I have just emerged, heat-flushed and squeaky clean, from the shower. The feeling is just as good as it has always been, so I'm struggling to figure out why it is that, since arriving in Romania, I've become so reluctant to shower.

There are some decent reasons: water usage, pollution from soaps and shampoos, the inevitable drying out of skin, the mounting evidence that one's hair fares better when it's washed twice a week (or less). The time it takes up, and the energy invested in post-shower maintenance (moisturising, blow-drying, clipping of various bits).
Such activities were never much of a deterrence before, though. At the height of my Bikram yoga days I was showering at least once a day, and this includes washing of hair. The only explanation I can come up with is that for various reasons I've drifted away from the habit since being here, and it will probably take some effort to get back into it.

In truth, there was a good reason for delaying bathing when I lived in Sighet: the soba. Having to build a fire, wait an hour, and risk severe burns not only from the searing metal frame of the water tank and it's heating unit, but also from the water itself in the shower--where the result of a stray nudge of the temperature control in a cramped stall was either a searing blast of near-boiling water or a barrage of icicles--often makes one reconsider the necessity of bathing. Much easier to heat a pot of water on the stove and scrub the stinky bits, and put the full-on shower off until tomorrow.
The relative exoticness of shower curtains here may have also been a cause of avoidance. While they're not as uncommon as they used to be, it's still a resounding lack of surprise to walk into a bathroom and see a bare tub with a shower attachment mounted to the wall ... and nothing else. Showering usually means, at best, coating the nearby surfaces with a fine mist of water, the little comets that ricochet off your body, the walls, and get flung out through the act of scrubbing, and at worst, puddles of standing water that make it look as though some miscreants engaged in a super-soaker fight in your bathroom. Even with windows and doors open it can take upwards of 24 hours for the room to dry out, and pity the person who absentmindedly walks in wearing their socks in the interim.
My bathroom is also rather mould-prone, so if the bathroom window isn't opened and the room allowed to dry out completely, the dampness generated from the steam will cause mould to start growing in the grout and around the window frame. Leaving the window open for hours in January can quickly become problematic.

All this serves to make showering seem like much more of a hassle than it did back home. And while I really don't have many excuses anymore--I've got a hot water heater, and bought myself a shower curtain and rod a few months ago; outside temperatures are more than comfortable enough to leave the bathroom window open overnight--I find that the shower avoidance still lingers. Which wasn't so terribly bad in the winter months, but come summer will be a problem. At this point it seems to be more a matter of reconditioning than anything else.