Hygeine 1950s - 2020s

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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 .

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❤️

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.

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!

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.

We had a bath once a week, and hair washed then. Just a wash in between each day. Mum wasn’t too particular about teeth cleaning really, but I took that quite seriously myself.

Can’t remember how often we had clean underwear but not every day I think. Socks in the winter were knee length fawn ones, think they lasted a school week. Not sure about ankle socks in summer, more often I imagine.

But highly polished shoes were a must, they were cleaned every night.

It all sounds strange now, but I honestly cannot remember that me or any of my friends smelled or looked grubby.

Should add that back then we had definite school, best and play clothes. You changed out of school clothes the minute you got home, you had clothes that were kept for going out, and you had shabby, too small clothes that were for playing and messing about in.

Once a week bath and hair wash on a Sunday. Tin bath until aged 7. Proper bathroom when we were rehoused by the Council that year.

One of the houses I lived in as a student in the early 80s had no hot water and we used the big slipper baths at the public baths up the road. 20p for a huge bath with as much hot water as we wanted....bliss.

Despite my parents being horrible there was plenty of hot water and I had a nightly bath.
It was mainly because I could lock the door and get away from my family!
There were pupils at my primary school who used to go the local baths once a week.
It was where we went swimming, I was always intrigued to see the huge slipper baths and thought it would be wonderful experience.
It never occurred to me it was because they didn’t have a bathroom!

I remember sharing the Sunday bath with my sister. I had to sit at the taps end. It wasn't fair!!

Do you know, I can't really remember about changing clothes and undies. It just seemed to happen. We didn't smell dirty, and I didn't have deodorant until mid teens.

I know we had a bath once a week, and the top and tail, or " up to there, and down to there", every day, in our cold bathroom.
Hope that nothing was missed in between ?

I was fourth in the bath on a Saturday evening after the baby and two older siblings. I can remember having a bath at Granny’s and being surprised that the water was so clear.

Hair wash and bath on Sundays, then a couple of other baths through the week. My bro and I shared a bath until we got old enough that we needed to be done separately.

I think undies were worn for two days until I reached a certain age. Outer clothing was worn for several days. I can’t much recall what I wore, apart from a checked skirt and some summer dresses.

There were seven of us, four children, my parents and my grandad, so my mum was always doing washing. I recall her machine with a wringer on top and then she got a twin tub, which was revolutionary, except it broke down all the time. We all had clean bedlinen weekly, six lots of bedding each time. She had a Flatley drier but I also remember her drying underwear in the oven, in desperation.

My mum is 93 now and still a clean-freak. The house was cleaned throughout every day.

A bath once a week. Top and tail wash in the sink every day. Hair was washed on a Sunday night and mum would brush it dry. I didn't have s clean blouse every day and woe betide me if I got a clean one dirty too soon. Clean undies and socks every day.

When I was first going out with the soon to be OH he said one of the reasons he liked me was because I smelled clean - I was horrified that other girls went out dirty.

We had a tin bath in front of the fire and no inside loo until I we moved from private rented accommodation to a council house. I was 7 - the luxury of hot running water and a flush loo! An only child so I was fortunate not to have to share clothes or toiletries.
What sticks in my mind was that shampoo and hair (lacquer) spray were quite new things and every Saturday I was sent to the local shop to buy a little sachet of Supersoft shampoo to wash my hair and a sausage shaped pod full of lacquer which Mum poured into a plastic bottle that had to be squeezed to get it to spray out.

We bathed once a week in front of the only fire in a tin bath shared with my sister and brother. Hair washed once a week and I honestly don’t remember even having a toothbrush till I was probably 10 or 12 the reason I had awful teeth no doubt. Socks were worn all week I can’t remember about underwear. When I think about it now it’s horrifying.

It’s funny how things have changed, isn’t it? When I was little, bath time and hair wash was always on a Sunday evening to be all smart for school the next day! The rest of the week it was a good wash at the sink.
Underwear was changed daily along with socks. I can’t really remember how often in the week other clothes were changed, but probably only if they got really dirty, because wash day was a big event and took Mum most of Monday to do - there was no automatic washing machine to do a quick wash in between times back then. We never smelled, though, and Mum was scrupulous about housework and keeping everything and everyone clean.
Teeth were cleaned every day, morning and evening.
We never had a lot financially, but we never went without and were well looked after. I’ve a lot to be thankful for.

I was one of eight children there was always more than one in the bath which was once a week. My mum washed every day to dads annoyance so we had clean clothes. We didn’t always have toothpaste we only got our hair washed once a week. If we had nits it was washed more often. I remember when I had nits my mum cut all my curls I was really upset. We all had a job to do in the house mine was brushing the stairs.

FannyC yes, I feel a bit tearful too.
It's too late now, of course.
And my dear Dad used to polish my shoes every night.

I think, as a child, I had a bath two or three times a week.

Underwear and socks changed every day as far as I remember.