Buying Without Guys

Cleanliness, safety and, please, no salesmen on commission.

On a recent road trip, I took a shower at a roadside Best Western. Given that motel bathrooms are never luxurious, my expectations were low. Still, as I stepped into the tub I was conscious of being distinctly pleased by the shower curtain. Hung from a curved rather than straight rod, it billowed pleasantly outward. It even gave the grim little tiled room a faint whiff of spa.

A happy accident of design? Not a chance, says Paco Underhill. In "What Women Want," Mr. Underhill explains that bowed shower curtains reflect...