Soap likely originated as a by-product of a long-ago cookout: meat, roasting over a fire; globs of fat, dripping into ashes. The result was a chemical reaction that created a slippery substance that turned out to be great at lifting dirt off skin and allowing it to be washed away.
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.
People in the 18th and 19th centuries made their own soap. They'd save tallow from butchering and grease from cooking for the fat. They'd reserve wood ashes to make potash, the alkali. Folks would put wood ashes in barrels, hollowed-out logs, or V-shaped troughs lined with hay.
Pioneers needed two basic ingredients to make soap: lye (sodium hydroxide) and animal fat. They saved the ashes all winter from their fireplace, which was used for cooking and heating, in an ash hopper, a V-shaped container with a lid on it.
Fat rinds, drippings, grease and boiled-down entrails were used in making soap. Usually, enough soap was made at one time to last a year. Bones were also used, as lime improved the quality of the soap.
For thousands of years, Southwestern Indian tribes used yucca to wash clothing, hair, and as a ceremonial bath. Yucca soap produces an interesting lather.
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.
Lye, the alkaline substance needed for saponification, could be made by pouring water over ashes from the fireplace. This was typically done in a special basin, called a leaching barrel or an ash hopper. For the fatty substance, colonists used animal fat left over from cooking or butchering.
A favorite soap among men, this soap recipe was taken from a Viking recipe logged in the 10th century when the Viking's settled in Iceland. We blended ground Icelandic Moss, wild crafted ground Juniper, along with the essential oil blend of: Juniper, Fir, Oak Moss and SAP Moss.
Basic old-timer's way to make homemade soap
Set the vessel (usually an iron kettle) containing the lye in a sunny place, and to each gallon of lye, add one pound of clear, clean grease — tallow, lard, strong butter, or the like — and stir thoroughly, repeating the stirring daily until a good soap results.
In England during the 17th century under King James I, soap makers were given 'special privileges' and the soap industry started developing more rapidly, although soaps were generally still made using caustic alkalies such as potash, leached from wood ashes and from carbonates from the ashes of plants or seaweed.
Records also show a 'sopehouse' at Bishopgate in London in the 15th century. Early soaps were usually made with tallow, ash and beef or mutton fats making them rather unattractive to look at. Techniques for the production of soap improved during the next two hundred years but cakes of soap remained relatively soft.
Records show ancient Egyptians bathed regularly. The Ebers papyrus, a medical document from about 1500 BC describes combining animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to form a soap-like material used for treating skin diseases, as well as for washing.
Soaps created in the workshop over 1,000 years ago were made of olive oil and saltwort ashes and were left to dry in the desert sun. In these times of global pandemic and unprecedented attempts at personal hygiene, it's nice to look back at times when soap was merely that thing we used in the bath.
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.
Soap was probably invented in the Orient and brought to the West early in the Middle Ages. This was a soft soap without much detergent power. Generally it was made in the manorial workshops, of accumulated mutton fat, wood ash or potash, and natural soda.
Egyptians used a scented paste consisting of ash and clay for soap, and the Ebers Papyrus, a source for medical knowledge, instructed people to mix animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts for washing and treating skin diseases.
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.
And yes, they used soap—in fact, soap was often made at home and widely available as a trade good as early as the 9th century in Europe. It was made of animal fat and wood ash, and sometimes scented with fresh herbs like sage and thyme.
Lye is made from wood ashes usually gathered from the fireplace and put in a wooden hopper. They typically needed about one wooden barrel full of ashes to make the lye. The pioneers poured about 4 liters of water over the ashes to soak them. The water that seeped out was the lye water!
Traditionally, lye soap was so harsh that it way only used to wash dishes, clothing, and other household items. This harsher lye soap wasn't good to wash the hands or body. But, modern day lye soap products can also be used for body care, because they are designed specifically to be gentle on the skin.
Soap likely originated as a by-product of a long-ago cookout: meat, roasting over a fire; globs of fat, dripping into ashes. The result was a chemical reaction that created a slippery substance that turned out to be great at lifting dirt off skin and allowing it to be washed away.
Soapweed Yucca (Yucca glauca)
As the name implies, the crushed roots of soapweed yucca produce a lather that makes a good soap or shampoo. The lathering substances called saponins are found in many plants, but are exceptionally concentrated in yucca roots.
Corn had a crucial importance in ancient Native American life. As well as being used as a food source, many Native Americans ground up corn to use as a cleanser for the skin. This was often rubbed on to the skin by indigenous tribes before performing ceremonies to remove impurities from the body.
They used prickly pear in skin and hair routines. Native Americans used this cactus as a means to protect their skin from the sun and as a moisturizer. They also used the oil from the seeds to help strengthen hair. Prickly pear has twice the number of proteins and fatty acids compared to argan oil.