No, Marie Antoinette didn't have lice & other myths about historic hygiene. 🙄

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Just like how the myths around corsets survive because it's shocking, the same can be said for how folks (mis)understand the beliefs & practices around basic body hygiene since the medieval period. So, just to cover our bases:

Yes, people washed their bodies before 1920.
No, not everyone had lice.
Yes, people cared about looking clean and smelling nice.
No, people didn't want to sleep or live in filth.

Now, let's dig into the meat of it all.

Sources:
Kathleen Brown Foul Bodies: Cleanliness in Early America https://amzn.to/44eUyz2 (affiliate link)

Lord Chesterfield's Letters (Letter CXXIII) https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/...

Potawatomi Health & Wellness Center Lice Treatment: https://cmh.fcpotawatomi.com/wp-conte...

Jan Radicke, Roman Women's Dress, https://www.degruyter.com/document/do...

Yones, D.A., Bakir, H.Y. & Bayoumi, S.A.L. Chemical composition and efficacy of some selected plant oils against Pediculus humanus capitis in vitro. Parasitol Res 115, 3209–3218 (2016).

Toilet de Flora (1772) https://books.google.com/books/about/...

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Chapters:
00:00 - 02:01 - Things that annoy me
02:02 - 08:33 - Part 1: Linen Fresh
08:34 - 13:50 - Part 2: Hygiene & Social Class
13:51 - 22:36 - Part 3: Lice, Lice, Baby
22:27 - 30:58 - Part 4: 1700s Hair Hygiene

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