The Evolution of Hygiene

How often did your grandparents bathe? When Peter Ward, a historian at the University of British Columbia, learned the answer to that question, he was stunned: His grandfather took two baths a year as a child. Today’s culture—seemingly obsessed with Purell, fresh laundry, and fragrant body products—is removed from the practices of recent centuries. In The Clean Body, Ward pinpoints the perceptions, technologies, and cultural shifts across Western Europe and North America that fueled the hygiene revolution.

1600s

King Louis XIV—one of the most important men in Europe at the time—took two baths in his life. Both were prescribed by his physician to treat seizures, but they failed to curb the convulsions and left him with headaches instead. Lower down on the social ladder, most people never bathed. Instead, the upper and middle classes kept clean by regularly washing their undergarments, Ward says.

1700s

A middle class began to emerge that was ambitious, self-aware, and anxious to stake a claim as a successful segment of society. Bathing was a way to distinguish the bourgeoisie from the peasants and farmers. “Habits of cleanliness had less to do with a desire to be clean for its own good than a desire to be clean for social identity,” Ward says. Bathing more frequently began to take root, but many people still faced challenges related to time, money, and water availability.

1800s

Public baths, which expanded access to people of all classes, proliferated throughout the century. Technology was also key in expanding the concept of cleanliness: “The development of plumbing and bathrooms where bathing could be a private activity were the innovations that allowed bathing to spread,” Ward says. The other component was the formulation of germ theory, or the idea that microbes lead to disease, and that washing the body and clothes could therefore protect people from deadly illnesses. Common wisdom held that a weekly bath was appropriate.

1900s

With the 20th century came the corporate takeover of cleanliness. Soap and detergent had small profit margins, so companies marketed their products aggressively. They tied cleanliness to beauty, youth, and romance, at first through Hollywood stars and then through the “everywoman” often featured with a handsome man at her side. Products from deodorant and toothpaste to shaving supplies capitalized on the concept as well. “The manufacturers of soap and detergent have been the leading definers of body care,” Ward says. “You don’t wash only for your own well-being and health. You wash because it makes you socially acceptable.”

2000s

The tide might be turning against the current culture of cleanliness. Dermatologists, epidemiologists, and consumers have expressed skepticism about excessive bathing practices and specifically soap’s effect on the skin, Ward says. There has also been a growing appreciation that exposure to microbes as a child is necessary to develop a strong immune system. So perhaps the 21st century will see a return to our pungent past. “There’s only one way to go at this point,” Ward says. “And that’s to bathe less.”