Did adults bathe weekly in the old days?

[Anonymous]

I grew up in the 70's. I remember mom showering every second day. I think that's what we did too.

OP the 60's and 70's aren't really old days. That's why you were getting references to people 90 years old, or what was done in the 1800's.

My Grandpa figured once/week was enough. And get this -- nobody was allowed to wash their hair in the winter because they would get a cold. Can you imagine the smell? Gross.

[Anonymous]

My mother (90) has said that when she was a child, they boiled water on the stove for a bath -each family member took a bath one-after-another (the youngest got to have the first bath). After the baths, the water was used to mop the floors of the house. This was weekly. I imagine fuel was expensive - this would have been in the snowy mid-west. It was the depression. They never owned a car. They sent 4 kids to college ~ off point, but worth mentioning.

[Anonymous]

LOL at "old days." How old are you, OP? I feel old now!

[Anonymous]

I imagine hippies in the sixties bathed less than daily. But average people in America bathed daily.

But as for the actual old days, I've heard that once in a while, whole families would take turns bathing in the same tub of water - starting with the husband, then wife, then the children from oldest to youngest. That's where the expression "don't throw the baby out with the bath water" came from. Apparently, by the time they bathed the baby, the water was so dirty, the joke was that you could loose the baby in it.

[Anonymous]

In the '70s, I remember most of our family bathed every second day. Sometimes less in the winter. I don't know exactly how often my mom bathed as a kid, but I know even as a teen they never washed their hair more than once a week.

In college ('80s), I dated a European guy, and when I would visit, I got to have the first bath. Then he and his four male roommates would each take their turn. The water got colder and dirtier with each person...yuck. And people did smell, to be honest, but since everyone smelled the same, I don't think they noticed!

[Anonymous]

Perfume was a much bigger deal in the "old" days and infrequent bathing is one of the reasons. I read a book about perfume that described how, in the ancient middle east, people wore a sort of wax cone on their heads that dripped perfume slowly down.... Weird, I know, but it sounds necessary.

[Anonymous]

We bathed bi-monlthy and shat in a chamber pot. The 1980's were rough. I also walked to school in the snow, uphill both ways.

[Anonymous]

I bathe my little kids maybe two or three times a week.

Imagine all that dead skin, just piling up!

[Anonymous]

I'm 60, and grew-up in a children's home, we bathed twice a week. there were 2 baths in the bathroom, and 2 lines of children, when you got out, another went in, shared water and all.
Don't think that it is gross, if there was a war on now, you would be happy for anything you could get, and a bath would be one of the last things on your mind-- even after a month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, I am really referring to the 60's and 70's. Were people (adults) bathing less frequently?

Really -- 60's and 70's as the olden days...get a grip

[Anonymous]

I was born in 73 and my mom only let us bath once a week on saturdays. didn't think we needed it more often. I think that's how often she bathed growing up in rural Kansas. I believe she showered every other day +/-. Some people have oilier skin/hair than others and need to bathe more often, whereas other people have drier skin/hair and it wouldn't be good for them to bathe daily. Bathe when you NEED to not when some asshat on an anonymous forum tells you THEY think you should.

[Anonymous]

Depends-one friend's mother, now passed, did a mini sponge bath daily, her regular bath weekly, yet cleaned her house top to bottom every day!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the '70s, I remember most of our family bathed every second day. Sometimes less in the winter. I don't know exactly how often my mom bathed as a kid, but I know even as a teen they never washed their hair more than once a week.

In college ('80s), I dated a European guy, and when I would visit, I got to have the first bath. Then he and his four male roommates would each take their turn. The water got colder and dirtier with each person...yuck. And people did smell, to be honest, but since everyone smelled the same, I don't think they noticed!

Oh BS. I lived in Europe then. People were not sharing bathwater.

[Anonymous]

I just learned last month that my parents, who grew up in rural Iowa and rural Wisconsin in the 50s, grew up with weekly baths. My stepmom had the "everyone shares bathwater, oldest to youngest" system. The big reason was lack of indoor running water in their poor rural areas. Grandma even had to burn corncobs to heat the water! I was flabbergasted to learn that "the past" isn't as far away as I always assumed. Sounds like the big distinction was rural vs town -- it took much, much longer to get infrastructure out to all the farms. My aunt was in high school in the early 60s and said her farm family had the weekly system, but she used to sneak into town to HER aunt's house to bathe more more often in the indoor plumbing.

[Anonymous]

I was a kid in the 70's, daily baths for the kids and daily showers for mom and dad.
My grandma also bathed every day, she took a bath every day at 6 am and was fully dressed before anyone else was up. She was born in 1902 and always lived in NE cities-not sure if she bathed daily as a kid-doubt it, she was one of 5 siblings-never thought to ask.

I lived in Europe in the very early 90's and my aunt there (then in her early 50's) bathed once a week. Remember they also have bidets and actually use them. She would tell me that bathing every day would take away the natural oils and dry out my skin. Never encountered the shared bath water there.

In Japan they still do the shared bath water but it is only for soaking. People wash with soap separately and then soak in the hot tub one by one. Mom goes last.