Category:
Hygiene

Follies of the Madmen #355



Oh, no! Will Mr. Decay catch runaway Mr. Tooth? The suspense is unbearable!

Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 14, 2018 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Hygiene, Children, 1950s

Crest Cavity Creeps

This will obviously be rebooted as a Hollywood Blockbuster any day now.









Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 09, 2018 - Comments (5)
Category: Business, Advertising, Hygiene, 1970s, Fictional Monsters

Yell Yaa Hoo

Years before the Internet company Yahoo! came into existence, the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was urging use of the word as a more hygienic form of greeting: "When you come across a friend, raise your hands to the sky and scream 'Yaa Hoo' instead of employing the universal handshake."

The Molina Dispatch - Apr 1, 1988


Apparently Rajneesh believed that "Yaa-Hoo" was quite a powerful word, since he also had his followers use it in a ritualized laughter therapy:

The first part will be Yaa-Hoo!—for three hours, people simply laugh for no reason at all. And whenever their laughter starts dying they again say, "Yaa-Hoo!" and it will come back. Digging for three hours you will be surprised how many layers of dust have gathered upon your being. It will cut them like a sword, in one blow. For seven days continuously, three hours every day... you cannot conceive how much transformation can come to your being.

And then the second part is "Yaa-boo." The first part removes everything that hinders your laughter—all the inhibitions of past humanity, all the repressions. It cuts them away. It brings a new space within you, but still you have to go a few steps more to reach the temple of your being, because you have suppressed so much sadness, so much despair, so much anxiety, so many tears—they are all there, covering you can destroying your beauty, your grace, your joy.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 10, 2018 - Comments (6)
Category: Hygiene, 1980s

Kissing Screen

Popular Science Monthly - Feb 1920



Oakland Tribune - May 1, 1910



The Day Book - Feb 19, 1912

Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 03, 2018 - Comments (4)
Category: Hygiene, 1910s

Follies of the Madmen #350



"Telltale beverages" = booze.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 03, 2018 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Hygiene, 1960s

Washroom Infection

In the early 20th century, it was widely believed that dirty bathrooms were a primary cause of the spread of disease, particularly sexual disease. One result of this belief, apparently, was the adoption of U-shaped toilet seats in public bathrooms, since it was thought that these were more hygienic.

Read more about this at The Weeklings.

Life - Sep 20 1937

Posted By: Alex - Fri Feb 02, 2018 - Comments (7)
Category: Health, Disease, Hygiene, Advertising, 1930s

Messy Girls Gift Book





With Xmas just around the bend, the search for presents intensifies. Who wouldn't like a book of photos of women covered in foodstuffs?

More pix here at eBay for as long as the auction is up.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 21, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Food, Hygiene, Misbehavior, Rebellion, Acting-out and General Naughtiness, Photography and Photographers, Fetishes, Women, Body Painting

Follies of the Madmen #333



To me, this ad at first seems to imply that people used whisk brooms on their scalps when they had dandruff. Then I got the meaning that they were always whisking the shoulders of their clothes. But in any case, a liberal application of Listerine--to the scalp, not the shoulders of the clothes--solves everything!



Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 06, 2017 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Hygiene, 1940s, Head

Follies of the Madmen #327



Dogs appreciate fresh breath.



Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 02, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Hygiene, Dogs, 1930s

Minipoo

Minipoo Dry Shampoo was sold from the 1940s until the 1960s. I'm assuming that 'poo' must not have had the same slang meaning back in the 1940s? Otherwise why would a manufacturer choose a name suggesting a small bowel movement?

I came across a newspaper column from 1980 commenting on the strangeness of the name. So at least by then the name had started to sound odd to people.





Muncie Evening Press - Mar 19, 1980



I found the Minipoo images at the National Museum of American History website. The very first comment there, posted in 2015, was from a woman, Dolores Mitchell Byrne, claiming to have been the model on the label. I googled her name and found that a woman of the same name won the title of "Miss Subways" back in January 1961. (Paul has posted about this unusual beauty contest here.) She's got a different hairstyle, but I think it's her, the Minipoo model. You can see a more recent photo of her at BrooklynPaper.com.

Dolores Mitchell Byrne, aka 'Miss Subways' - via Facebook

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 17, 2017 - Comments (12)
Category: Hygiene, Excrement, Hair and Hairstyling, Slang

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Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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