Before the widespread use of detergents, people used various substances like ashes, clay, and sand to clean their clothes.
Garments were typically beaten over rocks, scrubbed with abrasive sand or stone, and pounded underfoot or with wooden implements.
2800 BCE: Baths and washing clothes still existed thousands of years ago! The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BCE in ancient Babylon. In those times, soap came from rendered animal fat and ashes.
In prehistoric times, people cleaned themselves with just plain water, clay, sand, pumice and ashes. This is the way ancestors did it; pour water over a barrel filled with ashes and then collect the liquid which drips out of holes bored into the bottom.
In prehistoric times, people cleaned themselves with just plain water, clay, sand, pumice and ashes. This is the way ancestors did it; pour water over a barrel filled with ashes and then collect the liquid which drips out of holes bored into the bottom.
Long ago, in the pioneer days, people used the same type of soap for many purposes, including house cleaning, laundry, dishes, and hygiene. The soap was handmade using tallow, lye, and water. Lye is made from wood ashes usually gathered from the fireplace and put in a wooden hopper.
The earliest written records of soap-like substances date to around 2500 B.C. in Mesopotamia. Clay tablets indicate that the Sumerians used water and sodium carbonate — a powdery salt such as from plant ash — to clean themselves and beer and hot water to clean wounds.
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).
Before the availability of mass produced toilet paper in the mid-1800s, humans had to resort to using what was free and available, even if it didn't provide the most effective (or comfortable) results. Options included rocks, leaves, grass, moss, animal fur, corn cobs, coconut husks, sticks, sand, and sea shells.
Finally, before the 'Shampoo Revolution', the Victorian era popularised the use of eggs. They would split an egg open on their heads, gently massage it till it formed a gooey mess on top, and then rinse it with water.
Persil, introduced by the German company Henkel in 1907 was the world's first laundry powder. The name derives from perborate and silicate, two key components in the product. Persil was introduced as an improvement over the action of soap, the traditional cleaning agent first formulated around 1500 BC.
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.
Most of the washing described in the Bible seems to be with water only. However, there are a few references to products that can be used as disinfectants.
So, people have turned to boiling their laundry—a practice with some history—to try and brighten the whites and fend off bacteria. However, while boiling your laundry might seem well-intentioned, it could actually cause more harm than good.
Clothing (and lice!)
What medieval people wore also helped them stay clean. Regularly changing and washing of clothing that came in close contact to their skin removed the stinky dirt their bodies produced. Most everyone had access to two types of fabric they could use for this job. Wool and Linen.
Wisk was introduced as the first liquid laundry detergent in the United States by Lever Brothers Company in 1956.
The Ancient Romans used the bladders of animals to protect the woman; they were worn not to prevent pregnancy but to prevent contraction of venereal diseases. Charles Goodyear, the inventor, utilized vulcanization, the process of transforming rubber into malleable structures, to produce latex condoms.
The use of toilet paper first started in ancient China around the 2nd century BC.
Yarrow. Native Americans used an infusion of the leaves from this strong-scented perennial plant as a hair wash. The Okanagan Indians of British Columbia mixed the leaves and stems with white clematis (a perennial with bright yellow flowers) and witch's broom branches to make shampoo.
They lacked true soap but made up for it with the fruit of the copalxocotl, called the 'soap-tree' by the Spanish, and the sticky root of the xiuhamolli or soap-plant [Saponaria Americana]; both gave a lather rich enough to wash body and clothes.
Chlorogalum pomeridianum, called “wavyleaf soap plant,” “soap root,” or “amole,” is a low-growing plant of California and Oregon. It is used as soap by the local peoples. The bulb of the plant is easily recognized: a brown, fibrous bulb a little larger than a person's fist, with a white, pliable heart.
1> Ancient Romans: They developed sophisticated aqueducts and public baths, such as those in Rome, which promoted communal cleanliness. 2> Ancient Greeks: They also had public baths and emphasized personal hygiene, using tools like the strigil for cleaning the body.
Personal Hygiene. As running water was very rare, and considering it took such a physical effort to get one bucketful from a well or nearby water source, it is perhaps not surprising that taking a full bath every day was not a feasible option for most people.
Before the mid-nineteenth century, Americans seldom bathed for personal cleanliness. Many considered bathing to be unhealthy, believing it removed a “protective” layer of oil and dirt and exposed the body to unclean water and dangerous “miasmas,” or diseased air.