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During a recent trip to Greece, I found myself bent over in a small restaurant bathroom being pleasured in a way I’d never experienced before.
Nervous at first, my friend reassured me — promising I’d enjoy the sensation.
It was in that moment that I officially became acquainted with a bidet shower, or as they’re often called, a bum gun.
And my life was forever changed.
Typically consisting of a small, hand-operated nozzle placed directly next to the toilet, a bum gun is comparable to a kitchen sink sprayer.
But instead of washing away ketchup stains, they’re tasked with cleaning a much more important surface — yep, your bum and genitals after using the loo.
Commonly found in bathrooms across Asia, the Middle East, and much of Europe, these high-pressurised butt-blasters are an essential to some — and a total novelty to others.
What is a bum gun for?
Bum guns have been around for a very long time — popularised in the late 1960s in Finland.
A simple contraption, they’re used for anal cleaning and the cleaning of the genitals after using the toilet.
Its official name, a bidet shower, paints a pretty clear picture. You finish your business, grab the hand-held triggered nozzle and spray away.
Like myself, lots of others have a deep admiration for this invention.
@fifeth_ shared on X: ‘As a Brit that has been about the world a bit, Iif I could take one thing back to the UK it would be bum guns. Toilet paper is a savage way to clean.’
‘Once you’ve used a bum gun there’s no going back,’ added @brattycosgrove, joking that the booty blaster was the ‘real reason’ she went back to Thailand.
Mia Frank, 28, was raised between the US and the UK — but regularly travels to Asia to visit family.
She tells Metro: ‘If you go into any bathroom in any Asian country you will find a bum gun next to the toilet.
‘Even public restrooms at petrol stations tend to have one.’
For Mia, using a bum gun is ‘akin to giving your privates a little shower each time you use the loo.
‘You walk away feeling clean and fresh, knowing you’ve washed away any and all waste. I definitely feel 100 times cleaner when I use a bum gun, compared to toilet paper or even wet wipes.
‘I actually wish they had them more readily available in the UK,’ she adds.
‘My sister has a portable bum gun next to her toilet and it’s one of the reasons I love going to her flat so much. I am considering getting one because no-one talks about how hard it is to go from using a bum gun every single day to having to rely on plain old toilet paper.’
Bidet showers like this are also popular in Arabic countries, which is in part due to the integral role cleanliness plays in the Muslim faith.
In the Middle East, these devices are often called a ‘shattaf’, from the Arabic word shattaafa, meaning ‘to rinse’ or ‘to wash.’
Rania, 39, is a practicing Muslim, and tells Metro that, in Islam, it’s ‘very important’ to always be clean.
‘We don’t use the hose specifically to wash prior to any religious rituals, as that should be done elsewhere,’ the mum-of-two explains.
‘Usually, prayer rooms and mosques have a specific place to wash, otherwise, at a push, you’d use a sink.
‘However, there is an important hadith (a major source of religious teachings in Islam, after the Quran) that says “purity is half of faith”.
‘So basically, it’s very important to always be clean in Islam.
‘There are specific rules about how to carry yourself, especially when visiting the mosque.
‘You should smell good and be fresh, even your breath should be fresh.
‘Though the shattaf is not directly linked to any religious practice in Islam, it has made staying clean and hygienic much easier.’
How do you use a bum gun?
It might seem easy, but using a bum gun isn’t always straightforward.
A number of users on TikTok have shared traumatic stories of suffering serious injuries due to the gun’s powerful spray.
Some compared using a bum gun to ‘having an enema’, while one helpful individual warned others of the ‘painful hose’ on the ferry from Railay Beach to Phi Phi Island.
Have you ever used a bum gun?
If you are nervous about your first time, one account, @Wildeye Adventures, has shared some useful tips.
Specifically addressing the butt blasters found in South East Asia, the page recommends ‘always firing it towards your bum cheek first — to test the pressure.’
If you find that it’s too strong, there should be a small knob at the base of the gun to adjust the pressure.
Another gripe some users shared was the aftermath.
@RhiannonNorman wrote ‘I used one at the airport, but there was no toilet paper so I couldn’t dry? I ended up walking around with a wet arse after. How long should one drip dry?’
Mia recommends always using toilet roll to dry yourself post-bum gun.
‘A lot of people don’t use any tissue paper afterwards because it’s so hot in most of these Asian countries that you dry off in minutes.
‘But being raised in the West, I like to use toilet paper as the final cleaning stage.’
Are bum guns more hygienic than loo roll?
In many ways, a bum gun is far superior to toilet paper. It’s less wasteful and a more targeted cleaning approach.
As Rania says: ‘The commonly used phrase from washers to non-washers is: “If you had poop on your hand, would you just wipe it off with a tissue, or would you wash your hand?”‘
She has a point. And while using loo roll is still considered a standard protocol in the UK and Europe, there is some evidence to suggest that other approaches are far more effective.
For example, a study published in January 2022 found that when a bidet toilet was used, the number of microbes found on participants hands was significantly reduced.
But according to microbiologist Jason Tetro, the effectiveness of a bidet shower massively depends on the user.
He tells Metro: ‘A handheld showerhead can have the potential to create a mess. And that mess may or may not have come into contact with fecal matter.’
Jason warns that for newbies who aren’t familiar with bum guns, cross-contamination — that’s fecal matter ending up on clothes, shoes or skin — is a genuine concern.
‘So, in terms of hygiene,’ he explains, ‘toilet paper may be the best approach compared to a newbie using a shower head.
‘But if you have experience with the shower head and can minimise the spray and cross-contamination, then it will definitely leave you feeling fresher down there.’
If you’re keen to embrace the bum gun lifestyle, Jason urges everyone to ‘practice first!’ and find out what kind of pressure is manageable for you.
Only then will you experience the full effect of these magical butt blasters.
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English (United States) ·