Links - 30th March 2020 (1) (Bathing)

Bathing in the Middle Ages - "The different strata of society practiced hygiene differently at different times during the middle ages. At the bottom end of the cleanliness scale–as one would expect–were the manual laborers.  Because they had neither large tubs, nor sufficient fuel to heat water, bathing, for them, was generally limited to the summer months when they could wash off in a river or pond. (They enjoyed a cool, refreshing rinse after a hot day outside, the same as us.)However, it was basic good manners, at all levels of society, to at least wash your hands before eating (since forks were a late-medieval adaptation). This was especially true in the early middle ages, when two people often shared a plate of trencher bread and a cup. The poorer people in cities made use of public bathhouses–some leftover from the Roman period. Most condemnations issued from the pulpit against bathing were directed at public bathhouses rather than bathing in general. That’s because bathhouses had a tendency to get raunchy. Sexes were not always segregated, and prostitutes commonly went there to pick up clients (if not ply their trade outright)... In the later middle ages and into the Renaissance, the middle class was especially prone to bathing, because having a tub (and the means to heat the water to fill it) was a status symbol... Bathing among non-Christians was even more prevalent. Muslim doctors seemed to be aware, very early on, that being clean was better for the health. And Jewish law requires that men and (especially) women bathe regularly... Bathing may have actually become less common among the wealthy as the middle ages became the Renaissance, as people began to think that bathing might unbalance the humors and lead to illness. But certainly people like Isabella of Castile–who boasted that she had only ever bathed twice: on the day she was born and the day she married–were still in the minority.The reason why Isabella’s boast has come down through history is because, at the time, it was just that–a boast–something which was out of the ordinary. Even if some people were cutting back on their bathing, it was very unusual that anyone would bathe that infrequently. Isabella boasted of this because she saw it as an act of piety. Bathing was an indulgence of the flesh; abstaining was a pious act–just like flogging yourself or wearing a hair shirt. Medieval people liked bathing; that’s why some of them stopped doing it in a fit of religiousness. In fact, medieval people could teach us a thing or two about bathing in style. Eating while in the bathtub appears to have been fairly common; certainly there are plenty of pictures depicting it . And the wealthy had some hot tub parties that could put college fraternity blowouts to shame.Mind you, people didn’t bathe every day, the way most Americans do. They didn’t even bathe every other day. Let’s face it, hauling bucket after bucket of water up a few flights of stairs and heating if over a fire was not something you (or your servants) could do every day... medieval people washed their clothes. The Goodman of Paris admonished his young wife to see that their undergarments and sheets were washed frequently... Because outer-garments were made of silk or wool, and frequently lined with fur, it was impossible to do anything more than spot-clean those garments. But that’s why men and women both wore linen undergarments from head to rump: the linen, worn against the skin, kept sweat and oil off the expensive fabrics which weren’t washable."

Did people in the Middle Ages take baths? - "Medieval writers saw bathing as a serious and careful activity. One medical treatise, the Secreta Secretorum, has an enitre section on baths. It notes that the spring and winter are good times for bathing, but it should be avoided as much as possible in the summer. It also warns that excessively long baths lead to fatness and feebleness. Meanwhile, Magninius Mediolanesis offers over 57 bathing prescriptions to use in specific conditions, like old age, pregnancy and travelling and his rules for bathing run 1500 words long... By the thirteenth-century one could find over 32 bathhouses in Paris; Alexander Neckham, who lived in that city a century earlier, says that he would be awakened in the mornings by people crying in the streets that ‘that baths are hot!”... The prominence of the public bathhouse went into rapid decline in the sixteenth-century. Several suggestions have been made to as why – were more puritanical religious people able to impose their moral values on the community, or were the diseases that struck Europe since the Black Death convincing people from to avoid them. The disease of syphilis, which broke out in Europe the late fifteenth-century, would have also motivated people to stop their sexual promiscuity, thus reducing the other reasons for having a bathhouse."

Medieval Hygiene Might Have Been Better Than You Think - "As for the privies in castles, excrement would either fall into the moat, or released down the side of the castle’s walls. An interesting story about this medieval ‘sewage’ system comes from the 1203-1204 siege of Château Gaillard in Normandy, France. During the siege, the French forces succeeded in capturing the second wall by penetrating it via a unguarded toilet chute that led to a chapel. Moving from one end of the body to another, things were not looking much brighter in terms of dental hygiene either. During the Middle Ages far less processed sugar (if any) was in people’s diets and this was a key factor which led them to have surprisingly healthy teeth and so fresher breath than later in the millennium when sugar addiction was spread throughout Europe. People would simply clean their mouths by rinsing with water. As for teeth, these would be cleaned by wiping them with a piece of cloth. Later on, in order to keep their teeth white, people began to use mixtures of herbs and abrasives, including burnt rosemary, to scrub their teeth. A mouthwash made from a mixture of vinegar and wine was also used for oral hygiene. In addition to these measures, people of the Middle Ages would freshen their breath by chewing on strong-smelling herbs, such as mint, cinnamon, or sage."

I shower once a week. Here’s why you should too - "When I was a kid, bathtime was a once-a-week affair. We weren’t an unhygienic family – this is just how most of us lived in the 1960s, and I do not remember any horrific body odours resulting from it. By the time I was an adult, I was showering every day. With hindsight, I should have stuck to the old ways... the power-shower family would be emitting a staggering 3.5 tonnes of CO2. As we can afford only one tonne of carbon emissions per person – for everything from food to transport – if we are to keep global temperatures below the critical 2C threshold, this would consume nearly all of the family’s carbon budget. The daily bath or shower, then, is terrible for the environment and our bank balances. That’s one reason I have reverted to a weekly shower, with a daily sink-wash that includes my underarms and privates. But there are health consequences too. I first became aware of these when I was a touring ballet dancer and met a friend whose skin had been severely damaged by excessive use of soap products. He was condemned to treat himself with medical creams for the rest of his life. According to dermatologist Joshua Zeichner, parents should stop bathing babies and toddlers daily because early exposure to dirt and bacteria may help make skin less sensitive, even preventing conditions like eczema in the long run. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends three times a week or less as toddlers’ skin is more sensitive; and as the elderly have drier skin, they should not be frequently washing all of their bodies with soap. Doctors say that overuse of soap removes the skin’s natural protective oils and good bacteria. This can exacerbate or cause complaints such as dermatitis. The longer one stays in the shower, the more of the skin’s oils are removed. The only real beneficiaries of over-frequent baths and showers are the companies that make and market soaps and shampoos... We do need to wash our hands frequently, for obvious hygiene reasons. But our skin has its own natural cleansing mechanism and it is generally only our armpits, feet and privates that produce any odours if unwashed. There is a similar story with frequent shampooing. When I visited the Yanomami in the heart of the Amazon in 1992, I noticed that they had lovely shiny, healthy hair, despite not using any shampoo or soap at all"

Showering daily — is it necessary? - "Approximately two-thirds of Americans shower daily. In Australia it’s over 80%. But in China, about half of people report bathing only twice a week.In the US, the daily shower tends to start around puberty and becomes lifelong. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself why?Perhaps your answer is: “because it’s healthier than showering less often.” Think again. For many — perhaps most — the daily shower is more about habit and societal norms than health. Perhaps that’s why the frequency of bathing or showering varies so much from country to country... Ever notice that directions on shampoo bottles often say “lather, rinse, repeat”? There is no compelling reason to wash your hair twice with each shower, but it does sell more shampoo if everyone follows these directions... a daily shower may even be bad for your health...
Skin may become dry, irritated, or itchy.
Dry, cracked skin may allow bacteria and allergens to breach the barrier skin is supposed to provide, allowing skin infections and allergic reactions to occur.
Antibacterial soaps can actually kill off normal bacteria. This upsets the balance of microorganisms on the skin and encourages the emergence of hardier, less friendly organisms that are more resistant to antibiotics.
Our immune systems need a certain amount of stimulation by normal microorganisms, dirt, and other environmental exposures in order to create protective antibodies and “immune memory.” This is one reason why some pediatricians and dermatologists recommend against daily baths for kids. Frequent baths or showers throughout a lifetime may reduce the ability of the immune system to do its job...
experts suggest that showering several times per week is plenty for most people (unless you are grimy, sweaty, or have other reasons to shower more often). Short showers (lasting three or four minutes) with a focus on the armpits and groin may suffice."

Addendum:

The Filthy Middle Ages? | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "‘The ingredients they add to add ammonia into their wash, so they use things like urine and wood ash. And I guess because its ammonia it would have a bleaching effect it would help them get clean, but it sounds pretty disgusting.’
‘Was there was no kind of discrepancy you see there between the urine in there and cleanliness?’
‘*Something* they're deliberately keeping it so that it’s stale urine so that the ammonia increases. Having done that then they’re very often very concerned to make their washes smell nice. So you do get stuff about putting herbs into the washing tub. And also about sort of drying things on fresh grass so that your sheets smell of freshly cut grass or something’...
'There is also this sort of school of thought in the Middle Ages, that if you're really holy, that maybe washing isn't for you, and it sort of fits in with this broader idea that you sort of, especially prioritize the soul over the body. And you're sort of proving that you're so focused on religious matters, that you're not indulging your body and maybe even you're depriving and deliberately harming it. And so you might do that by things like fasting. But you might also do that by things like, not washing. And so there are yes, some really horrible stories about late medieval saints who do things like, I've come across at least one who refused to wash her hair ever deliberately so that she would get head lice and they would sort of, the itch was seen as a sort of a, a form of asceticism, a way of punishing the body... Thomas Beckett, after he was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral, and the monks were stripping his body to prepare it for burial. They found that he was wearing a hair shirt, which impressed them. But what impressed them even more was that that hair shirt was full of little lice and fleas and they seem to have interpreted sort of that the really sort of unpleasant itchiness of that as almost a form of martyrdom sort of during life that therefore foreshadowed his literal martyrdom in the cathedral… that only works as a way of proving your faith because most people in the Middle Ages aren't filthy because if everybody was filthy, then that doesn't make you stand out does it?'"