Medieval people were more comfortable with nudity in certain situations. While bathing, medieval people would gossip, play games, eat and drink. It was their version of going to the pub! The bathing itself consisted of washing the body with sweet smelling oils, or if they could afford it, tallow soap.
Generally it was made in the manorial workshops, of accumulated mutton fat, wood ash or potash, and natural soda. Laundresses might also use a solution of lye and fuller's earth or white clay. They worked usually by streamside, rhythmically beating the material with wooden paddles.
But for centuries, water was the primary means of bathing. For example, in the Indus Valley Civilization — a culture that thrived in parts of what is now Pakistan, India and Afghanistan from 2600 to 1900 B.C. — the Great Bath in Mohenjo-daro is considered one of the earliest public baths for steam bathing.
The stem word for “soap” in all European languages is Latin sapo, and soap really isn't nothing but natron salt of fatty acids. Soap is easy to manufacture from any fats, and usually the offal of any slaughtered animals were cooked into soap with the presence of lye.
Shampoo did not exist in Europe until a Bengali traveler brought the basic idea to England. But that didn't mean our non-Indian ancestors had gross locks. Shampoo isn't strictly necessary for clean, fresh hair.
For medieval Christians, washing oneself could be seen as evidence of excessive worldliness.
The no-poo (or “no shampoo”) method is a hair-cleansing technique that removes shampoo from the equation, says Yadav. Instead of using shampoo, followers of the practice use alternatives such as apple cider vinegar, a cleansing conditioner, or just plain water.
Ancient Mesopotamians were first to produce a kind of soap by cooking fatty acids – like the fat rendered from a slaughtered cow, sheep or goat – together with water and an alkaline like lye, a caustic substance derived from wood ashes. The result was a greasy and smelly goop that lifted away dirt.
Soap was used for laundry and medicinal purposes in the ancient world, but it was not normally used for bathing until the late 200s A.D. Until then the Romans, like the Greeks before them, cleaned themselves by rubbing the body with oil and an abrasive, like fine sand or ground pumice.
Finally, we have the Old English word for 'white', hwīt, which was used in compounds such as Whitehelm as well as a standalone name or as a nickname of any of the compounds using hwīt.
Soap is great for stripping away germs, but it can also strip away the skin's protective oils, which are there to maintain a healthy balance in the skin and stave off dryness, breakouts, fine lines, wrinkles, weird pH levels, and susceptibility to environmental damage.
Yucca has many practical purposes – Native people and Euro-American pioneers made an effective soap from the roots, thus it was often referred to as “soap weed.” Medicinally, the root was used to treat upset stomachs, arthritis, and inflammation (and still is today).
Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims. It's no wonder that Arabs invented the perfect cleansing concoction of vegetable oil, alkali, and perfume. The earliest confirmed historical records of soap-making date back to 8th century #Syria.
What did the Medieval world smell like? Was it as disgustingly ripe as we have sometimes been lead to believe? Research indicates that the answer would appear to be…not quite. Life may have been less hygienic and more fetid than our modern sanitised world, but not irredeemably so.
Alkalis are found in the ashes of burned wood and many scholars believe early humans used wet ash to clean greasy butchering tools. Unbeknownst to the cleaner, ash combined with the animal grease to create a simple, impure soap.
The bathing itself consisted of washing the body with sweet smelling oils, or if they could afford it, tallow soap. If they had lots of money, or say, were a Lord or Lady in a castle, they'd 'top and tail' at least twice a day. Perhaps more.
In the Mediterranean, soap was entirely unknown: Egyptians and Romans used oils for bathing and the Egyptians used natron, a crystallized rock of brine, to launder clothes.
The Romans cleaned their behinds with sea sponges attached to a stick, and the gutter supplied clean flowing water to dip the sponges in. This soft, gentle tool was called a tersorium, which literally meant “a wiping thing.” The Romans liked to move their bowels in comfort.
Soap. Lots of different tribes seem to have discovered soap on their own but it's believed that the Celts introduced Britain to soap in AD 1000. The Celts made soap by shaping animal fat and plant ashes into a ball similar to a modern-day bar of soap.
Medieval Europe
Soapmaking is mentioned both as "women's work" and as the produce of "good workmen" alongside other necessities, such as the produce of carpenters, blacksmiths, and bakers. In Europe, soap in the 9th century was produced from animal fats and had an unpleasant smell.
Before soap, many people around the world used plain ol' water, with sand and mud as occasional exfoliants. Depending on where you lived and your financial status, you may have had access to different scented waters or oils that would be applied to your body and then wiped off to remove dirt and cover smell.
No poo adherents also run the risk of scalp yeast infections and seborrheic dermatitis, a condition that can cause flakey, scaly and inflamed patches of skin on the scalp, noted Dr. Jeff Donovan, a dermatologist, hair loss specialist and director at the Donovan Hair Clinic in Whistler, B.C.
The elimination communication potty training method is based on the idea that babies naturally signal when they need to go. Once you've figured out your child's cues, you can position them over a potty and make a sound (like a whistle or a hiss). They'll eventually respond by peeing or pooping on demand.
Main benefits: Resets your scalp's pH, decreases dandruff and scalp irritation, helps with scalp dryness. Who should use it: Baking soda can be used on most hair types. How often can you use it: Baking soda can be used weekly or monthly on hair, depending on texture.