Hygeine 1950s - 2020s

Growing up in the fifties - bath once a week. Two school blouses, one worn for 3 days and one for the other 2. Bath on Friday night and we couldn’t go to bed till our hair was dry (no hairdryer) so mum kept our hair very short even though it didn’t suit us. Come to think of it, I think she must have cut it as I don’t remember going to the hairdresser. I think everyone in my Primary School was probably a bit grubby.

As a primary school aged child we lived at the top of a large multi-occupied house. Bathroom was about three floor down. As the only running water in our four attic rooms (apart from that running down the walls) was a tiny corner sink on the landing with a cold tap, - had to go to large shared, bathroom to get ready for bed each night. Bath had geyser - which had to be fed with money. Most nights I had a bath.

Can remember that I used to wear large, baggy navy knickers - and Mum always insisted that I had a smaller pair of white ones underneath. The navy ones were changed weekly, the white ones every three of four days.

Once I went to Grammar school - and by then we were living in a Council House and had our own bathroom, the gym slip shapeless garment) was sent to dry cleaners during school holidays, but sponged down by Mum every weekend. OF course, as soon as I came home from school, I had to change out of this into more easily washable clothes.

Socks were changed (I think_ every 2-4 days, but shoes cleaned every night. Even when I started going to work, at the age of 15 yrs, the idea of changing my outer clothes every day did not occur to me. I changed clothes when they started to look grubby - not before. And underwear usually twice a week.

Of course, this was all way before home washing machines, my Mum went out to work, and all laundry was carried out via the bagwash - and one bag a week for Mum, Dad and me was considered normal, plus a once a month 'Best Wash'.

Think it was in the early 1960s that I started to realise the need to change underwear every day, and outer wear at least every 2-3 days.

Think it was in the mid-150's that deodorants arrived and we all suddenly became more aware of body odours.

We had a bath on Sunday nights, and as we had no hot running water, we had to boil a kettle every morning to have a wash. It wasn’t a very thorough wash, just face and underarms.
Outer clothes were worn for a week, but I can’t really remember about underwear.
We all had a flannel, and a towel, I hated that someone else could just pick up my towel and use it.
When I moved into student accommodation, there was one bath, no shower, and three loos for twenty girls!

Our family of five all had a bath every day in the kitchen, in the tin bath filled from the gas water heater. On Saturdays it was the big tin bath in front of the fire. When I was small I had my bath in the sink and remember how uncomfortable it was lying on the draining board with my head in the sink for a hairwash. We got a bathroom and inside loo when I was twelve.
I still love my daily bath.

Oh yes, Vicks and Beecham’s. Parrish’s Food too. Didn’t that have arsenic or some other poison in it?

Jaffacake, I still think a bubble bath is luxurious. Indeed, even a daily bath is luxurious, I’m grateful to have both!

I had a bath once a week if I remember rightly, and a wash every other night. I definitely had a toothbrush and paste but my mother was lazy and never supervised any washing and teeth cleaning. We had to make our school uniform last all week and we were only allowed clean knickers every two or three days. Socks were changed once in the week. I wasn’t allowed white socks except for Sunday school because mum said they had to be washed daily. As I said, my mother was lazy. She had a washing machine too, but she wanted to keep the laundry down.

We had baths on Saturday nights-church on Sunday. We had a council house with a bathroom. My grandmother lived in a house without a bath and my aunt- ten years younger than my mother used to come at the weekend and stay to have a bath

Bath on a Saturday morning, hairwash Saurday evening. Communal towels and flannels. Shampoo was a powder in a sachet. Strip wash every evening at the kitchen sink. Can't remember how often we changed our clothes. I think knickers were worn for 2 or 3 days. DM thought the family next door but one were proper 'Bohemian' because they all had a bath every day.

Nowadays I don't feel clean unless I've showered every day.

The immersion heater was put on for an hour on Sundays and all 6 of us would have a bath. Always hoped that there would be enough hot water left to sit in about 2 inches of warm water. Hair wash at the same time with washing up liquid.
Mum and I went to Butlins for a stay when I was about 9. Don't know why it was just us without my brothers but so exciting to have a full bath each evening. Mum bought a little bottle of bubble bath and I thought it was wonderful.
Still love my bubble baths !

Anyone else remember having Dettol in their bath?
Yes. Dettol and Vicks Vapour Rub were the answer to everything and Beecham's Powders if you felt really ill.

We had Imperial Leather, Palmolive and Knight's Castile soap.

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.

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.

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'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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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?

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!

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!

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. ?

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

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?