Hygiene In Medieval Times

Today, people are so privileged and take most things for granted. The Middle Ages were difficult times filled with unsanitary people and deadly diseases killing thousands of people. Today we are able to have general hygiene essentials that would would of helped tremendously back then. We are privileged enough to have soap and bathrooms, and even a dentist. There has been major advancements in hygiene since the Medieval Times.
After the Black Death, Medieval people started looking for a link between hygiene and health. Before that, their general hygiene was so awful everywhere you went the smell was repulsive. Sadly, Old Spice and Secret were not around years ago. People of Medieval times had no choice but to come up with something else. Nosegays,
a small bunch of flowers, were carried around to hide the smell and the make your nose “happy”. Additionally to smelly people, the outside air was not as refreshing as it is today. Lavatories, also called garderobes or privies, were commonly included with larger buildings such as castles, convents, and monasteries, they were as far away as practical from interior chambers. To try and keep the smell at bay lavatories often had large double doors along with a chute that lead the discharge into the castle moat. Wigs were a highly popular accessory in the Middle Ages, people often shaved their natural hair to wear them, even though wigs were disgusting and also lice infected especially during the plague. For unwanted hair they used a mixture of vinegar, eggs, and cat droppings and put it on the site of the unwanted hair. Syphilis being popular also, to cover up open sores on your head you would likely wear a wig. Treatment for syphilis included a mixture of potassium salt and chicken droppings. In addition, back then barber not only cut hair, they were also responsible for being your dentist. Pulling teeth and other minor surgeries with no help from anesthesia. Toothbrushes and toothpaste not have been invented yet, how did they clean their teeth? Mostly, people crushed burnt herbs to rub their teeth and rinsed their mouths with wine or water. False teeth and dentures were not around just yet. Losing teeth would have been very concerning, especially to women.
As women go, they had it even worse than anybody.
Womens menstruation was thought to be a sickness and a punishment from God for Eve’s sin. Menstruation was an extremely misunderstood subject. Isidore of Seville from Pliny said that menstrual blood was responsible for giving dog rabies, preventing seeds from growing, making trees lose their fruit, and cause iron to rust. Aristotle believed that menstrual women’s gaze at a mirror could darken it; Albertus Magnus gave a more scientific explanation to Aristotle’s belief saying that the eye was a passive organ that receives menstrual blood, which caused an alteration in the air that which a harmful vapor flowed to the mirror. Women did not menstruate as much as women do today but, the cramps were just as bad for the Medieval women. Herbs such as thyme and woodruff asperula odorata were used for the pain and nausea, and skin troubles. Also, the people of the Middle Ages believed that acorns would help stop menstruation. Older women who were no longer menstruating were said to be able to poison babies by staring at them in their candles; poorer women, who mostly ate hard to digest foods were the most poisonous. Childbirth is not so pleasant, even today, however, imagine how it was a thousand years ago. A thousand years ago, there were not any pain killers or epidurals. Instead they drank a mixture of oil and vinegar and to ease a woman's pain, eagle feces was
used.
Makeup has become bigger and bigger in women’s lives in the past few years. Similarly, women were also consumed in the makeup trends even back then. The difference is that our makeup today is more safe to use and occasionally so natural you could eat it. Medieval women, however, were not as privileged as we are today. Venetian Ceruse was the makeup they used, it contained a combination of lead and skin whitener. Unfortunately, Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz was not around for them to have amazing eyebrows, instead, they used dead rat fur.
Among nobility, women took exceptional care of the skin of their faces, washing it everyday, with the help of urine. Urine is made up of 95% of water, 2.5% of urea, ammonium salt of cyanic acid, and 2.5% of other stuff. Though subsequent bacterial activity release alkaline ammonia, producing a useful chemical with a pungent odor, sterile urine can be produced by a healthy individual. In Medieval times urine was used for a wide range of things. Urine and wine were both common as an antiseptic. Since they firmly believed in urines ability as an antiseptic, they washed their face with it , whenever they actually did was themselves. While people rarely washed themselves, they also rarely washed their clothes or even changed them. Adding to the point earlier that the people smelled awful, when they eventually washed their clothes they were washed in a mixture of lye and urine.
Hygiene has had a vast improvement since a thousand years ago in a variety of ways, from the products people use to the way one uses the bathroom. Due to these advancements, society is able to live in a clean and sterile environment, for the most part. We are now able to keep disease away and advanced enough science to stay healthy.