What Did People Do Before Shampoo?

Shampoo as we know it today is less than a century old, but the act of hair-washing stretches back thousands of years. So what did people do before sudsing up in the shower? A clue can be taken from the word “shampoo” itself. It comes from the Hindi champo, meaning “to massage, press, or knead” — indicative of some of the early hair-cleansing practices, even if it was just with plain old water. Only later did the term come to describe what we now think of as washing our hair. Here’s a look at how ...Read More