In ancient times when material conditions were not abundant, how did people wash and dress? What details are worth learning from modern people? We might as well have a look.

Comb hair

Modern mental workers often lose their hair because of excessive use of their brains. In fact, many ancient writers and poets also had hair loss problems. Su Dongpo, a great writer in the Song Dynasty, once lost his hair. Under the guidance of famous doctors, he insisted on combing his hair in the morning and evening. "Comb your hair more than a hundred times and lie down until dawn", which soon stopped the hair from falling off. In addition, many acupoints on the head can be massaged with combs or fingers, which can achieve smooth meridians and relieve symptoms such as muscle tension headache, nervous headache, migraine and insomnia.

The ancients also paid great attention to the material of combs. Gold, silver, jade, ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shell and all kinds of precious wood can all be used as combs, with different effects. Compendium of Materia Medica recommended a boxwood comb, which has the effect of clearing away heat, cooling blood and detoxifying. In the past, ladies-in-waiting often used a natural rhinoceros comb to comb their hair and decorate it. Rhinoceros horn can clear away heat and toxic materials, and clear blood heat. It can cure fever and headache, and it is a rare medicinal material.

Combs made of cattle and sheep horns can also be used as a substitute for rhinoceros horns. Cattle and sheep horns are dust-free, moist and hairless. At the same time, ox horn is also a traditional Chinese medicine, which has the functions of cooling blood and calming wind, diminishing inflammation and relieving pain, treating headache and toxic heat, removing dandruff and caring hair, and treating insomnia.

Brush your teeth/teeth

People in China pay great attention to the health of teeth, and oral cleaning and health care have existed since ancient times.

The earliest toothbrush was introduced into China with Buddhism. In the "Bathing Classics for Monks in Greenhouse" translated by Gao Shi 'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there are seven kinds of utensils needed for bathing. "Yangliuqi" is to make one end of Yangliuqi into a brush to dip in medicine or spice to brush your teeth. There is also a way to directly chew willow branches to clean teeth, that is, "morning chewing wood." Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty also found it wonderful to cut tender willow branches into teeth. By the Southern Song Dynasty, people could already buy mass-produced toothbrushes, that is, toothbrushes with bone, horn, bamboo, wood and other materials as handles, with two rows of small holes drilled at one end and ponytails as bristles, almost the same as the current toothbrushes.

Mouthwashing was widely used in ancient times. The earliest mouthwashes were wine, vinegar, salt water, tea and water.

The embryonic form of medicinal toothpaste first appeared in Taiping Shenghui Fang edited by Song Taizong. Boil willow branches, Sophora branches and mulberry branches in water to paste, and add ginger juice and asarum to wipe your teeth. Later, honeysuckle, chrysanthemum indicum, dandelion, agastache rugosa, Eupatorium odoratum and other traditional Chinese medicines were added to the ointment, which can not only remove odor, but also treat oral diseases.