GAOP Era Grooming & Hygiene

[Captain Bob]

Since I retired from the service I've been growing my hair long. I'm hoping to get it long enough to tie back, and that got me to thinking about hair care and hygiene in the Golden Age of Pyracy. How did seamen (and lubbers) groom themselves? Was washing or soap ever involved or was cleanliness viewed with deep suspicion? Did they use shampoo or in any way attempt to discourage tiny livestock from homesteading their bodies? had dental care advanced beyond toothpicks and (eventually) pliers?

Tell me what you know. I'll just sit here and listen. :)

~~Cap'n Bob

[Tora of Tortuga]

I would love to give you answers but, I am posting to add my own question to the mix.

Did they shave and if so, how, when, why, how often, etc. Also what about nail care?

~Tora of Tortuga~

[Capt. Bo of the WTF co.]

Capt. Bob, some of this was covered under the dental hygene thread below. I can't give any further details other than soap of various types has been around well before the GAoP, but how often it was used...? I'll leave the rest to folks that know.

[Rumba Rue]

well first ye have ta catch the scoundrels in order to wash them....pirates....

[The Doctor]

Well, hair that got too long would get hacked off to a length maintainable as a pigtail. Beyond that, it was unsafe around the ship's workings.

Bathing? Well, mate... a good storm while you're on watch should wash away many an ill stench, save salt and musk. Otherwise, time taken while moored or during careening should suffice if yer own odour begins to offend yer own nostrils!

Soap would doubtless be a luxury, reserved for officers (and their ladies) and their favoured crew. Otherwise, ye get to stink like a bear in two days, like the rest of the men!

[Captain Bob]

Capt. Bob, some of this was covered under the dental hygene thread below.

For the convenience of folks who haven't seen it, I am including a link to the dental hygiene thread here.

[CaptainJackRussell]

They shaved. Certainly. The ones which where rich enough to buy a shaving knife and soap. The rest I guess just let ir grow until too long to work with, then cut it of with...what they had. Otherwise they may have used a quite sharp normal blade, but it will hurt and not repeated so often.

I use a shaving knife and normal soap, if I have to shave in role.

Fair winds,

Jack

[Dorian Lasseter]

What's this 'shaving knife' look like? Or are ye talkin' a 'straight razor'?

Like this?

[CaptainJackRussell]

It's just this. The shape is almost the same for the last 300 years...

What would you change?:))

Jack

[Fox]

I think they were a lot cleaner than we give them credit for:

A large quantity of soap was included in the stores list for Woodes Rogers' 1708 voyage, for example.

Also, any ship which carried a surgeon would have had a fairly clean shaven crew, since until the later 18thC surgeons were also generally barbers - shaving people was part of their job, and between battles was probably the major part of it.

Monson wrote at length about the job of the swabber on ships, and recorded that one of the swabber's jobs was to report any man who was unclean, so that he might be properly washed.

I forget who it was (might have been Barlowe) who recorded dunking crew men as they crossed the equator. He noted that it did the new crew good, as they stank by then. This suggests that the older hands already knew the value of keeping clean, and that dirtiness was a bit of a lubberly trait.

At least two manicure sets and ear scoops have been recovered from the Mary Rose.

[Mad Grace Oakum]

And all this time I thought the opposite. I got to tell das about this thread. She insists they didn't bathe much.

About how many times a week did they bathe?

[William Brand]

What's this 'shaving knife' look like? Or are ye talkin' a 'straight razor'?

Like this?

I cannot find any evidence of the folding razor before 1760. What did shaving knives look like before 1710?

[JoshuaRed]

The firsthand texts I've read suggest they did in fact care a good deal about hygiene and understood that being cleaner meant being healthier.

Dampier for instance, was very vocal about keeping clean at sea.

[blackjohn]

We got into a log discussion about Shaving and Haircuts on the Pirate Brethren forum. There's a good pic of a period razor on the first page if discussion.

[William Brand]

Thank you, John. I might make one just like that.