What To Do When You Stunk In the 1200's
So, yesterday’s 5-Minute Medievalist podcast was an interview with an historian who devotes all her time to correcting historical misinformation on Twitter (or whatever it is called these days.) The historian’s particular bette noir was hygiene myths, so I am going to aid her a bit with some information.
General Routine
The rumor that the Medieval folks liked it stinky is false. In fact, there could be a real obsession with the cleanliness of the body indicating the cleanliness of the soul sometimes (though there were also ascetics whose noses got out of joint about anything to do with fun and the body. It’s a complicated mix of feelings here.)
However, fully immersing yourself in running water requires a something that even the Romans struggled to acquire: hot water. They could do it; it just required more work than it was worth to whomp up a bath more than a few times a week in a private setting (note the qualifier ‘private setting’ for later.)
So, most households had a basin of water heated up and brought up at night to use with a towel and soap. With said towel, soap, and bowl of water, you scrubbed face, hands, and feet.
There was a towel and toothpicks for teeth, in case you were wondering, and Paracelsus recommended a horrendous whitener using some abrasives.
Then you brushed your hair. Hair brushing is often depicted as something that someone lower on the totem pole did for you- daughters brush mothers’ hair, wives brush husbands’, servants brush…you get the idea. Whoever did it, it was important to scour through with a fine tooth comb to prevent lice and to keep those tresses bouncy. Washing hair involved rubbing a dry mix of herbs through your locks and then rinsing them out. (I go into more detail in the Medieval Hair Care post.)
At Table
Do you really want to impress your high-and-mighty guests at dinner? Bring out a pretty wash basin with hot water, scented with rose petals or lavender, and pass it around for them to wash their hands. This is such an essential part of manners; it’s up there in the instruction manuals of the time with not putting your elbows on the table and not using the tablecloth as a napkin.
Bath Houses
Cities almost always had bath houses. Some of them were survivals from Roman times. Most were newly installed by the local authorities or business folks on the make.
In German cities, there would be a men’s day and a women’s day at the public bath house. Guys got odd days of the week and gals got even days or something similar.
Other countries would have a lady’s section and men’s section, or just have reserved days for certain folks.
Everyone used these places though they charged an entrance fee, and to this day there are Eastern European countries that will use the public bath houses as the place for a business meeting. They got a bit of a rep after the 1300’s because sex workers would pick up custom in some of them, but that is a different story.
Some people were known to bathe every day. Tanners, since their job made them stink, were known to scrub off in the nearest river every day.
Private Baths
If you were fancy, or lucky, you could whomp up a bath in your home. You dragged out a big wooden tub, laboriously filled it with hot water, and hopped in to sit on the bench that was in the tub.
You had to put a towel on the wooden benches to avoid splinters, and the water would only last for so long, but a nice tub with a bench is still a luxury in our world.
The super fancy and monasteries were known to have stone baths built into their homes.
About Soap
Olive oil soap was the fancy type and could be perfumed the way we do now. It’s why my character Gerhard collects it. If you don’t have the fancy stuff, a nice goo made of wood ash and animal fats could suit you.
Laundry soap was another matter. Nasty black stuff made of lye. You washed your linens by soaking ashes in water, straining out the ashes, and then soaking the chemises and what have you in the water. Then use this to wash the linen with the gross laundry soap.
Some Sources:
Medieval Stain Removal (medievalists.net)
Bathing, Beauty and Christianity in the Middle Ages — Medievalists.net
Did people in the Middle Ages take baths? — Medievalists.net