How and When Did Daily Bathing Become the Norm in the United States?

[Shagnasty]

I was looking through my father's Boy Scout handbook from the mid-1950's and noticed the section on personal hygiene. It stated that ideally a boy should bathe twice a week and shampoo his hair once a week. On old TV shows and movies, women went to the hairdresser to get their hair washed and set not more often than every one or two weeks. Today Americans would consider this standard of cleanliness very lax to downright disgusting. Almost all younger Americans shower or bathe every day or every other day now. Why did the standard of cleanliness swing so drastically toward the obsessive side in the United States? During what time period did most of this change occur?

[sethdallob]

I'll give a WAG - I remember one of Cecil's columns on wigs (don't remember the specific Q) where he talked about how they use hair from Africa because it's nice and waxy, and that our hair was too frail due to overwashing. He blamed this on agressive advertising by the likes of P&G and such.

I also think that the advent of virtually universal indoor plumbing and hot water made it a lot more conveinent to bathe.

[BooBoo316]

I think it may be related to economics. People have more money to spend on personal hygiene now than they did in the 1950's. I have no idea when daily bathing became commonplace. I remember taking daily baths when I was growing up in the 70's.

[Rhetoric]

It also depends on the age of the scouts. Prior to puberty, boys don't smell half as bad.

[aseymayo]

My WAG is that the emergence of the shower as a standard bathroom fixture helped make daily bathing a part of our morning ritual. When I was a kid, a mere forty-odd years ago, no one had showers in their bathrooms - showers were only found in places like the high school gym or the YMCA. But once people realized they could experience the joy of standing under a stream of warm water in their very own homes, and that it was a rather nice way to start the day, everyone started putting in showers. Nowadays you can even find homes that don't have a bathtub at all - just a shower stall.

We're not all that obsessed by cleanliness - the advertising people are, but we try to ignore them.

[broys]

Being a teenager, I take showers everyday (well, when I will be going to school or other public places). Before puberty I wouldn't need a shower very often because I wouldn't stink for about two or three days. Today if I were to take a shower only twice a week people would tell me I stink. I'm not obsessed with being clean or anything, except for when I'm in public. When I will be at home for long periods of time I won't take a shower very often b/c no one will be around to smell me.

Smell ya later.

br

[bughunter]

When I started growing my hair long (18" in the back, now) I had a real problem with dry hair and tangling and the resulting broken ends.

My mom told me that when she was growing up (in the late 50's, early 60's) the standard wisdom was that it's not good for long hair to shampoo it daily - which was what I was doing. Now I shampoo it only twice a week.

Except in the summer, when it frequently gets sweaty or salty or greasy from sweaty, salty, and greasy activities (use your imagination), I have to shampoo it more often.

But I couldn't imagine not showering every day. I gotta wash my skin off daily or I just feel grody. It may be a modern convenience, or a result of toiletry marketing, but I gotta bathe daily, even if it doesn't include a shampoo.

[TheLoadedDog]

A friend of mine was born in England in the fifties, and he told me that when he was growing up, some families (particularly in the rural areas) had "bath night" once a week for their kids. They all shared the same water.


_{Aussie Joke
Q: Where do you hide your money from a Pom (Englishman)?
A: Under the soap!
JUST JOKING GUYS! DON'T TAKE ME TO THE PIT!}


For me, I'm a big guy, and I have to shower once a day. If I don't, not only do I smell like a dead bear's arse, but I get prickly rash and all sorts of other horrible things which would make me not a very pleasant person to be near. In summertime, I shower two or three times daily. For normal people, on the other hand, I think once per day is about right.

[uglybeech]

I had a roommate once that showered very infrequently (once a week or so). You'd think that she'd have been the nightmare roommate, but actually she always looked and smelled clean. Her hair never looked oily. She claimed that the more you bathe, the more oils your skin and hair produce to compensate. So the more you need to bathe.

Sort of like bathing as addiction.

Any truth to this? Or was she just a freak of nature that somehow naturally didn't produce oils or b.o.?

[erislover]

I would tend to agree with that. I don't even wash my face unless I'm bathing (showering) and it rarely ever gets noticibly oily. It used to, however, when I washed my face all the time, and ESPECIALLY when I used those anti-zit thingers which dry your face out something terrible. I quit washing my face, and at first it was almost unbearable, but then everything settled down and I am a happy camper with a non-oily face.

As well, my roommate (ex roommate, anyway) would smell halfway through a day of doing nothing. He bathed at least twice a day, sometimes three.

Interesting stuff. I bathe irregularly, as well, normally only when I've deficated, sweat, or been in contact with some nasty stuff. Otherwise, I don't smell, I'm not particularly dirty-looking, so why bother? I got better things to do with my time that stand under some water for ten minutes.

[Athena]

I'm with erislover on the washing the face thing. Unless I'm really gross, I've never used anything but water on my face. I don't wear makeup very often, but even then I'd remove it as much as possible with water, or let it wear off over the day. I'd only use makeup remover as a last resort.

I constantly get comments on how perfect my skin is. I occasionally get a zit, but overall my skin is neither greasy nor dry, and my complection is really nice. When I use soap, invariably my skin starts to act funny. So water it is.

[phartizan]

I find the older I get, the dryer and itchier my skin gets. Partly because of swimming at least every other day--gotta wash off the chlorine. Advice for those with dry skin: try petroleum jelly (vaseline).

Anyway, for most of the time the human race has been on earth, bathing has been inconvenient & therefore has probably seemed unnecessary. Too bad we've learned to dislike rancid body odors.

[bughunter]

OK, I've got a hypothesis on this.

Recognize, first, that for most of our evolutionary history, humans have only had to associate with a small, familiar group of smelly people.

They weren't crammed together in cities, constantly exposed to people with foreign odors and hygeine habits, forced to share personal space in elevators and subways.

Our sense of smell evolved partly to help identify family members, which pretty much included all of a clan or tribe by extension. If you were a clansperson, their funk was pretty much the same as your funk.

But the members of the rival tribe smelled different. Hell, they're your enemies because they stink, among other things.

The hypothesis is this: Bathing didn't really become necessary for hygenic reasons. It became necessary for social reasons, so that we could all live in dense urban concentrations without plunging pointed sticks into each other.

(Of course, I'm ignoring another powerful influence: marketing and advertising.)

[Eve]

Judging by the subway ride I just took at lunchtime, daily bathing is STILL not the norm amongst the patrons of the Lexington Avenue local.

[phartizan]

Smells were for recognizing people? Who sez? I thought we were like dogs getting woodies over stinky stuff. (Yum!)

One reason I suspect we've learned to dislike the odor of the unwashed body is because people in one country love to eat stuff people in a different country think is disgusting. Think French cheese, or in Asia fermented bean curd or durian (the fruit). Trust me, most Americans would say it "stank". Of course that's food, not sex, but still...

Not to mention the fact that bathing isn't/hasn't necessarily been popular in all urban areas.

[Guinastasia]

I say I have to bathe once a day. I smell if I don't and my hair gets really greasy easily. VERY very greasy-it's so fine. And I feel grody and scummy if I don't. And it is NOT a good idea to just let make up wear off-remove it, never sleep in it. It's a great way to get zits and even infections-eye infections, for one.

One thing, you really DO have to do AT LEAST once a day-brush your teeth. No ifs ands or buts.

And I do know that in Russia, the Tsar and his family did indeed bathe everyday-cold water every morning. It's healthier. Use cooler water, you'll feel better. Scrub off those dead skin cells.

[domina]

My mother says that when she was a teen in the '50s, bathing used to be a point of contention between parents and daughters, but not the way you might think. Apparently the older generation saw bathing as a kind of vanity, like makeup or sexy clothes, so daughters wanted to do it more than their mothers would let them. So maybe the daily shower is another aspect of the decline of puritanism in the last 40 years. (Kind of curious, though, that there was also the hippie contingent that rebelled by not bathing at all...but that didn't last long...)

[Broomstick]

Originally posted by uglybtch
I had a roommate once that showered very infrequently (once a week or so). You'd think that she'd have been the nightmare roommate, but actually she always looked and smelled clean.
[smip]
Any truth to this? Or was she just a freak of nature that somehow naturally didn't produce oils or b.o.?

I had a roommate like this, too.

There's a wide variation in skin oil, sweat production, and other skank-producing secretions. The intensity of the skank produced varies with diet, hormones, age, and heredity.

Personally, at one point I was having terrible skin problems. The dermatologist told me I was bathing too often and that my skin could no longer handle once-daily bathing. After switching to something milder than soap and breaking the once-a-day habit my skin became much healthier. During summer, if I get particularly hot and sweaty I'll just rinse off a couple times a day, which gets enough off to feel non-grungey but doesn't strip the oil off my skin.

I also have really long hair. I hear a lot of other women marvel over this, then complain that when they try to grow their hair long they get dry, brittle ends and it breaks off at shoulder length. Well, yeah, that's because you can't wash your hair every day AND grow it long. Long hair (I mean mid-back or longer) is washed only 1-2 times per week, and you have to avoid hairdryers, too. You DO have to brush it thoroughly at least once a day, though, which distributes the oils all the way down to ends. Do it properly and the oil winds up on the hair shaft instead of hanging out on your scalp where it looks greasy and creates dandruff.

[Ben Stepton]

I don't buy any of this "don't wash and you'll smell cleaner" stuff. I used to hang around this guy (relucantly, however, during the warmer months) who never used soap. He made similar claims about oils, follicles, skin cells, weevil infestation, etc. To make matters worse, for deodorant, he used a "Thai Stone"? It was basically a lump of alum.

I think it is quite needless to say that he smelled like a goat. And the nice thing about the goat comparison is that it's not an exaggeration. It's rather nauseatingly accurate, in fact.

Anyway, lest any of ye poor gullibles out there be swayed by all this commie nonsense, listen to me... or at least listen to your mothers... keep up that ritualistic and addictive bathing. You'll help make the world a better place.

Ben Stepton

[Homer]

Yeah, Ben, because everyone is exactly alike. I only shower every other day or so because my skin gets too dry if I shower more often. My hair doesn't get greasy for four or five days. I dare you, I dare you, to say I smell bad even if I haven't showered for two or three days. I don't. Many millions of other people don't, or wouldn't, either. Just because your roommate was a stinky bastard doesn't mean everyone else is also.

--Tim

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Norm has always bathed, in the United States & in any foreign countries he has visited.

Sam won't let anybody drink in Cheers if they don't.

[Ben Stepton]

Tim

A) my post was tongue-in-cheek

B) if you're going to dare me, well then, you stink! you stink something awful and that's why you have no friends.

Sorry.

Ben

[Homer]

Heh heh. Good, good. Glad to see a good natured new guy. I get tired of the ones who make assinine snap claims. Hope you stick around.

--Tim

[Stoid]

Napoleon was returning from a campaign and wrote to Josephine: "I'm coming home soon. Don't bathe!"

Yuk.

stoid

[Opengrave]

Oh man, old B.S.A. handbooks. Find the section on clothing or camping (I can't remember) it says "in bad weather rubbers may be worn." (emphasis mine).

I cracked up when I read that.

[Chronos]

Just for the record, the Handbook now (as of 1990, at least) advocates daily bathing, of some sort or another.

[Broomstick]

You know, I dont' ever recall reading anything about bathing, daily or otherwise, in my girl scount handbooks. Wonder why? Did they just assume girls had better hygiene?

[DarkPrince]

I dunno about girlscouts, but when I went on boyscout camping trips I always made sure I took a bath at least once a day...in a creek that had thawed out 26 minutes ago...with leeches. Ah, camping. Anyway, I feel totally nasty if I don't shower daily, but that's just me. My girlfriend on the other hand will go days without bathing and still be as fresh and clean as a rose, go figure.

[Mockingbird]

Don't any of you that have long hair use conditioner?

I wash my hair daily because otherwise it gets too oily. A good conditioner keeps it from drying out.

[Broomstick]

Originally posted by Hastur
Don't any of you that have long hair use conditioner?

I wash my hair daily because otherwise it gets too oily. A good conditioner keeps it from drying out.

Sure, I use conditioner. And a very mild shampoo. But, as I said, if you brush the long hair very thoroughly (which you should do) the oil on your scalp winds up on the hair, where it belongs, and because there is so much more hair than on a shorthair there's places to put it all. If I don't brush the hair out (a problem when I was a young and irresponsible child) then the oil hangs out on the scalp and gets skanky and the ends get dry, brittle, and break off. Ick.

When I use conditioner I give the bottom foot of my hair a double-treatment, because those ends are years old, dried out, and more delicate than the new hair closer to my scalp.