Are we too clean for our own good?

A bath twice a week?! When I was a child everyone in our household had one bath and hair wash a week.

And Elizabeth I once a year "whether she needed it or no"

We were brought up having a nightly bath but we did share the water, so only the youngest could guarantee being really clean!

I hardly ever have a bath - but a quick shower every morning- water is hardly in shortage here at the mo though - but agree that we wash far too much and use far too much shampoo and shower gel, etc. I know several people who are using the 'no'poo' method - allowing the hair to go back to doing what is knows to do. After a couple of weeks of hell, they say the hair functions kick in and they just wash in fresh water and have much better hair for it.

The real problem though is with young babies and children- and probably one of the reasons there are so many allergies nowadays, as babies do not get immunity from normal 'everyday' bacteria. Often wonder if our grand-son's severe allergy to eggs is due to his parents obcessive cleanliness from day 1. As well as due to the fact that Csection babies are more likely to have allergies due to not getting immunity via birth canal bacteria either.

Anno, we didn't have a bath or a shower until I was 10. Top and tail by the sink it was - and then a bath at grannies about once a month.

I read about this last week - I did try only taking a shower every other day but just felt uncomfortable so its back to a shower every day and washing my hair every other day!

Friday night was always hair washing night when I was a teenager and after a week of sleeping in spiky rollers, my hair always looked best just before I washed it. Then it was back to square one....trying to tame flyaway hair

My DD was advised not to bath new baby DGS everyday and not to use any soaps or shampoos for several months. I think this is down to increasing awareness of the way we develop allergies. Eczema's in particular in this case.

Our DDs don't bath our DGDs daily either, probably only 2 - 3 times a week. Hopefully they won't get the eczema two of my children still suffer from.

Remember the days when 'Sorry,I'm washing my hair' was the excuse for rejecting a date? Don't think that would...er... wash nowadays!

annodomini....if 'Sex in the City' was still on it would probably give a few suggestions. 'Getting a Brazilian' springs to mind.

An interesting question. Recently I lost the use of my kitchen and bathroom for a couple of weeks so couldn't shower or wash my hair every day nor wash my clothes etc so frequently. I was surprised at how easily I coped and the world didnt come to an end. I'm sure I saved a few bob on toiletries and cleaning materials as well as my utility bills. I felt quite evangelical for a short while but once I got my kitchen and bathroom back I carried on as before! But it was an interesting experience.

When I was a kid we didn't have a bathroom there was a communal washhouse in the back yard and we were tossed into the big copper boiler where the mothers did the family wash.My first encounter with a bath was when I was dragged to an orphanage in 1940 and I never enjoyed it.Before being bathed in said hellhole we were forceably fed Beechams pills I still don't know why and i've had problems taking medication ever since.I would'ent take painkillers even when I suffered from migraine.Now I shower every two days unless i'm going somewhere special.

At boarding school we bathed once a week & washed our hair once a fortnight!!!!!
Our clothes were sent to the laundry each week and we were allowed to send 3 prs of knickers, 1 pr of bottle green over-knickers, 1 vest, 1 blouse. a flannel, a towel and 2 prs of socks! We must have been a grubby lot! Our 2 weekend dresses and 2 tunics were only cleaned each half term!

It was bliss when I left and went to the local comp, I could wear clean clothes every day!!

A bath a week, yes, but in the days of universal Brylcreem a shampoo every six weeks... and the water ran black! Largely because the soot in the air i those days stuck to to the blooming Brylcreem (or other brilliantine gunk).

I think the younger one"s shower far too much , it strips the skin of it's natural PH balance

We all had a daily bath in our house, even though it involved running water from the Ascot through a hose into a tin bath. I still have a bath every day, wash my hair every other and hate it if I have to use a shower instead. My uniform blouses and dresses had to last a week too and I was so pleased when we got a washing machine and could have clean clothes more often. I still remember vividly how people used to smell, especially coats and jackets smelling of stale sweat.

I remember still from when I was ten the smell of stone dust and tobacco on my stone mason grandfather's jacket (he wore an old three piece suit and a flat cap for work). But the cost of dry cleaning would have been too high - if it was around then.
My grandparents had a strip wash every evening - so they were clean underneath!

Feetle.... Brylcreem! Yuk! I remember those adverts of girls running their fingers through the Brylcreemed one's hair and thinking it must feel horrible.
Luckily it had gone out of fashion before I was in a position to run my fingers through anyone's hair

There are still houses in our village with no indoor bathroom. One of our neighbours has no toilet either. I believe that about ten years ago they surveyed the neighbouring départment and a third of houses had no indoor sanitation. There is a big campaign to get septic tanks to standard, but I don't think they have got very far. We will never have mains drainage in our village because of its position. One of my neighbours used to take her washing down the hill to the river. It took three days, one to "blue", one to wash and one to rinse. She has eight children.

Tammy1351 that sounds like a difficult period of your life - in the orphanage.

The hygiene hypothesis - the one that suggested that that too much cleaning causes allergies - seems to be on the way out, due to lack of evidence. There is another, newer hypothesis that suggests that the richness of our personal "micro biome" has decreased, but washing would not seem to be the major reason. I wrote a blog about it a few months ago. (Dammit, if you re-read something you always spot a couple more editing points, comma in the wrong place etc... goes off to update...)
jessica-madge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/hygiene-hypothesis-out-and-old-friends.html

Tammy that does indeed sound horrible. I hope you found a better life when you left?

Nonu I have a daily shower and hair wash. My natural oils I cannot answer for, but I replace them with all sorts anyway

Mamie where do you live if that's not too personal a question?
IMO the invention of the automatic washing machine was the biggest step forward in female liberation from household drudge.

Thanks, Jess - I found your bog very interesting. I have always believed that my own apparent resistance to gastrointestinal problems, even when travelling in third world countries, was a tribute to my own unhygienic childhood but perhaps I am just lucky - although my siblings shared my apparent immunity. I was also breast fed for at least two years which seems to have been helpful. Genes may also play a part - I never remember my mother having a day's illness until she had a prolapsed uterus in her 80s.
I knew a man whose company sold bacteria to farmers for introducing to piglets because they are now born in such hygienic conditions that they don't get the requisite supply from their mother.

I wonder what will be the next cherished belief to bite the dust! (Should I be drinking a glass of red wine a day? I don't, but many French people have told me I should!)