Hospitals in the Dark Ages were reserved for the sick or dying. More like hospice care than modern hospitals, the blind, the desperate, and those with spiritual needs stayed in hospitals. If surgery was required, people went under the knife at the barbershop, where a barber (or a butcher!) would try to allay ailments like ulcers, kidney stones, and eye cataracts.
As an interesting tidbit, the signature striped poles outside of barbershops represent the color of blood and the white of bandages characteristic of medieval surgery. Again, anesthetics were not used, and instruments were not sterilized. Unsterilized tools would cause fatal infections.
Medieval Floorings Harbored Filth
Floors in the Middle Ages were devoid of the plush comforts of carpeting and instead were layered with wall-to-wall rushes. So, on what was essentially a dirt floor, a layer of grasses like hay covered the clay surface. Sometimes they would be woven into mats. The rushes were replaced from time to time, which might have been a good thing, but the old trodden layer beneath harbored all kinds of contagions.
Measures were taken to keep floors fresh by adding flowers or pleasant-smelling herbs to the rushes. But, lurking beneath, fleas, lice, and vermin thrived. We all know now fleas on rats passed the Black Death to humans.
Taking a Bath in the Middle Ages
Some monks were only allowed one bath per year, while kings bathed often in personal tubs filled with hot water and aromas of flowers and fresh herbs like chamomile, mallow or brown fellow. The common peasant would have loved such luxury, but they were relegated to public bathhouses that some church leaders prohibited, thinking group nakedness leads to illicit sex. They had a point; some bathhouses were mere fronts for brothels. But Medieval bathhouses were popular, some offering a meal with a warm wash.
People liked to bathe at least once a week. After the Black Death, bathhouses went into decline. Erasmus explained in 1526, “Twenty-five years ago, nothing was more fashionable in Brabant than the public baths. Today there are none, the new plague has taught us to avoid them.”
You’ll Never Guess What They Used Urine For
Throughout history, urine has played a surprisingly versatile role in cleaning practices. Due to its high pH level and ammonia content, this bodily fluid has been used as a cleaning agent since ancient Rome. In fact, the affluent aristocracy went so far as to employ urine as a facial exfoliator, directly applying it to their skin. It was considered comparable to lye, an alkaline substance for general cleaning purposes.
Even wound cleaning involved the use of urine. However, its most common application was in the realm of laundry, where it served as a spotter to effectively eliminate stains. Medieval laundry soap often featured ingredients such as ash, lye, green grapes, and urine.
Shaving Was Not a Thing in the Middle Ages
Short of mirrors and razors, most peasants did not shave. Some were shaved once a week at the barber, although that wasn’t free, and peasants lived in poverty. Besides, beards were trending in the Middle Ages. A full face, of course, hair was a sign of virility. Shaving was very inconvenient. Mirrors were made of polished metal or blackened glass, which was not conducive to shaving. Maybe that’s one of the reasons monks would shave each other.
Modernity challenges everything. Now that beards are back in vogue, a 2016 study found that clean-shaven men are three times more likely to be harboring the harmful bacteria methicillin-resistant staph aureus on their cheeks than bearded men. It even suggests new penicillin might be made from beard bacteria!