Is a Handheld Shower Head Worth It? Why I Use Ours Almost Every Day
THE HILL HOUSE
After renovating nearly 20 bathrooms over the years, there are a handful of things we've become quite opinionated about. Heated floors. Epoxy grout. Skirted toilets. Cast iron tubs. And now we can add hand showers to the list :)
In the Hill House ensuite bathroom, we added a wall-mounted handheld shower next to the lever handle thermostatic shower set (all in uncoated brass, of course). I knew it would be useful. What I didn't expect was that I would use it for almost every single shower. So today I thought I'd share why I like a handheld shower head so much, how ours is set up, a few things we've learned after putting them in three different houses, and some reasons you might consider one too if you’re renovating a bathroom.
shower set w/ handshower (uncoated brass), wall tile, marble floor tile, marble base + pencil tile, skylight
First, just so we’re on the same page…
What is a Hand Shower?
A hand shower (also called a handheld shower head or shower wand) is a smaller shower head attached to a flexible hose. It usually sits in a wall-mounted holder or on a slide bar so you can use it like a normal fixed shower head or pull it down and direct the water wherever you want. Think dog washing or rinsing a kid’s shampoo out. Ours is paired with the regular shower head in the Hill House ensuite, so we can use one or the other depending on what we're doing.
Hill House shower sources:
Thermostatic shower set w/ handshower in burnished brass uncoated
Wall and ceiling tile in 3x12, white
Marble pencil tile in honed Carrara
Marble base in 12x12 Carrara, cut to size
Marble hexagon floor tile in honed mist
Our Hill House bathroom hardware was gifted by Rejuvenation, our long-time sponsor. As always, all products were selected by us.
We Didn’t Always Put Hand Shower In Our Bathrooms
We've built a lot of showers at this point, and our ideas about what makes a good one have definitely evolved. At the Porch House, we built what was probably the most luxurious shower we'd done at the time. It was a whopping 6'6" x 5' with two regular shower heads, and it was lovely. Honestly, I still think two shower heads are a great addition when you have the room, especially in a primary bathroom where two people might be getting ready at the same time. But I didn’t even think about adding hand showers.
Fast forward to the Farmhouse primary bathroom. That shower was 3' x 5', and for the first time we added an exposed shower system with a hand shower along with a traditional fixed shower head. At the time, we'd never actually lived with a hand shower before, but I liked the vintage appeal and look of them.
I remember being excited about it mostly because I figured we'd use it to rinse things down, wash dogs, and generally spray whatever needed spraying. When I shared the Farmhouse plumbing fixtures on Instagram, remember someone commenting that they loved using a hand shower because they were short and could comfortably reach and use it without dealing with a shower head way above them. Great perspective. But at 5’8” I still hadn't figured out the reason I would end up loving one.
My Favorite Reason for a Hand Shower: Keeping My Hair Dry
Okay, this might sound completely obvious to those of you who've always had a handheld shower head, but it was a revelation to me. Hand showers make it so much easier to take a shower without washing (or even dampening) your hair.
I only wash my hair about once a week (for a few reasons but mostly because it stays healthier, looks better, and saves time). And between runs, hot yoga, renovation work, and general life, I shower a lot more frequently than that. Sometimes twice a day.
With a traditional overhead shower, I can put my hair up and lean away from the water, of course. I've done that for approximately my entire adult life. But there's always some spray. The hair around my face and neck gets damp. I inevitably stick my head somewhere it shouldn't be. Even with a shower cap, my hair never comes out 100% dry.
But with a the hand shower, I just turn it on, leave it in the mount and keep the water hits below my chin. No wet hair. It sounds like such a small thing, but it's one of those details that makes a bathroom function better for me every single day. And those are the kind of renovation features that you tend to appreciate most. I’m all about upgrades that can make daily life a little better :) And I’m not the only one…
Other Reasons a Handheld Shower head is worth having
Hair preservation aside, there are quire a few practical reasons to consider adding a handheld shower:
Cleaning the Shower
This was one of the reasons I originally wanted one and it really is useful. Being able to spray down the walls, corners, floor, tub, shower curtain, etc. makes cleaning much easier than trying to throw cups of water around the shower. Especially in our Hill House wet room, where we have a larger tiled area and a clawfoot tub inside the shower space, being able to direct water exactly where we want it is really handy.
Kids
If you've ever tried to rinse shampoo out of a small child's hair while they're losing patience with the entire concept of bathing, you already understand this one. A hand shower lets you bring the water to them rather than trying to maneuver them beneath a fixed shower head.
Dogs
This was part of our original Farmhouse reasoning because we had Silvi at the time. Same concept as kids. Less wrangling. More targeted spraying.
Different Heights
This was the benefit one of our readers pointed out when we first installed the Farmhouse hand shower, and it's a good one. A fixed shower head is usually mounted high enough to accommodate the tallest person using the shower. That's great for tall people and sometimes less great for everyone else.
A handheld shower mounted within easy reach gives people of different heights another comfortable option. A slide bar can make this even more flexible since the shower head itself can move up and down.
Rinsing Without Taking a Full Shower
Feet after gardening. Muddy legs. Sandy kids. Shaving. Cleaning something that definitely shouldn't be cleaned in the kitchen sink...
Old houses and family life provide an endless number of reasons to need a hose ;)
Hand Shower vs. Regular Shower Head - Do You need both?
Personally I wouldn't replace the regular shower head with only a handheld one in a bathroom. I like having the normal shower experience when I want it, especially on hair-washing day. And Garrett generally uses the regular shower head. The hand shower is the additional tool that makes the shower more flexible, but for the record, you can’t use both at the same time - it’s one or the other.
So if we were planning another primary bathroom tomorrow, my ideal setup would be:
one good fixed shower head
one handheld shower on a flexible hose
controls that make switching between them simple
a hand-shower mount that's easy to reach
a second shower set if space allows
You don't necessarily need a complicated multi-head shower system with body sprays and seventeen knobs. Simple is usually better.
A few hand showers to consider
We wanted to share some handheld shower options in different configurations and price points. We haven’t actually used any of these ourselves (except the dream shower of course) but I’d consider each and every one of them for different projects…
Dream shower set
Lever Handle Thermostatic Shower Set With Handshower. In burnished brass uncoated $3,778
The flexible slide bar option
Single Function Shower Head, Hand Shower, Slide Bar, Hose, and Valve Trim. $863 in brushed nickel
The easiest option
swap your shower head for this 3-Spray Handheld Shower Head with Long Hose and Holder. $119
The Etsy Option
Unlacquered Brass Shower System: Rain Shower Head & Handheld Sprayer. $487
Exposed option with tub fill (so pretty!)
Exposed Shower System with Rain Shower Head, Hand Shower, and Hose. brass $749
Can You Add a Hand Shower Without a Full Renovation?
You don't need to be mid-renovation to get one of these. If your shower arm already has a standard threaded connection (most do), a slide-on diverter kit can add a hand shower in about fifteen minutes with no plumber and no tile work. It splits the water between your existing fixed head and a handheld wand on a hose, and it screws on where your current shower head already is.
The tradeoffs: you generally can't get a true slide bar without opening the wall, and cheaper diverter valves can feel a little plasticky compared to a plumbed-in set like ours. But for renters, or anyone who just wants to try living with a hand shower before committing to a full remodel, it's a legitimately good way to test it out.
Or even easier, swap out your shower head for one with a hose, like this one. You won’t get dual heads but you will get the flexibility to move the shower head, wash dogs, etc.
Where Should you mount a hand shower?
This was actually the question I asked all of you when we installed our first one at the Farmhouse! It’s nerve-racking to drill into tile and mount the hand shower hook and you want to get it right the first time. Because while the hand shower outlet (where the hose meets the wall) is set during rough in, mounting the head comes after tile so you have a lot of flexibility with where you put it.
And after living with these setups, my vote is firmly for putting the hand shower somewhere that is easy to grab while you're standing in the shower. To place our’s, we considered a few things…
who will use the shower
where they'll naturally stand
ceiling height in front of the hand held shower (since our’s slopes)
how long the hose needs to be
drain location
what you want to be able to rinse when cleaning
coordinating hand held hook within the tile pattern
If you're planning a bathroom renovation, this is one of those details you need to think about during rough in.
Is a Handheld Shower Head Worth It?
For us, absolutely! Would I tear apart a perfectly good finished shower solely to add one? Probably not. But if we're already renovating a bathroom and are plumbing in a new shower, I would strongly consider adding one. And if we weren't renovating at all, the fifteen-minute diverter version above could be an option.
This is especially true for:
primary showers
showers used by kids
dog-washing bathrooms
showers shared by people of different heights
larger showers and wet rooms
anyone who doesn't wash their hair every day
It's funny because when we first added a hand shower at the Farmhouse, I thought of it as a useful extra. Now I think of it as part of a really well-functioning shower. That's one of my favorite things about renovating house after house. You live with things. You figure out what mattered, what didn't, what sounded great but wasn't, and which tiny decision unexpectedly made everyday life better. The hand shower definitely falls into that last category. And considering how often I shower without washing my hair, it's getting quite the workout over here.
A Few Quick Questions
Does a hand shower reduce water pressure? Not on its own. Pressure depends on your home's water supply and the diverter valve, not the hand shower itself. A cheap diverter can restrict flow more than a quality one, which is worth keeping in mind if you go the retrofit route above.
Is a hand shower the same as a rain shower head? No. A rain shower head is a large, usually ceiling-mounted fixed head designed to simulate rainfall. A hand shower is smaller and detaches from its mount so you can direct the water by hand. Plenty of showers, ours included, have both a fixed head and a hand shower.
Do I need a plumber to add one? Yes f you want it hard-plumbed into the wall with its own valve, like ours, and you’re not comfortable plumbing yourself. A slide-on diverter kit (see above) threads onto your existing shower arm and needs no plumbing changes at all.
Have you always had a hand shower? And if so, what do you use yours for that I'm missing?
xx
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