Vintage Hygiene Tips That Are No Longer Socially Acceptable

We’ve come a long way as a society when it comes to personal hygiene but it hasn’t always been that way. The generations before us had to get pretty crafty when it came to keeping clean and staying healthy.

Before we had fancy face wash infused with kale extract, our ancestors had to try out some pretty gross ways to keep their face clean, and don’t even get us started about what balding men attempted! Check out some of the most disgusting ways our ancient ancestors kept clean.

Entire Families Reused The Same Bath Water

In the Middle Ages, bathing was emphasized by Christianity as a way to show off your cleanliness. While the upper class could afford to heat a bathtub of water every night, the lower class couldn’t. Families would instead end up sharing the same bathwater.

Exploring Washington's Olympic National Park
Photo by George Rose/Getty Images
Photo by George Rose/Getty Images

They often bathed from oldest to youngest, so if you were the baby of your family you ended up in some pretty dirty water. Bathing has evolved a lot over time, but it used to be a pretty gross affair.