I am in California which does not permit multiple water sources in a shower at the same time.

This means that if I want to use a hand shower I would have to physically turn it on and off - i.e. divert water from the regular shower head to the hand held shower head.

I have changed my old tub/shower combo into a larger shower in the master bath with a bench at the short end opposite the short end holding the shower head. I had intended to put a hand held shower in the middle of the long wall so that I would have access to the hand held shower while both standing or when using the bench.

I had not envisioned a scenario where I would have to stop the flow of water from the shower head above my head, turn a valve and then use the hand held shower - and reverse process if I wanted to stand under the shower head again.

This seems completely dysfunctional in terms of how I shower (or showered) with my old hand held shower head that I lifted from its bracket when I wanted hand held functionality and reattached seamlessly when I wanted water to stand under - i.e. when washing hair I swap between hand held and standing under at various points.

So I am now thinking that functionally the way to handle it is to have some kind of slide bar shower at the short end which functions seamlessly as both a regular and hand held shower and a SEPARATE Hand held only shower in the middle for which I would have to turn off the main shower head. I would utilize this hand held only functionality when I was doing stuff at the bench end.

Has anyone else had to deal with this issue - if so, what did you do? It seems like a pretty common issue - at least in California. It seems as though other people would want dual functionality in a shower but perhaps I am missing something as physically having to turn a faucet to utilize the different functionalities seems awkward and dysfunctional as one would be left without any water at all while the water diverted.

I need oil rubbed bronze finishes if that enters into the equation of a solution.