When i was a small child in the 1950's the cottage we lived in didnt have a bathroom, so once a week my father brought a tin bath into the house and placed it in front of the fire and we bathed once a week, the rest of the week we used a bowl and ewer and had a body wash with a wash cloth.
from 1980 on I lived in appartment that did not have a shower, so it was washing at the kitchen tap. and boys I've been more contious about my body smell than then.
My mum had a similar experience in the US. And I still have my great-grandmother’s “dry sink” and the pitcher & ewer she used in the 1800s-early 1900s.
Coming to this 3 years late, but my grandmother didn't have indoor plumbing at all while I was growing up in the 80s/90s. She lived back in the "hollers," right up against a mountain, and her water supply was a hose that her sons pulled up to a mountain spring. I don't know how none of us got sick from that, come to think of it. We never had full baths there, just large pans filled with water and put on the wood stove. I think back on it often now, and wonder how many adults would be able to deal with that, but my childhood visits there were so idyllic. ...except the spiders in the outhouse.
I second the emotion on NOT using music - what a blessing it is! Almost all videos have some monotonous thing droning away in the background, and it adds nothing and even detracts from the narration. It is as if we are afraid of ANY kind of silence, even in the background, and it has to be stuffed with noise.
Hello from Sweden, and thank You for a interesting and entertaining historica UA-cam channel. !! ;) In swedish the word for Saturday is Lördag a short form of the medival Lögaredag wich means the day you wash yourselves. So apparently our medival and viking forefathers tried to wash themselves in some way at least once a week. !!
Not having a bathtub does not equate with being filthy. There was nothing to stop people from using a wet wash cloth (or similar thing) to go over the body and scrub it clean. Although some people may not have had the luxury of bathtubs, they certainly had the common sense to wash themselves any way they could.
Thank you. I lived in South East Asia for 18 months - I do not recall ever seeing a bathtub and very few of my colleagues had showers. They, and when I was outside of the capital city, kept clean by dousing with water, soaping and rinsing off with more water. It was very effective at keeping clean. In fact, when I returned to Australia and visited my home town, which was suffering the worst drought in living memory and the town was limiting water use, I suggested it as a way of keeping clean and saving water.
@@brontewcat I grew up in rural Australia & we had a bath once a week. We washed face, neck, armpits & arms each morning & at night washed face downwards ending at feet. Mum called it a bird bath. It didn't use as much water since we only had one tank.
They even used chalk to try to whiten their teeth. A woman on another channel used the Tudor method of of bathing using a linen cloth for her skin only for a year and an Edwardian method for her hair. After the year she asked people if she smelled they said no. She actually said she felt cleaner than any normal bath and the linen made her skin amazing it was like a microdermabrasion everyday.
It is great that you are thanking NHS staff for their service during Covid. Nobody gives a thought about about mortuary and funeral staff. We are always completely overlooked. We do a difficult job and we do it well
I have just discovered your channel and I love it. I wish my history classes were as interesting as your videos. I love and admire your presentation. Thank you!! Stay safe and healthy!
Yes, i wish I had too. I never had a luck to have good history teacher. It is very complex subject. I have quite good general knowledge across all areas but history is my week point.
The biggest problem with the twig brush is splinters getting into the gums causing gum abscesses. I happen to be a dentist, so this video is very interesting to me. You did a great job with the content.
Doc, I think it also has to do with the kind of tree twig you are using. Some (not sure about England) had high content of tannins (anti bacterial) . Others also when chewed would become soft and be like a tooth brush.
This kind of twig or root brush would be unlikely to give you splinters (but I'm sure it happened to some). The way they are used (still in some areas) is that you have a softened bit of root or twig, peel the bark off the top and chew the exposed end to separate the fibres, creating a very soft brush. It is not like the aged wood we use for building furniture etc. At least, not if you are using a fresh twig/root. I've tried it myself and it was more effective than a normal modern toothbrush and my teeth felt very clean, but some places were harder to reach and I didn't enjoy the taste very much. I did also find that as it dried out over time, it became harder to use as the fibres became more brittle. (Still, I didn't have any issues with splinters) I'm sure you could soften it with a boiling water bath but I gave up on the experiment instead. Theoretically, you are supposed to be able to use up the whole stick by cutting the used bit off and repeating the process of peeling off the bark again. I don't know how hygienic that would actually be if the bacteria got into the wood, but some types of wood are supposedly antibacterial and wood cutting boards have been found to not absorb bacteria as much as plastic ones, so perhaps the natural properties of the wood prevents bacterial growth better? All speculation of course. But it was fun to try it and surprisingly enjoyable! Caveat: I did only try one specific type of plant root, produced and prepared specifically for the purpose of cleaning teeth. It had been sterilised and was said to have antibacterial properties. I believe it was produced somewhere in Africa, so I do not have any experience of using local plants (quite tricky when you live in an apartment anyways). Although I have heard that birch twigs were commonly used and still liked by survivalists for this purpose.
My great grandmother used soot from the grate every morning for her teeth, using her finger. She passed away aged 81 with every tooth in her head intact .
I’ve been on full bedrest for 5 years due to botched surgeries. I live on a hospital bed in my living room. Take it from me, mental health issues from being cooped up are real! For me, the quarantine is just another Tuesday.
I’m really sorry to hear that, I wish you peace and happiness and I hope you’re able to live your life as you’d like to again!!! Sending you lots of love from Spain❤️❤️
So revealing myself to be major nerd here...one of my favorite hobbies is working on my 1/12 miniature 1270's castle, so of course I didn't include bathing facilities. Then one of my fellow nerds pointed out how historically inaccurate that was, about how the Black Plague made people believe water would kill you, etc, so I looked up "medieval bathtub" and found...contemporary illuminations of co-ed bathing parties in an enormous tub with a board slung across carrying a feast, while men and women are obviously having sexy fun time. As a dutiful mini historian, there is now a bitty tub with a bitty feast and bitty red wool curtains in the corner of my bitty solar.
I took a summer class at Christ Church Oxford on Eizabeth I and her court. The tutor told of some re-enactors who recently did a test to gain insight into this question. The group divided in half. One half regularly washed their bodies but not their clothes; the other half regularly washed their clothes but not their bodies. At the end of the experiment, the group with dirty clothes/clean bodies smelled badly while the group with clean clothes/dirty bodies did not. The clothing of the period was designed in such away that it could be washed--sleeves were separate from main garments and could be laundered, layers of washable undergarments were worn, men and women wore washable hosiery. So, I don't think body smells were a problem.
I've been enjoying your vids.Thank you. When I was a little girl in the 50s my grandmother and mother both bade us mind our open pores. We weren't allowed to go outside or change clothes until thoroughly dry and "closed". My great grandfather was a "horse and buggy" doctor (osteopath+) in rural US South late 19thc and this was something he preached. So funny to think of now.
i am just starting on medieval reenactment and whenever i finish an object or a garment, my parents keep asking me wether i don't want to age it with dirt or coffee or put some holes in it or wether the color isn't just to vibrant. I can't get them to believe that they had nice things back then and took care of them by means of carefulness, washing and mending
I wish I had a professor like you when I was in college many years ago. I too have enjoyed binge watching your channel. Best wishes from Augusta Georgia
You can get completely clean in a very small amount of water. My paternal grandparents lived on a farm in rural Namaqualand. The region is very remote and quite arid. They relied on rainwater collected from the roof and limited ground water. So while they had a bath tub, it was not used. Instead they washed in a small basin of water - and so did we whenever we went to visit. Children running around on a farm can get incredibly dirty, so this gave me a pretty good first hand experience in how very little water it takes to clean yourself. Recently my parents partially reverted to this method of washing due to the very strict water restrictions during the worst part of the water shortages in Cape Town. And this is something anyone can easily verify. All you need is a washcloth, a bathroom sink and some soap. Fill the sink halfway, soap up your washcloth and wash yourself with it. Rinse the washcloth out and wipe yourself down. Repeat the last step as required (you might need another half filled sink of water to rinse out the wash cloth, but that is really all you are going to need). It should be noted that large parts of the world still keep themselves clean with very limited access to water. And as we put more and more stress on the planets finite water supplies more of us might in future find ourselves reverting to this method of keeping ourselves clean. Cape Town might have been the first city to almost run out of water, but it is very likely not to be the last.
Greetings from Montana .... we are slowly coming out of self isolation. That isn't stopping me from binge watching your channel. Thank you so very much.
For a summer I lived on a remote property where my family were building a cabin. To wash, I had to fill at a spring box, and carry up a very steep hill, the water in two 1-gallon glass wine jugs. I quickly learned how to thoroughly wash and rinse my hair and whole body with the precious water, heated by wood that had to be chopped. I usually used the same procedure to wash my clothes; trips to the nearest laundromat were long, infrequent and expensive. It really made me appreciate, back in the modern world, my heated bathroom, shower and bathtub, and my washing machine, what luxury we live with every day!
I've been watching the video on Henry VIII. His various medical problems fascinated me cos my mom taught me a lot of things amongst which was the gem that he had syphilis and that accounted for his bad behaviour. Seriously, I'm a live in caregiver,driver and housekeeper for an old lady who has dementia. I'm 70 and we're all self isolating. I want to thank you for your kind words for us. I just love this channel and it shows one is never to old to learn. God bless
Very good stuff! Having worked as a guide in a historic building, I was always getting that 'nobody washed' thing flung at me - even other guides would trot it out because it's nice and gross. But as you so rightly point out, total immersion is not the only way of getting clean, so even if you didn't have access to a bathtub, it was perfectly possible to clean at least the important bits.
Great video! I believe the 2 words that get incorrectly used or understood are Filthy and Smelly. I think people were definitely smelly back then, there was no way around it. They worked, they sweated, perfumes and oils were expensive so the day to day person smelled. But back then the peoples level of normal smells were totally different than now. There was sewage, animals, smoke from fires. These smells were present everywhere, part of a normal daily life so bodily smells weren't much more than what they were used to smelling. The word filthy is where I think I draw the line on how most people lived back then. Yes, they did care to have good hygiene, it was part of staying healthy, so they washed in bowls or with rags, in lakes or rivers when they could, kept their undergarments as clean as possible, their living spaces etc. One family I used to know were Navajo in New Mexico. They lived in a Hogan and cooked with wood fires. They always smelled of bacon grease and wood smoke, to me, because it was a different smell than I was used to, but to them they smelled fine and they were very very clean in all ways.
I lived in SE Asia for 18 months. When I was in the rural areas I did not ‘bath/shower’. However I kept very clean by ladling water myself, soaping and then ladling more water to rinse. We know people in Tudor times had ewers, basins, washers, water, soap and towels. So why do we think people did not keep clean. I assume most people would have regular all over washes, just as people in poorer countries do today.
Agree 💯 this is exactly what I experienced (though in rural southern/southeast China). After a certain time your body adjusts into a more ‘natural’ state of being, that is NOT dirty or smelly at all, it’s just ‘clean enough’ -
Ruth Bashford The water may not have been clean enough to drink, but its England even in Tudor times I assure you there was enough rain to supply water.🙂
Some farmers who couldn't afford sugar and other luxuries used this special type of bark to brush their teeth which did have some antiseptic properties mint leaf was also used. Fellow historian and medieval enthusiast :)
My mum (born 1942) told me how the first house her family bought after the war didn’t have an indoor bathroom. Her dad added it after they moved in and it was a BIG DEAL. But they definitely bathed. Just in the kitchen in a tub instead of a bathtub in a bathroom.
I'm a living historian, who has then and again spent weeks using historical hygiene practices, and feel fairly comfortable saying that, yes, there is a reason this system of washing the face and hands, changing the undergarments, covering the hair was fairly ubiquitous around Europe for CENTURIES. Historical people weren't idiots. They would not have carried on spending all of that time and energy and money on things that didn't work. At the same time, I think our modern capitalist society has done a very good job of convincing us that we need this vast array of products and procedures that we simply don't need. And in some cases they even cause us harm that we then have to undo with even more products--using soap that you don't need dries out your skin, so then you need moisturizer, which suffocates your skin, so then you need exfoliaters, ad infinitum. I've actually ended up going BACK to doing a lot of my hygiene the 18th century way all the time, and my skin and hair is much healthier. And, I am less smelly. Yes, that's right, I am LESS smelly because not only do I smell fine on a normal day, I also smell fine if I forget my deodorant or skip a shower, because my body doesn't depend on those products.
Same here. Once my husband and I detoxed from all the commercial products we find we no longer need deodorant. That was tough - 7ish months of such greasy hair (me) and a very smelly husband.
@@amarellaharte574 my underams completely stopped smelling bad when I gave up deodorant and shaving, I need to wash them twice a day and give them a good scrub with a flannel sometimes a nail brush but it does the trick...only wearing cotton or linen tops and giving up polyester or viscose also made a big difference
I kept thinking as I watched this about the novel Shogun by James Clavell, set in 1600 Japan, three years before Liz I dies. If you're not familiar, it concerns an English sea navigator whose ship crash-lands on the coast of Japan. He becomes a sort of privileged prisoner/guest of the Japanese and one of the first things they make him learn is how to take a bath and wash his hair once a day. At first he's horrified but he learns to like it pretty quickly. There was co-ed bathing sometimes; the only rule was that a married woman must never be alone in an enclosed room with a man who wasn't a father, brother, husband, or son. As long as there were witnesses around, they could get naked and share the tub together.
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Hi Dr.Kat I love Ur videos and through the centuries it's interesting how they took there personal hygiene no wander they were full of diseases and died at young age.
I always find tidbits about everyday life in the past very fascinating. And, truly, they couldn't have smelled THAT bad, they had noses too :) I also recommend If Walls Could Talk - The History of the Home - Episode 2 (The Bathroom) with Lucy Worsley on this subject - it's on youtube and very entertaining.
I don’t doubt for a moment the smell could have been horrendous to our modern senses, while being quite the norm in that time. I worked internationally the last half of my working adult life, and I’ve been in a few areas where even today it’s enough to turn your stomach, or make people jump from one seating area on a less than full flight to another due to the stench of a neighboring passenger. (I’ve had that happen several times.) I’ve worked in areas where deodorant isn’t worn as the natural “aroma” is considered manly or virile... I’ve been in domestic process plants that were horrendous, yet the employees working there took no notice. I’ve curled my nose at the scents arising from a land fill, yet the operators carried on as if it was normal. So, yes, they probably didn’t smell bad to each other so much as by our modern “civilized” standards, I bet they were pretty rank...
Robert Taylor I’ve also been to places where “modern western hygiene” is not practiced. Our version of “hygiene” is actually far more “smelly”, since we use products that are highly scented.... and in some cases, it’s multiple products that all have a different scent. Think of it this way.... Shampoo and conditioner... one scent (if you use the same line!).... hair styler... another scent.... body wash or soap... another scent.... body lotion... another scent... deodorant... another scent... aftershave, cologne or perfume... another scent... laundry detergent or fabric softener.... another scent. I personally find this to be a scent overload...
@@tanyas6643 And many people such as myself are highly allergic to the smelly products other people use. I cannot use public transport and have had to leave concerts, movies and public places because of the modern smelly chemicals people use. I am not tallking in convenience - I amtalking potential death. :(
Some people were notorious for their body odour. The writer James Boswell was famous for his stench. Benjamin Franklin, when living in London, only ever took what he called air baths, sitting naked in front of an open window. The belief was that a clean linen shirt was all that was needed to be clean, linen being believed to have cleaning properties. When someone commented on how dirty were Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's feet she responded, 'if you think them dirty you should see my feet.'. Unfortunately it was a time of smells, but because everyone smelled it wasn't noticed as much as we would notice it today.
I worked as a pioneer of the American West one summer at a living history heritage site. Wearing a corset, several petticoats and black woolen stockings (terribly itchy and uncomfortable in the high heat of the desert!) were part of the job. However, when our director decided that we ladies should take it to the next level and practice Victorian era menstrual hygiene practices to make our experience more authentic she had a major revolt on her hands. She was actually clueless about ALL that this would entail. By the time we ladies were through explaining “the facts” to our “dear leader” she backed down. If asked (heaven forbid!) by a visitor (likely to be a woman) we ladies were prepared to take them aside in proper Victorian fashion and explain “the facts” as our DL afterward called them. Of course nobody ever did ask.
I agree. Unwashed hair has a definite odour. But, the very worst is unwashed, smoker's hair. Now that people don't smoke in restaurants, pubs etc., it is much more noticeable when you DO get a whiff.
As mentioned by Dr Kat, the "No Poo" method is interesting. I tried it to see if it worked. Yep. No one would have imagined I didn't wash my hair for 6 months. no smell.It requires brushing to draw the hair oils along the hair, and I have heard it isn't great for people with dead straight hair. I did wash my hair with modern shampoo. Now that requires my washing it every week.
@@flannerypedley840 It's difficult to spread oils evenly on super straight hair with modern brushes and combs. The best combs for straight hair have very tiny gaps in between the teeth/tines(?), not unlike lice combs.
@@munirahbakar4123 best brush that works for spreeding oils is a natural bristles brush. Like wild boar bristles. Cant say it works good for curlys tho. Amd some heads get never used to it even after weeks without shampoo
I have not used shampoo on my hair in 2 years. Instead I wash my hair with baking soda dissolved in water and rinse in apple cider vinegar, every 5 to 7 days. As you said in the video the first 3 to 6 weeks are horrible because you do not wash your hair at all with anything to give your scalp a chance to recover and stop overproducing sebum. But once you stop using shampoo your scalp stops overproducing oils (sebum). When you use shampoo, you are stripping out every bit of sebum from your scalp which causes your scalp to produce even more sebum. I have gone 3 weeks without washing my hair, and my hair looked fine I did have it pulled back and braided but it didn't smell ,and it wasn't extremely greasy. By not using shampoo, I'm not only saving money, but I'm also helping the environment.
I remember reading as a kid (probably in a Horrible History book) that when the Romans arrived in Britain, the locals thought they were completely disgusting. Because while the Roman's kept clean by scraping the skin, the Celts had soap, and thought the smell of the average Roman was pretty rank. Although, to be fair, it wasn't clear whether these horrified Celts were encountering mostly Romans in the military. I can't imagine that any group of soldiers is going to smell particularly fresh after a day-long march in armour.
I was surprised to see many skulls in Pompeii which showed excellent dental care, even in the elderly. Also, not been proven but, I suspect that the old Japanese upper-class penchant for teeth-blackening was an effort to hide tooth decay.
I have just found your videos and I love them. I love history and this era is fascinating. The information is wonderful, full of details that I have not heard of before. Thank you for them
Queen Elizabeth's attendants proclaimed that she "hath a bath every three months whether she needeth it or no." King John at one point in his life had eight baths in a twenty-four week period, averaging a bath every three weeks.
The linen lining of a wooden bathing tub was for comfort not to prevent leaking. There was probably some slow leak in a wooden tub until it swoll up a bit, but remember, barrels were used to store liquids, so they were efficient. I also sense that as long as you had the social means to do so, you would use some method to wash, even if it was just rubbing yourself with a rag. Also, il bagno is Italian for bath, it's pronounced "Ban-yo", perhaps in recognition of the Roman Bathhouses?
Pre penicillin, tooth infection was the number one cause of death. The nerve endings in the upper teeth goes straight to the brain causing uncontrollable fevers. The nerves in the lower teeth goes through the spine and the infection gunshots from there. An absessed tooth can cause septsis shutting down the body organs including the heart.
I absolutely love the fact that as I'm watching this video I'm literally sitting in a hot bath scrubbing my piggies 😅😅😅 But seriously, it's been tough sitting at home for this last month or so with nowhere to go. I want to tell you how much I appreciate these videos and the fact that you're sharing your knowledge and opinions with us. My primary source of maintaining productivity during these difficult times has been endlessly watching documentaries and videos like yours that analyze different points in history. I'm learning something new everyday which not only passes the time but gives me information to think about (in the bathtub) which really makes me feel good 😊 Thanks a lot! Keep 'em coming!! 👍
I can't self isolate as I'm a key worker. But I hope ur keeping safe. Never thought I'd see anything like this. Your videos are going to be well watched by me. I'm on my fourth already xx stay safe.
I usually work with kids in sport but I've temporarily become a live in nanny a la Mary Poppins for family so that their parents can work and have been sharing these videos with the kids I'm looking after, the older 2 are loving them! (The younger one is only just 4 and doesn't really understand yet)
I stopped shampoo nine years ago It took about three months to normalize but now my hair is cleaner and easier to manage than when I washed it regularly
In French, we say to be in a bad mood to be "de mauvaise humeur" or to be in bad humour. I think language is fascinating, when you think about the origin of the idea of bad bodily functions affecting mental state.
The 5 humours(or was it 7)were the early way of diagnosing disease. Choleric humour,black humour, melancholic humour etc being bodily liquids like bile,urine,blood etc that indicated particular ailments. Its fascinating.
King James I only ever washed the tips of his fingers. One of the Kings of France, Henri III I think, went unwashed until the age of 7. Even in the 18th century, the 11th Duke of Norfolk was only ever clean when he was blind drunk, because that was the only time that his servants could catch him and clean him. James Boswell was renowned for his powerful body odour, at a time when most people were smelly, so his must have been something really out of the ordinary. I've actually just finished writing an article on this topic. The British government taxed soap until 1853 and even as late as the mid 1860s a doctor was writing books about how to take a bath. It's a fascinating subject, a real piece of social, or should that be anti, social history.
What a great video! Thank you for correcting these common misconceptions. As it is, a couple of years ago, I got very exasperated with using so many 'essential' hygiene products that first of all were pretty dear and on top of that didn't work for me and so I took a look at what my gran and her mother used (I grew up in the country and few things had changed since the 'olden times', at least not when I was little growing up in the 1980ies). Anyway, neither of them ever smelled bad, had greasy hair or split ends but lovely hair and skin even though they only bathed/showered once a week if even that and didn't use body lotion or facial cream and they never used deodorant. However, they washed with clear water and a little soap twice a day, once in the morning and once before going to bed (they, of course, also washed their hands before mealtimes and after going to the loo!). After some deliberation, I decided to give it a go and turn back my 'beauty routine' by a couple of centuries, so to say. The first six to eight weeks were a nightmare but then... well, what shall I say, it was a downright miracle. The skin that had previously been all itchy and requiring lotion on a daily basis was suddenly nice and smooth and not itchy at all anymore, while my nails were no longer brittle. My hair, once greasy at the top and incredibly dry at the tips was suddenly shiny, sleek and easy to manage. These days I can go into bed with wet hair without combing it and still wouldn't have any trouble brushing through it the next morning despite it being waist-long. I wash it once a month at most using curd soap (which I also use for the rest of my body), though I rinse it with cider vinegar in-between washes. When working in the garden or being at home I pass on any kind of deodorant but still use it when going out. But, as you may have guessed, it's not the kind you buy in the shops. No, I use nothing but bicarbonate of soda dissolved in water and it's never failed me, unlike the stuff I used to buy. Bicarbonate of soda also works well as a substitute for toothpaste and to rinse your mouth, though toothpaste is one of the very few things I still buy. I also use perfume when being out and about, but very little of it. Now, I don't say that this would work for everybody, but we still have to keep in mind that the beauty industry is very keen on selling as many products to us that they possibly can and consequently, isn't really interested in things working - at least not long-term. The more stuff we 'need' (or rather think we need) and use to look and smell good, the better for them and their purses. And it's simply not true that if you don't use all this stuff you are doomed to be dirty and smelly. Funnily enough, I since have been asked quite often what I use for my hair because it always looks nice and never smells bad or what deodorant or lotion I buy. My answer has surprised many people but as yet, no-one has dared try it for themselves. Anyway, after this little experiment, I have gone further still and no longer buy any synthetic fabrics but only natural fibres if I buy clothes at all. Most of them I now make myself (also using natural fibres, of course) and it has made me appreciate them all the more. I'm positively proud of the few clothes I have and one really doesn't need much. On top of that, I no longer need to try and find what I want (though admittedly I hate shopping for clothes with a vengeance anyway) and, more importantly, I have clothing that fits me perfectly and is 100% my style. And no, it's not cheap to make clothing yourself!!! - It's both time-consuming and pricey if you want good material. But this or the other way, the only thing I'm regretting is, that it took me so long to dare take that step, but I certainly don't want to go back.
@@clobberelladoesntreadcomme9920 Well, as I said, I do wash with soap and water twice every day (morning and evening), using a washcloth. - Or rather two: one for the top and one for the bottom. It is only showering, or on very rare occasions bathing, that I do once a week. Seriously, otherwise, I wouldn't feel comfortable either. And as said, as well, I also regularly rinse my hair, while washing it with soap I only do once a month. It is overdoing things (using tons of products, showering at least once a day etc.) that I gave up, but that's something else altogether. Washing oneself every day is basic hygiene and that I'm not prepared to give up either.
@Maina Fridman No, just someone who dared to stray from what is considered normal these days by looking at the past, though with a little adjustment to my own needs. But thank you :)
As black teeth come from an excess of sugar and like the notion of white skin being popular as it showed you weren’t working in the fields, weren’t blackened teeth a sign of wealth ? Or have I made that up ?!
Maybe it was the Pirates who were smelly and had black teeth....LOL. Can't see them caring how they smelt or looked. But yea, I agree with you even before the Romans came to England people cared about those things. They used sage to clean their teeth, they bathed in rivers if they didn't have a tub. I do believe that they were smelly more in the 18th century then during the medieval or even the Anglo-Saxon periods.
My great-grandmother (1873-1954) lived most of her life in houses with no indoor plumbing. The last house she lived in had a running cold water tap in the kitchen - a real luxury! She had long hair down to her waist - she wore it up and kept it covered during the day with a dust cap or her sun bonnet. She would use a very fine-toothed comb to comb it and that removed any dirt there might be and distributed the oils so that her hair looked healthy and shinny. She never undressed completely to bathe - she always kept her pettycoat on. She mostly used an enamel basin filled with warm water and bathed in her bedroom. She never smelled bad or looked unclean or unkempt. She washed all her clothes by hand and hung them on a line in the backyard. She was a remarkable woman!
Well, this chocolate chip unknown Indian parent race of cat started out as male, (I guess an Actor Rabi counted Shirley, my faviorty actress who can play Black Geisha of NY on TV I guess - but of TN, not NY, sent by her twin, her mother's Dad, the Mujah Di Ha Deim ( My favority Rabi is from Iran, but I try to joke that Iraq owes me the (L_rd) Shaw too... if only President Reagan knew .. ) ) until her son- since she was a glory of a Keeper's CAT colony which Democrats targeted through Isaic Le Barron, ( who I stood in for government, education - he a Pope LED Democrat also knew I had been places, 13th day after Aztec calendar expired, in a position to re-negotiate for American's Benefit... YOu see OUR Abraham Lincoln is alleged to have been from Mullegon race, of Pakastani, Norweigan, and N. African, clerics of American Indian Origin; like the BLUE RIDGE BLUE EyED Cherokee... were the race that Fathered both President Lincoln, who's L_ady would not be liked by General Grant's L_dy, as I read in KILLING Lincoln. ) I guess Lincoln deserved to die. The Prophet, is really the WHITE (non authorized Bull Owner of Queen Elizabeth's rewarded Pirate's Land ) ... The Kingdom of Mormon was annexed to take place on HALLOWEEN... I have found ordinance in this place, proving such. AS owner of the HEAD master's house, was also the Doctor my Mom's Father was bargaining could be his, IF he considered to serve in medicine here, if he'd consider Family Practice ( or not as he choose ). So after HIS graduation from PEN State.. as a PITT Panther, is why I like to say I LIKE Panthers. NOT that I want, to mate with a BLACK President as beautiful as President Obama.. But HIS LADY has sent me Good House Keeping, and I don't want to try that. Well, it's really MY fault: they seem to think they can cancel my member ship in Silver Credit UNION. ... NO: I owned some either amulets of bracelets in sterling silver of known Chinese Characters... so like Black Jade in _Warlord_ .. .. Well, I don't know if the tribe of Ben were part Cherokee in the BLUE Ridge MTs. I KNOW the Business Man, known as Buggs Bunny did probably want to kill tweety bird.. .. But Sly, AKA Slyvester was a good boy: they cut him bad, and we paid 1k to keep him alive. NOW, if YOU want Amway, they made a pink litter that kept HIM ( a KNOWN Mason), alive... So I can give a link to meet Kathy Gallo, who are led by Amway mogal who got a monkey heart, in American way Dutch Trading. We do great make-up; but I have no idea what the color table is doing there... You are being given weird stories about dog breeding. I am ... Honored to have been BORN in the year, of the DOG: the biggest assest is loyalty, of a dog, who is always assistant to the highest Master ( I guess , in Chinese, that would be a 'dragon ).
One of my favourite things is the variety of subjects you present to us. One day we have teary eyes about a tragic happening, next there's visions into domestic life. I'm going to enjoy pondering points of today's subject. You made a great deal of (common) sense, I've realised fallacies regarding bathing etc, but hadn't really thought about teeth. Kudos
Wow!! What a fascinating video!! And, it sounds like school in the US are not nearly as cool as your schools. We did do American pioneer days and that was a lot of fun. My grandparents who were born in the 1940s and grew up in the 1950s have spoken of not growing up with indoor plumbing. They had to go outside to an out house to relieve themselves and use an outdoor water pump to bring water into the home and heat upon a coal stove. And, then after the water was heated it was dumped into a clawfoot bathtub. Now mind you this was in not in the country or mountains but the inner industrial cities of Indiana. Many families were very impoverished and still lived akin to that of the Great Depression. Most families only bathed on Sundays before Church and/or on Wednesdays also before Church.
I love Flora Thompson's book "Lark Rise" an autobiographical account of life in a small hamlet in southern England prior to WW1. The writer describes the prevailing method of keeping clean with basin, bucket, soap and cloth as, "I washes down as far as possible, then I washes up as far as possible, and I feels all the better for it." To which the response was invariably to ask what "poor Possible" had done wrong that it should be left out.
A subject close to my heart. Firstly, Bathing is washing but washing is not always bathing. Peasants had access to a plant called soapwort, whose leaves and roots when boiled produce a soapy lather. Peasants washed. It only takes a wooden bowl, some hot or room temp water and a cloth. They used rivers or ponds or lakes. As for the Rennaissance, Louis XIV did not bathe he WASHED in an herbal preparation daily or twice daily. He was fastidious about this. It wasn't that hard to do even for the poorest.
Sorry for being so late to the party here and probably too long too. Even if people smelled awful, you wouldn’t notice it much after a while. The olfactory receptors experience sensory fatigue. They stop responding when they are constantly bombarded with the same chemical. Your brain gets bored with the repeated input and checks out, too - this attentive/perceptual component is called habituation. This is why people often won’t notice their cat box or dog or whatever smells until they leave the space and then come back inside. It’s also the reason you don’t really notice the pressure of the chair on your butt. But I bet you do now! Because I just focused your attention on it - as a result you have dishabituated. Habituation/Dishabituation is actually a common method used to study perception in infants. First you present the baby with a repeated stimulus until they tube out. Then you change the stimulus and see if they notice/start paying attention again. This is how we know infants can distinguish their mother’s voice from other women’s, for example. Thank you again for an interesting video
I feel the use of linen to line medieval bath tubs was more to protect the bather from splinters than to prevent leaks. The barrels were obviously well enough sealed for wines and ale
Oh, heavens! I remember my Mum, I'm 66, tellling me that her Mother told her ,when she began her monthlys, that she mustn't bath or wash her hair. She didn't uphold this point of view, luckily.🤭🙂But, I know ,even when I was a young girl, the 'not washing your hair' was still quite a persistent custom .Goodness knows why ???
@@anitastone168 have no idea, especially as having our period was 'unclean'. My mum, bless, had my sister and I start with a belt & pad and it was during a sleepover that I first saw a tampon, and no idea what to do. This is funny-painful because mum was a midwife. Also up until the mid-90s, femine products were put intp a brown paperbag. My Gran also wouldn't let me go to sleep with wet hair, because you could get pneumonia.
Could you address something for me? Lucy Worsley states in one of her books that people of the Medieval period "literally did not know what they looked like." I believe that's a load of garbage. They may not have had modern mirrors, but surely there were other ways where they knew what they looked like for goodness sake!
Is the concept of dirty clothes needing washing, not an automatic connection a dirty, smelly body, would need washing too. I know Napoleon created the ritual of daily baths, but I'm sure eventually a bath once a month or so was an idea ppl had.its inconceivable, to imagine pustules, scales, rashes, irritations, the smell in the nether regions, would not repel close human contact, especially in the bed of a spouse or a kind stranger. Ewww!
Having recently learned,to my unspeakable disgust,that some people in the u.k. only wash their bedsheets once a year I dont think we are in a position to criticise!!! And bathing with herbs was used medicinally to even out the bodily humours.
Linen is still a superior material today - yes, it's expensive, but if you buy a couple of sets of linen bedding you'll never go back to cotton... Sorry, odd aside!
The thing is, by *our* standards they certainly would have been filthy. We have huge advantages in science, technology, and wide availability of hygiene products means that the average person now, by historical standards, is extremely clean. It may not be true that they didn't care at all about personal hygiene, but they simply *couldn't* be as clean as we are now and perforce would have had lower standards.
The one thing you didn't address was the complete lack of sewage systems. So any person walking down a medieval street might be splashed with urine and faeces from the streams of it running down the street, or have it dumped on them as it was emptied out of windows. It would have been handled too, with the emptying of pots and jugs, and no hand washing afterwards. I think their outer garments must have stank?
Fascinating! What about later when they brought in those wigs like Marie Antoniette? I read they wore makeup and perfumes to hide the smells from not washing, that bathing was thought to make you ill.
Hi. I was brought up in a small terraced house . The WC was outside and warm water was only available if the coal fire was lighted. We had a bath in a small tin bath weekly or fortnightly. Otherwise we used a bowl of hot or cold water to wash ourselves down. We stood in the bowl, soaped ourselves and poured jugs of water over us to rinse off the soap. We were not dirty and did not smell. You don't need a bath to stay clean!
This video is the perfect example of how those in the past were not unintelligent. I feel like nowadays, people often assume people in the past were ignorant. Your whole explanation of past hygiene (I was particularly struck by the linen) tells of intelligence given the limited scientific and medical knowledge of the time.
Bathing was not a regular habit even in the turn of the century London, Tagore reported in his travelogue. His hosts were in trouble when he told them that he took a bath every day. Finally a big bucket was brought for him.
First time viewer....just subscribed.....wonderful, interesting, and on point. Have always loved history and my hobby is reading........my great Gran, gran, and Mom always said there was no reason someone had to be dirty or smell.......a wash cloth could be made out of anything and some sort of soap was cheap or could be made. Probably no more people smelled in that time period than they do today. Smells are subjective and objective, so it’s up to the individual to present themselves as well as possible.
Royalty and the rich might not have been too smelly as they had many servants but I think everyone else wouldn't have smelt very nice. I think it was sugar that destroyed teeth so maybe the rich had worse teeth than the poor at one time. I understand that when sugar was introduced to this country it was very expensive and a luxury only the rich could afford. I did read that Elizabeth 1 had black teeth and also had a bath once a month whether she needed it or not!
“Bathing was a social and spiritual requirement in medieval times”. Seems it’s no longer a social requirement. It’s more of a solitary thing today. Although I do remember some fun social bathing with my significant other!
there is a BBC serie about farmlife in Tudor England, that told me that hygiëne among farmers was a serious issue and they preferred to rub their bodies clean on regular basis avoiding the skinweaking water. And when done regulary hair could be kept clean by combing.
@@kamion53 Didn't know about the farmers but I've heard that about hair. I don't see how the hair wouldn't become excessively oily but maybe without all the products we use today, hair would adjust.
I will add my thoughts, even though they match so many others. I am new to your videos in recent days and can't get enough of watching them. Each one is more interesting than the last. I first became interested in the Tudors because of the series by that name on Netflix. I have watched the entire series more than once. Your videos and the way you relate information is very entertaining, and gives us even more of a glimpse into what is a very fascinating period of history. I am American by the way, and it is very cool to read some comments from people who can claim an ancestral line directly from some of these people. Thank you for your videos, and thank you for your compassionate and well spoken comments at the beginning of this one. Best wishes to you as well, stay safe and healthy.
As usual, a fascinating talk. I am always reminded of when, after the death from puerperal fever of Queen Jane Seymour, and that ogre Henry VIII was again casting around for a suitable wife, he gave precise instructions to the emissaries sent to foreign courts that they should endeavour as much as was possible to put themselves in close proximity to the lady being vetted, "that the sweetness of her breath and the cleanliness of her body may be ascertained' - I believe I have quoted that correctly, even though from memory. It was obviously of great importance to him. He seems to have worried much less about the purulent stench emanating from his own leg wound...
Hello from Netherlands where I’m enjoying your history lessons. I like the way you inform us in a very interesting and most pleasant way. It is “education permanente” for people who are interested in history.
Millions of ewers and bowls were produced in the 19th century, and most people washed top to tail with them every day and had a full bath once a week. The process was the sequence, hands, face, neck, armpits, groin, feet. My mother and grandmother said they travelled on the trams and trains and people were rarely smelly, except perhaps some workmen whose clothes maybe weren’t changed everyday and smelt of stale sweat
Another great video, thanks. One question: do you know when soap came into use for washing bodies, either in Britain or the continent? I know that early soaps, made of fats and wood-ash lye, were unpleasant smelling and inconvenient and were probably used only for laundry and, perhaps, cookery.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure of the precise date but my understanding is that soap was (re?)introduced into Europe as a result of fighters returning from the Crusades - Aleppo soap being the inspiration. I believe that Marseille was an early European form from c.13th century. I also can't say how prolific its use was or how many uses it was put to.
@@ReadingthePast The use of soap, at least in the UK, increased after 1853, when the government removed the soap tax. It's hard to believe that something like soap was ever the subject of a special tax.
I am led to believe that Elizabeth l was very keen on cleanliness to the extent that her bath tub was fitted with wheels and towed behind with the rest of the baggage, as the court travelled the countryside on the annual 'Royal Progress.'
I'm wondering if people of the middle ages knew about the use of powder to suck up oils in the hair? I know the French knew of it in the 1600s, and there's a hair tutorial going around from the 1700s by a hair dresser from England who explained one of the first steps is the liberal use of powder after using pomade in the hair to suck up the oils and pomade.
"How can you tell he's King?" "He hasn't got sh*t all over him."
“well, I didn’t vote for him!”
@@JeanieD "Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."
Where is this from? A movie?
@@tahiranaveen monty python and the holy grail
Tahira S. You are missing out! You must watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail!! 🤣
When i was a small child in the 1950's the cottage we lived in didnt have a bathroom, so once a week my father brought a tin bath into the house and placed it in front of the fire and we bathed once a week, the rest of the week we used a bowl and ewer and had a body wash with a wash cloth.
from 1980 on I lived in appartment that did not have a shower, so it was washing at the kitchen tap. and boys I've been more contious about my body smell than then.
Snap
We did this too. People used a mix of soot and salt and a twig to clean our teeth!
My mum had a similar experience in the US. And I still have my great-grandmother’s “dry sink” and the pitcher & ewer she used in the 1800s-early 1900s.
Coming to this 3 years late, but my grandmother didn't have indoor plumbing at all while I was growing up in the 80s/90s. She lived back in the "hollers," right up against a mountain, and her water supply was a hose that her sons pulled up to a mountain spring. I don't know how none of us got sick from that, come to think of it. We never had full baths there, just large pans filled with water and put on the wood stove.
I think back on it often now, and wonder how many adults would be able to deal with that, but my childhood visits there were so idyllic. ...except the spiders in the outhouse.
I second the emotion on NOT using music - what a blessing it is! Almost all videos have some monotonous thing droning away in the background, and it adds nothing and even detracts from the narration. It is as if we are afraid of ANY kind of silence, even in the background, and it has to be stuffed with noise.
I completely agree with you !! I have always hated videos like that!!
Hello from Sweden, and thank You for a interesting and entertaining historica UA-cam channel. !! ;) In swedish the word for Saturday is Lördag a short form of the medival Lögaredag wich means the day you wash yourselves. So apparently our medival and viking forefathers tried to wash themselves in some way at least once a week. !!
I notice that the washing of oneself occurred the day before sunday, the day of worship. Clean body, clean mind.
I thought the Vikings were clean people & liked to be well groomed.
Not having a bathtub does not equate with being filthy. There was nothing to stop people from using a wet wash cloth (or similar thing) to go over the body and scrub it clean. Although some people may not have had the luxury of bathtubs, they certainly had the common sense to wash themselves any way they could.
Thank you. I lived in South East Asia for 18 months - I do not recall ever seeing a bathtub and very few of my colleagues had showers. They, and when I was outside of the capital city, kept clean by dousing with water, soaping and rinsing off with more water. It was very effective at keeping clean. In fact, when I returned to Australia and visited my home town, which was suffering the worst drought in living memory and the town was limiting water use, I suggested it as a way of keeping clean and saving water.
@@brontewcat I grew up in rural Australia & we had a bath once a week. We washed face, neck, armpits & arms each morning & at night washed face downwards ending at feet. Mum called it a bird bath. It didn't use as much water since we only had one tank.
Common sense might be completely different things in the past.
They even used chalk to try to whiten their teeth. A woman on another channel used the Tudor method of of bathing using a linen cloth for her skin only for a year and an Edwardian method for her hair. After the year she asked people if she smelled they said no. She actually said she felt cleaner than any normal bath and the linen made her skin amazing it was like a microdermabrasion everyday.
It is great that you are thanking NHS staff for their service during Covid. Nobody gives a thought about about mortuary and funeral staff. We are always completely overlooked. We do a difficult job and we do it well
That’s very true! Thank you for all you do. It must have been very frightening at the beginning of the pandemic.
I have just discovered your channel and I love it. I wish my history classes were as interesting as your videos. I love and admire your presentation. Thank you!! Stay safe and healthy!
Yes, i wish I had too. I never had a luck to have good history teacher. It is very complex subject. I have quite good general knowledge across all areas but history is my week point.
The biggest problem with the twig brush is splinters getting into the gums causing gum abscesses. I happen to be a dentist, so this video is very interesting to me. You did a great job with the content.
That sounds agonising - thank you for offering this context.
What about liquorice root? I know this was popular before the invention of modernised tooth pastes and brushes.
Doc, I think it also has to do with the kind of tree twig you are using. Some (not sure about England) had high content of tannins (anti bacterial) . Others also when chewed would become soft and be like a tooth brush.
This kind of twig or root brush would be unlikely to give you splinters (but I'm sure it happened to some). The way they are used (still in some areas) is that you have a softened bit of root or twig, peel the bark off the top and chew the exposed end to separate the fibres, creating a very soft brush. It is not like the aged wood we use for building furniture etc. At least, not if you are using a fresh twig/root.
I've tried it myself and it was more effective than a normal modern toothbrush and my teeth felt very clean, but some places were harder to reach and I didn't enjoy the taste very much. I did also find that as it dried out over time, it became harder to use as the fibres became more brittle. (Still, I didn't have any issues with splinters) I'm sure you could soften it with a boiling water bath but I gave up on the experiment instead.
Theoretically, you are supposed to be able to use up the whole stick by cutting the used bit off and repeating the process of peeling off the bark again. I don't know how hygienic that would actually be if the bacteria got into the wood, but some types of wood are supposedly antibacterial and wood cutting boards have been found to not absorb bacteria as much as plastic ones, so perhaps the natural properties of the wood prevents bacterial growth better? All speculation of course. But it was fun to try it and surprisingly enjoyable!
Caveat: I did only try one specific type of plant root, produced and prepared specifically for the purpose of cleaning teeth. It had been sterilised and was said to have antibacterial properties. I believe it was produced somewhere in Africa, so I do not have any experience of using local plants (quite tricky when you live in an apartment anyways). Although I have heard that birch twigs were commonly used and still liked by survivalists for this purpose.
My great grandmother used soot from the grate every morning for her teeth, using her finger. She passed away aged 81 with every tooth in her head intact .
I’ve been on full bedrest for 5 years due to botched surgeries. I live on a hospital bed in my living room. Take it from me, mental health issues from being cooped up are real! For me, the quarantine is just another Tuesday.
That must be so hard for you I’m sorry! I couldn’t even imagine 24 hours on bed rest I hope you are able to get through this soon!
Patricia Palmer As a matter of fact, I love real books and have gone through them like a fiend. I even grew to like trashy Harlequin novels🤣
colahu111 thank you.
Rishi Beauty I hope you've managed a way to avoid or deal with "bedsores" from such long enforced immobilization. Wishing you the best possible🙏
I’m really sorry to hear that, I wish you peace and happiness and I hope you’re able to live your life as you’d like to again!!! Sending you lots of love from Spain❤️❤️
So revealing myself to be major nerd here...one of my favorite hobbies is working on my 1/12 miniature 1270's castle, so of course I didn't include bathing facilities. Then one of my fellow nerds pointed out how historically inaccurate that was, about how the Black Plague made people believe water would kill you, etc, so I looked up "medieval bathtub" and found...contemporary illuminations of co-ed bathing parties in an enormous tub with a board slung across carrying a feast, while men and women are obviously having sexy fun time. As a dutiful mini historian, there is now a bitty tub with a bitty feast and bitty red wool curtains in the corner of my bitty solar.
Dana Glabeman I wish I could see a photo of your castle! I don’t suppose you have a photo posted somewhere??? I love miniatures ❤️
I’d love to see some pictures if you didn’t mind!
Dana Glabeman Pictures, please!!🏰
I do love a nerd. Well done you clearly are very good at it. 😙
Oh please I would love to see a photo of your miniature castle.
I took a summer class at Christ Church Oxford on Eizabeth I and her court. The tutor told of some re-enactors who recently did a test to gain insight into this question. The group divided in half. One half regularly washed their bodies but not their clothes; the other half regularly washed their clothes but not their bodies. At the end of the experiment, the group with dirty clothes/clean bodies smelled badly while the group with clean clothes/dirty bodies did not. The clothing of the period was designed in such away that it could be washed--sleeves were separate from main garments and could be laundered, layers of washable undergarments were worn, men and women wore washable hosiery. So, I don't think body smells were a problem.
Read Shogun.
jandipeach not sure I wanted to share that class
Chris Pink every body got a price
jandipeach THANKS! Very useful story.
I've been enjoying your vids.Thank you.
When I was a little girl in the 50s my grandmother and mother both bade us mind our open pores. We weren't allowed to go outside or change clothes until thoroughly dry and "closed". My great grandfather was a "horse and buggy" doctor (osteopath+) in rural US South late 19thc and this was something he preached. So funny to think of now.
i am just starting on medieval reenactment and whenever i finish an object or a garment, my parents keep asking me wether i don't want to age it with dirt or coffee or put some holes in it or wether the color isn't just to vibrant. I can't get them to believe that they had nice things back then and took care of them by means of carefulness, washing and mending
I wish I had a professor like you when I was in college many years ago. I too have enjoyed binge watching your channel. Best wishes from Augusta Georgia
You can get completely clean in a very small amount of water. My paternal grandparents lived on a farm in rural Namaqualand. The region is very remote and quite arid. They relied on rainwater collected from the roof and limited ground water. So while they had a bath tub, it was not used. Instead they washed in a small basin of water - and so did we whenever we went to visit. Children running around on a farm can get incredibly dirty, so this gave me a pretty good first hand experience in how very little water it takes to clean yourself.
Recently my parents partially reverted to this method of washing due to the very strict water restrictions during the worst part of the water shortages in Cape Town. And this is something anyone can easily verify. All you need is a washcloth, a bathroom sink and some soap. Fill the sink halfway, soap up your washcloth and wash yourself with it. Rinse the washcloth out and wipe yourself down. Repeat the last step as required (you might need another half filled sink of water to rinse out the wash cloth, but that is really all you are going to need).
It should be noted that large parts of the world still keep themselves clean with very limited access to water. And as we put more and more stress on the planets finite water supplies more of us might in future find ourselves reverting to this method of keeping ourselves clean. Cape Town might have been the first city to almost run out of water, but it is very likely not to be the last.
Greetings from Montana .... we are slowly coming out of self isolation. That isn't stopping me from binge watching your channel. Thank you so very much.
For a summer I lived on a remote property where my family were building a cabin. To wash, I had to fill at a spring box, and carry up a very steep hill, the water in two 1-gallon glass wine jugs. I quickly learned how to thoroughly wash and rinse my hair and whole body with the precious water, heated by wood that had to be chopped. I usually used the same procedure to wash my clothes; trips to the nearest laundromat were long, infrequent and expensive. It really made me appreciate, back in the modern world, my heated bathroom, shower and bathtub, and my washing machine, what luxury we live with every day!
I've been watching the video on Henry VIII. His various medical problems fascinated me cos my mom taught me a lot of things amongst which was the gem that he had syphilis and that accounted for his bad behaviour. Seriously, I'm a live in caregiver,driver and housekeeper for an old lady who has dementia. I'm 70 and we're all self isolating. I want to thank you for your kind words for us. I just love this channel and it shows one is never to old to learn. God bless
Very good stuff! Having worked as a guide in a historic building, I was always getting that 'nobody washed' thing flung at me - even other guides would trot it out because it's nice and gross. But as you so rightly point out, total immersion is not the only way of getting clean, so even if you didn't have access to a bathtub, it was perfectly possible to clean at least the important bits.
I get Baldrick and Blackadder from your intro😂....all he wanted was a turnip of his own
Great video! I believe the 2 words that get incorrectly used or understood are Filthy and Smelly. I think people were definitely smelly back then, there was no way around it. They worked, they sweated, perfumes and oils were expensive so the day to day person smelled. But back then the peoples level of normal smells were totally different than now. There was sewage, animals, smoke from fires. These smells were present everywhere, part of a normal daily life so bodily smells weren't much more than what they were used to smelling. The word filthy is where I think I draw the line on how most people lived back then. Yes, they did care to have good hygiene, it was part of staying healthy, so they washed in bowls or with rags, in lakes or rivers when they could, kept their undergarments as clean as possible, their living spaces etc. One family I used to know were Navajo in New Mexico. They lived in a Hogan and cooked with wood fires. They always smelled of bacon grease and wood smoke, to me, because it was a different smell than I was used to, but to them they smelled fine and they were very very clean in all ways.
I lived in SE Asia for 18 months. When I was in the rural areas I did not ‘bath/shower’. However I kept very clean by ladling water myself, soaping and then ladling more water to rinse.
We know people in Tudor times had ewers, basins, washers, water, soap and towels. So why do we think people did not keep clean. I assume most people would have regular all over washes, just as people in poorer countries do today.
But did they have access to clean water to wash with.
Same when I lived in Africa and India.
Sarah Dixon , in Kenya, water is not available. Some poor people haven’t had a bath for sometimes years.
Agree 💯 this is exactly what I experienced (though in rural southern/southeast China). After a certain time your body adjusts into a more ‘natural’ state of being, that is NOT dirty or smelly at all, it’s just ‘clean enough’ -
Ruth Bashford The water may not have been clean enough to drink, but its England even in Tudor times I assure you there was enough rain to supply water.🙂
Some farmers who couldn't afford sugar and other luxuries used this special type of bark to brush their teeth which did have some antiseptic properties mint leaf was also used. Fellow historian and medieval enthusiast :)
My mom used to give me “kitty cat baths.” A simple washcloth will do the trick in lieu of a bath sometimes, at least when you’re a child.
My mum (born 1942) told me how the first house her family bought after the war didn’t have an indoor bathroom. Her dad added it after they moved in and it was a BIG DEAL. But they definitely bathed. Just in the kitchen in a tub instead of a bathtub in a bathroom.
I'm a living historian, who has then and again spent weeks using historical hygiene practices, and feel fairly comfortable saying that, yes, there is a reason this system of washing the face and hands, changing the undergarments, covering the hair was fairly ubiquitous around Europe for CENTURIES. Historical people weren't idiots. They would not have carried on spending all of that time and energy and money on things that didn't work.
At the same time, I think our modern capitalist society has done a very good job of convincing us that we need this vast array of products and procedures that we simply don't need. And in some cases they even cause us harm that we then have to undo with even more products--using soap that you don't need dries out your skin, so then you need moisturizer, which suffocates your skin, so then you need exfoliaters, ad infinitum. I've actually ended up going BACK to doing a lot of my hygiene the 18th century way all the time, and my skin and hair is much healthier. And, I am less smelly. Yes, that's right, I am LESS smelly because not only do I smell fine on a normal day, I also smell fine if I forget my deodorant or skip a shower, because my body doesn't depend on those products.
can i ask just out of curiosity what you use to clean yourself and your hair etc?
Hands, face, pits and parts.
Same here. Once my husband and I detoxed from all the commercial products we find we no longer need deodorant. That was tough - 7ish months of such greasy hair (me) and a very smelly husband.
Amarella Harte I’d love to know how you detoxed your hair? What was your process/routine?
@@amarellaharte574 my underams completely stopped smelling bad when I gave up deodorant and shaving, I need to wash them twice a day and give them a good scrub with a flannel sometimes a nail brush but it does the trick...only wearing cotton or linen tops and giving up polyester or viscose also made a big difference
Believe me Dr Kat. I'm in the high risk group, self isolating, hoping for the best. Videos like your's help! Thanks.
I kept thinking as I watched this about the novel Shogun by James Clavell, set in 1600 Japan, three years before Liz I dies. If you're not familiar, it concerns an English sea navigator whose ship crash-lands on the coast of Japan. He becomes a sort of privileged prisoner/guest of the Japanese and one of the first things they make him learn is how to take a bath and wash his hair once a day. At first he's horrified but he learns to like it pretty quickly. There was co-ed bathing sometimes; the only rule was that a married woman must never be alone in an enclosed room with a man who wasn't a father, brother, husband, or son. As long as there were witnesses around, they could get naked and share the tub together.
Many thanks ... you connect historical info and interpretation with compassion. It’s very compelling!
When I said that I wanted to be a part of history, this wasn't what I had in mind! Thank you for the content 😁
I feel you! I will remember to be careful what I wish for in future, for sure! I am glad you are enjoying the channel.
Gusty hue guru yeti ifu hutu dyke ugh uni iii iggie hui jute yuh iii iris yuk eiii ute iggie hui jute yuh iii iris hui eiii ute end this b;?:বন্ধুর বুহনুবও,কবৃ,মব/৪',',;/+৫ বনবহন
Hi Dr.Kat I love Ur videos and through the centuries it's interesting how they took there personal hygiene no wander they were full of diseases and died at young age.
From New Zealand. I am reading Hilary Mantel's "The Mirror and the Light". Your video gives me a better understanding of the times. Thank you.
I always find tidbits about everyday life in the past very fascinating. And, truly, they couldn't have smelled THAT bad, they had noses too :) I also recommend If Walls Could Talk - The History of the Home - Episode 2 (The Bathroom) with Lucy Worsley on this subject - it's on youtube and very entertaining.
I don’t doubt for a moment the smell could have been horrendous to our modern senses, while being quite the norm in that time. I worked internationally the last half of my working adult life, and I’ve been in a few areas where even today it’s enough to turn your stomach, or make people jump from one seating area on a less than full flight to another due to the stench of a neighboring passenger. (I’ve had that happen several times.) I’ve worked in areas where deodorant isn’t worn as the natural “aroma” is considered manly or virile... I’ve been in domestic process plants that were horrendous, yet the employees working there took no notice. I’ve curled my nose at the scents arising from a land fill, yet the operators carried on as if it was normal. So, yes, they probably didn’t smell bad to each other so much as by our modern “civilized” standards, I bet they were pretty rank...
Robert Taylor I’ve also been to places where “modern western hygiene” is not practiced. Our version of “hygiene” is actually far more “smelly”, since we use products that are highly scented.... and in some cases, it’s multiple products that all have a different scent. Think of it this way.... Shampoo and conditioner... one scent (if you use the same line!).... hair styler... another scent.... body wash or soap... another scent.... body lotion... another scent... deodorant... another scent... aftershave, cologne or perfume... another scent... laundry detergent or fabric softener.... another scent. I personally find this to be a scent overload...
@@tanyas6643 And many people such as myself are highly allergic to the smelly products other people use. I cannot use public transport and have had to leave concerts, movies and public places because of the modern smelly chemicals people use. I am not tallking in convenience - I amtalking potential death. :(
Some people were notorious for their body odour. The writer James Boswell was famous for his stench. Benjamin Franklin, when living in London, only ever took what he called air baths, sitting naked in front of an open window. The belief was that a clean linen shirt was all that was needed to be clean, linen being believed to have cleaning properties. When someone commented on how dirty were Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's feet she responded, 'if you think them dirty you should see my feet.'. Unfortunately it was a time of smells, but because everyone smelled it wasn't noticed as much as we would notice it today.
I find the daily life extremely fascinating, also.
Add the 'one hundred strikes a night' of hair care, popular until pretty recently, which redistributes oils to the ends of long hair.
I worked as a pioneer of the American West one summer at a living history heritage site. Wearing a corset, several petticoats and black woolen stockings (terribly itchy and uncomfortable in the high heat of the desert!) were part of the job. However, when our director decided that we ladies should take it to the next level and practice Victorian era menstrual hygiene practices to make our experience more authentic she had a major revolt on her hands. She was actually clueless about ALL that this would entail. By the time we ladies were through explaining “the facts” to our “dear leader” she backed down. If asked (heaven forbid!) by a visitor (likely to be a woman) we ladies were prepared to take them aside in proper Victorian fashion and explain “the facts” as our DL afterward called them. Of course nobody ever did ask.
I have the sudden urge to brush my teeth again.
I hate scalp smell, my dread is being behind someone in line who didn't wash their hair : (
I agree. Unwashed hair has a definite odour. But, the very worst is unwashed, smoker's hair. Now that people don't smoke in restaurants, pubs etc., it is much more noticeable when you DO get a whiff.
With you on that one.
As mentioned by Dr Kat, the "No Poo" method is interesting. I tried it to see if it worked. Yep. No one would have imagined I didn't wash my hair for 6 months. no smell.It requires brushing to draw the hair oils along the hair, and I have heard it isn't great for people with dead straight hair. I did wash my hair with modern shampoo. Now that requires my washing it every week.
@@flannerypedley840 It's difficult to spread oils evenly on super straight hair with modern brushes and combs. The best combs for straight hair have very tiny gaps in between the teeth/tines(?), not unlike lice combs.
@@munirahbakar4123 best brush that works for spreeding oils is a natural bristles brush. Like wild boar bristles.
Cant say it works good for curlys tho. Amd some heads get never used to it even after weeks without shampoo
I have not used shampoo on my hair in 2 years. Instead I wash my hair with baking soda dissolved in water and rinse in apple cider vinegar, every 5 to 7 days. As you said in the video the first 3 to 6 weeks are horrible because you do not wash your hair at all with anything to give your scalp a chance to recover and stop overproducing sebum. But once you stop using shampoo your scalp stops overproducing oils (sebum). When you use shampoo, you are stripping out every bit of sebum from your scalp which causes your scalp to produce even more sebum. I have gone 3 weeks without washing my hair, and my hair looked fine I did have it pulled back and braided but it didn't smell ,and it wasn't extremely greasy. By not using shampoo, I'm not only saving money, but I'm also helping the environment.
I remember reading as a kid (probably in a Horrible History book) that when the Romans arrived in Britain, the locals thought they were completely disgusting. Because while the Roman's kept clean by scraping the skin, the Celts had soap, and thought the smell of the average Roman was pretty rank.
Although, to be fair, it wasn't clear whether these horrified Celts were encountering mostly Romans in the military. I can't imagine that any group of soldiers is going to smell particularly fresh after a day-long march in armour.
I was surprised to see many skulls in Pompeii which showed excellent dental care, even in the elderly. Also, not been proven but, I suspect that the old Japanese upper-class penchant for teeth-blackening was an effort to hide tooth decay.
I wish I had had history professors like you. You make it come alive.
I have just found your videos and I love them. I love history and this era is fascinating. The information is wonderful, full of details that I have not heard of before. Thank you for them
I love the decorative Swiss Army knife of hygiene. Very neat. Love your videos.
The Vikings had them too!
Queen Elizabeth's attendants proclaimed that she "hath a bath every three months whether she needeth it or no." King John at one point in his life had eight baths in a twenty-four week period, averaging a bath every three weeks.
The linen lining of a wooden bathing tub was for comfort not to prevent leaking. There was probably some slow leak in a wooden tub until it swoll up a bit, but remember, barrels were used to store liquids, so they were efficient. I also sense that as long as you had the social means to do so, you would use some method to wash, even if it was just rubbing yourself with a rag. Also, il bagno is Italian for bath, it's pronounced "Ban-yo", perhaps in recognition of the Roman Bathhouses?
Pre penicillin, tooth infection was the number one cause of death. The nerve endings in the upper teeth goes straight to the brain causing uncontrollable fevers.
The nerves in the lower teeth goes through the spine and the infection gunshots from there. An absessed tooth can cause septsis shutting down the body organs including the heart.
I absolutely love the fact that as I'm watching this video I'm literally sitting in a hot bath scrubbing my piggies 😅😅😅
But seriously, it's been tough sitting at home for this last month or so with nowhere to go. I want to tell you how much I appreciate these videos and the fact that you're sharing your knowledge and opinions with us. My primary source of maintaining productivity during these difficult times has been endlessly watching documentaries and videos like yours that analyze different points in history. I'm learning something new everyday which not only passes the time but gives me information to think about (in the bathtub) which really makes me feel good 😊 Thanks a lot! Keep 'em coming!! 👍
I can't self isolate as I'm a key worker. But I hope ur keeping safe. Never thought I'd see anything like this. Your videos are going to be well watched by me. I'm on my fourth already xx stay safe.
Yaaaaaaay, you! Thank you!
I usually work with kids in sport but I've temporarily become a live in nanny a la Mary Poppins for family so that their parents can work and have been sharing these videos with the kids I'm looking after, the older 2 are loving them! (The younger one is only just 4 and doesn't really understand yet)
Basin baths are still an effective and normal thing. Water, soap, and a wash cloth do a fine job when one can't shower or bathe for whatever reason.
I stopped shampoo nine years ago
It took about three months to normalize but now my hair is cleaner and easier to manage than when I washed it regularly
Thank you for this channel ! I love it! ❤❤
In French, we say to be in a bad mood to be "de mauvaise humeur" or to be in bad humour. I think language is fascinating, when you think about the origin of the idea of bad bodily functions affecting mental state.
The 5 humours(or was it 7)were the early way of diagnosing disease. Choleric humour,black humour, melancholic humour etc being bodily liquids like bile,urine,blood etc that indicated particular ailments. Its fascinating.
Surely they washed their "smelly parts" when needed.
King James I only ever washed the tips of his fingers. One of the Kings of France, Henri III I think, went unwashed until the age of 7. Even in the 18th century, the 11th Duke of Norfolk was only ever clean when he was blind drunk, because that was the only time that his servants could catch him and clean him. James Boswell was renowned for his powerful body odour, at a time when most people were smelly, so his must have been something really out of the ordinary. I've actually just finished writing an article on this topic. The British government taxed soap until 1853 and even as late as the mid 1860s a doctor was writing books about how to take a bath. It's a fascinating subject, a real piece of social, or should that be anti, social history.
Haha. Medieval swamp butt! 😂
What a great video! Thank you for correcting these common misconceptions. As it is, a couple of years ago, I got very exasperated with using so many 'essential' hygiene products that first of all were pretty dear and on top of that didn't work for me and so I took a look at what my gran and her mother used (I grew up in the country and few things had changed since the 'olden times', at least not when I was little growing up in the 1980ies). Anyway, neither of them ever smelled bad, had greasy hair or split ends but lovely hair and skin even though they only bathed/showered once a week if even that and didn't use body lotion or facial cream and they never used deodorant. However, they washed with clear water and a little soap twice a day, once in the morning and once before going to bed (they, of course, also washed their hands before mealtimes and after going to the loo!). After some deliberation, I decided to give it a go and turn back my 'beauty routine' by a couple of centuries, so to say. The first six to eight weeks were a nightmare but then... well, what shall I say, it was a downright miracle.
The skin that had previously been all itchy and requiring lotion on a daily basis was suddenly nice and smooth and not itchy at all anymore, while my nails were no longer brittle. My hair, once greasy at the top and incredibly dry at the tips was suddenly shiny, sleek and easy to manage. These days I can go into bed with wet hair without combing it and still wouldn't have any trouble brushing through it the next morning despite it being waist-long. I wash it once a month at most using curd soap (which I also use for the rest of my body), though I rinse it with cider vinegar in-between washes. When working in the garden or being at home I pass on any kind of deodorant but still use it when going out. But, as you may have guessed, it's not the kind you buy in the shops. No, I use nothing but bicarbonate of soda dissolved in water and it's never failed me, unlike the stuff I used to buy. Bicarbonate of soda also works well as a substitute for toothpaste and to rinse your mouth, though toothpaste is one of the very few things I still buy. I also use perfume when being out and about, but very little of it.
Now, I don't say that this would work for everybody, but we still have to keep in mind that the beauty industry is very keen on selling as many products to us that they possibly can and consequently, isn't really interested in things working - at least not long-term. The more stuff we 'need' (or rather think we need) and use to look and smell good, the better for them and their purses. And it's simply not true that if you don't use all this stuff you are doomed to be dirty and smelly. Funnily enough, I since have been asked quite often what I use for my hair because it always looks nice and never smells bad or what deodorant or lotion I buy. My answer has surprised many people but as yet, no-one has dared try it for themselves.
Anyway, after this little experiment, I have gone further still and no longer buy any synthetic fabrics but only natural fibres if I buy clothes at all. Most of them I now make myself (also using natural fibres, of course) and it has made me appreciate them all the more. I'm positively proud of the few clothes I have and one really doesn't need much. On top of that, I no longer need to try and find what I want (though admittedly I hate shopping for clothes with a vengeance anyway) and, more importantly, I have clothing that fits me perfectly and is 100% my style. And no, it's not cheap to make clothing yourself!!! - It's both time-consuming and pricey if you want good material. But this or the other way, the only thing I'm regretting is, that it took me so long to dare take that step, but I certainly don't want to go back.
i agree with minimal-izing your beauty products but I don't think I could live without washing my butt with soap and hot water at least once a day.
@@clobberelladoesntreadcomme9920 Well, as I said, I do wash with soap and water twice every day (morning and evening), using a washcloth. - Or rather two: one for the top and one for the bottom. It is only showering, or on very rare occasions bathing, that I do once a week. Seriously, otherwise, I wouldn't feel comfortable either. And as said, as well, I also regularly rinse my hair, while washing it with soap I only do once a month. It is overdoing things (using tons of products, showering at least once a day etc.) that I gave up, but that's something else altogether. Washing oneself every day is basic hygiene and that I'm not prepared to give up either.
@Maina Fridman No, just someone who dared to stray from what is considered normal these days by looking at the past, though with a little adjustment to my own needs. But thank you :)
As black teeth come from an excess of sugar and like the notion of white skin being popular as it showed you weren’t working in the fields, weren’t blackened teeth a sign of wealth ? Or have I made that up ?!
They were. So much so that people who couldn't afford sugar would blacken their teeth, to make it look as if they could.
Maybe it was the Pirates who were smelly and had black teeth....LOL. Can't see them caring how they smelt or looked. But yea, I agree with you even before the Romans came to England people cared about those things. They used sage to clean their teeth, they bathed in rivers if they didn't have a tub. I do believe that they were smelly more in the 18th century then during the medieval or even the Anglo-Saxon periods.
My great-grandmother (1873-1954) lived most of her life in houses with no indoor plumbing. The last house she lived in had a running cold water tap in the kitchen - a real luxury! She had long hair down to her waist - she wore it up and kept it covered during the day with a dust cap or her sun bonnet. She would use a very fine-toothed comb to comb it and that removed any dirt there might be and distributed the oils so that her hair looked healthy and shinny. She never undressed completely to bathe - she always kept her pettycoat on. She mostly used an enamel basin filled with warm water and bathed in her bedroom. She never smelled bad or looked unclean or unkempt. She washed all her clothes by hand and hung them on a line in the backyard. She was a remarkable woman!
Well, this chocolate chip unknown Indian parent race of cat started out as male, (I guess an Actor Rabi counted Shirley, my faviorty actress who can play Black Geisha of NY on TV I guess - but of TN, not NY, sent by her twin, her mother's Dad, the Mujah Di Ha Deim ( My favority Rabi is from Iran, but I try to joke that Iraq owes me the (L_rd) Shaw too... if only President Reagan knew .. ) ) until her son- since she was a glory of a Keeper's CAT colony which Democrats targeted through Isaic Le Barron, ( who I stood in for government, education - he a Pope LED Democrat also knew I had been places, 13th day after Aztec calendar expired, in a position to re-negotiate for American's Benefit... YOu see OUR Abraham Lincoln is alleged to have been from Mullegon race, of Pakastani, Norweigan, and N. African, clerics of American Indian Origin; like the BLUE RIDGE BLUE EyED Cherokee... were the race that Fathered both President Lincoln, who's L_ady would not be liked by General Grant's L_dy, as I read in KILLING Lincoln. ) I guess Lincoln deserved to die. The Prophet, is really the WHITE (non authorized Bull Owner of Queen Elizabeth's rewarded Pirate's Land ) ... The Kingdom of Mormon was annexed to take place on HALLOWEEN... I have found ordinance in this place, proving such. AS owner of the HEAD master's house, was also the Doctor my Mom's Father was bargaining could be his, IF he considered to serve in medicine here, if he'd consider Family Practice ( or not as he choose ). So after HIS graduation from PEN State.. as a PITT Panther, is why I like to say I LIKE Panthers. NOT that I want, to mate with a BLACK President as beautiful as President Obama.. But HIS LADY has sent me Good House Keeping, and I don't want to try that. Well, it's really MY fault: they seem to think they can cancel my member ship in Silver Credit UNION. ... NO: I owned some either amulets of bracelets in sterling silver of known Chinese Characters... so like Black Jade in _Warlord_ .. .. Well, I don't know if the tribe of Ben were part Cherokee in the BLUE Ridge MTs. I KNOW the Business Man, known as Buggs Bunny did probably want to kill tweety bird.. .. But Sly, AKA Slyvester was a good boy: they cut him bad, and we paid 1k to keep him alive. NOW, if YOU want Amway, they made a pink litter that kept HIM ( a KNOWN Mason), alive... So I can give a link to meet Kathy Gallo, who are led by Amway mogal who got a monkey heart, in American way Dutch Trading. We do great make-up; but I have no idea what the color table is doing there...
You are being given weird stories about dog breeding. I am ... Honored to have been BORN in the year, of the DOG: the biggest assest is loyalty, of a dog, who is always assistant to the highest Master ( I guess , in Chinese, that would be a 'dragon ).
One of my favourite things is the variety of subjects you present to us. One day we have teary eyes about a tragic happening, next there's visions into domestic life.
I'm going to enjoy pondering points of today's subject. You made a great deal of (common) sense, I've realised fallacies regarding bathing etc, but hadn't really thought about teeth.
Kudos
Wow!! What a fascinating video!! And, it sounds like school in the US are not nearly as cool as your schools. We did do American pioneer days and that was a lot of fun.
My grandparents who were born in the 1940s and grew up in the 1950s have spoken of not growing up with indoor plumbing. They had to go outside to an out house to relieve themselves and use an outdoor water pump to bring water into the home and heat upon a coal stove. And, then after the water was heated it was dumped into a clawfoot bathtub. Now mind you this was in not in the country or mountains but the inner industrial cities of Indiana. Many families were very impoverished and still lived akin to that of the Great Depression. Most families only bathed on Sundays before Church and/or on Wednesdays also before Church.
I love Flora Thompson's book "Lark Rise" an autobiographical account of life in a small hamlet in southern England prior to WW1. The writer describes the prevailing method of keeping clean with basin, bucket, soap and cloth as, "I washes down as far as possible, then I washes up as far as possible, and I feels all the better for it." To which the response was invariably to ask what "poor Possible" had done wrong that it should be left out.
A subject close to my heart. Firstly, Bathing is washing but washing is not always bathing. Peasants had access to a plant called soapwort, whose leaves and roots when boiled produce a soapy lather. Peasants washed. It only takes a wooden bowl, some hot or room temp water and a cloth. They used rivers or ponds or lakes. As for the Rennaissance, Louis XIV did not bathe he WASHED in an herbal preparation daily or twice daily. He was fastidious about this. It wasn't that hard to do even for the poorest.
Sorry for being so late to the party here and probably too long too.
Even if people smelled awful, you wouldn’t notice it much after a while. The olfactory receptors experience sensory fatigue. They stop responding when they are constantly bombarded with the same chemical. Your brain gets bored with the repeated input and checks out, too - this attentive/perceptual component is called habituation.
This is why people often won’t notice their cat box or dog or whatever smells until they leave the space and then come back inside. It’s also the reason you don’t really notice the pressure of the chair on your butt. But I bet you do now! Because I just focused your attention on it - as a result you have dishabituated.
Habituation/Dishabituation is actually a common method used to study perception in infants. First you present the baby with a repeated stimulus until they tube out. Then you change the stimulus and see if they notice/start paying attention again. This is how we know infants can distinguish their mother’s voice from other women’s, for example.
Thank you again for an interesting video
Dr Kat - I really enjoyed this video. You really dig into the details of history which I appreciate!
Thank you so much!
I feel the use of linen to line medieval bath tubs was more to protect the bather from splinters than to prevent leaks. The barrels were obviously well enough sealed for wines and ale
My mother, who was born in the early 1930s, was not allowed to wash her hair when she was menstrating.
Oh, heavens! I remember my Mum, I'm 66, tellling me that her Mother told her ,when she began her monthlys, that she mustn't bath or wash her hair. She didn't uphold this point of view, luckily.🤭🙂But, I know ,even when I was a young girl, the 'not washing your hair' was still quite a persistent custom .Goodness knows why ???
@@anitastone168 have no idea, especially as having our period was 'unclean'.
My mum, bless, had my sister and I start with a belt & pad and it was during a sleepover that I first saw a tampon, and no idea what to do. This is funny-painful because mum was a midwife. Also up until the mid-90s, femine products were put intp a brown paperbag.
My Gran also wouldn't let me go to sleep with wet hair, because you could get pneumonia.
@@ronniepowell9425 Yes...I too remember the wet hair rule. Even now, I don't feel comfortable going to bed with wet hair.
@@anitastone168 Gosh. No baths during menses?!!🤢
@@anitastone168 Yes - not going outside or going to bed with wet hair. My mum taught me this too. I think there is some wisdom in it, I must say.
Another lovely presentation! I must mention that Anne Boleyn’s whistle pendant isn’t gilded; it’s solid gold.
Ah, thank you very much for the clarification on this.
Reading the Past 😊
Could you address something for me? Lucy Worsley states in one of her books that people of the Medieval period "literally did not know what they looked like." I believe that's a load of garbage. They may not have had modern mirrors, but surely there were other ways where they knew what they looked like for goodness sake!
Is the concept of dirty clothes needing washing, not an automatic connection a dirty, smelly body, would need washing too. I know Napoleon created the ritual of daily baths, but I'm sure eventually a bath once a month or so was an idea ppl had.its inconceivable, to imagine pustules, scales, rashes, irritations, the smell in the nether regions, would not repel close human contact, especially in the bed of a spouse or a kind stranger. Ewww!
Having recently learned,to my unspeakable disgust,that some people in the u.k. only wash their bedsheets once a year I dont think we are in a position to criticise!!! And bathing with herbs was used medicinally to even out the bodily humours.
Linen is still a superior material today - yes, it's expensive, but if you buy a couple of sets of linen bedding you'll never go back to cotton...
Sorry, odd aside!
The thing is, by *our* standards they certainly would have been filthy. We have huge advantages in science, technology, and wide availability of hygiene products means that the average person now, by historical standards, is extremely clean. It may not be true that they didn't care at all about personal hygiene, but they simply *couldn't* be as clean as we are now and perforce would have had lower standards.
The one thing you didn't address was the complete lack of sewage systems. So any person walking down a medieval street might be splashed with urine and faeces from the streams of it running down the street, or have it dumped on them as it was emptied out of windows. It would have been handled too, with the emptying of pots and jugs, and no hand washing afterwards. I think their outer garments must have stank?
Fascinating! What about later when they brought in those wigs like Marie Antoniette? I read they wore makeup and perfumes to hide the smells from not washing, that bathing was thought to make you ill.
Hi. I was brought up in a small terraced house . The WC was outside and warm water was only available if the coal fire was lighted. We had a bath in a small tin bath weekly or fortnightly. Otherwise we used a bowl of hot or cold water to wash ourselves down. We stood in the bowl, soaped ourselves and poured jugs of water over us to rinse off the soap. We were not dirty and did not smell. You don't need a bath to stay clean!
This video is the perfect example of how those in the past were not unintelligent. I feel like nowadays, people often assume people in the past were ignorant. Your whole explanation of past hygiene (I was particularly struck by the linen) tells of intelligence given the limited scientific and medical knowledge of the time.
Bathing was not a regular habit even in the turn of the century London, Tagore reported in his travelogue. His hosts were in trouble when he told them that he took a bath every day. Finally a big bucket was brought for him.
First time viewer....just subscribed.....wonderful, interesting, and on point. Have always loved history and my hobby is reading........my great Gran, gran, and Mom always said there was no reason someone had to be dirty or smell.......a wash cloth could be made out of anything and some sort of soap was cheap or could be made. Probably no more people smelled in that time period than they do today. Smells are subjective and objective, so it’s up to the individual to present themselves as well as possible.
Royalty and the rich might not have been too smelly as they had many servants but I think everyone else wouldn't have smelt very nice. I think it was sugar that destroyed teeth so maybe the rich had worse teeth than the poor at one time. I understand that when sugar was introduced to this country it was very expensive and a luxury only the rich could afford. I did read that Elizabeth 1 had black teeth and also had a bath once a month whether she needed it or not!
“Bathing was a social and spiritual requirement in medieval times”. Seems it’s no longer a social requirement. It’s more of a solitary thing today. Although I do remember some fun social bathing with my significant other!
Great video Dr Kat, So question...was it Henry the eighth that closed down the bath houses?
I love your videos. So informative. But how can we really know for sure they bathed or not.
So the story that Elizabeth I only bathed once a year "whether she needed it or not" is a myth? (*Marie)
This is honestly the first time I've ever heard this take on historical hygiene. Really fascinating. Tfs.
there is a BBC serie about farmlife in Tudor England, that told me that hygiëne among farmers was a serious issue and they preferred to rub their bodies clean on regular basis avoiding the skinweaking water. And when done regulary hair could be kept clean by combing.
@@kamion53 Didn't know about the farmers but I've heard that about hair. I don't see how the hair wouldn't become excessively oily but maybe without all the products we use today, hair would adjust.
Our pilgrim ancestors here in America were said not to bathe all winter. Yikes.
Dr Kat you're a welcome change from the terrible Mr Starkey. Keep up the great work
I will add my thoughts, even though they match so many others. I am new to your videos in recent days and can't get enough of watching them. Each one is more interesting than the last. I first became interested in the Tudors because of the series by that name on Netflix. I have watched the entire series more than once. Your videos and the way you relate information is very entertaining, and gives us even more of a glimpse into what is a very fascinating period of history. I am American by the way, and it is very cool to read some comments from people who can claim an ancestral line directly from some of these people. Thank you for your videos, and thank you for your compassionate and well spoken comments at the beginning of this one. Best wishes to you as well, stay safe and healthy.
Didnt Henry VIII had his own bathroom with pipes bringing in water?
As usual, a fascinating talk. I am always reminded of when, after the death from puerperal fever of Queen Jane Seymour, and that ogre Henry VIII was again casting around for a suitable wife, he gave precise instructions to the emissaries sent to foreign courts that they should endeavour as much as was possible to put themselves in close proximity to the lady being vetted, "that the sweetness of her breath and the cleanliness of her body may be ascertained' - I believe I have quoted that correctly, even though from memory. It was obviously of great importance to him. He seems to have worried much less about the purulent stench emanating from his own leg wound...
The only thing wrong with your videos is that there are no charming cats trying to upstage you.
Hello from Netherlands where I’m enjoying your history lessons. I like the way you inform us in a very interesting and most pleasant way. It is “education permanente” for people who are interested in history.
Really enjoying this topic. What about hygiene in other societies or parts of the world.
Millions of ewers and bowls were produced in the 19th century, and most people washed top to tail with them every day and had a full bath once a week. The process was the sequence, hands, face, neck, armpits, groin, feet. My mother and grandmother said they travelled on the trams and trains and people were rarely smelly, except perhaps some workmen whose clothes maybe weren’t changed everyday and smelt of stale sweat
Which are the only parts of the body that need to be washed everyday according to some recent research.
Another great video, thanks. One question: do you know when soap came into use for washing bodies, either in Britain or the continent? I know that early soaps, made of fats and wood-ash lye, were unpleasant smelling and inconvenient and were probably used only for laundry and, perhaps, cookery.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure of the precise date but my understanding is that soap was (re?)introduced into Europe as a result of fighters returning from the Crusades - Aleppo soap being the inspiration. I believe that Marseille was an early European form from c.13th century. I also can't say how prolific its use was or how many uses it was put to.
@@ReadingthePast The use of soap, at least in the UK, increased after 1853, when the government removed the soap tax. It's hard to believe that something like soap was ever the subject of a special tax.
I tried going "no poo' but my scalp is just too oily. D: I would never have survived back then.
I am led to believe that Elizabeth l was very keen on cleanliness to the extent that her bath tub was fitted with wheels and towed behind with the rest of the baggage, as the court travelled the countryside on the annual 'Royal Progress.'
I hadn't heard this detail, she may well have done so, thank you.
Queen Elizabeth was considered unusual because she had a bath once a month, whether she needed it or not.
Their use use of natural fibers for clothing must have helped a lot, wool, linen.
Linen especially was believed to have the ability to clean the wearer.
Thank you for posting, it was so interesting to listen to. 🙂
I'm wondering if people of the middle ages knew about the use of powder to suck up oils in the hair? I know the French knew of it in the 1600s, and there's a hair tutorial going around from the 1700s by a hair dresser from England who explained one of the first steps is the liberal use of powder after using pomade in the hair to suck up the oils and pomade.