What did ancient Romans use instead of shampoo?
score:16
They used lye soap which is made by combining ashes with lard or other oils and fats. This kind of soap was known from ancient Egyptian times. It was customary in Rome to always wash your hair on August 13th in honor of Diana, but they washed it other times as well, obviously. The Romans bathed a lot and they (especially the women) would wear little caps to prevent any unwanted water or oil from getting into their hair.
Caesar commented on the barbarians he fought in Gaul that they washed their hair with lime water which made it very coarse.
Upvote:1
I'm currently doing personal research on the history of hair hygiene and from what I've seen, throughout European history the way it works is :
daily (sometimes more) brushing and combing of the hair with clean brushes and combs (the finer the better) it is the base of hair cleaning in all of history before the" big chop" of the twenties
protection of the hair (although uncovered hair seems to be more popular that in the middle ages and I have no idea what a they slept in)
occasionally (and often not advised and the thing that changes the most) degreasing of the hair which could be done dry (with barn or starch) or wet (with soaps, saponins, tanins, eggs, alcohols, acidity ,etc)
Soaps, saponins, lye, clay and eggs were available to them but I have not find any sources I trust mention their use for haircare in rome specifically so if you were to be transported there it would be some options you have but if it wasn't for that mention that hair was washed on Aug.13th I would have assumed they just combed and covered the hair
Also, from my personal experience, having your hair up all day long really helps in keeping it less oily (plus I would assume the wool used to style the hair would have soaked up some of it)
Edit: I feel like it could have been part of Roman mentality to mock a culture for doing something and then copying them, they were proud of the "cosmopolitan-ness" of their culture but mocked anyone who didn't conform to the Roman way of doing things
More post
- 📝 How many illegitimate children did King Henry VIII have?
- 📝 What were the dimensions of the Lahitolle 95 mm cannon?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this sword?
- 📝 Why are some Pharaohs depicted wearing the red or the white crowns even after the unification of Egypt?
- 📝 Is Caesar's birth year more certain now than it was when disputed by Mommsen?
- 📝 Before the Great War, was the word "Poland" typically used to refer only to the Russian partition of Poland?
- 📝 What percentage of the British Empire's economy was profits from the opium trade?
- 📝 Did Brahms really leave Germany because he was dissatisfied with the political realities of that time?
- 📝 Which college president nearly finished a book in 1914 that argued that there would be no more wars?
- 📝 When did Emperor Hirohito gave an address about suicides and non-productive jobs?
- 📝 Where can I find this paper by Jean Buridan?
- 📝 What caused the shift from racially-motivated violence to segregation in the Reconstruction era?
- 📝 What was the equivalent of "Shoulder Arms, Fire!" for archers in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 Can anyone tell me anything about this sword?
- 📝 Historically, what has happened to emergency services (other than the police) in corrupt/authoritarian states?
- 📝 Finding reviews of academic books?
- 📝 Was there any official affirmation from the US government that they would win the Vietnam War?
- 📝 What was Poland's involvement in the Vietnam War?
- 📝 How much of a role did Sakamoto Ryoma play in overthrowing the Shogunate?
- 📝 Did Lenin precisely say "Trust is good, control is better"?
- 📝 Were major foreign films allowed in the USSR?
- 📝 Was slave labor used in rebuilding the White House?
- 📝 What is the logic for the map maker classifying the map this way, specifically in Canada?
- 📝 When did hand cannons become handguns?
- 📝 What was the significance of changing the name of "Persia" to "Iran"?
- 📝 Why America was not discovered from the left land at Bering strait?
- 📝 How did militia barracks look in the 19th century?
- 📝 What is the primary source evidence for the theory that the African Ancient Egyptians are not black Africans whose origin is sub-Saharan Africa?
- 📝 Is it true that there were American POWs in Soviet captivity after the Second World War?
- 📝 What could be the uses of a pike, other than for fighting, circa 1833 Ireland
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What did ancient Romans use instead of shampoo?
- 📝 Did Ancient Romans use metal thimbles? What were they like?
- 📝 What ships did pirates use in ancient Greece and Rome?
- 📝 Why did the ancient Romans use groups of eight?
- 📝 What did ancient Romans wear when sleeping?
- 📝 Why exactly did telegraphs have to use "STOP" instead of a period and "QUOTE" instead of a quotation mark? (Or special codes.)
- 📝 How did the ancient Romans count with their fingers?
- 📝 What pretext did Hitler use to justify Operation Barbarossa?
- 📝 Did ancient Romans anticipate the fall of Rome?
- 📝 Why did Roosevelt and Churchill use voice-based telecommunication, instead of simpler text-based options which were easier to encrypt?
- 📝 What form of home address did Romans use?
- 📝 What did the Romans do for Judea?
- 📝 What did an ancient Roman certificate of land ownership look like; or, what did it consist of?
- 📝 What names did the ancient Egyptians give to different stages of their history?
- 📝 What numerals did the people of Ireland use before Roman Numerals? (aka, did Ogham include numbers?)
- 📝 What role did the Ancient Samurai heritage play on Modern Japan during WW2?
- 📝 What were the thoughts of the Celts, Romans and other ancient European people about the standing stones which survive from prehistoric times?
- 📝 What did the letter theta symbolize in ancient Greece?
- 📝 What did the Romans call black people (sub-Saharan)?
- 📝 What did Canadians use to pay for goods or services between 1871 and 1935?
- 📝 What kind of armor did the soldiers use in pre-gunpowder Southeast Asia?
- 📝 What kind of crew members did ancient artillery teams consist of?
- 📝 What did the ancient Eastern world think of the ancient Greeks?
- 📝 Did ancient Chinese and/or Japanese scholars speculate about what lay across the Pacific?
- 📝 What documented criteria (if any) did the CIA use to determine targets for political assassination during the Cold War?
- 📝 What types of weapons did the British army use in the late 1890's?
- 📝 How did the US "Greek" fraternity system at universities arise and what is its relationship with ancient Greece?
- 📝 Did Ancient China use lead in their food/water industry as much as the Romans?
- 📝 What evidence do we have to claim the Ancient Romans kept African grey parrots as pets?
- 📝 What kind of cloth did Genghis Khan use in his armor?