as an influencer.
Hanekamp, who has over 70,000 Instagram followers, called baths an "amazing point of entry" into being able to heal yourself. She now teaches others her practice of ritual baths, which she prescribes almost like food, listing ingredients.
This is empowering and accessible, she says, "because we all know what it is like to feel one way before a bath and totally different when we get out."
Hanekamp's baths consist of different combinations of crystals and flowers. Sometimes, she says, she saves the plants left after a bath to "offer them to a tree outside."
She sees Instagram as an "artistic medium" where she can show her creations, but they haven't changed what she does.
Hanekamp has recipes for every bath need, including for adopting a rescue dog. Although she doesn't seek out "bathfluencers" (or identify as one), she says "I’m happy when I see folks sharing the ways they are using water and the power of nature to decompress."
Model Summer Dawn Miller says "bathfluencer" is a silly term, but she wishes she'd thought of it.
Amy Gaws has about 1200 Instagram followers. She told Business Insider over Instagram DM that she's not a bathfluencer, "but I guess I'd consider myself an influencer to a certain extent."
She uses Instagram to show off her favorite products, and she said she intentionally makes her baths prettier to post, but she doesn't follow other bath accounts.
