Going to a barbershop once a month and taking a shower once every two or three days is common sense and normal for modern people. Civilized into the modern society, we will pay great attention to personal hygiene, because we can realize the importance of maintaining personal hygiene, if you do not wash your hair for a long time and do not take a bath, not only will it be very uncomfortable on the body, but also may cause various diseases.
But what about the ancients? How often did the ancients wash their heads and bathe? This brings us back to the long history of our country. In the ancient history of our country, there have been many dynasties, most of which were ruled by the Han Chinese. As early as the Qin and Han Dynasties, people had relatively regular personal hygiene habits, although at that time, the custom of growing hair was also more common, but this did not hinder people's desire to maintain personal hygiene.
But later, due to the differentiation of social classes and the obvious division of labor among classes, the life of the ancients began to develop towards fixation. For example, in ancient times, civilians basically had to work in the fields every day, so washing their bodies too frequently lost their meaning to the ancients. Because even if you wash your body clean today, the next day, you will still get dirty again because of heavy work, dirty work and tired work.
Although it is easy to understand that the commoners did not take much bath in ancient times, the ancient officials did not bathe frequently. This is mainly because of the official's case, and the usual busy official duties do not allow officials to enjoy the free time of bathing. As a result, officials in ancient times had to be busy with work on weekdays, and on weekly rest days, officials had time to enjoy their free time, and some people would make time to take a bath.
So in the Qing Dynasty, what was the habit of bathing? In general, the people of the Qing Dynasty were generally "sloppy", some civilians even took a bath only once a year, and the Qing Dynasty people usually had lice in their braids and emitted a very strong unpleasant odor.
The original Han people would not shave off a little hair on their heads, but after the Manchu Qing Entered the Customs, they implemented a policy of cultural high pressure on the Han people, forcing the Han people to abandon many of the original cultural customs and turn to the Habits and Customs of the Manchus. So "shaving hair and changing clothes" developed among the Han people, who, fearing that they would be condemned, could only follow the Manchu arrangement and shave off part of the hair on their heads, while the rest of the hair was braided into long braids.
But the ancients, who rarely washed their hair, became more reluctant to take care of their hair after the traditional hairstyle was changed. Because the Manchus were originally nomadic people, when the nomads fought on horseback, their excessively long hair would become an obstacle to block the field of vision, so they had a long-term habit of braiding.
But after all, the Han people did not have the habit of braiding, and after being forced to braid, they found that the long and cumbersome braids were very difficult to manage. The first is that if you spread out the braids before going to bed every day, and then you have to braid them one by one after getting up the next morning, it will be very inconvenient and troublesome. As time goes on, people become less accustomed to undoing their braids.
In the Qing Dynasty, there was also an unprecedented industry, that is, shaving the heads of people to help people shave their heads. Because the Manchu hairstyle requires the forehead to be bare, but after a while, the hair on the forehead will grow again, and it is not possible to shave it. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty people would regularly go to the shaving man's shop to take care of the grooming, but they would not wash their hair regularly and take a bath.
Even now, if you don't wash your hair and bathe for a long time, the secretions on the human body will make the body and clothes emit a strange smell. But in the Qing Dynasty, this kind of thing was very common, and poor families would not even bathe for a year, only in the summer when it was too hot and the body could not stand it, they would call cold water to scrub their bodies.
The braids on the heads of the Qing Dynasty people emitted a more unbearable smell, not only because of the long-term failure to wash their hair, resulting in secretions accumulating on the head, but also some dust and bugs would also be coiled in the braids of the Qing Dynasty for a long time, at that time, the smell of most people in the Qing Dynasty was unacceptable.
In contrast, the royal family's treatment is much better than most ordinary people. However, the emperor also often washes his head once a month, if it is placed today, I am sure that many people will not be able to accept it.