Following on from being dirty and 10 second rule posts. Are we too clean?

Greymary I had rags in my hair for a wedding when I was 10. My Aunt was marrying an Irishman and his Mum put rags in my hair and I ended up with beautiful ringlets. She'd had plenty of practice with her 5 daughters who all treated me like a doll that weekend. My long hair was dead straight and my Mum still talks about my ringlets!

I don't remember having a school scarf and we definitely didn't have a hat. My last secondary school uniform did have a hat, but it was optional and horrible. As I look like the village idiot in a hat, I opted out!

We did that too, Indinana
We used to swap tassels with the boys from the grammar school.
That sounds a bit rude written down
I still have my school scarf somewhere in the attic, probably motheaten and disintegrated by now.

Oh yes, the school scarf! I remember mine so well. When I was in the lower fourth a craze suddenly sprang up for swapping the tassels on the scarf with pupils from other schools. There were two other schools in our town and several others in the surrounding area, all with different coloured uniforms, so in no time all the scarves ended up with multi-coloured tassels . We had to be sure to take them off and stuff them in our bags, though, before reaching school or we would be in terrible trouble!

My Dad used to polish my shoes every night, they were always lovely and shiny.
It was quite a shock to find that DH had no intentions of doing the same when we got married

I don't think I even knew dry cleaners existed until I was much older!

Our uniforms were always pristine. I don't remember about my underwear or blouses tbh. Our ties were never washed, but they were sponged a lot!

Our blazers were too and I think my Dad did the sponging. He did the shoe cleaning too, until we were older.

Our gym kit was shorts and Airtex top and washed every week after PE. Actually it's never crossed my mind until now how much effort my parents put in to making sure all three of us were clean and tidy for school. I'm off tomorrow to visit my Mum for a few days, so I must thank her!

My Dad used to put the rags in my hair if I was going to a party so that I had nice ringlets.

DM used to wash my tie, it went all limp and twisted afterwards. They were only nice when they were brand new.

The cardigans had carefully darned elbows. I can't darn but DM was very skilful at it.

Oh the gaberdine raincoat, I'd quite forgotten that . 1 blazer, 1 gymslip, 2 school blouses I can recall. School scarf and beret - and we could get reported for being in uniform and not wearing that flipping beret !

We had school summer dresses, but I think I only had one of those so that was probably only washed at the weekends.

Bath and hairwash once a week in our house, a strip wash in between.

Anyone else wear rags in their hair at night (no heated rollers in my childhood)

Indinana I had exactly the same raincoat I had two white blouses which were washed once a week and two pairs of socks ditto. Not sure if my gymslip was ever washed, I know it went very shiny. I very much doubt if I had clean knickers every day, they were the thick navy ones of course. My tie was definitely never washed and ended up like a greasy shoestring.

I had a growth spurt at 10 and then stopped after a few months at 5' and a bit (now down to 4'10"!). By then my gymslip had been bought, regulation was 4" above the knee when kneeling but, of course, my mother bought mine longer to allow for my rapid growth. Said growth never came so mine was on my knee (as several other girls kindly pointed out) until I stopped wearing the unflattering boxpleated garment in the lower 5th three years later. What relief, in that year we were first allowed an A line skirt, much better!

Ana haha, I expect your tie was washed by your Mother at some point! Hmmn, the blazer though, mine never got dry cleaned that's for sure.The gymslips were washed every now and then.Bath and shampoo every week ( Friday night is Armami night!)How lovely to have a daily shower and clean clothes every day now, and I change the towels daily as well.

And what about the school tie? I don't remember it ever being washed or cleaned during all the years I was at the school...

Our pleated school skirts certainly weren't washable, so they went to the cleaners just once a term (if we were lucky ). Blazers? Never cleaned as far as I can remember - and yes, it had to last all my time at Grammar School too, as did the winter gabardine raincoat. This was halfway down my calves in the first year, but fashionably just above the knee by the time I left in the mid '60s!
School blouses changed twice weekly, cardigan (I only had one!) probably weekly.
As I recall, our PE kit (divided skirts, air-tex polo shirt and v-neck jumper) was hung on a hanger and kept in school, on our designated pegs in the cloakroom, so heaven only knows when that all got washed

Goodness, none of our school clothes got send to the dry cleaners!

Gymslips were washable, weren't they? Certainly my school blazer was never cleaned - and of course it had been bought so big that it fitted me all through my time at Grammar School...

Twice weekly baths, clean knickers every day (although DM told me with horror that 'next door only changed their underpants once a week )

A clean school blouse on Mondays, Wednesdays and sometimes on a Friday (depending on the state of it) and gymslips sent to the dry-cleaners at the end of term.

It was very different in the 40s and 50s. Weekly baths were normal for many families, also underwear changed less often than daily. School blazers and tunics were dry cleaned each half term for some of us, we only had one of each.
Shop assistants often wore black wool dresses with underarm cloth 'sweat pads' which could be changed during the week. BO was a problem. Nowadays with deodorants and washable fabrics it's not often mentioned or noticeable.

Today there are so many sprays and wipes, all full of chemicals with unknown side effects.

And definitely remember the mumps/measles/German measles/chickenpox parties too!
The chickenpox ones are still going strong this half-term!
Poor spotty DGD, but at least she has seen a couple of friends

I don't know about being too clean, but we are definitely cleaner, from our bodies to our clothes, and to our houses.

I think we all have our comfort levels now when it comes to cleanliness and they are very different to when we were growing up. For me, I like a clean feeling, but I know I'm not unclean (usually!) and can be relaxed about what gets clean and when.

I might wear clean knickers every day, but I don't change our towels unless I think they need changing (and have a large supply in the same colour to make this easy). In fact, apart from my knickers (and his underpants!), I don't have any regular cleaning schedule. Maybe I should.

A uni friend of mine used to change her knickers daily, but if she didn't get around to doing the washing she would take the old pairs out of the washing basket and give them a sniff to see which pair could be worn again! - and she was a very well-brought up young lady!

Definitely cost of heating water was a factor; we shared bath water, I was first (and the water would be scaldingly hot, I would emerge lobster red!), then my sisters.
Asking if there was enough hot water continued even after I left home.

We've got much more fastidious about such things these days. The once a week bath and hair-wash was common practice in my childhood and I don't remember anyone being smelly or catching some hygiene-related disease!

There was an issue with hot water too - if you only had an immersion heater it would have been very expensive to bathe every day. I can remember having to ask if there was 'enough hot water' to wash my hair, even as a teenager.

Bath and hair wash every Sunday, underwear changed twice a week (ugh) as a child, something of a lick and a promise the rest of the week.
And definitely remember the mumps/measles/German measles/chickenpox parties too!

I'm a great believer in kids being allowed to get grubby, but they always had daily bath time. However we have never used antibacterial sprays. Some cobwebs remain undisturbed for weeks in our house - spiders are welcome .

When I was little we also had 'spot parties' - definitely no bars on playing with infected children to ensure that everyone got chickenpox and mumps etc. in their childhood.

cats lick and a promise as a child with all over body wash on sunday night,we didnt have a bathroom..that changed at 13 when I would strip wash ,feet in sink everday,still bath every day,hairwash,and children have all been same,re underwear my mum was of the "shake'em n turn'em" school of thought so maximum usage was extracted before changing.
Dad was definitely of the week on week off maxim