Though even wealthy families did not take a full bath daily, they were not unclean. It was the custom for most people to wash themselves in the morning, usually a sponge bath with a large washbasin and a pitcher of water on their bedroom washstands. Women might have added perfume to the water.
Bathrooms were often wood panelled with hand painted, porcelain tiles. For the early, wealthy Victorians the wash stand was a piece of bedroom furniture, with heavy ornamentation and white marble tops. Until plumbing became commonplace in the late 1800s/early 1900s a porcelain bowl and jug were the basin and tap.
In the 1700s, most people in the upper class seldom, if ever, bathed. They occasionally washed their faces and hands, and kept themselves “clean” by changing the white linens under their clothing. “The idea about cleanliness focused on their clothing, especially the clothes worn next to the skin,” Ward said.
Personal hygiene practices, such as bathing and handwashing, became normative behaviors during the quarter century 1890-1915. Bathing facilities were dependent upon water supplies and sewers. Advertising played an obscure but important role in changing attitudes about cleanliness.
According to an article from JStor, it wasn't until the early 20th century when Americans began to take daily baths due to concerns about germs. More Americans were moving into cities, which tended to be dirtier, so folks felt as if they needed to wash more often.
Washing clothes in the late 1800s was a laborious process. Most household manuals recommended soaking the clothes overnight first. The next day, clothes would be soaped, boiled or scalded, rinsed, wrung out, mangled, dried, starched, and ironed, often with steps repeating throughout.
She rarely washed her hair, as the process was involved and not terribly pleasant. Women were advised to dilute pure ammonia in warm water and then massage it through the scalp and hair, like modern shampoo.
Humans have probably been bathing since the Stone Age, not least because the vast majority of European caves that contain Palaeolithic art are short distances from natural springs. By the Bronze Age, beginning around 5,000 years ago, washing had become very important.
As most people ate meals without knives, forks or spoons, it was also a common convention to wash hands before and after eating. Soap was sometimes used and hair was washed using an alkaline solution such as the one obtained from mixing lime and salt.
The Victorian Period (And Beyond)
From the 1890s to the early 1980s, people used sanitary belts, which basically were reusable pads that attached to a belt worn around the waist – and yes, they were as uncomfortable as they sound.
Walikainen Rouleau says the seating areas for women were referred to as “retiring rooms,” “rest rooms” (as in a room specifically for resting), and even “emergency rooms.” The last term sounds bizarre today, but the rooms were partly intended as places where women could lie down if they were feeling sick or faint, or ...
Leaves, sticks, moss, sand and water were common choices, depending on early humans' environment. Once we developed agriculture, we had options like hay and corn husks. People who lived on islands or on the coast used shells and a scraping technique.
Showers were not yet en vogue and everyone bathed to keep clean. Poorer families would have boiled water on the stove then added it along with cool water to a wooden or metal tub, usually in the kitchen area, when it was time for a deep scrub down.
In Victorian times the 1800s, those who could afford a bath tub bathed a few times a month, but the poor were likely to bathe only once a year. Doctors advised against bathing believing it had a negative effect on health and on the appearance of the skin.
Rather than bathing, early American colonists believed that other practices, like regularly changing their undergarments, qualified as good hygiene. Rather than bathing, early American colonists believed that other practices, like regularly changing their undergarments, qualified as good hygiene.
What should I wash first? Wash from top to bottom. This will allow the soap to rinse off your skin. Focus on the parts of your body that need it the most such as under your arms, breasts, vulva and feet.
Not even the Greeks and Romans, who pioneered running water and public baths, used soap to clean their bodies. Instead, men and women immersed themselves in water baths and then smeared their bodies with scented olive oils. They used a metal or reed scraper called a strigil to remove any remaining oil or grime.
Local tribes in the Southwestern Borderlands used the sap from Yucca and Gourd roots as shampoo and body cleanser. Until the introduction of commercialized soap-making, plants were the only soap medium used by Indigenous peoples of New Mexico and Arizona as well as by the Spanish settling in New Mexico.
By the middle of the Victorian era, bergamot and lemon oil had surpassed Eau de Cologne to become the most popular fragrance for women. According to Goodman: “Bergamot and lemon oil, sometimes employed separately but more often used in combination, was the signature smell of the middle years of the century.
The 1847 article continued: “When the weight of the body has reached its average maximum, men weigh 139 pounds, women 112 pounds.” Fifty years later the numbers remained about the same.
Before that, they used whatever was handy -- sticks, leaves, corn cobs, bits of cloth, their hands. Toilet paper more or less as we know it today is a product of Victorian times; it was first issued in boxes (the way facial tissue is today) and somewhat later on the familiar rolls.
Sleepwear during the Victorian age was usually referred to as 'night clothes' and often consisted of ankle-length nightshirts or nightgowns and floor-length robes. Almost everything was white, especially when the style was first adopted (eventually colors and patterns became fashionable).
There were huge changes in domestic life between 1800 and 1900. Soap, starch, and other aids to washing at home became more abundant and more varied. Washing once a week on Monday or "washday" became the established norm.
The washing dolly is also known as a dolly-peg, dolly-pin or peggy-stick. It was used in the nineteenth century, usually with hot water and soap to clean clothes. Larger houses would have had an oven known as a copper for heating water for the laundry.