Hygeine 1950s - 2020s

Bath night was sunday. Our house was freezing and only had a coal fire downstairs (no central heating) so a really smelly paraffin heater was lit outside the bathroom.

The rest of the week I only had a cursory wash of my face and neck with a flannel (no other bits were cleaned!) I did have clean socks and pants each day. I did have a toohtbrush but seldom bothered to use it unless I was due a dental appointment.

When I was little, I think we bathed once a week, and strip washed on the other days. I can't recall how often changes of underwear happened, just that we were always clean and well dressed. For one thing, my grandmother was a tailor, so a lot of our clothes were 'bespoke'. Of course, I longed for shop bought clothes like everyone else.

Being an army child, I was sent to boarding school aged twelve. Baths were at an appointed time, as we shared the bathrooms with others. No showers in those days.

I remember we were all (whole school) to attend an event where the Queen would be present. On the appointed day, we had to wear only clean clothes, so had to save a clean shirt for that occasion. I was mortified as I really could have done with a change of shirt a day or so beforehand but wasn't allowed to. I felt horrible though.

The prefects who oversaw who was wearing what needn't have worried. On the day, HM was no closer than the other side of a very large parade ground. She wouldn't have known (or smelt!) who was wearing what, and anyway there were hundreds present.

What a palaver!

Will grannyactivist my upbringing was very much like yours.
A sunday tin bath which my parents went in after 3 children then top to toe flannel washing.
Only one school uniform which had to last all week, and only two changes of clothes.
But we were really happy as we didn`t know any different.
I can also remember only having sugar sandwiches for tea.
Deoderant didn`t exicst or shampoo.
Yet we are here to tell the tale,which makes me more annoyed when some people out there have never worked a day in their life and lived really well on the back of tax payers .
How life has changed eh.

We had a bath on a Sunday night and as the youngest of 4 Mir was cold and full of the other three’s soap scum, muck and probably urine!
We wore the same clothes and underwear all week and I sometimes slept in my school uniform as the house was freezing and we would have to dress under the covers.
Not sure why I was 20 before I got my first boyfriend and had no friends! I bet I stank ?. My kids had a bath or shower every night and my DH (my first and only boyfriend) taught me how to look after myself to be honest❤️

baths every second day ,clean undies every day and the ones we took off put into a bucket with bleach under the sink.We had clean bedlinen twice weekly,I still do mine wednesdays and Saturdays .My mother used a laundry ,it collected the clothes in big bags and delivered them ironed and either in bundles or hung on hangers .The bags were left for the next load .My mum used a twin tub for underwear and towels and not much else unless it was an emegency for one of my sisters "I need that top for tonight ..oh and that skirt for tomorrow" type emergencies .I washed my hair daily once I was about 12 .we had one of those hairdryers that you hung on your shoulder it had a brush attachment and I brushed my hair dry with it.Sometimes I sat in front of the fire and mum brushed it dry for me with the heat from the fire .
She liked us to be well dressed as the daughter of a tailor she was used to getting hand made clothes that were bang in fashion so we always had nice things ,camel coats ,gaberdine raincoats Sunday clothes for church .Therewere four of us all girls so it would have been a lot to keep but my aunts all provided underwearand socks and jumpers and hats scarves and gloves because we were the only children of our generation in the extended family and we were treated as if we belonged to them all .We were very fortunate girls .

Wow paddyanne you were practically royalty by the sounds of it.

This is an eye opener!
I grew up in New Zealand until the age of 10 and can only remember sunny, windy days and walking barefoot to school.
However I was once off school because I had impetigo which is a skin infection apparently caused by lack of hygiene,
Then in England, there were some very poor children at my school who shared shoes in their families, had no bathrooms and did sometimes smell a bit but imagine 45 children in a classroom, - it must have ponged. a dog doesn't smell his own dirt
Our teacher was known to be a bit creepy and he once stroked my hair and sniffed it asking if I had washed it. I had and he thought the shampoo was lovely.
Yuk!

Later at boarding school we shared bathrooms and had a bath rota. We had all over washes at the basin and we rinsed out our undies in the bath water.

I still don't understand why people shower and wash their hair everyday I thought we were aware of earth's precious resources. Please explain.

I don’t remember most of my bathing/dressing when very young, I do remember ‘topping and tailing’ for a wash, I remember the first front loading washing machine after the twin tub, my Mum and Dad sat and watched it! I recall bath salts, which never fully dissolved and later bath cubes, we all had our own flannels and toothbrushes, no shower. I’m impressed with your memories, mine seem to be very patchy!

Sunday nights were bath and hair wash nights for my younger sister and me. In a bathroom in our rented house.

Dad used to polish our shoes, his and mum’s every night with a block of ‘Kiwi’ shoe polish, applied with a cloth and buffered up to a shine with the shoe brush.

Mum had an ‘English Electric’ top load washer with an agitator and a wringer which made me anxious as she ‘fed’ the clothes through it. She had a bucket of cold water on the draining board which contained powdered ‘Robin starch’. Our school blouses smelt lovely but after she’d ironed them they were as stiff as boards. Oh when I think back to the care she took to have us clean and presentable. Her own mum died when she was only 9y and she was determined our childhood would be happy and safe.

She was a lovely mum. Feisty, the disciplinarian of the family - dad was very gentle. Very happy memories. We were very lucky girls indeed.

And my dear Dad used to polish my shoes every night.

When I was first married, I put my shoes out expecting DH to clean them every night as I thought that's what men did.
He said he wasn't going to, but if I was cleaning mine could I do his too.

What a lovely, nostalgic thread. We too were a poor family and I share many of the other posters' experience of a once a week bath and a best dress for Sundays, school clothes the rest of the time.
One thing I do remember when we moved into our council house with it's own bathroom was nicking a drop out of my Mum's tiny, tiny bottles Californian Poppy or Soir de Paris. Feel so mean now as they were much loved and saved for presents from my dear Pa.
I remember too my Nan saying you'd wash away all your skin's goodness if you had too many baths which was a comfort when I was a dirty little urchin just having 'a lick and a promise' instead of the strip wash I was supposed to be having?

gaberdine raincoats
I had one and also a reefer coat. I hated them both.

Gosh, you were proper posh, Paddyanne with a laundry. My mum used to boil wash my dad and grandad’s underwear but not ours. I’m not sure what they did to their pants that required such measures!

I remember in the winter of 62/63 the pipes were frozen and we younger ones got washed at the kitchen sink. We were plonked on the draining board, feet in the sink of hot water and washed down. The bitter cold, though. ?

Our gaberdine raincoats used to rub our knees red raw walking home from school in the wind and rain. So sore! Knee length socks but no woolly tights!

We had baths and hair washing once a week. At one point our gas water heater packed up and we had months with no hot water which meant carrying kettles of boiling water up stairs for a bath.

I had two shirts to last a week for school and two pairs of socks. I think knickers were changed daily but my shorts and Tshirt for PE hung in a bag all term before they were taken home to be washed. I can't remember seeing anyone else taking them home either. Until I was about 12 going out anywhere smart at the weekend meant wearing school uniform, including hat!

Ooh, just remembered - sometimes mum used to sprinkle some ‘Lux’ flakes in our bathwater. Such silkiness! Where do these long forgotten memories dredge up from once you start eh?

Tin bath when younger and always on a Sunday scrubbed up ready for school. We didn't have a bathroom so Mum and I progressed to the public baths. Wonderful memories of that. Daily shower now. One of the things that lures me out of bed in this awful weather and lockdown. I get my pleasures where I can!

I had a bath on my own once a week, hair washed at the same time. I had an all over wash every day and clean underwear, socks and all clothes every day. I slept in clean PJ's in a clean bed changed once a week. I also had Sunday best clothes if we were going out anywhere. We all had our own toothbrushes and were encouraged to brush our teeth twice a day.
I don't think we were poorer than anyone else but my parents always put our needs before their own.

Saturday night was bath night when I was a child, so that we were all clean for church on Sunday. Until I was six , it was a tin bath in front of the fire, me first as the youngest, then my sister, then my parents after we had gone to bed. The loo was down the garden, or a potty under the bed.
I had few clothes, all handed down from my sister. A set for best, a set for school, and old clothes, worn out or too small, for playing.
Washing was done on a Monday and it meant lighting up the copper and getting the mangle out. Although we were very poor, my mum actually had a lovely lady who came to help with this.
When we moved house there was no central heating and the water was heated by a back boiler so it was still a weekly bath for some years, a strip wash in between, or a lick and a promise, as my mum used to say.
In fact my parents never had central heating, just a gas fire in the sitting room in their next house, and storage heaters and an extra electric heater when required.
I still don’t bathe every single day, and I dislike showers because of memories of school showers after PE. But I do change my clothes every day.

We always bathed every night and hair was washed on Saturday night. On Sunday we wore “Sunday best” clothes.
When I went to grammar school and wore uniform I got two blouses each week but my school cardigan and gym tunic were only washed in the school holidays. We had to polish our one pair of shoes every day.
Clothes were passed down between siblings and cousins, I don’t think I ever got a new raincoat or wellies. Most of my clothes was homemade.

When very small I sometimes shared a bath with my brother, I suppose to economise on hot water. My father would wash our hair and call us Soapy Sam and Soapy Semolina, which I thought immensely funny.

In the 1950s, when I was a teenager, I had a bath about three times a week. As soon I was responsible for washing my own hair, I did it every two or three days. How I loved those little sachets of shampoo! Anyone remember Lemon Creme? I can’t have used those all the time, and I can’t remember what brand of shampoo we used. Sometimes I used green soft soap with eau de cologne. My hair was always shiny brown whatever I used, because, well, I was young.

There weren’t many brands of deodorant in the earlier 1950s. I only remember Odorono, a red liquid. We were given a lecture by the gym mistress at school about using a deodorant, but by that time I already was.

I've enjoyed reading all the responses and discovering that my own childhood experiences were shared by so many others. I've had times in my life where I've hardly known where my next penny was coming from, but my children have always had a clean home, clean clothes and clean bodies.

Anyone else remember having Dettol in their bath? My mum used to pour a capful in. I was fascinated with it turning the water white as it swirled around.

Habits have obviously changed a lot but I wonder if we are any healthier nowadays than we used to be? So many children nowadays seem to have headlice, impetigo and weird things like Hand, Foot and Mouth disease, the latter two of which I had never heard of until I was an adult. Maybe our freezing cold houses kept them at bay!

I remember my mum saved the tealeaves to spread on the floor before she swept it. I think the dust attached to the leaves.We kept chickens and the eggs were preserved for the winter in a large crock covered with waterglass which looked like wallpaper paste.

Having read some of your stories I feel lucky, I was a child of the sixties, and we had an indoor bathroom and separate toilet - the bathroom had one of those radiant wall heaters so it went on every evening at about 6.30, and my two sisters and I were always bathed. We were pretty grubby from playing outside and making mud pies, gardening on our own little patches etc. The products I can remember best are Vosene shampoo, the smell stayed with you for ages afterwards, and we had Camay soap which my nanna supplied, but I was always jealous of my friend, who had Imperial Leather, because I was fascinated by the label staying on, it’s funny what you remember.