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The History Of Hygiene; From Cobs Of Corn To Urine


Published in May 16th, 2008
Posted in General Health

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The History Of Hygiene; From Cobs Of Corn To Urine



Many people will be curious about where the large product range that exists to service the hygiene needs of the modern world has come from. Has there always been a supplier of the hygiene product variety or is the trend we see today for exemplary personal hygiene just a symptom of the society we live in? What did people do in the past when they wanted to clean themselves, surely a hygiene product supplier wasn’t just around the corner to cater for their needs? Today we use deodorants, soap and toilet paper as well as many others, was life in the past just a lot smellier?

We can be pretty certain that the average human in the developed world is a lot more aware of hygiene issues thanks to the product range at their disposal. In the past, while certain products would have been available from a supplier, on the whole people were smellier and hence more accustomed to the body odour of others.

Soap is a hygiene product that has in fact been around for thousands of years. It is believed that the ancient Mesopotamians used soaps for cleaning skin and clothes. These soaps were manufactured by boiling animal fats and then mixing this with ash from the fire. So in fact, a supplier who sold soap would have been prominent in Mesopotamian society. These soaps were undoubtedly harsh and abrasive on the skin.

The Romans and Greeks had a different method of maintaining hygiene, but instead of using a product like soap, oils such as olive oil were applied to the skin. The oil, after it had been rubbed all over the body was then scraped off with what was called strigil; a curved piece of wood that resembled a sickle. While this may have moisturised well, the benefits to hygiene may have been limited.

Deodorant on the other hand is a far more modern invention than soap although the process of perfuming our bodies to mask a smell is relatively old. This type of hygiene product can be seen as a development from the perfumes of the pre-eighteen hundreds that were sold by a supplier to the royal and aristocratic families. Spare a thought though for the ancient Egyptians, in order to prevent lice being a problem they shaved all the hair on their body and wore wigs, thankfully the hygiene product range today does not require such drastic action.

Rolled toilet paper was not invented until the mid-nineteenth century. Records show that to maintain levels of hygiene people used all manner of items to clean themselves. These range from the rather obvious leaves and scraps of cloth to the extraordinary moss and even cobs of corn; yes, honestly cobs of corn! Romans used a sponge on a stick that they took with them wherever they went, especially the legionaries. Some cultures in the east even used their left hand, which is still why in many countries it is still forbidden to use your left hand at the dinner table.

The hygiene product range has obviously entered into the oral world, and dental hygiene has been an important element in the development of the range our supplier may offer today. People have strived to clean their teeth and mouth for centuries, but whether these methods have been effective is debatable. The ancients are believed to have rubbed ground pumice and ash around there mouths mixed with scented herbs. Using a frayed stick to scrub the teeth and even reportedly using urine as mouthwash. Whether this created fresher breath is doubtful and the damage caused by the abrasive materials may have even done more harm than good.

These rather unsavoury methods of maintaining hygiene are certainly a long way from the supplier range offered to us today. Seemingly it is clear that people have always made the effort to be hygienic but it is only in the modern era that this has truly been achieved.

health expert thomas pretty looks into how the hygiene product supplier has been prominent in history through the ages.

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