20 Hygiene Practices from History that are Seriously Gross

Hygiene practices come in different ways in different times. Back then, although people were practicing cleanliness, we can certainly say that their practices are certainly different from ours today. Thankfully, we are now living in a world wherein cleanliness is carried out properly. We sure are lucky enough that we are not in the same era where toilet wastes are thrown outside the window. Here are 20 hygiene practices form history that are seriously gross.

1. Bathing

Communal baths are the thing back then. Since most people didn’t have tubs and showers at home, these people take public baths together, but in the same water.

2. Baldness

For a short time chicken droppings mixed with potassium were rubbed into the scalp to cure baldness.

3. Wiping

If you were a king, you didn’t wipe by yourself. Kings typically had a “Groom of Stool”. This person’s job was to carry around the king’s portable toilet and cleaning necessities. Of course, you would also have to help wipe up afterwards. Contrary to what you may think, this position was actually highly coveted and often given to sons of nobles. As for the peasants? They used leaves.

4. Brushing

Romans used mouse brains to brush their teeth.

5. Beds

Thatched roofs often led to bird droppings throughout the cottage, even on the bed.

6. Antiseptics

After wine, urine was the most common antiseptic during Victorian times.

7. Laundry

You may be used to this by now, but on the rare occasion that laundry was done, it was usually done with a mixture of lye and urine.

8. Waste

Often it was just thrown into a cesspit not far from the house. Of course, these were breeding grounds for diseases.

9. Surgery

There were no such things as clean surgical instruments. Unless you consider a urine drenched scalpel clean…

10. Moats

Those clean, sparkling moats that you’ve seen in pictures? That’s a fairytale. Moats were the perfect dumping ground for most castles.

11. Washing Hands

Ok, so in castles and large houses there was usually a place to wash your hands during meal time. Outside of this however, washing was almost non-existent. Just remember that people still didn’t know about germs and bacteria.

12. Floors

Indoors, the dirt floor was often covered with straw. While the top layer was often changed, the bottom layer was usually left alone. As you can imagine, this effectively led to a bacteria breeding ground.

13. Streets

Up until the 18th century there was no effective street cleaning regime. Most streets in the city were covered with feces (both human and animal), urine, animal corpses, and rotting food.

14. Eyebrows

Unfashionable eyebrows were often masked by small bits of skin from a mouse.

15. Rivers and Lakes

Lakes and rivers got so polluted by waste that in the 14th century the English Parliament levied fines against illegal dumping

16. Sewers

In cities that did have some sort of sewer system, it was typically open, as in there were no sewer drains. People would just throw stuff in. Of course this beat throwing stuff straight into the street.

17. Freckles

Freckles were considered unsightly and often people would rub sulfur into their skin to try getting rid of them.

18. Makeup

Women during the Victorian Era used a lead powder to give their faces a creamy white complexion. Instead of washing, many times they would just keep adding more lead. Not surprisingly, this lead to many sicknesses.

19. Deodorant

They didn’t have it. Not even a little bit. Pretty much everyone smelled funky and nobody noticed because they were used to it. Royalty, however, did sometimes use flowers to smell better.

20. Wigs

As you may suspect, they were usually infested with lice. What’s more, they were shaped with animal fat so they smelled bad and often caught fire.