Hygiene in the 1600s was a mix of rudimentary practices and aristocratic luxury, with most people relying on frequent undergarment changes, perfumes, and sponge baths for daily cleanliness, while full bathing was infrequent, often communal, and sometimes seen as unhealthy; wealthy individuals used perfumed soaps, imported amenities, and enjoyed private baths, but public sanitation was poor, with waste often polluting water sources, leading to reliance on river water for washing and drinking.
Handwashing was a wide spread occurence in the middle ages. People would wash their hands and faces upon rising, before meals, at the end of the day, or arriving at a house after a long journey. The idea that medieval people were continually grubby and had poor hygiene is a myth.
Options included rocks, leaves, grass, moss, animal fur, corn cobs, coconut husks, sticks, sand, and sea shells. Water and snow were also used to wash and clean.
Even amongst the aristocracy, smelling good was a rarity — King Louis XIV of France, who it is believed only took two baths in his entire life, was described by one Russian ambassador as “stinking like a wild animal.” Some tried to cover this smell with perfume, but since most people couldn't afford it, it became ...
According to a historian on this sub (here), Queen Elizabeth in the ~1600s only bathed once a month, and that was the upper limit for most people. The majority of peasants likely bathed only a handful of times a year.
Alternatives to toilet paper in the Middle Ages
In Europe, wealthier people used wool, rags and scraps of cloth to wipe themselves. The common people knew how to make do with leaves, moss, straw, hay or simply with their hands and water.
The 1700s:
Women who lived on farms used sheepskin which they recycled by boiling it clean. For ladies-on-the-go, a cheesecloth sack stuffed with cotton was the predecessor to the pads we know and love today. Once used, they would pitch the cotton, wash the cheesecloth, and stuff it with cotton again.
Nonenal® (also known as 2-Nonenal) is a naturally occurring compound responsible for the distinct odor associated with aging. It typically appears after age 40, becoming more noticeable in both men and women.
Overall, the medieval age was a pretty gross time to be alive, at least when it came to personal cleanliness and public health. It's amazing how far we've come since then in terms of improving hygiene and sanitation.
The characteristic human axillary odor is formed by bacterial action on odor precursors that originate from apocrine sweat glands. Caucasians and Africans possess a strong axillary odor ,whereas many Asians have only a faint acidic odor.
Not all countries or cultures use toilet paper to wipe their bums. This can be because of cultures that have traditionally used alternatives to toilet paper and therefore never really used it or lack of access to toilet paper.
In many Amish homes, rags are a common toilet paper alternative. These rags are typically old clothes that have been worn out. After simple processing, they become practical cleaning tools. After use, they are washed clean and can be reused multiple times.
The Groom of the Stool was responsible for managing the king's personal hygiene, including wiping his rear after using the royal close stool (a portable toilet). But the role went far beyond that.
That said, for the later Middle Ages, removal of women's body hair--especially pubic hair--is amply discussed in two types of sources: medical texts and satire. That probably means some if not many Western women, or at least middle/upper class women, sought to remove body hair.
Due to the lack of running water and misconceptions about the causes of many diseases, there was often not as much emphasis on personal cleanliness as there is today. Many people used washbasins and pitchers of water to take regular sponge baths, but full immersion bathing was difficult without running heated water.
In the classical, as well as in the medieval years, the age at menarche was generally reported to be at approximately 14 years, with a range from 12 to 15 years.
Purity, chastity, chaste, maiden, flower, and virgin were all terms that originated in the 1200s that meant a woman who has not been touched sexually. Chaste was specifically meant for unlawful sexual intercourse until the 15th century where it came to mean completely sexually pure.
Kids start to have body odor around the time puberty starts and hormones change. Usually, this happens when females are 8–13 years old, and males are 9–14. But it can also be normal to start puberty earlier or later. Bathing every day, especially after a lot of sweating or in hot weather, can help with body odor.
Salty and sweet flavors tend to weaken first. Later, it may be more difficult to taste things that are bitter or sour. Age can also lessen the sense of smell which is strongest when people are between 30 and 60 years old. Some people eventually lose their sense of smell entirely.
2-Nonenal, an unsaturated aldehyde with an unpleasant greasy and grassy odor, was detected only in older subjects (40 y or older).
The earliest records of period management suggest that women in the Stone Age (circa 30,000 BCE–3,000 BCE) had rudimentary pads made of leather and linen-wrapped moss and sand. Ancient Egypt had reusable loin cloths and basic tampon-like devices made of papyrus and grass.
Using the calendar method, the Amish typically begins tracking her menstrual cycles for several months to establish the length of her average cycle. She then identifies the period of her menstrual cycle when she is most likely to ovulate based on the number of days before and after her average cycle length.
The average age of menarche dropped from 14–15 years in the early 20th century to 12–13 years in the present, but girls in the 19th century had a later age of menarche (16 to 18 years) compared to girls in earlier centuries. A large North American survey reported a 2–3 month decline from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s.