Medieval Peasant Hygiene

Sure, you may think it would stink being a medieval peasant, but do you know just how stinky? Although cleanliness in the Middle Ages was primitive compared to what modern people enjoy, it doesn't mean medieval hygiene didn't exist. They may not have had indoor plumbing, shampoo, or nail salons, but they made do with what they had, which, in most cases, wasn't a whole lot. If you think owning more than one set of clothes is a luxury, let's just say you'd fit right in. Today, we're exploring, ugh, what's that smell? Oh, it's just the hygiene habits of medieval peasants. Overall, hygiene in medieval Europe was an upward battle. The abundance of waste and inefficient methods of dealing with it resulted in disease. Such waste added to an abundance of vermin, fleas, and lice, which in turn caused sickness and even plague. Hygiene in medieval times relied on washing often and utilizing herbs and flowers to deter pests and provide pleasant odors. If you like taking lukewarm baths and dirty, small amounts of water, hop at a time machine back to the medieval era. While many upper-class people could bathe in tubs with hot water, and many of the middle-class folk made use of public baths, peasants had to make do with much, much less. Since there was no running water, and peasants had to haul water from wells or rivers to their homes by hand, bathing required a lot of labor. Many people had to bathe with a small amount of water, and it was often unheated. So those who didn't have a suitable area in their homes bathed outdoors. Since many peasants performed manual labor all day, Bathing helped remove dirt and stinky sweat, and it also helped them avoid lice and fleas. They didn't always use soap, but when they did, it often consisted of an alkaline solution, such as a mixture of salt and lime. Since bathing required so much work, some peasants decided not to wash at all. The lucky few who got to live in castles used toilets consisting of a bench with a hole placed over an opening leading to a cesspit. Peasants did not have this luxury. That's right. A bench with a poo hole was considered the lap of luxury. Instead, the lower classes made use of outhouses and often had to share them with the community. Those who did not have outhouse access used chamber pots. And if chamber pots were out of their budget, they used waste buckets. People then emptied their chamber pots and waste buckets into nearby cesspits or into the river. Instead of toilet paper, medieval peasants used straw, grass, moss, or hay to wipe themselves. And let's take a brief, uncomfortable moment to talk about these cesspits that people would readily throw their bodily waste into. In addition to number one and number two, people also dumped their garbage into the pits, adding to the stench. Can you imagine if your job was to clean out the garbage and dung-filled cesspits? Well, it was someone's job, and that unlucky someone had to do their best to empty as much of it as they could. And even still, the cesspits often leaked and contaminated the groundwater and soil. Hey, chopping, become a medieval peasant, and you won't have to worry about owning more than one set of clothes. Layering was common for the peasant class. Clothing worn next to the skin was made of linen, and heavier wool garments were worn on top of the undergarments. People understood that washing their clothing helped keep parasites away, and etiquette books advised changing one's underwear every day. For peasants, however, that often wasn't an option. If you were one of the lucky ones who could afford more than one set of clothing, you'd change into fresh garments once a week while washing your other clothing. Peasants who couldn't afford to send their garments to a professional laundress did their laundry themselves, washing their clothes in the river, typically with lye soap. Unfortunately, medieval rivers were often polluted with human waste, garbage, and runoff from animals' waste in the streets. For medieval people, especially peasants, dealing with fleas and lice was a fact of life. Parasites were such a problem that comb makers began adding finer teeth so users could remove dirt and lice while combing their hair. That's right. You can thank the lice-covered medieval peasants for your favorite fine-tooth comb technology. People often use their fingers to do the same job and will get together to de-louse one another. As strange as it sounds, delousing groups formed a social activity for peasants. We are like bonobos. Although it was difficult, peasants in medieval times liked to keep themselves as clean as they could. Not only was keeping oneself clean a sign of pride in this culture, many considered it common etiquette. Popular etiquette especially advised people to wash their face and hands after waking up and to continue the practice of handwashing throughout the day. Even peasants could do so, as it didn't require much water, which they would have had to collect through hard labor by carrying it to their homes. Since peasants didn't have utensils and instead ate with their hands, washing hands before and after a meal was especially important. Memory foam mattresses are great, but beds made of straw are just as good, right? Beds made of straw were relatively comfortable and provided insulation for medieval peasants. Although peasants sometimes changed the straw inside their mattresses, many didn't change it frequently enough, and bugs and vermin attracted to the straw stuck around for long periods of time. Peasants with these kind of mattresses frequently suffered from bedbugs. Fleas, lice, and rats would also infest the straw. In order to combat this, people mixed scented flowers and herbs, such as mint, chamomile, and lavender, in with the straw. If they could afford it, peasants also had linen sheets and woolen blankets to cover themselves as they slept. Just a few years before diva cups would get invented, it was obviously no easy task to be menstruating in the time of medieval peasantry. Although not much is known about the topic, historians believe women resorted to using a variety of items during their periods. Many women probably used rags they tore up. Other theories suggest some women wrapped strips of cloth around a small twig and used it as a tampon, or possibly collected absorbent moss and used it as a pad. It's also very likely some women did nothing and simply bled on their clothing. Religious authorities placed shame on menstruation, and many women felt they had to disguise it. They may have carried scented herbs or flowers with them to mask any odor. But considering medieval women didn't live long, and many peasant women lived hard lives involving heavy labor and little sustenance, it's entirely possible that women had fewer periods during their short lives than women do in modern times. In the absence of toothbrushes, peasants used twigs to clean their teeth. Yum. They especially enjoyed using small branches from hazel trees. Some people also rubbed a piece of wool over their teeth and rinsed their mouth with water. Those who could afford it mixed things like salt and sage together to form a paste to freshen breath and whiten teeth. Because their diet included virtually no sugar due to their limited finances, peasants actually didn't suffer from that many cavities. The stone ground bread they ate, however, caused their teeth to wear down. If a peasant's dental hygiene wasn't enough and they developed a problem with a tooth, they would have to have it removed. Instead of a dentist, barbers performed most dental work. Since there was no anesthesia available, patients resorted to getting drunk before having their teeth worked on. Who needs forks and knives when you can grab your dirty food with your dirty hands and chop down on it with your dirty mouth. The diet of medieval peasants consisted mostly of what they could grow on their farms, beans, grains, vegetables, and onions. Depending on how closely a peasant lived to a cesspit or contaminated water source, the soil used to grow food and the water used to prepare meals could be tainted with human or animal waste. With no refrigeration, fresh vegetables were an impossibility in winter, and the grains and root vegetables they stored could rot or become infested with vermin. Fungi could poison grains if people weren't careful, And people could suffer bouts of stomach distress, diarrhea, or other sickness due to spoiled food. Meat was a luxury many peasants couldn't afford. But if they managed to earn enough to buy some or slaughter one of their own animals, they had to dry the meat with salt. Otherwise, it would decay. And if the crops failed and the weather was poor, those unlucky peasants would likely starve. Medicine wasn't exactly a strong suit for medieval peasants or medieval doctors of any creed, for that matter. Doctors in medieval times adopted the theory of humorism and made connections between organs of the body, seasons, elements, and tempers. This led to beliefs sickness happened when the body was out of balance. They also thought parasites originated within people's bodies and caused the imbalance to occur. Doctors theorized that controlling one's diet, such as eating less fruit, could help prevent the body from producing lice. What they didn't realize, however, was that poor waste management and some people's failure to bathe often led parasites to be attracted to some people. No matter how many times people washed their hands, The lack of understanding about the connection between filth, infestation, and sickness meant no one was safe from parasites and disease. Mirrors were a luxury item, and at the time were either made of lead-backed glass or polished metal, but it was difficult to see a clear image. Vanity was clearly a rich man's game during the medieval era. Mirrors were often small, so many men in medieval times went to a barber for their weekly shave. Many peasants couldn't afford to pay someone for a shave, and some didn't own mirrors. So many decided not to shave at all, making most medieval villages a total beard town. Bacteria was everywhere for medieval peasants. In fact, living with parasites was such a common occurrence in medieval times that people tried different herbal remedies to get rid of them. Some used common items peasants might find around their home, such as spreading glue on a slice of bread and sticking a candle in the middle to attract the fleas that infested people's beds. Other remedies were not effective, like getting rid of lice nits by washing hair with salt water from the sea or sniffing lavender. If the weird glue toast wouldn't work, people sometimes tried to smoke and steam to get rid of so-called tooth worms and mites. They would burn chamomile seeds and inhale the smoke or hold infected limbs over steaming water. To get rid of earworms, nonexistent parasites that were widely believed to exist, doctors poured bitter medicine into people's ears. They also used bitter herbs to wipe out parasites elsewhere. However, the herbs caused horrible diarrhea. So basically, a total disaster. If a patient vomited or suffered a painful BM, doctors would literally think they were cursed.