Dirty Little Secrets: 18th Century Hygiene

Soap: It's Not Just for Lords Anymore!

The topic of cleanliness and hygiene comes up frequently at events. You know the questions: “Why didn’t people take baths?” “They had soap, why didn’t they use it?” and so on. There is a widespread assumption that people in history bathed only once a year—if at all-- and used excessive perfumes and oils to cover body odor. Some people did use perfumes, powders, and oils to smells, of course—just as people do today with highly perfumed laundry products, scented deodorants, mouth washes, etc. But the idea that people in the 18^th century were a mass of reeking unwashed bodies is simply not true.

Figure 1

We do not have an excessive amount of documentation for the process of washing and bathing for personal hygiene because, like many mundane activities, it was not noteworthy enough to be frequently documented. How often do you write about taking a shower? But people in the 18^th century did want to be clean and smell nice, just as we do today. Keeping the body and clothing clean has always been an important aspect of every culture in history, and unclean and unkempt people were considered to be unhealthy or mentally ill. Neglected hygiene was frowned upon and was mentioned in contemporary diaries and journals. Numerous paintings and engravings of the period depict people bathing, washing body parts, and doing laundry.

For modern people, ideas of cleanliness and hygiene are influenced by commercial advertising and opinion as much as by health standards. Today, we consider a shower and shampoo with soap and fresh water, a clean set of clothes, deodorant, and tooth brushing to be the minimal daily standard. But if we were transported to the 18^th century we would find a world that smelled very differently from our modern world, and even people who washed themselves regularly would probably have stronger odors about them--but unless it was extreme, it would not be remarkable. To understand hygiene in the 18^th century you must understand that their view of cleanliness was different from ours due to the differences in both knowledge and in customs. But keeping yourself and your clothes as clean as possible was part of being a civilized, healthy, and educated person in the 18^th century, just as it is today.

Figure 2

Bathing—the immersion of the body into a tub full of warm water-- was not something that most 18^th century people did on regular basis, and the reasons seem pretty obvious once you consider that to do this, you first have to have clean, warm water. In the 18^th century this was a luxury item. You must have access to the water, which meant that someone—you or your servant-- would have to carry it from the well, stream or other source to the tub, and then carry it all away afterward, as most homes had no plumbing. To warm the water, you’d need a fire and pots to heat the water before filling the tub. Heating water is a very fuel-consuming activity, and not everyone could afford to waste that much wood or coal to heat up gallons of water. So something seemingly as simple as a full body bath really wasn’t as simple as it is today without modern conveniences like plumbing, running water, water heaters, and a built-in bath tub in a room dedicated to bathing.

None the less, baths did happen, though most often in the form of a basin or small washtub that held a gallon or so of fresh water rather than as an immersion. In many ways, a basin bath gets you cleaner than an immersion, because you are not laying in a tub of dirty water and soap film that clings to your skin when you emerge from the bath. At the very least, people washed their faces, hands, and feet daily or almost daily, and often their underarms and groins as well. People were often plagued by lice and fleas, and bathing helped rid them of this nuisance—besides helping to wash them away, some soaps will kill fleas on contact as it disrupts their surface membranes.  Soaps of various types were easily obtained and most recipe books contained instructions for making wash balls, soaps, and medicinal washes, although many people in the early 18^th century did not use soap—this became more fashionable later in the century as milder scented soaps became popular. There were receipts for all sorts of lotions and potions for the care of the skin, for the facial complexion, and for treating skins issues like dryness or rashes. Scented soaps and perfumes were available, and the scents did not vary much between men and women, with herbals scents being popular.

Figure 3

Beyond the practical reasons, there was also some cultural resistance to bathing in warm water based on the idea that it was harmful to the body. Many doctors believed that bathing made it possible for diseases to enter the body through the pores of the skin. Yet, some people took mineral baths or soaks to treat skin conditions, and some healing spas and springs existed. In England and Europe, spas, saunas, public bathhouses, and mineral baths continued to be popular for therapeutic reasons. People also bathed outside in lakes and rivers when weather permitted. Cool water was seen as something strengthening to the body. Even when regular bathing started to become more common towards the end of the 18th century, cool baths were considered to be more healthful than warm.

 Having a clean, white linen shift or shirt was one way people displayed their cleanliness. Linen was considered healthful to the skin, and a shift or shirt protected your outer garments from sweat and body oils. Even when cotton became more affordable and popular, linen persisted as the material of choice for undergarments. Men and women both often bathed in their shifts or shirts, especially when bathing outdoors. Some upper classes even had shifts made specifically as a bathing gown.

Ladies covered their hair with a linen cap to protect it from the dust and soot of daily 18^th century living. It was also considered a form of modesty, and women always kept their hair covered in public and in church. Both men and women combed their hair thoroughly each morning and then brushed it, a ritual that kept the hair glossy and helped removed fleas and lice if present. In the evening, women with any hair styling would typically undo it, and then the hair was combed and braided, then tucked under a night cap. The cap protected the hair from tangling and damage--and also protected the pillow from soiling. Combing was considered a form of cleaning the hair, and often perfumed pomatums or powders were brushed through the hair to further “clean” and condition it. A “pomatum” would basically be a scented fat—lard and clove oil for example--and the powder would be any starchy powder such fine flour, talc, or ground bone. Receipts for numerous kinds of hair conditioners and dressings abounded in cosmetics books of the period. Shampooing was rare, as soaps of the time were very harsh and stripped the oil from the hair and scalp. However, if a person used a lot of oils, powders, or pomatums in their hair, eventually it would become dull and heavy and would have to be washed. Like bathing, this could be quite a task. A perfumed soap cake or wash ball would need to be soaked briefly in a cup of warm water to soften it. This softened soap would be stirred until foamy and then applied to the hair with a sponge or cloth. It would be rinsed in a basin of clean water. Upper class men of the period sometimes shaved their heads if they wore wigs on a regular basis as this made it easier for them to position and secure the wig.

 Figure 4

Men and women both used an apron to protect the exterior of their clothes from dirt and spills. A working apron might be any color, typically linen, used for wiping hands and tools, and when tucked up into the skirt or breeches waistline it was used for carrying items.  Even women of the upper non-laboring classes wore a crisp apron made of sheer linen that was kept immaculately clean as a matter of fashion. Laboring class men wore large linen work shirts or frocks over their clothing to protect it, and tradesmen wore aprons made of leather or heavy linen.

Men considered shaving an essential and necessary act as a part of polite decorum, cleanliness, and social status.  In this time period, beards were rare and associated with the mentally ill, the sick, and the indigent. Contemporary portraits and engravings, along with writings and journals, to confirm this. Until straight razors and strops became more readily available in the mid-18^th century, most men were shaved every couple of days by a barber, or if they were wealthy, by a trained servant. Even so, an 18^th century shave often wasn’t a very close one, so often a man might sport a “5 o’clock” shadow even after shaving. Razors were made of “shear steel,” a tough but brittle metal that did not hold a “razor sharp” edge for long. Constant re-sharpening using a leather strop was necessary. Shaving soaps and powders were used to help improve glide, but still, a dull blade scrapes along roughly and cuts unevenly, making it uncomfortable for the recipient. There is not a lot of documentation for shaving brushes for this time period, so we assume the shaving soap was applied by hand or with a cloth. The caliber of barbering was sometimes sketchy, and barbers had a bad reputation, partly due to their split from the Barber-Surgeons guild in 1745 as they shifted away from medicine and moved towards specializing in hair dressing. Also, because of the risk of cuts and infection from shared razors and unclean water, it could be dangerous for the customer. 

Figure 5

Dental care was not yet a real science in the 18^th century, although people believed that good strong teeth were a sign of good health--they just didn’t know a lot about keeping them that way. Dentists as we know them did not exist, and bad teeth and dental caries were fairly common. Sometimes the enamel on the surfaces of people’s teeth could be worn down by abrasive sand or grit in their bread. If a tooth ache persisted, eventually it would have to be removed. Although they didn’t understand the root causes of infection, they knew a severe tooth ache or abscess would lead to fever and severe pain, and could eventually kill you.  Generally a doctor or barber would remove a bad tooth with pliers and, of course, without anesthesia. There was a lot of interest in caring for the teeth and virtually every cookbook, cosmetics book, and home guide contained receipts and recommendations for mouth washes, powders, and pastes for the teeth. Many of these recipes contained abrasives like pumice stone or chalk, or sugary things like honey, but there were some that were fairly effective. The cleaning of teeth was typically done with a piece of fabric, or twigs or roots. Tooth brushes existed, but were a rare item.

Figure 1

So, what did life smell like in 18^th century America? Surrounded by wood fire and coal stove smoke, livestock manure, abattoirs that drained into ditches and rivers, market stalls of fresh and dried fish, and open sewers filled with human waste and garbage, the smell of a human body would be just another scent in the wind of daily life.

 

Figure 1:  Soap recipes. The Compleat Housewife: or, Accomplished gentlewoman's companion, by E. Smith 1739 9th edition

Figure 2: Bidet, used by upper class women (and sometime men) to wash their nether regions. French, 1750

Figure 3: Period illustration of lower class woman taking a basin bath. The Bath, Sigmond Freudeberg, 1774

Figure 4: Barber’s Bowl, Delft, Bristol England, 1720

Figure 5: Dental care recipes. Dictionarium Rusticum, Urbanicum & Botanicum 1726

Sources:

Anonymous The Complete Vermin-Killer, The Fourth Edition. With Considerable Additions, Fielding & Walker, 1777

Virginia Smith Clean: A History of Personal Hygiene and Purity Oxford University Press; 2008

Kathleen M. Brown Foul Bodies: Cleanliness in Early America, Yale Univ. Press, 2011

Blogs:
Frock Flicks: The Gross 18th Century: Calling bullshit on hygiene myths

Madame Isis' Toilette: Bathing beauties, 18th century style

Larsdatter: 18th Century Notebook

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