how did women wash their hair before shampoo?

[joyinc]

i've always wondered this. does anyone know?

[akurah]

Castile soap, mostly.

[momma smurf]

Here is a thread (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080327134904AANNcHw) about just this on Yahoo. :D

[Wavelength]

And before that, probably preparations of soapwort and other plants containing saponin.

ETA: momma smurf, your link appears to be broken... :confused:

[sapphire-o]

I'm pretty sure soap has been used for a long time (2800 years according to something I just read). I also heard about using eggs or hibiscus leaves. Oily hair used to be perfectly normal and acceptable anyway so people probably didn't wash much.

[momma smurf]

ETA: momma smurf, your link appears to be broken... :confused:

:oThanks, Wavelength! I think I fixed it. :D

[getoffmyskittle]

Just women? :confused:

[Xanthippe]

I would guess that at some point in our history that people just didn't wash their hair at all. In reading about my ancestry, I came across an account that my great grandfather's Native American tribe would just rinse their hair in river water every few days. I'll have to dig out the article when I go home. So, some people probably just used water too.


Just women? :confused:

Heehee. :lol:

[meliora]

I read about some interesting methods, such as animal fat mixed with ashes, which would essentially create soap. I am not sure how well that worked though. Eggs, dark bread+water mixture (stale bread gets soaked in warm water, and then hair gets washed with the paste), and various herbs were used as well.

[hrimfaxi]

I read somewhere that some of the more American Southwest Native Americans used yucca root (saponin/sudsy, at least), but I believe it was in a historical fiction piece, so I do not know if there is any factual basis for this.

[SimplyLonghair]

This is interesting, my DDad and I were just talking about this the other day. He grew up in the backwoods of Arkansas and at a time that they were dirt poor, and yes that did mean that they had a dirt floor in all of the rooms, except the kitchen. He said that they used the ACV that his mom and grandma put by, as well as lye soap. But the lye soap was not an every week thing. But he said that this was only in the summer, in the winter, they just didn't do anything.:o:agape: Ummmm, errr, yuck! He did say that IF there was a great need to bathe then they did have a big tub that could be used, but that the only ones who did were the woman in the winter. He said, that they bathed in the creek when they did. Boy the things that we take for granted.

My great grandma was native american and they used wood ashes and water, or yucca root, that was also available in Oklahoma and Texas where they lived. I have used yucca and it works if you grind it finely enough.

I was talking to my DDad about this because that hair that you find in old pics is soooo much better than the hair that you see today. Anyway my family is getting used to me being hair obsessed.:D

[Sarahmoon]

Maybe with beer and egg?

Or maybe their hair just got clean by using water only? They dit not wash themselves as often as we do, so I guess their hair did not get oily so fast.

[Palms]

in my region i know they used to use olive oil soap! which by the way is extremely great for the hair..

[Starr]

Practices of hygiene and hair washing have existed for more than 3000 years as most early tribes had some form of ritual bathing and in fact in the highly developed ancient cultures of egypt, japan, greece and rome washing was fairly common (I use the term loosely, because although it was common it was not the same as everyday washing that we have in Western societies.) It wasn't until the fall of the Byzantine empire to Christian crusaders (the era of the crusades) that a decline in hygiene occured as bath houses were up until that point not only a place to bathe, but also "pleasure" houses, which did not appeal to early Christian crusader's sensibilities. However the bath houses and bathing survived the crusades (in some parts of Europe) and into the early middle ages until about the 14th century when of course plague and syphilis spread through Europe on and off for next 300 years or so and hygiene was all but abandoned (after all a wet bath/pleasure house with no filtration system was a prime candidate for spread disease and STDs) due to the fact it was believed that the black death was spread through water (partially true)- thus the rational became no water=no plague (although I wonder why no one thought it could be all the rats, lice, fleas, garbage or squalor?), also as water was to precious a commodity in some European towns, to be used only for cooking or drinking, it was considered frivolous to bathe anyways. Thank heavens though that around the 19th century people started to bathe again for utilitarian purposes, as more and more homes began to have wash tubs, and by the 20th century hygiene once again became common place.

In the non "Western" world people always bathed. In India things like soapnut and shikakai were used. In the Americas native tribes used Maidenhair fern, yucca, prairie willow, coyote melon, false pennyroyal, malva, sage, globe mallow or a variety of other plants. In other places they made their own soap. Society has always been able to get with out commercial shampoo- even if they didn't smell like a fruit, a flower, or a cookie.

[tiny_teesha]

starr i like how you put that! :) I wonder how my parents bathed in their poor self sufficient farm they lived on. Probably a tub once a week with soap.... Soap lasts pretty long.

[Mi-chan]

Just women? :confused:

Yeah, I wondered about that O.o what about the men??

[dancingbarefoot]

Practices of hygiene and hair washing have existed for more than 3000 years as most early tribes had some form of ritual bathing and in fact in the highly developed ancient cultures of egypt, japan, greece and rome washing was fairly common (I use the term loosely, because although it was common it was not the same as everyday washing that we have in Western societies.)

At least for ancient Japan, while washing and purification were very important (particularly for Shinto rites), people didn't wash their hair often. Well, not the nobility, anyway (the written records don't tell us about other social classes). It was common for the noblewomen to wash their hair 2-4 times a year. Probably the same for the noblemen, too, but I just don't remember; the women's styles were often knee-length or longer hair worn down, while the men's hair wasn't quite so long and worn in topknots most of the time. They used a variety of plant materials, including rice bran, to wash their hair.

[rubyann]

Very interesting thread and some great insights into the past.

[Yari]

I read somewhere that some of the more American Southwest Native Americans used yucca root (saponin/sudsy, at least), but I believe it was in a historical fiction piece, so I do not know if there is any factual basis for this.

I think this text could be helpfull. :) Tradition Today: Time Among the Navajo (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/mystery/american/navajoland/yucca.html)

[Iylivarae]

I also think that people just didn't wash that often, they took about one or two baths per year, it was sometimes even thought that bathing caused illnesses and wasn't good for the health. That's why rich people used loads of perfume, so noone would smell the sweat.

[Shell]

People (men and women) also oiled their hair a lot and brushed it daily. That went a long way toward upkeep. Perfuming the hair was also quite common (you can guess why this might be so).

[MoonCreature]

Not going that far back but my mom told me that when she and her sisters were young they put cotton in the base of the comb before they combed their hair. The cotton absorbed some of the oil and the dirt got caught in the cotton. They also put talcum powder on their scalp, let it sit for a while and brushed it away thoroughly.

[Presto]

My mother actually made soap from fat and ashes. Floated an egg in it to see when it was done. I think she only made it just once. It was like melty wax in appearance, with tiny bubbles throughout. Milky white color with the occasional fleck of ash still in it. She cut up a pan of it into bars, and I remember it was very hard soap. It worked, but wasn't as slippery or creamy as the Ivory we usually used.
She also kept us in cloth diapers and made our bread.
Oh, and I'm only 30, so this wasn't really all that long ago! :D
I think she was a hippie, but didn't know it, and never ever got close to the hippie party scene. Just really into DIY stuff.

[Starr]

At least for ancient Japan, while washing and purification were very important (particularly for Shinto rites), people didn't wash their hair often. Well, not the nobility, anyway (the written records don't tell us about other social classes). It was common for the noblewomen to wash their hair 2-4 times a year. Probably the same for the noblemen, too, but I just don't remember; the women's styles were often knee-length or longer hair worn down, while the men's hair wasn't quite so long and worn in topknots most of the time. They used a variety of plant materials, including rice bran, to wash their hair.

This is very true as several Japanese noblewomen during the Heian era had hair much longer than they were tall and hairwashing would often involve a lot of servants and a lot of time (at least an entire day).

[SHADOWSCODE46]

Some old books that I have that take place in Medieval and earlier times make mention of boiling fats (from whatever animal that was slaughtered that day) to make soaps (particularly goose being mentioned more frequently). I think this was also mentioned in a book I read when I was younger called 'The Midwifes Apprentice'. This was done by servants for people that could afford maids, cooks and the sort. The books are fiction but I believe that this scenario may very well be true.

[snowflakegirl]

I was told by my grandmother that my great-grandmother (which was about 100 years ago) would wash her hair with bar soap and rinse with cold water and lemon juice. She said her hair was so shiny afterwards. I don't think I could trust the bar soap or lemon juice on my hair. I'd be too scared of the drying effects.

[Kupferzopf]

You can trust in soap and the lemon juice rinse. That's exactly what I do. :) But I rinse out the juice afterwards and use 2 drops jojoba oil as leave-in.

[squiggyflop]

Castile soap, mostly.
i washed my hair with kiss my face soap today to see what it was like... i have to say that the results are good... it did take longer to wash my hair because there wasnt much lather coming out of my bar but with a vinagar rinse and some conditioner my hair feels pretty good

[Anje]

Let's not forget that there are quite a few people around here who have gotten quite good results with their hair and bodies washing only with water. I went WO for about 9 months and it worked pretty well for me, but I never got oil to move far enough down my hair and ultimately went back to CO. It's nice to know I could easily go back to that, though, should some strange need for it ever arise.

[ktani]

This is interesting, IMO.

"A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/wiki/Alkali) and cassia (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/wiki/Cassia) oil ... on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC." See “Early history”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap)

But it appears not to be cassia senna.

Biblical Cassia
http://books.google.ca/books?id=42UDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=cassia+oil+babylon&source=web&ots=DkX7imEZU0&sig=5P0FK99Q1_1BLbNIE3gJHI2wSc0&hl=en#PPA10,M1 (http://books.google.ca/books?id=42UDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=cassia+oil+babylon&source=web&ots=DkX7imEZU0&sig=5P0FK99Q1_1BLbNIE3gJHI2wSc0&hl=en#PPA10,M1)

Cassia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassia)

[cobblersmaid]

Well, in 18th century america/english colonies they mostly used lye soap. This probably would have been done infrequently and mechanical cleaning was most common. Brushes, and horn combs mostly. The upper classes had all sorts of hair potions they used. Herbed vineger rinses (sound familiar?) pomades, oil, and the like. In the 1771 Almanac, there is a receipt for a mixture to help hair loss. If I remember correctly it is made of honey and "a twisting vine". I have no idea what vine that is, but I wish I did. They also mention lunar cutting.

Also, during the mid century, wigs were popular because the hair could be worn short so cleaning would not be an issue. From what I read, people sometimes let thing get rather icky.

[harley mama]

Yup, both of my grandmothers used lye soap that they made themselves.

[ktani]

My maternal grandmother washed her hair with soap as well.

[faeflame]

I don't know how historical the use of Rhassoul clay is, but it is all I've used for 2+ years. The kids get a kick out of saying Mom washes her hair with dirt!! Some region must have used it in the past for it to be out there now....

[WritingPrincess]

I do know that Yucca has saponin in it, which could work to lather up. On the other hand, there's always WO and SO.

[ale]

There was a TV program some years ago about the experiment of an English family (mother, father, son and daughter) living for one month exactly as they were in year 1900.
The man grew a stache because he had problems shaving with a straight razor, wife and daughter made their own "shampoo" with, I don't remember, maybe eggs and vinegar but they just couldn't stand it.
They ended up cheating and buy commercial shampoo in a supermarket.

[amiaow]

Sorry to revive an old thread like this- but felt I had to contribute! It really wasn't that long ago that people even started using shampoo regularly. My mum was born in the 1950s and she said growing up they always used Velvet Soap (which I think is just pure soap) and rinsed in rainwater. She said their hair was always very soft, shiny and clean. Maybe something to it?

[Kuchen]

I don't know how historical the use of Rhassoul clay is, but it is all I've used for 2+ years. The kids get a kick out of saying Mom washes her hair with dirt!! Some region must have used it in the past for it to be out there now.... Well, Morrocco and North Africa in general are probably prime Rhassoul-using areas.

[Blueglass]

Another thing I wonder about, how did people tye off the end of thier braid? I'm sure the native Americans used sinew, but what about Europeans/others? My braid never holds with out a rubber band. What was used before most of the world know rubber?

[Darkhorse1]

Blueglass--I think they used string or twine. Not sure when the bobby pin was invented, but I would guess that's how buns were kept up. I think, from old photos I've seen, women in that era would braid their hair, then bun it. It's quite possible the rubber band had been invented by the 1800s. I'd have to do a search on that. :)

[mira-chan]

Another thing I wonder about, how did people tye off the end of thier braid? I'm sure the native Americans used sinew, but what about Europeans/others? My braid never holds with out a rubber band. What was used before most of the world know rubber?

Fabric ribbons, any fabric available would do. Silk ribbons are the best but I've used scraps of fabric left over from my sewing projects. All work fine. I'm sure leather sting was used too.

In Japan they also used a sturdy type of paper.

[k_hepburn]

Blueglass--I think they used string or twine. Not sure when the bobby pin was invented, but I would guess that's how buns were kept up. I think, from old photos I've seen, women in that era would braid their hair, then bun it. It's quite possible the rubber band had been invented by the 1800s. I'd have to do a search on that. :)

You know, I can see a PhD thesis in the making here - several, in fact, on hair care and styling routines through different eras. LHC could be sprouting an entire new branch of scientific research!

katharine

[Darkhorse1]

http://www.costumegallery.com/hairstyles.htm

Some really cool info here!

[Darkhorse1]

Just an FYI--some of those links work, and some you need a password for. Not sure why.

Apparently to read some of the info, you need to 'pay' for a library card. Hmmmm.

[Darkhorse1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shampoo

This is fascinating. Enjoy! :)

[GlennaGirl]

(snip) until about the 14th century when of course plague and syphilis spread through Europe on and off for next 300 years or so and hygiene was all but abandoned (after all a wet bath/pleasure house with no filtration system was a prime candidate for spread disease and STDs) due to the fact it was believed that the black death was spread through water (partially true)- thus the rational became no water=no plague (although I wonder why no one thought it could be all the rats, lice, fleas, garbage or squalor?) (snip)

They did. Beginning only two to three years after the dawn of the Second Pandemic (Black Death) in Europe (called at that time simply the Plague or the Pestilence), laws were enacted about garbage disposal and garbage burning in an effort to stave off plague. Household if not necessarily bodily hygiene was enforced upon people in various ways and there were even penalties for not keeping with a given town's hygiene practices. Even though it obviously didn't immediately "work" (the Plague in various forms, which may have been more than one disease, continued for three more centuries), it was not an alien notion that filth encouraged illness, including "Plague".

ETA: Reference (this can probably be found online): "Directions for Cleansing", from S.J. Chadwick, "Some Papers Relating to the Plauge in Yorkshire," Yorkshire Archaeological Journal...this is from the 1500s. (European plague is recorded from 1347 in Italy but I just briefly thumbed through a book I had and listed the first reference I came across. Much earlier ones obviously exist.) And yes, many believed bodily cleansing could encourage the plague, though typically this was based on ancient Hippocratic teachings about opening of the pores rather than the belief that "something" was in the water. (The water theory was supposed poisoning on the part of the Jews, part of an anti-Semitic sentiment.) However, this was only one theory; the entire populace did not agree at any given time in any given place on what "caused" the Plague. The air ("miasma") was another theoretical carrier of the plague, and obviously, divine punishment was up there on the list. A theory was even circulated in pamphlets at least in England but I believe in Germany and Italy as well that too much exercise caused one to fall ill with the Plague. So too were beliefs in too much food and wine or too little food and wine. But general filth, not necessarily on the body but in the streets and in households, was absolutely looked upon as a possible plague encourager...though people were not necessarily sure why.

[hobbitgirl]

Rainwater and wood ashes makes Lye, which is used to make soap..

[hobbitgirl]

This is interesting, IMO.

"A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/wiki/Alkali) and cassia (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/wiki/Cassia) oil ... on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC." See “Early history”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap)

But it appears not to be cassia senna.

Biblical Cassia
http://books.google.ca/books?id=42UDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=cassia+oil+babylon&source=web&ots=DkX7imEZU0&sig=5P0FK99Q1_1BLbNIE3gJHI2wSc0&hl=en#PPA10,M1 (http://books.google.ca/books?id=42UDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=cassia+oil+babylon&source=web&ots=DkX7imEZU0&sig=5P0FK99Q1_1BLbNIE3gJHI2wSc0&hl=en#PPA10,M1)

Cassia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassia)

WOO HOO!! Very cool information!

[hobbitgirl]

Ok, on this same sort of subject I'm trying to gather information specific to 19th century hair care for women. Recipes for shampoos and other treatments and I'm having a dickens of a time trying to find stuff.

Does anyone have any sources for information they would care to share?

[melikai]

Darkhorse1: I found this part in that Wiki article to be particularly interesting - "While both soaps and shampoos contain surfactants, soap bonds to oils with such affinity that it removes too much if used on hair. Shampoo uses a different class of surfactants balanced to avoid removing too much oil from the hair."

This seems to imply that soap shouldn't be used for hair....

[Dolly]

I was mentioning to my mother the other day that I have been using an ACV rinse on my hair. She said that she is not surprised about how well it works. She said that my grandmother and great-grandmother (who lived on a farm) always used their homemade lye soap and rinsed with diluted vinegar.

[Anje]

Not sure when the bobby pin was invented, but I would guess that's how buns were kept up.
I think the bobby pin came into being (or at least into popularity) in the 1920s, when women started bobbing their hair. Hence the name.

Hair pins and hair sticks, meanwhile, seem to have been around for ages. Hairsticks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_stick) are supposed to have been around in ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece, and hair pins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_pin) go back to Egypt and Assyria, according to Wikipedia.

[Alun]

There was a TV program some years ago about the experiment of an English family (mother, father, son and daughter) living for one month exactly as they were in year 1900.
The man grew a stache because he had problems shaving with a straight razor, wife and daughter made their own "shampoo" with, I don't remember, maybe eggs and vinegar but they just couldn't stand it.
They ended up cheating and buy commercial shampoo in a supermarket.

I saw that episode. I think they said that shampoo was the ONLY modern convenience they couldn't manage without.

My grandmother used water only AFAIK, and in fact rain water from a water butt (just really a large barrel) connected to the gutter, which of course I have seen myself. She was born in 1897, so slightly later than the period they were trying to replicate on TV.

I also believe that men continued to use soap long after women switched to shampoo. In fact I think that shampoo was considered to be effette even as late as the 1950s?

And the wood ashes that the native Americans used would have contained lye, which can be used to make soap. I'm sure some of you knew that, but not everyone. I suppose they just used them as they were, although I'm not sure that they would do more than act as a clarifying rinse, like ACV, on their own, as lye is an alkali. Not good at chemistry here, but I believe that's correct. Of course, ACV is an acid, but acid and alkali have surprising similar effects, even though they are opposites.

[ladyshannonanne]

My grandma washed her hair with tar soap once a week until she was married. My great grandma melted the soap and diluted it a bit, then washed her and her daughter's hair. I've seen pictures of my grandma as a young girl and she had the shiniest hair!

"Soap" is funny to me. All soap gets lumped together, but there are so many varieties and qualities. Take, for instance, Naptha soap (or basically any commercial soap). It's made with petroleum. Sorry, but not what I'd want on my hair and scalp. Then there are soaps that have added surfectants. Also, not sounding so great. But castille soaps and other plant based soaps are great, as long as you rinse them well with vinegar.

[soleluna]

In Italy they washed with ash, or with soap.

[ljkforu]

Probably really well. It is how soap was created. Your leftover drippings were used for soap and candles. The lye came from the ash and was used to saponify the fat into soap. Bet it didn't look pretty or smell very good, but it probably had a good lather.

[hobbitgirl]

Well, in 18th century america/english colonies they mostly used lye soap. This probably would have been done infrequently and mechanical cleaning was most common. Brushes, and horn combs mostly. The upper classes had all sorts of hair potions they used. Herbed vineger rinses (sound familiar?) pomades, oil, and the like. In the 1771 Almanac, there is a receipt for a mixture to help hair loss. If I remember correctly it is made of honey and "a twisting vine". I have no idea what vine that is, but I wish I did. They also mention lunar cutting.

Also, during the mid century, wigs were popular because the hair could be worn short so cleaning would not be an issue. From what I read, people sometimes let thing get rather icky.

I just found my copy of American Frugal Houswife, which is early 19th Century (1833) and found some interesting bits. One says that horn combs are injurious to the hair, it recommends against braiding the hair for sleeping, and mentions using New England rum for cleaning the hair. :toast:
Oh, and does say that washing the hair is not as bad as many would suppose, though it seemed to use the words 'suds' a lot. Maybe they would make a lather and use that instead of pouring whatever soap they had into their hair?

[hobbitgirl]

There was a TV program some years ago about the experiment of an English family (mother, father, son and daughter) living for one month exactly as they were in year 1900.
The man grew a stache because he had problems shaving with a straight razor, wife and daughter made their own "shampoo" with, I don't remember, maybe eggs and vinegar but they just couldn't stand it.
They ended up cheating and buy commercial shampoo in a supermarket.

Yup, that was 1900 House. Now, to be really funny they weren't allowed to buy the shampoo because the stores wouldn't sell them anything that wasn't available in 1900. So, wifey and daughter shoplifted the shampoo. I recall them feeling guilty about it and returning it but I'm not sure if they may have used a little just once.

[melikai]

In a similar show, called "Manor House", I think the mother only washed her hair once with something like eggs. Can't recall what she used. But I do remember her saying at the end that although she basically didn't wash her hair for the entire 2-3 months of the show, her hair had never been so soft or shiny.

[bunnii]

When BFs mother was growing up, they sometimes couldn't afford shampoo so they used beer. Her mother used it and her mother and her mother and so on.

[SHELIAANN1969]

I keep reading where people used ashes to make a "soap"

I was reading this article on how to make your own lye and it is made with wood ashes, there is a whole system of a funnell and straw to filter it, I used to have directions but decided it was easier to buy it.

But it would be way cool to make my own sometime, if I had the time to take the steps to do it.

I make hot process soap, I love doing it, and I would love to make it some day out of 100 percent all natural ingredients that I harvested myself. I think the oil would be the tricky part to manufacture though, I would want it to be vegetable matter, and I have no idea how that would be obtained.

[Kirin]

My grandma washed her hair with tar soap once a week until she was married. My great grandma melted the soap and diluted it a bit, then washed her and her daughter's hair. I've seen pictures of my grandma as a young girl and she had the shiniest hair!

"Soap" is funny to me. All soap gets lumped together, but there are so many varieties and qualities. Take, for instance, Naptha soap (or basically any commercial soap). It's made with petroleum. Sorry, but not what I'd want on my hair and scalp. Then there are soaps that have added surfectants. Also, not sounding so great. But castille soaps and other plant based soaps are great, as long as you rinse them well with vinegar.

Most commercial soaps are made from Tallow (beef fat) or Vegetable oils these days. Only industrial grade soaps (like lava soap, naptha) made to get like car grease off of hands are made with petroleum. Most older folks I know say they've washed their hair when young with either Ivory (tallow based) or castille (olive oil based)

All soaps are made the same way, Lye reacting with fats for saponification

[Gecko]

My gramma said that when she was younger her and her sisters used Tide! That was like 50ish years ago...? They lived on a farm in Texas and were penny pinchers, I think you might say. She also said her mom made their soap with tallow.

[ccmuffingirl]

I guess they used plants and things that had natural cleansing properties. And water in itself is pretty cleansing.

[auburn]

Interesting topic.

My grandmother used lye soap made by herself when I was a child. Later on she switched to shampoos.

There were some poeple who did not wash their hair every week like my grandmother though. And their hair still looked good. I think it really didn't gather up grease. I know a woman who used to wash her hair only one time/year, and her hair didn't look bad.She just brushed it.
My grandfather washes his hair every week too, but he only uses plain water, just like he always has, and hair looks normal.He thinks washing the hair with shampoo/soap is a women's occupation. :)

I'm from a formerly communist country, the communism ended in 1989. There were no quality shampoos until the 90's. We had some very bad shampoos that most people used to wash their cars reallyi, or children used their dolls with, it just made your hair like crap and it was far worse than any lye soap. So most people did use lye soap made by themselfs until the 90's, and some even further on, you know, costoms change slowly.

I was born in 88, so I don't know too much details, just what I've noticed as a shockwave from the past years, plus the stories others told.

[|Xei]

My mother used some type of soap to clean her hair as a young girl. I think she just rinsed with plain water. Occasionally, she would beat an egg and put it into her hair to condition it. This was in Hong Kong, by the way.

[CariadA]

In 19th century England they thought bathing too often lead to disease and sickness. Many never washed their hair. People usually only washed what was seen, the face and hands.

Marie Antoinette was criticized for bathing frequently.

Most people did have lice. They cut out the nits and buildup with a knife. The wealthy wore wigs.