Life Before Showers

We just came across an excerpt in The Times from a book called The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History, which made us think of you, dear readers, because our recent post "The Case For Not Washing Your Hair" reallllly seemed to resonate. And, seriously, thank you for your honesty. But now we're asking you to come clean again: how often do you wash your body? Generally speaking, it seems the answer depends on where you live--and when you lived.

For the modern, middle-class North American, "clean" means that you shower and apply deodorant each and every day without fail. For the aristocratic 17th-century Frenchman, it meant that he changed his linen shirt daily and dabbled his hands in water, but never touched the rest of his body with water or soap. For the Roman in the first century, it involved two or more hours of splashing, soaking and steaming the body in water of various temperatures, raking off sweat and oil with a metal scraper, and giving himself a final oiling - all done daily, in company and without soap.

Even more than in the eye or the nose, cleanliness exists in the mind of the beholder. Every culture defines it for itself, choosing what it sees as the perfect point between squalid and over-fastidious.

....Most modern people have a sense that not much washing was done until the 20th century, and the question I was asked most often while writing this book always came with a look of barely contained disgust: "But didn't they smell?" As St Bernard said, where all stink, no one smells. The scent of one another's bodies was the ocean our ancestors swam in, and they were used to the everyday odour of dried sweat. It was part of their world, along with the smells of cooking, roses, garbage, pine forests and manure. Twenty years ago, aircraft, restaurants, hotel rooms and most other public indoor spaces were thick with cigarette smoke. Most of us never noticed it. Now that these places are usually smoke-free, we shrink back affronted when we enter a room where someone has been smoking. The nose is adaptable, and teachable.

Keep reading.

-or-

Click here to get the book.

And please tell us how often you shower below in comments. Again, we're not here to judge, so please be honest. Thank you.

Comments

[yodaveg]

09:08 AM on 03/12/2008

A hot shower is more than an act of hygiene. It is a ritual signaling the start of the work day. On weekends, I put off that shower as long as possible, a way of saying "this time is mine."

[calliope]

01:59 AM on 03/09/2008

I shower once a day. I try to work out in the mornings so that I can use my one shower to clean up post-workout and get ready for the day. I've gotten into the habit of taking a 5-minute shower to conserve water, although I can't bring myself to take "military-style" showers (getting wet, turning off the tap while you lather up, and turning back on to rinse). I like that cascade of warm water over my body.

In the summer, a cool shower helps me get comfortable before bed. But I avoid doing that, because you use so much extra soap/lotion/etc. if you bathe or shower 2x per day....it can be hard on the budget.

[andygaus]

08:18 PM on 03/08/2008

I often shower about once a week. I do spot-washing daily--armpits, groin, and feet, and I change my underwear and socks and also put on deodorant. But a full-scale shower doesn't seem to me to be a daily necessity, and so far my co-workers haven't said anything like, "Boy, you sure don't shower very often, do you?"

[rini]

07:31 PM on 03/08/2008

I have to admit, I am a typical hyper-clean american. I shower in the morning (not washing my long hair). After my evening workouts, I shower again, and wash my hair. On weekends, I may shower once or twice a day. I truly am not used to body odor and find it offensive.

[sculptor]

05:29 PM on 03/08/2008

There was a period in the middle ages when mixed public baths were the rage. However, the Church, believing that this resulted in debauchery, put the kibosh on bathing. I don't think people want to stink but sometimes religions, spinning their evil little guilt trips, seem to want people to.

I know this because someday I'm going to do a series of sculpture on baths/bathing. I've got one in progress now but (sorry) there isn't yet a picture on my website so don't bother looking for one.

[wm1066]

03:48 PM on 03/08/2008

The reason the Catholic church uses so much incense is because of all the unwashed bodies in the middle ages.
I hate this green type!

[LeeLoosMultiPass]

01:09 PM on 03/08/2008

"Twenty years ago, aircraft, restaurants, hotel rooms and most other public indoor spaces were thick with cigarette smoke. Most of us never noticed it."

Never noticed it? I'm pushing 60. My father smoked and yes, we certainly noticed it. We didn't like it. He could fill a room with smoke so much that it appeared as one big cloud. After much harping, he would go outside to smoke. My dad tried to quit smoking for years to no avail. He died of a heart attack at age 64.

I worked in offices where people smoked at their desks and in the bathroom. This was in the late 60s early 70s. It wasn't that we didn't "notice it," nor that we didn't complain about it within each of our respective groups - it was, as you allude to here, accepted. I recall asking people not to blow smoke near my face - and I was only around 20, 21 years old.

Again, I understand your point here, but I don't think smoking is the best analogy. You can see and inhale smoke. While you can't exactly see body odor, you know it's there, and you certainly can inhale it - though to a lessen extent and detriment than that of smoke. I, for one, am no "clean freak," but I much prefer our modern civilization's cleanliness, and all that came with it, to those of our ancestors.

[WilliePilgrim]

05:27 PM on 03/07/2008

Very interesting article. Having lived and worked in both extremes, where bathing was obsessive and hyperclean (Japanese partners) and out in the rough (fire crews and remote research facilities..ugh), I can confidently say "when in Rome" and "variety is the spice of life" but I have truly come to realize the the pathway into our deepest thoughts and memories is through our olfactory bulb. Never the less, the stink of concentrated people in civilization is the worst.

[Piratess]

03:26 PM on 03/07/2008

Oh my I read the past story about not shampooing that you posted and the comments. I believe that they brushed their hair to distribute the natural oils from their hair all the way to the roots.