In the films and book "Great Expectations" we see Miss Havisham living in her own unhappiness. It looks like she has given up with her appearance and hygiene as she is still living in her wedding dress from many years ago and you can imagine that she has never taken it off since. I'm going to research into what happens to your body when you don't wash for a long time.
Keeping clean in the Victorian era was hard work, working people had to fetch their drinking water from a tap or pump in the street (and it wasn't the cleanest!) Bath time happened once a week when they would heat enough water in pots and kettles to fill a tin bath. The family would then bathe in it one by one in front of the fire, using the same water (again not very clean if you were last!) Although they did wash, its nothing like how we wash today with clean water and perfumed soaps. Wealthier families often had chambermaids carry the bath up the stairs to their bedroom, place it in front of the fire with screens around it to keep out the draughts.
Victorians kept their hair quite clean although their hair was not directly washed with water that often. Upper class women often had a hairdresser who washed and cut their hair, they had their hair washed almost once a month. Lower class women only washed their hair 4 times a year! One of the reasons for not washing their hair in water was because the soap they had was not good for hair, it would make it very dry and waxy.
If you didn't wash you would obviously start to smell bad, your skin and hair would get dirtier causing your chance of infection to go up, and you will probably itch a lot more which could lead to an even higher risk of infection. This makes sense as to why Miss Havisham keeps starching herself in the BBC TV series.
There are many things that can make a person itch, it is likely for anyone to get chiggers or ringworm which can easily be treated with medicated ointment. However not washing for a long time and having one of these conditions could send you into a scratching frenzy potentially breaking the skins surface. If bacteria were to get into the bloodstream through the wounds, the situation could possibly become fatal.
Staying out the sun can wreck your health, people with darker skin and little sun exposure are at increased risk of deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency can cause rickets in children, and it could lead to osteomalacia in adults where bones become week and painful. This could be why Miss Havisham walks all hunched over because of the lack of nutrition she has in her body. Around 90% of vitamin D is made in the skin with the help of sunlight, converting cholesterol found in every cell into vitamin D. Not only would the skin be dry and flaky, the lack of vitamins would cause nails to break and peel. Lips are another part of the body which would be effected, they would become red and sore and start to peel too.
In the above picture you can see the bones and veins in the hand due to the lack of vitamin D. If Miss Havisham hasn't seen sunlight in so long her body must look like something like this. Perhaps Miss Havisham isn't as old as she seems, its the lack of washing and vitamin deficiency in her body.
This 69 year old man was a trucker driver for 28 years. You can see the damage from the sunlight on one side of his face (closest to the window) and you can see the effect it has had on his skin. Just from being in the sun too long ages the skin very quickly as we can see.
Miss Havisham locked herself away in her house for many years, unexposed from the sunlight meaning that her face wouldn't actually look that old. It has opened my eyes as to how much I should age her.
Information from: http://www.bubblews.com/news/2254229-hair-washing-in-the-19th-century
http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/cleansing/myths/never-bathed.htm
http://www.objectlessons.org/houses-and-homes-victorians/tin-bath-victorian-original/s59/a1069/
http://www.miami-institute.com/uva-sun-damage/
Six weeks without a wash
Keeping clean in the Victorian era was hard work, working people had to fetch their drinking water from a tap or pump in the street (and it wasn't the cleanest!) Bath time happened once a week when they would heat enough water in pots and kettles to fill a tin bath. The family would then bathe in it one by one in front of the fire, using the same water (again not very clean if you were last!) Although they did wash, its nothing like how we wash today with clean water and perfumed soaps. Wealthier families often had chambermaids carry the bath up the stairs to their bedroom, place it in front of the fire with screens around it to keep out the draughts.
 |
| http://www.objectlessons.org/houses-and-homes-victorians/ tin-bath-victorian-original/s59/a1069/ |
Victorians kept their hair quite clean although their hair was not directly washed with water that often. Upper class women often had a hairdresser who washed and cut their hair, they had their hair washed almost once a month. Lower class women only washed their hair 4 times a year! One of the reasons for not washing their hair in water was because the soap they had was not good for hair, it would make it very dry and waxy.
 |
| Image from: https://i0.wp.com/farm3.static.flickr.com/ 2195/1769124392_a3035feacb_b.jpg |
If you didn't wash you would obviously start to smell bad, your skin and hair would get dirtier causing your chance of infection to go up, and you will probably itch a lot more which could lead to an even higher risk of infection. This makes sense as to why Miss Havisham keeps starching herself in the BBC TV series.
 |
| Image from: https://janeaustensworld.files.wordpress.com/ 2012/04/miss-havishams-self-mutilations.jpg |
There are many things that can make a person itch, it is likely for anyone to get chiggers or ringworm which can easily be treated with medicated ointment. However not washing for a long time and having one of these conditions could send you into a scratching frenzy potentially breaking the skins surface. If bacteria were to get into the bloodstream through the wounds, the situation could possibly become fatal.
 |
| Image from; http://www.skinsheen.com/userfiles/image/ Symptoms%20of%20vitamin%20D%20deficiency.jpg |
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| Image from: http://caoh.com/liquid-vitamin -blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/angular _cheilitis_cheilosis_treatment.jpg |
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| Image from: http://www.yourwellness.com/ wp-content/uploads/2013/08/rsz_156048814.jpg |
In the above picture you can see the bones and veins in the hand due to the lack of vitamin D. If Miss Havisham hasn't seen sunlight in so long her body must look like something like this. Perhaps Miss Havisham isn't as old as she seems, its the lack of washing and vitamin deficiency in her body.
This 69 year old man was a trucker driver for 28 years. You can see the damage from the sunlight on one side of his face (closest to the window) and you can see the effect it has had on his skin. Just from being in the sun too long ages the skin very quickly as we can see.
 |
| Image from: http://www.miami-institute.com/uva-sun-damage/ |
Information from: http://www.bubblews.com/news/2254229-hair-washing-in-the-19th-century
http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/cleansing/myths/never-bathed.htm
http://www.objectlessons.org/houses-and-homes-victorians/tin-bath-victorian-original/s59/a1069/
http://www.miami-institute.com/uva-sun-damage/
Six weeks without a wash
Information from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-477378/Six-weeks-wash-The-soapless-experiment.html
Here is a clip of a documentary I found about a lady who didn't wash for six weeks to find out whether we are wasting our money in the name of vanity. She allowed herself just 3 outfits to wear for 40 days and 40 nights. You can see how her body and breath start to smell, her hair gets greasy, skin gets drier, face gets dirtier. It only shows the effect for a short period of time but imagine doing this for years and years, just like Miss Havisham!
I wanted to sleep in my makeup to show the effect of how it wears off after one night. Below is the photograph I have taken and as you can see it is starting to smudge underneath. This is only ONE night so imagine wearing makeup from your wedding day with it all being smudged.
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