My mother told me everything, because her own mother had assumed that her big sister would pass on her own scanty knowledge - of course, she didn't so my mother had a 'very nasty shock', as she put it, and was convinced that she was dying. Lillets were supposed to be ok for virgins, so after a horribly messy time of sanitary belt and awful pads much like the early disposable nappies, I was bought some of those to try out. They were a huge improvement, but if you used those you were deemed capable of going swimming at school, so we had to lie on particularly cold days in order to get out of going swimming!
I do remember hearing about not being supposed to wash your hair that week, that explains all the women I saw with greasy hair, then. Luckily my mother was very enlightened.
I think it's so strange that all of those mothers/grandmothers must have suffered so much, yet did so little to help their own daughters. If my mother could break that strange silence, why didn't more women of her era? Looking back it must have been partly to do with male attitudes, because I remember a very bad period pain when guests were due, and I was cuddling a hot water bottle in agony. My father said that the bottle had to go, my mother agued that I should be allowed to keep it, in the end I chose to stay away from lunch altogether and go to my room and read while they were there. Up until then I had had no idea that anyone found it an uncomfortable topic.