I usually mix them with a hand held and the ability to turn off the rain shower since sometimes you might want a shower without washing your hair.

We have a rain head shower and a hand held shower. I do like the rain head one when I wash my hair and use the other one when I don't.

I have a diverter I think it's called that turns one off or the other or both on. It's nice. So you can switch it while shower is on even.

As long as it is attached from the ceiling and not the wall, and you have a hand held too it will be a nice look.

Not a fan of rain heads. I prefer to do a strong/good wall mounted shower head and then a separate handheld on a shower/grab bar (Jaclo makes really good ones).

Not all handheld shower bars are designed to work as grab bars. The Jaclo ones do dual duty.

I love my rain head. Mine is a 10" round, Hansgrohe set in the center of the shower so that I can move freely under it. My husband wanted a wall-mounted shower head, so we have that, too. Then there is a hand-held shower head on a hose. I am a large person and I love the rain head because it covers me in warm water. A wall shower head requires me to move and to turn to stay warm until the shower space heats up. At first, I noticed that my nose was filled with water at times when under the rain shower. I must have learned to hold my head slightly tilted downward, because I do not have that issue any more. I usually turn off the water and soap up, then turn it on to rinse. My thermostatic shower valve allows this without changing the water temperature. I almost never turn on the wall head. Sometimes, I soap up by stepping slightly out of the water flow, with it only on my back.

I've never liked rain heads. I don't want water streaming over my head for the duration of the shower. If I had to have one, I'd make sure I had a diverter so I could change the water flow to a regular shower head. For me, rain heads are not worth the bother.

I LOVE my rainhead. I use it all the time. At some point, I could see using the handheld attachment, but not for now! It's an extreme luxury, without a lot of $$$.

And, no, I don't wet my hair when I'm underneath unless I want to: I just don't put my head under it. Since my nostrils go downward, I've never had to worry about getting water up my nose.

My rainhead/hand held/on-off combination is a Kohler.

I have a 12" true rainhead that comes out of the ceiling. It's a second shower head in the shower.

Don't use it often, only when I want a nice little shower effect, usually at the end of a shower. When I use it, it is appreciated.

It's on its own supply valve, I prefer to run it at a cooler temp than the main head, which is a handheld.

I put a rain head in my kids bathroom, and when it was time for us to redo the master bath I did NOT. A true rain head doesn't have enough pressure to rinse soap out of your hair. It is just a nice trickle effect that feels nice, but generally is not that functional. I also have a handheld with a diverter.

I think the ability to rinse soap depends on the shower head. My Hansgrohe has plenty of water and washes soap out of my quite thick hair easily. Now, my hair is only shoulder-length and only a little wavy, not thick, long curls.

Why? I wnat a virtual ELEPHANT wash! The one that is scary forceful. MIne is that, and I shall die with it, and will it to my sister, who is jealous. It's a "hundred" years old, the restrictor long ago blew out and hit a wall ( it was forceful even before that ). Now ? I could power wash a house with it. When I want rain? I will wash outdoors.

Put one into a bathroom and my husband loves it. I am not a fan (and use the hand shower when I use that bathroom, which is off-center and a little annoying). For our second bath remodel, I didn't put one in. Our master is next and I'm not putting one in.

Yeah I was going to say people love them or they hate them. (I’m in the latter category.) Seems this thread proves that right!

can you try one out somewhere?

I always thought I hated rainhead showers because the pressure isn’t good enough for washing hair (my previous experience was hotel rooms). My husband really wanted one and he doesn’t ask for much, so we got one along with the side spray on a bar that I could use for myself (I mostly use the tub anyway so didn’t really care). Anyway, ours is great, plenty of pressure, I never use the side spray shower head. So it probably depends on the actual faucet and also on the water pressure in your house. FWIW, our shower system is this one: https://www.build.com/brizo-bb945/s973787?uid=2415511

I have PLENTY of water coming out of my rain shower head. If you only get a trickle, either your pressure is off, or the holes are clogged.

Love, love, LOVE my rain head! I really enjoy a long shower and being totally immersed in water at the end of the day. I agree with Patricia about also having a hand held in the same shower. I mostly use mine for rinsing the shower walls after cleaning them but it is useful for a quick shower when you don't have time to wash your hair.

The best shower I ever experience was in a hotel with a Hansgrohe showerpipe like this:

Hansgrohe Showerpipe 360 Rain Shower System with Handheld Shower, 2.5 GPM RainAir Spray and 3-Spray Handheld Shower Easy Install Shower Set in Chrome, 27112001 plus Hansgrohe 16181181 Exposed Thermostatic Basic Set

The shower in my remodeled bathroom is only 30" wide so I chose this:

Hansgrohe KS27185-16181CR Croma 220 Showerpipe with Thermostatic Basic Set

While both are rain shower heads, they are attached to the wall so one can move ones head out of the spray without completely moving ones body outside the spray. Hanging the shower head from the ceiling never seemed like a good idea. Neither shower head delivers the water blast like shower heads of the past. All are "low flow" these days.

Well, I think the answer is clear. If you are considering getting a rain head, try one out before you spend the money as you will probably either love it or hate it. ;-)

Often times the pressure or lack there of in a rain head is due to the size of the pipe feeding the shower head. We had ours upgraded from 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch. However, unless you're ripping out the walls and want to redo, you might want to rethink. There are options that give a similar look without sacrificing pressure.

Design Girl-

Shower fixtures are subject to conservation standards limiting the flow rate and are designed to do this over a range of pipe sizes and pressures. In addition, simply adding on several feet of 3/4" pipe at the end of a run of 1/2" supply line is not going to do much. The main problem with ensuring proper pressure is typically not that you have 1/2" line, but that you have poor supply pressure or you have old, corroded line, like galvanized, that is preventing delivery of the pressure you need to have a fixture deliver the intended flow.

Kudzu9 - It certainly helped a lot in my bath renovation.(of course we run out of hot water quicker as well). You can also take out the restrictor pretty easily (although you're not supposed to).

We installed a Hansgrohe combo with rainhead and a handheld that slides up and down. Makes the situation ideal since you can do either, plus remove the handheld off the bar if you want to spray down the corners, etc. Frankly I rarely find myself using the rainhead because I shower more often than I wash my hair, and when I'm not washing my hair I wear a shower cap, and standing under a rainhead listening to it hammer down on your shower cap is exactly as annoying as it seems like it would be. ;) So over time I just have found I use the rainhead a lot less than anticipated.

Design Girl-

Individual situations vary depending on the plumbing run. I was making a general statement so others wouldn’t think that what worked for you would automatically work for them, but I could have been clearer. As for removing the restrictor, I know it can be done for many fixtures, but there is a societal good that comes from conservation so I have mixed feelings about that. Your point about effects on how long your shower can last is an important consideration, too, and people tend to forget about that. I appreciate the dialogue, and am glad your renovation worked out for you.

I vote no. I don't want to have to lean back to keep my head out of the spray while I'm taking a shower. They don't have enough pressure, and waste tons of water.

If you leave the restrictor in place, you are getting the same 2.5 gallons per minute that you get from a wall fixture. I also find that having the water washing over me allows me to warm up so well that I turn off the water when soaping up. That saves water, too. I just stepped out of the way with the wall head. If I get cold with the rain head, I can warm up instantly after turning it back on.

STOP THE PRESSES!

Here's the rain shower everybody needs (babe not included).

I like rain showers -- and my husband likes them even better. He particularly likes to just stand in the shower with a soft trickle of rain.

I'd never want a rain shower that didn't include a diverter. I wouldn't want it "on" all the time.

wow, that is a great looking shower..Now I want that Hansgrohe:) They don't have the prices yet, but it definitely looks like something that would work for anyone

Totally worth it in our opinion, IF you live in a state where the water pressure is high. For example, in CA, the water pressure limit is 1.8 GPM, so it might not feel as luxurious as if you lived in a state that allows 2.0+ GPM. Hope this helps!

Hansgrohe Rainfinity on Amazon.

I love them if you also have another fixture such as a fixed showerhead and/or a handshower, and a diverter. But it’s really annoying if the rainhead is the only fixture. We just rented an AirBnB for Thanksgiving and it had a rain head ONLY. It was unpleasant.

We use a lot the Riobel shower Kit with the rain shower head, and a handheld(bar) which can be used as a head shower/regular or hand shower. Great quality, great price, beautiful.

I'm not understanding the comments from posters who have to tilt their head back or forward to avoid getting their hair wet. You can't tilt the rain head?

I don't get my hair wet any worse than a regular shower.

My rain head gives me a little luxe every day. My set up is a Kohler.

Here's mine, and yes, the rain head does tilt in all directions. My fixtures are Hansgrohe, but the shower head is Fortis Siena, on a Hansgrohe arm. The bottom knob on the diverter sets the temperature, and then the top knob controls the volume and selection of rain shower or hand-held. You cannot have both on at the same time with this, but I am fine with that. I love having a separate control for temperature.

Note: This photo was taken before the glass door was installed. Here it is with the door:

The glass makes it more difficult to photograph, due to the reflections.

The comments about tilting your head every which way are probably regarding the rain heads that are mounted out of reach. Ours comes out of the ceiling and it mounted out of reach. The AirBnB’s rainhead was also out of reach.

Ceiling mounted rain heads are a different animal than shower arm mounted. Rain heads tend to be mostly ceiling mounted, because of their size and weight. Those point straight down, and you can’t escape the stream. You are either in or out, not body in and head out. The smaller shower arm mounted ones are adjustable in stream direction, so you can angle the stream to not include the head. They are still large enough that the weight pulls on the shower arm and can lead to plumbing issues without additional bracket supports.

I can easily stand with my back in the water stream and my head out with a ceiling mounted rain shower.