It depends on the shower. In square shower stalls I usually move the shower head (or turn it off) and soap myself facing it. At home it's in a bathtub with the shower head in one end, and I turn away from it to soap (hair goes the other way around). My boyfriend mainly does it sideways so he can rest his head on the wall to gain some balance (he's disabled). If the "grab bar" you're talking about is what he should be using instead, I'd probably think first about which hand I'd rather grab it with.