I Stopped Washing My Hair For 2 Weeks: A Medieval Haircare Experiment
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- Опубликовано: 9 апр 2021
- Happy Saturday Friends,
Today I have a vlog for you that I filmed in August and September of 2020. Pandemic Chic for the last year and change has included sweatpants, fewer showers, and the messy up-do. This had me passively wondering about how 16th century people handled hygiene more. One one likes being stinky after all, but they did not believe it was necessarily healthy to shower as often as we do in the United States in 2020. Please note I am not going to perpetuate the myth about medieval people being dirty and unclean, it was just a different time period with different methods.
Around this time I started reading How to be a Tudor by Ruth Goodman. When the book was published in 2015 I added it to my to be read pile immediately because I respect her work as a historian and in living history. Like many, the pandemic has helped me put a dent in my "to be read" pile. She has a section where she discusses the clothing and the hygiene of the Tudor period and I became inspired. One of the major ways people had to keep their hair clean in Medieval and Tudor England was using linen caps or coifs to keep it covered, and combing their hair out to remove an excess of dandruff and oil collecting on the scalp. It is the build up of these items which will start to cause your hair to smell with bacteria building up.
I did a little research on my own and found that by the Tudor period combs were incredibly common personal items found in archeology. Even the sailors of the Mary Rose in the 1540's had a large number of them among the surviving effects now visible in the Mary Rose Museum. The most popular style of comb was the 2 sided comb like the ones I use in this video and had been in active use in Europe since the Ancient Romans.
The idea of using this comb for medieval hair care was simple. Use the wide teeth to detangle your hair, and use the narrow teeth to keep the scalp clean. In my personal experiment I found the horn comb I used was better at cleaning my scalp, but the sandalwood comb was better and detangling and distributing natural hair oils.
Affiliate link for Double Sided Comb: amzn.to/3G2oa6w
By the 16th century I found a few images of bristled brushes also being used, but they were far less common. I did add a boar's hair brush into my experiment a bit to see how it would spread the natural hair oils compared to the double sided combs. The brush did not remove debris from the scalp, but as a follow up after combing, it did a much better job at spreading the oils down the length of hair.
During the experiment I did not use modern hair elastics to make sure I was not tampering with the results I would find. I went without hair elastics with a few experiments similar to Morgan Donner's Elasticless hair video. I used linen cotton tape, silk ribbon, and bits of hand braided linen as ties or bindings for the hair.
After 2 weeks what were my conclusions on this method of medieval haircare?
For the first time in my adult life I did not have split ends. Split ends drive me nuts and I am no stranger to leave in conditioner, wooden combs, and different combing styles. All do work and have their pros and cons, but none were as effective for my hair as combing and brushing the natural oils down.
It took about as much time to comb out my long hair each night as it would for me to properly wash and condition it using modern methods. One did not save time over the other.
I became very aware of the amount of oil my scalp was producing and it was higher after I had eaten fried or high fat modern foods. after a day and a half my body would return to normal amounts of natural oil. The hair oil after eating junk food also did not smell as good. This anecdote is probably a good reminder that we are what we eat, and that the fast majority of medieval people were not eating deep fried potatoes, which would have required their bodies to process out their waste differently.
Next week's video is going to discuss another solution to the oily hair situation which I started researching after doing this experiment. Did you know they had a version of dry shampoo in the medieval period?
I hope you have enjoyed this little experiment about medieval haircare. Do you have a pandemic experiment that you have done. Did you try anything like this project? Let me know about it down in the comments section and I will see you next week with another historical hair care video.
Bisou Bisou,
Maridith
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Wonderful! Totally loved this blog 🤩 I've gotta give it a go. Thank you x
You are very welcome. I had a lot of fun trying it out too. You will probably never look at modern haircare the same after trying it. Let me know how it goes
I’ve been doing this for a month and it’s the best my wavy hair has ever looked !!!
I'm so glad you found it helpful
i'd love to get some proper historical combs one day but the pandemic gave me a chance to do something similar to your experiment! i have thick, hip-length hair and now only wash it once a week compared to every 3-4 days. it might not seem like much more time but with how long it takes me to wash and dry my hair i'm ecstatic! i wish i could go longer but my work has me in hot smelly environments so washing my hair is nice sometimes haha
That's a completely valid! I don't do these experiments often because I actually like bathing & it was so hard not to wash my hair while in the bathtub!
I'm a guy and have not washed my hair for a year. I use a series of small lice combs, boars hair brushes, white cotton cloves and microfiber towels. I comb out 2 times a day and brush with boars hair brush while wiping out the excess oil with the micro fiber cloth. I also work out 6 days a week and comb out immediately after working out to keep the smell down.
Bro I'm just not understanding these methods.. We've to just comb our hair with different types of combs all day right? That's it or we've to do anything more like oiling hair?
Why?
@@msjannd4 so it doesn't look like crap like most people who wash their hair everyday.
I actually believe that a fine tooth comb might work even better than a boar bristle brush at moving the oils because to distribute the product we usually use a comb and not a brush, maybe it goes deeper and is more thorough
For myself I like to use them in conjunction these days. The double sided comb is good for cleaning the scalp, and boar bristle brush removes excess oil that doesn't come up with a comb. Thank you so much for watching & good luck with your own experiments.
I decided to give it a try after watching snappy dragon's video it didn't work for me because I didn't use a lice comb (also it was plasic, however i used it in addition to a daily washed boar bristle brush) and i don't own enough scarfs to cover my hair (even less in linen) as often as is sanitary with that method, in addition to that, it was really hot that week so i was sweating all the time and the water is quite hard where i live so when my hair gets too greasy it goes all wax-like. I started to really like washing my hair more regularly now, it allows me the wet set it, but if i ever see a really fine/lice wooden comb in a store for not too expensive i might give it a go
www.etsy.com/listing/255042189/a-fine-double-toothed-historical-comb?ref=shop_home_active_39&crt=1
Little Bits Historical Apothecary on etsy has one that is almost identical to my 2 sided comb if you are looking for one to try out & would like to support a small business.
This was interesting to watch. I only wash my hair once a month, and brushing alone is not enough to get my ends fully conditioned (my hair is fine but very dense, and a little longer than so-called 'classic' length). I rely heavily on jojoba oils. My brushing routine involves a fine-tooth comb for my scalp, and finger detangling around my neck (where it's most needed) until I can get through it with my tangle teezer. I only use my boar bristle brush on fully detangled hair (perhaps every third day). More often, I only brush out one or two braids at a time (out of two to six braids total). I have enough hair that it's quite unmanageable to handle all of it at once. I often only do it when I am resectioning my hair or washing it.
As to washing, my hair generally doesn't need it by the end of the month - but my scalp does. When my hair gets longer, I will probably braid the ends starting the braid between my shoulder blades, so I can wash my head without getting my ends wet. I get the sense that the method is only manageable if you have enough braid to drape it or wrap it somewhere to get it out of the way. I have uncommonly long hair, and I still find it impractical, at my length.
I love your nightgown! Did you make it yourself or did you buy it somewhere? Also your hair is lovely!
My hair care goes as follows: comb and boar bristle brush at least once a day a few days after washing because that's when it starts to get a bit oily, put it back in either a ponytail or a small braid, oil ends occasionally when dry and wash hair once a week with egg yolks and rinse with ACV or rosemary tea and let it air day.
Historical haircare and hygeine has always fascinated me so I'd totally be up to this challenge except taping my hair because mine isn't long enough for that yet. Loved this video!❤
Thank you so much for watching. It sounds like you have a great hair care routine going.
The white linen night gowns are renaissance/medieval shifts and camicia I wear a historical events. I made my own, but I'm sure there are vendors out there selling similar items.
@@MaridithSmith thanks for your reply! I'll look into different vendors to see if I can find one. You did an amazing job on it! It's beautiful!
If you feel like getting crafty, Margo Anderson and American Dutchess have patterns for similar garments too ;-)
@@MaridithSmith I will look into it. I don't have the fabric for it at the moment but perhaps I can see what I can find and make it a project! Thanks for the resources.
You are very welcome 😄
Are you brave enough to give this experiment a try?
Nooooo. I must wash my hair at least once a week. 😅
🤣🤣🤣🤣
A Bit of zeolith power works Wonder. And you cant See it. Not Like Starch 😅
That's really interesting
hi if have short hair can l use the same method will my hair grow faster
I honestly don't know, but I think it could be a great experiment
You are so lovely and beautiful!
You are so kind
Maybe you should look into fast hair growth fortified shampoo to double hair growth.
I did look into this, but had better success bringing up extra concerns with my doctor and running hormone tests rather than doing specialized shampoos. Making sure that I was eating a healthier diet has also helped my hair tremendously.
Kill that music- can’t even hear YOU!
Thanks for the feedback. This video is several years old, have you had the same issue with my recent content?