That's funny, we're programmed to think British Accent = Supervillian because the trope came from James Bond & Austin Powers, so a lot of villians incidentally were British. I just thought about that
A lot of patients in the hospital can't "bathe" themselves (bath or shower) due to lines/drains/airways, sometimes for months at a time. We sponge bath them in bed. Having running water over your skin is definitely better, but it'll get the job done regardless
Thank you 🥰 This helps sooo much mentally when you're sick. I brought dry shampoo, wipes, body spray, lip balm etc to my friend when she was in hospital and she was so grateful because the nurses were too busy to help her bathe. Also gave my Dad a mani/pedi while visiting him in hospital, his skin was so dry! He still talks about it now - made him feel special! 🥰
And i swear this was just in western countries, asians and arabs practiced hygiene way earlier, theres even an account of an arab writing down that the vikings were barbaric disgusting people who smelled bad and never bathed
@@chinmeyswayanimals still understand cleanliness. Their noses can still notice things. But yeah, not smelling like perfumed soaps wouldn't be nearly as noticable to an untrained nose. Smelling like you haven't washed in weeks would be quite noticable and unpleasant though. You get used to it, but it's still unpleasant.
I was brought up in really old houses, many without bathrooms, and of course we washed! Even in winter when it was freezing, you washed a part at a time rather than get fully naked. And as an adult I’ve lived the same way at times. Soap and water always available though! I always find it laughable that people think if you can’t have a daily bath or shower you will be filthy 😄
People also wore layers of natural fibers like cotton, linen and wool so they were much more breathable and temperature regulatory unlike many modern fabrics
it is trivial to make synthetics breathable, thats why most people in the gym wear polyester. the problem with polyester though is it retains the oil and bacteria much more strongly than natural fabrics
It makes such a big difference, truly. I've never encountered plastic fabric that didn't make me sweat like an ox. Some people don't have that problem. I stick to natural fibers.
I’m calling bullshit on this one. Have you ever worn a cotton t shirt in 35D heat 90% humidity? It gets completely soaked and doesn’t dry. Merino wool when woven very fine is better but then it’s quite warm. Silk is great but expensive and not everyone could/can afford silk.
We have the porcelain jug and basin that my great grandparents got for their wedding in 1901. Since they were very poor German farmers, it's been a beloved family heirloom. 😊
I remember when I was really depressed I used to wash my body like that and honestly it was fine. It's a bit less convenient and thorough than showers and baths but it's defo possible to stay clean using water and a washcloth.
Oh yes! And when you live in a cold place with no hot tap water, heating a pot on the stove and scrubbing with a cloth is really nice. So much more time consuming compared to a shower, but it can really be a nice moment of self care you treat yourself to. And often it often actually leaves me feeling way cleaner than after a shower since I am more thorough with scrubbing every part when not confined to a small shower cubicle, and my skin very much appreciates the mild exfoliation!
Yeeees same still. I don't suffer from depression anymore, but I often "procrastinate" showering until late in the night because I feel like it'll be too much. Same with other tasks involving water/wetness @@starlinguk
I’m unconvinced. I have relatives from a backwater in Europe, rural and little changed since at least the early 1900s. I remember visiting as a child. At first, the BO would be striking and almost overwhelming. Everyone had clean clothes but the older generations were pre deodorant. But after about a week, it was barely noticeable. So my thesis is, yes- many people, particularly the less wealthy, stank to high heaven. Clean, sure, some of them, but for adults - particularly adults working farms etc, BO was apparent after an hour or so in the sun. The silver lining is that humans get used to smells and people would have only noticed the worst, least clean people’s BO. Regular everyday stinky pits would have been unremarkable. Also, anyone who has worked on a building site or garage pre aircon remembers well the must of stinky working men. Maybe deodorant is getting better, but even in the 80s such places of work were not for the faint of nose.
They’re also forgetting the fact that bathing was considered a way of spreading diseases, and had a huge argument about it in the past. They just want to make people feel a little stupid and like they discovered something new.
As someone who spent 3 months working in India, I can attest to the banality of BO effect. Everyone and every neighborhood has their distinct stench but after a while, your brain just starts to ignore them
It would not surprise me that people were also used to smells, but you have to remember that not everyone sweat the same amount and with the same level of smell. Also, deodorant is not mandatory. I never wear deodorant and it has never caused a problem - I also don’t sweat that much naturally and I don’t have a strong smell - no it’s not in my head, people have commented on it. Even when I smell a bit, it’s not like people around me are going to notice if they respect my space. I don’t think I’m special in that way, but our society is 1 very scared of natural odors 2 inclined to overwash. You might have heard about how overwashing disrupts the body microbiome. Ah, and what we eat affects our body odours.
I even found folk recipe from around XVth century to wash yourself with mullein decoction (it has saponins) twice a day. It was used in form of sponge bath. So we can deduce that ordinary people were washing themselves twice a day. That didn't stop them from sweating, and they also used various perfumes to mask it - which to our modern noses probably weren't nice - but hey, they liked them, so they didn't smell bad to one another...
Our neighbours flooded our bathroom pretty thoroughly this summer, specifically the wall with the boiler outlet. It took a long time for the wall to dry, and then some more time until we felt safe plugging the boiler back in, so it was a summer of washing with the water heated on the stove. No problem at all. Granted, we would do it in the bath, so it was easier than a sponge bath in front of a basin - we could actually pour water onto ourselves. But it's shocking how little water one actually needs to clean themselves (the body, the hair is a separate topic for long-haired individuals).
Yes. Long hair indeed typically takes one bowl of water, maybe some 10 liters - double that, if you use both shampoo an conditioner, but in the past they probably only had some type of soap available. And then you'll also have washed yourself with the same amount. Most Finns have done this at least sometimes in some old cottage sauna without running water. I suspect Scandinavians, too.
@MiljaHahto historically, there's not a lot of evidence for washing your hair with soap. Soaps were made from lye and tallow. They could be significantly stronger than our modern soap, which isn't so good for hair. Instead, they used alternative methods like pomade and powder (basically dry shampoo). Plus, doing things like keeping your hair contained and covered and combing through it to distribute the natural oils meant that your hair didn't get as dirty as it does when you wear it loose. Abby Cox has some fascinating videos about historic hair care. So has Bernadette!
@@Rebecca_English There's memory evidence for using soap still in the 20th century,when pomade and powder was absolutely NOT used. Sure, if you could afford something more hair friendly, you used that.
@MiljaHahto I was thinking much farther back than the 20th century, or even the 19th century! The Victorians had plenty of recipes for hair care. Plus they had the advantage of industrialized soap making. But farther back, the pomade and powder method was very popular!
@@Rebecca_English I was thinking wider than just England or USA. Around here the population that even dreamed of some pomade or powder (which don't _clean_ hair at all, on the contrary) was a very minor one. Ordinary folks used something else, and some soap-like substance was more likely.
FUN FACT, when Scandinavian men started "settling" other parts of Europe, women in places like England tended to have a preference for Scandinavian men for their good hygiene
we call it the bots and tits wash .. but like the idea that people think people didn't wash is silly.. also that we NEED to wash fully in water everyday is laughably silly... we don't and actually isnt good for the skin
My friend that was an airline stewardess called it an “airplane bath” after traveling so much they would get the nose, under the wings and the “c**k pit” ! 😂😮😳
i had a discussion about showering at work a while ago. you wouldn't believe how many people see not taking a shower as completely disgusting. some didn't even know how to use a wash cloth. oO
@@Hitsugix You were surprised that s lot of people thought that not taking a shower was disgusting? I'm surprised that you were surprised. Indoor plumbing has been around for generations, so yeah.
That’s the horses not the people?? Specifically the myth is about people being stinky or not, surroundings especially in the city definitely stunk pretty bad due to the overwhelming population in such a cramped area and how much effort is being taken to keep it clean (which was not much).
As a farm girl, horse and cow manure, even at higher levels isn't too bad because those animals are vegans. Pigs and chickens can be pretty awful, tbh.
As a reenactor who usually only does these types of washing for the weekend during events, simply because showers are mostly not accessible; I do this just to feel a little freshened up. The b.o. is rarely a problem, because after spending a good few hours by the fire, the smell of smoke 'kills' everything else. You just get used to it. Not talking about the gambesons of the fighters, these always smell.
Nothing beats de-o-de-ranttttt. Thirty minutes in the sun without that would void any freshness afforded to you by a bath. Corn starch, maybe? I digress.
I know someone who used baking soda under her arms, and commuted via public transit which is hot in summer - she didn't stink. She said she just put it in her hand and rubbed it on.
When I was little (Romania immediately after the fall of the comunist regime), our boiler would break down sometimes, so we would heat up water on the stove take it in the bathroom and wash ourselves in the some plastic basins basically (you put the boiling water in there and mix it with colder water). It's clunky, but doable. I move around to France and Germany since then and that's what I do every time the heater breaks down. One time my then American bf was like "no hot water?! I guess I'll just not shower today" while I was heating water in the electric kettle....
@@pcbassoon3892uh. Yes we do. Its just not super common because not alot of americans drink tea. Now if you have any friends who drink alot of tea, ask them if they have one. They do or they will immediately say they want to get one 😂 - as for bathing without a water heater, I had to do that because of issues with the gas company. >_> I put a my big tamale pot on a hot plate, heated that up, then dumped it in my bath tub. Filled it a lil more with cold water, then had the full pot back on the hot plate to rinse off with. Lol I only did that a few times until i thought of stealing hot water from the basement of the apartment building i lived it 🤣 then id just make a few trips back & forth ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ All because the gas company would get mine & a neighbors unit confused all the time so they shut off my gas when the neighbors moved out then tried forcing me to pay $2k in 1 lump sum in the middle of the pandemic to turn it back on. 🤦🏽
Exactly what I was thinking. I also lived in Romania right after communism fell and I clearly remember heating up water and washing however we could. Imagine trying to fill up a bath tub with heated water...
Even nowadays people dont understand that not showering everyday doesnt mean you dont clean up yourself everyday. I do, I just dont wet my whole body and my hair everyday
Exactly! I live in a cold climate and I can't even count how many times I've heard recommendations against showering every day because your skin can get too dry, at least in winter.
True! For my family it's mostly because of water conservation. We call it a "half-bath". Just using a towel and a small wash basin (surprisingly similar to the video!) to clean the vital areas when waking up and before bed. Showering is a luxury because we also have to ration the water supply for laundry, dishes, toilet use, etc.
I remember learning in school when I was a kid that wedding flower bouquets were invented to cover the smell of the bride hahaha. Just now realizing how ridiculous that is.
The jug and basin / wash stand / shaving stand was a thing in the Old West and well into early 1900s. I would say until after WWII. I have my grandparent's wash jug and basin - used in their first homestead in Kansas. It's now a display piece, but I could totally put it on my dresser and use it.
My mom was born in 1944 and lived in rural Louisiana. She did not have indoor plumbing ( toilet, etc) until she was 10 and the family moved “to town”. (It was actually still on the edge of town but they went from sharecroppers to “city folk “.
Your bathroom sink is just a continuation of the basin. It's why the old houses had hot and cold taps instead of a mixer, because the assumption was that you were going to fill the whole thing with water and use the full sink to wash yourself with, because often to get a full bath, even with running water, you had to also heat water on the stove to supplement the hot water supply because water heaters were often not that good a century ago.
That’s what my grandpa did growing up in Kansas-they stole water from the cemetery across the street, and had a makeshift shower in the shed but only in the summer.
Yeah, if you change the layer right against the skin every day and wash your smelly bits with a washcloth and basin, you can manage like that for quite a while. Combine that with a little rose or lavender water and the scent of woodsmoke that probably gets into your clothes from stoves/cookfires/fireplaces and you probably don't notice the BO
I follow a nurse on social media and he once talked about a patient, an old man, who came in who had never taken a shower or bath in his whole life because he would use two litres of water and a washcloth every morning and wash himself. He didn't stink. I always remember that when i have zero time or energy at some days to take a shower and then just take a washcloth and do my best haha it's definitely an option
People still sweat though.. crevices WILL smell (and start smelling pretty quickly) in any scenario. Even with modern deodorant! Saying that people are ignorant because they know people in the old days who had less access to soaps and perfumes most definitely did stink really just seems like people trying to overly romanticize those eras. People sweat. People stank. People had LESS access to things that would make them not stink. Even if you wash every morning, you will start smelling soon because that’s just natural.
The crappy apartment I live in frequently turns our water off with no notice and we often only have cold water, no hot. We keep gallon jugs of water around in case it's off and we need to clean or flush a toilet. And my husband and I have gotten very good at warming up water in big pots on the stove and doing sponge baths with them in the tub. We prefer a normal warm shower, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
My favorite is when I get notice hours later. Or actually no, my favorite was when they actually came to my door and pinned a notice on the 30th telling me that due to maintenance the water would be shut off "tomorrow, the 29th" and I thought 'well surely they mean tomorrow the 1st and just got the date wrong' and filled a bunch of containers with water, and then the water wasn't shut off the next day so I thought 'did they actually shut the water off on the 29th without me noticing and then decide to tell me the day after for some reason?' and emptied the containers of water and put them away and then they shut the water off on the the 2nd 🤦♀️
Even with running water I would still see many elders choosing this more ( hospital washing) and even ladle drinking rainwater catchers or even preference of useing the well . The bedroom was full of buckets ,pots and laddles. Lots of people struggled with pasteurized milk, and this went on in 80 & 90 year old elders in the 1970s rural populations still. If your gen x of late boomers you knew those who truly lived through horse & buggy era into our modern world even in America with major cities fully mechanized it just wasn't like this in the majority of the nation. Many of Those who was born 1900 may didn't reach our way of life until right about ww1 & 2. The greater world didn't industrialize or modernize until after the transitor age began it was just 50 years ago when China was a big Rice patty, for example. We really aren't as far removed as many think we are.
I asked my grandad this question years ago and he said that every body had BO due to lack of antiperspirants and limited laundry facilities, ie people also wore their clothes for longer before washing them. I once bought a vintage dress, 40’s style. Beautiful garment but could never get the armpit smell out.
Exactly. My dad talked about bathing once a week in the 1940's, before they had piped water. People would have smelled different, and less "clean" to our modern our noses. Sometimes these historical Yotube channels are so dedicated to myth busting that they overcorrect, and end making factual inaccuracies of their own. My favourite is when someone insists that a corset was more comfortable than a modern bra... Nope.
You’re right. The older people from my country always smelled like body odor. They didn’t smell like straight up 🍑 but they had a musky odor to them. It wasn’t unbearable because they bathed daily and wore talcum powder or perfumes.
My mums side was brittish. So rich people might have smelt ok but everyone else probably not so much. I spose in London they'd just throw the chamber pots out the window. Horses and stables everywhere. No feminine hygiene products. I rekon it would have smelt great.
They only people who didn't smell were those in cold climates. I'm sure people in hot humid equatorial regions smelt quite musty. Think about the smelly pits you smell if you're in public transport in India or Africa.
Whenever I have encountered this I ask people "Would you want to be around people that smelled like shit? ....No?....So what makes you think people did in the past?"
I live where we have a lot of immigrants and many of them don't wear deodorant and they smell so bad, even though they bathe. They can't tell they smell bad because they are used to it.
@@pcbassoon3892This is what I imagine it was like; people would stink, but human body odour would just be treated as a mostly neutral fact if life in the same way we don’t freak out about the natural body odour of horses or dogs.
I remember moving from LA to the deep south in the mid 1990s. I remember struggling to adjust to the BO on people in that region. Things have improved since then but holy shit - I remember introducing a family to body wash. They stank like high heaven
My grandpa, who was born in 1919 and grew up in rural England, literally told me, "We happily walked around stinking." Everyone bathed once a week, so it was a big joke that when you found out it was someone's "bath day," you'd break into song singing "Happy bath day to you." Based on this info I do believe that people - at least working class people - were way stinkier than we are today, but they were accustomed to everyone stinking, so it didn't bother them.
Did they, like, had no hygiene whatsoever beyond that day? I mean, I can imagine people having some base level of body odour and just being used to it (even if they do wash, but not daily or not everywhere, or their soap doesn't smell much better than unwashed body), but if you don't wash at all for the whole week, won't it cause inflation? Considering that I doubt they could change underwear and socks much more often than bath.
I mean, there was a legit belief that sickness could enter the skin through the pores if you bathed too much, post plague. But they also believed that foul smells made you sick at some points too, so nobody wanted to smell bad, but also bathing was frowned on by some. Perfumes and nice smelling things in little sachets were popular. On top of this, they weren't a monolith, there were lots of people doing lots of different things.
I lived in a small camper van Monday to Friday for a year. I didn't have easy access to showers for much of that as the ones at work were broken for a while. I found allsorts of ways to try and keep personal hygiene up, much easier to do in the winter months when I didn't sweat all night in my sleep. But having a hard, manual job, being able to clean myself daily was very important after work. The warm summer months were hellish, living in a tin box could mean you need a shower when you wake up, before you go to work and once you finish work. Or in my case, it could mean using a couple of flannels and quite some time stood at a sink.
As a smelly person (I shower daily and use a special deodorant and still get funky if I do hardly any sweating), I have a hard time believing a wash basin was cutting it. For various reasons, I’ve done days existing with only “sponge bathing” (as my mom called it), and it’s not enough. Though, I *do* think I smelled naturally better when I was eating exclusively clean foods, so I bet that made a huge difference in a positive direction.
Also new clothes everyday, seems obvious, but some people shower everyday and do everything to make sure their body smells good, and then they still reek because of the clothes
I enjoyed seeing the adorable and well-behaved little piggy 😍 It makes me miss ours, they'd sit and cuddle with us too, sometimes for long stretches, and then give a little nip when they were ready to go back to their cages because they needed to pee. They're great pets!
Just as today, some people were very clean, and some were just filthy. In a situation, I had no access to a modern bathroom, and I am very clean. I did thorough sponge baths, washed my long hair in a basin - washed my clothes by hand regularly. It takes a bit of preparation, and a bit longer. In Europe, as I knew it, it costs to use water- hence sponge bathing, and full baths once a week. And yes, sanitation was an issue in cities in times past-( as can be now). It is such a generalization to assume that you're filthy if you don't have a shower head.
''In Europe, as I knew it, it costs to use water- hence sponge bathing, and full baths once a week. And yes, sanitation was an issue in cities in times past-( as can be now).'' I'm not very sure what you mean with that? ? First Europe isn't one country. You can't equate wealthy countries that have functioning democracies with countries that are struggling financially or government wise. Second are you actualy beliving that people in europe don't have showers? That's not something I would expect from someone who has been to Europe before. Also where does water not cost anything? Even if one is poor one can afford showers. We have support for people with financial problems in Germany and other countries in Europe usally have the same. Of course Europe has also countries that are less well off than other counties but even then why would you use Europe as an exsample for that? Of course people did it in the past but no one does it anymore out of necessity. Some seniors may do it because they grew up with it and just don't want to waste water but I only heard of one person who does it. Nothing against this historic method, it gets's the job done perfectly, but why would you think that Europeans as a whole do this today? Like out of curiosity. I'm just sure there are plenty of countries outside Europe that have more water shortage and sanitation problems. Sorry for the long comment. Have a nice day :)
They also had rivers, streams and baths. Everything from Roman bath to saunas in Finland, of course people washed! Some Westerners took just sponge baths and a russian never washes, but other nations were clean enough.
I started making my own laundry detergent with washing soda, baking soda, borax, and Castile soap. I hang dry everything on drying racks outside in the summer, inside now that it's winter. I've noticed that clothes and bedding stay cleaner longer with this method. Cotton and linen dry super fast and that was the first layer next to the skin. I remember women in the 80s wearing slips under their dresses to protect them from the body. Wearing only one layer of clothing is a modern notion.
@@willowtree6487 I watched a video about how clothing was washed in the past and in particular people sent out their underclothes for washing weekly, whether you were rich or poor, you most likely were having your clothes washed by a service weekly because it was hard work that often required the use of dangerous chemicals such as lye. It was not uncommon for a person to have one or two weeks worth of underclothes with a set for day wear and a set for night wear. Some people would have a week and two days and they would have their clothes picked up the same day every week and had two wash day sets that would rotate. Then there was the fact that natural fabrics were (and still are) less prone to smelling especially if you aired them out between uses. Think about how jeans, especially 99-100% cotton jeans really only have to be washed every 20-40 wears. Levi's recommendeds washing 98-100% cotton jeans every 20 uses if you are wearing them for physical labor and every 40 if you are wearing them for just existing. Or the fact that wool just doesn't tend to smell. I've got a single alpaca hair wool sweater and I swear that thing never picks up a smell. I have worn it every day for months and it still smells clean. People who wear wool socks in the modern day regularly talk about how they not only keep their shape really well but they can wear a pair for a week or more without them getting smelly and if they air them out any smell goes away. Linen sheets are amazing at not smelling and are often considered naturally antimicrobial, I have a set of linen sheets and I only wash them if I spill something on them. I have noticed that I only tend to have breakouts when I hang out in my room a lot and use my extra pillows that don't have linen pillowcases. I also have some organic cotton sheets for when my eczema flares up and I don't notice bad breakouts with them either. But with my rayon sheets I have to change them after two weeks or my skin gets disgusting. There's also the fact that people were not using chemical antiperspirants which are known to make body odor worse. I stopped using chemical antiperspirants years ago and I occasionally still have moments where I feel like my body odor is overwhelming because even after all this time my body expects the chemical antiperspirants. It also doesn't help that even 100% cotton clothes usually use polyester thread so the armpits of a cotton T-shirt can easily start to smell in an instant. You have to figure that maybe people weren't washing everything they wore weekly, but at the very minimum they were washing the clothes that were closest to the skin. This plus a lack of synthetic fabrics and thread plus a lack of chemical antiperspirants often resulted in people who weren't necessarily smelling like what we expect in the modern day, but they still smelled clean.
you talking about rich people, cause the majority of people in that time was poor, like with 1-2 sets of clothes and no such thing as a jug of water in the bedroom. Of course there was people with more condition but you can't consider this the rule since the majority was poor.
@@natas5022 this is not at all true. The majority of people, rich and poor had at least a week's worth of underclothing because just like today there was underclothing in every price point or you could make it yourself and the majority of people had stations to do daily sponge baths. In warmer months people would bathe in rivers and ponds. I highly recommend doing some more research because this is a topic that I have been fascinated by and read /watched a lot of videos from historians about.
I believe it! As someone with chronic illness that often leaves me with little-to-no energy for self care, I can assure you that it's amazing how well I'm able to maintain hygiene with cotton rounds and rosewater when necessary!
@@COOLFRIEND Yes, because those two things totally take the exact same amount of energy! Sorry dude, but you picked the wrong person. 🤷🏼♀️ I spent too many years of my life feeling shame over shit I had no control over. You have no power here! Begone...
FINALLY A RU-vidR I WATCH FINALLY COVERED THE FULL GAME!!! one of my friends did art for some of the posters in game and Im just excited people get to see their art and also the story is just amazing
Mama always called them bird baths 😂 I do a full shower once a week but bird bath every day in between (sometimes full shower if I did something super sweaty/messy)
My mom called them “sink baths” and, when I got older, “hoe baths.” But when I was in the pits of depression at 15, those little wash-ups plus clean clothes kept people from knowing how bad I really was. People confuse modern conveniences with necessities.
I remember seeing the ceramic basin and water jug on vanities in older relatives' homes. They were an antique relic from the past. Very beautiful. But most definitely had been used
As someone who has spent long periods in the wilderness, sometimes months at a time, I can enlighten this subject a wee bit. The really bad body smell comes from a foul bacteria balance. When-ever you wash, you kill off the natural bacteria and so - a day or two after washing - you start smelling horrendous. But you leave it be and gradually a natural bacteria balance will start to occur and the really foul smell will go away, after a couple of weeks or so. Then you just smell human. Kind of how a dog or horse smell. You'd still have a clear smell. Just not as disgusting as you'd think.
I noticed that I smell horrendous, to use your expression, when I experience a sudden bad emotion or I go through a stressful situation. It doesn't matter if I have showered, pampered, deodorised and perfumed myself a hour ago - if I get the feeling that I have done something wrong at work and I start worrying, I feel a strong smell appearing. This and garlic. No Chinese garlic ever! It makes me stink so hard that I want the Earth to crack open and swallow me! The only garlic I buy is organic. If Imake the mistake of buying unorganic one, I can feel it!
@@eeaotly I've never heard of this, but I have heard of stress being connected to smell sensitivity. That stress makes you more sensitive to smells. Is there a chance that the smells you experience, might not be experienced as strongly by another person? Have you asked someone you truly trust would be honest how you smell in these situations where you can smell yourself? And have you noticed other things smelling more intense in these situations? If you just start smelling bad during intense negative emotions, that's like a flawed superpower. The hulk grows green, wolverine turns into a mustelid, and you start omitting smells. Maybe you can fight crime! I totally relate to garlic, though. I avoid eating raw garlic if I know I have to be social in the next 24 hours.
@@Nabium 😅 I would rather exchange my "superpower" for something more practical. Anyway, I know that I have heard of other people having the same type of... superpower, member of my family included. So it may be something genetic to some degree. Anyway, I do kind of recall from my (very distant now) Biology class that there are two types of glands in the armpits area, one of them reacting to the external temperature, and the other to the internal hormones. The last ones are the ones that "betrays" us. This is how, for example, a dog can literally smell your fear (even if maybe you don't). Regarding garlic, I never have problems with organic garlic. It is mild. But most of the garlic on the market is not organic and has a very strong taste. I mean it burns! If it burns your tongue, rest asured that it will also "go through" your skin. This is from what I have noticed.
@@eeaotly Well, that does make sense. I've heard some genes, which are more common in East Asia, makes it so little to no body odour is emitted. I've never noticed this effect you're describing on myself, but I rarely feel stressed or have overwelming emotions. I live in the middle of no-where so organic garlic isn't available here, unless I grow it myself. But I'll keep that in mind and try it out when I can find it. I do like the burn though.
They took baths in bathtubs and did sponge baths with a bowl of water and a sponge. They also made their own homemade deodorant which worked quite well.
We call it a "Possible" bath. You first wash DOWN as far as possible... then you wash UP as far as possible... and then lastly you give 'ol POSSIBLE a few good wash swipes, too. 🤷♂️😅😅😅😅😅😅
I remember having a dodgy hot water boiler once where you couldn't shower because it would swing so wildly between hot and cold. Worked out I could wash my body well in just 1.5L of water. Hot water, in a jug. Moisten a flannel, add soap to flannel, use the flannel over your body. Crouch down and rinse with the jug. Easy.
Everybody must have starved, though, because they couldn't order Pizza. And they were unable to know what was going on elsewhere because no internet. They didn't even have glass fibers and lasers and helicopters, all of which you absolutely need to build any form of communication lines. Also, they couldn't shave because no electricity 😱
Another thing is the food ingested is very different. In 2005, due to an extreme medical condition, I stopped ingesting additives, preservatives & dyes. I soon realized I no longer needed deodorant or antiperspirant!! Except for a very few stressful occasions I've been totally fine without either. Friends have reacted in disbelief, especially when at hot dance occasions. They really think I'm kidding them since I am not stinky. 😊
You are what you eat. All this garbage we eat daily does have an effect. I cut out white bread for wheat and you can taste the sugar in food when it’s added. Insane how bad everything is for us today.
This is how I wash myself in the morning instead of jumping in the shower. It's also how I stay clean when depression hits me and I struggle to get basic shit done. It's simple and easy, and you stay 100% clean without body odour. Just go to your sink, take a wash cloth and a bit of soap, and here you go. It's also decent in Summer, during water restriction periods.
@@Squant because it's not a shower, which of course is the only right way of washing oneself, therefore you are doing it wrong, and need a very good justification, such as being dirt poor or mentally ill...
People seem to forget that our sense of smell hasn’t changed very much since that time period. So if something stinks to the majority of people today it probably stink to the majority of people back then. In many parts of the world people still live in old fashioned and tribal communities and I have yet to hear anyone who visited them complain about their body odor. Nor have I heard anyone complain about Amish communities odors. Places like India have many people who do not have access to running water and they still clean themselves. I believe that these rude assumptions are simply made to make our generation feel superior to our ancestors.
When my grandfather was at university in the later 60s he rented a room, where he didn't have sink or shower, so he washed like this, because you couldn't bath their all the time because the bathroom was shared.
Yea sponge bathing over the sink is what I do every morning because our shower is shit it’s just a dribble. The only problem is if I forget deodorant I smell like shit within an hour (even when using an actual shower and scrubbing) so I’d be more curious about what people did before deodorant was a thing. And I don’t think it’s a puberty thing because I’m 20. I am going through second puberty now but before that I was still 20 and still had that problem. I always carry some in my work bag but it’s never the same when it’s too late.
If you've ever had to live in a house without running water for an extended period of time, this makes total sense 😂 gotta wash but cant bathe! You find ways.
Ruth Goodman my beloved. I have her Victorian era book and she talks about so many of her experiences I sometimes forget she's not a full fledged time traveller lol
As a child I visited my grandparent's farm where there was no electricity or running water. Every night a jug of water and a basin was used to wash your whole body. Then on Saturday there was a bath in a tub. Daily you were clean and there was deodorant for the teens and adults. With hard working the men and women did get sweaty but they washed daily.
To us they would still definitely stink, no deo and mostly sponge bathing equal stink. But if you've ever been out in the woods with some buddies for a week you know that it changes, that is maybe you and your buddies stink now but you don't really notice it anymore. Our hygiene standards are a bit unhealthy honestly
People drank alcohol with meals. Multiple layers of clothing could create excess sweating. Clothes would be worn multiple times between washes. Deodorants/perfumes were not in use by everyone. So yeah, there were undoubtedly offensive odors of varying intensities. People probably got used to it and expected it to the point that it didn’t need to be mentioned.
i remember even in the 60's, the stale cheap deodorants, - before the unshaven armpits taboo - hard work and sticky summer days. Once a week baths in a tin tub and a daily sink wash. Shivering in the outhouse, covered in stinging soap - dashing across the yard in wellies and pyjamas to go to the loo. No maids to bring warmed rose water. And a lot more hard, physica,l daily work before modern appliances. Yes, working class people DID smell of human. Anti - perspirants were a big breakthrough. "Artificial" perfumes have certainly improved. Now everyone is smooth as a plucked goose and covered in chemicals and looking for more "natural" ways of doing things. But i don't think sharing a tin tub would be very popular !! Convenient cleanliness, flush toilets and hot water in warm bathrooms and washing machines, are a huge privilege and luxury for which i'm truly grateful.
This was restricted to a minority. Most of people didn't have access and conditions to clean themselves daily. So yes, the overwhelming majority of the population, the poor, didn't bathe
My late grandparents had a well beside the house and they were farmers. Not sure what minority you're talking about. And they weren't rich by any means.
Although i know this era is far before this Parfum was introduced, it activated a compulsory urge to put on Youth Dew by Estee Lauder. This Parfum always makes me think of the most magnificent richness of what these people likely smelt like. Also, silk, yall. Im still in total amazement how much more hypoallergenic it is to the fabrics we have now. So worth it as undergarments. 😊
That sort of thing was for people with a bit more money, otherwise your only option was a comb for your hair (which would have been used to get gross stuff out too, essentially dry washing) and the nearby stream. Many people wouldn't pick the last option, as most still didn't know how to swim at the time
On top of that there many reasons you wouldn't want to bath in rivers and other bodies of water. Most of the year it's too cold, it could be muddy, it could be filled with bad footing (sticks, jagged rocks), it could be disease ridden (swamps and marshes were very common in Europe, and malaria was rampant in certain areas), you could get robbed (if you leave your belongings by the river side and someone snatches it, you're unlikely to run after them unarmed and naked).
It's well documented that people didn't wash regularly on purpose. In the medieval times it was frowned upon to wash. So people would have absolutely stunk but everyone would have stunk so it wasn't considered bad like today, it just was what it was. People didn't understand why you'd need to wash or why being free of bacteria and grime would be beneficial. Well off people with maids night have washed their faces and hands in the morning but that would have been about it.
Remember what conditions were like in Europe "back in the day". It was cold and indoor heating was limited, a person didn't really want to be getting naked in those temps. To heat enough water to take an immersive bath would require a lot of fuel - aka: firewood. Wood that you had to chop down. It would be much easier to heat a smaller amount of water and take a "sponge bath".
I know from personal experience that a "cat bath" (washing with basin) is not nearly as effective against body odor as a shower. Even with using soap there is some residue from the sweat molecules that makes the odor come back quicker. Different if you have flowing water.