Survival Hygiene

Ok folks, one thing I don't think has ever been discussed on here is hygiene in a survival situation, if shtf then bartering with hygiene items can really make you the man/woman.
Also good hygiene is good for moral.

So list your recipes, tips and tricks on personal hygiene in a survival situation.

I'll start with mine, an e-book I found online which you can download:

250 Bath & Body Recipes
Bath
Body Powders
Body Soaps/Scrubs
Perfumes/Body Sprays
Remedies
Hair
Lotions/Creams/Toners
Facial Soaps/Cleansers/Masks
Lip Balms
Deodorants
Teeth Care
Nail Care
Eye Care
Injuries & Sore Muscles
Massage Oils
and more!

---===LINK===---

Star & Flag.

-Lahara

Sugar water will work for hairspray. Holds like aqua net, though I imagine in that situation, we will not be worrying about hairspray.

anything with lavender to keep away mosquito's . I personally have a lavender anti bacterial wash I use on my body for that.

For tough economic times, save the lint from your lint screen in the dryer. You can use it for filling for blankets, pillows, etc.

Ama



[edit on 22-10-2008 by amatrine]

My family and I are avid campers.

We found that Johnsons baby shampoo works very well for washing the body, clothes, and cookware and it's relatively inexpensive.

We always camped by a lake or river and washed ourselves and everything else in the river with the baby shampoo.

Even without any soap lake or river water does a good job of cleaning. I have used river sand to wash cookware.

It is very important to keep the body clean as heat rashes and infection can manifest themselves in a short period of time.

Thank you in advance with the potentially useful info. I'll have a look when I get back from work.

pine smoke kills quite a bit of bacteria and fungus. Not the same as washing, but will do in a pinch...especially on things like athletes foot and underarm odor. Just burn some pine needles in your fire and trap it under your shirt. Or for your feet, wrap a coal with needles in large leaves and hold it under your feet.

extracted from my E booklet

HYGIENE

If you think the greatest risk to your groups continued existence is going to be starvation or violence then you are very much off the mark, it will more likely be a failure of your hygiene protocols that kill off most of you and the bulk of the countries population. Sanitation failure, bugs, food poisoning, rodents, disease (common ones more so than exotic ones) will kill more than any other reason.

If you need to be paranoid about anything post collapse then it should be hygiene, hygiene in the home / retreat, hygiene in the kitchen, hygiene when coming into contact with strangers or late arriving group members.

In a crisis for example economic collapse you will need to consider the following protocols.

Patrols to fill in and disinfect all pools / ponds/ puddles that are not used by the group for a large around the retreat.
No footwear or clothes that have been used in patrolling/ foraging / agricultural work / cesspit digging to be allowed anywhere near the kitchen or food prep / storage areas.
Anyone on kitchen / food prep duties who leaves the work area must wash again before re-entering the work area, especially if going for personal ablutions.
All toilet habits must finish with a good wash with hibiscrub or similar disinfectant.
No one with so much as a sniffle to be allowed near the kitchen / food prep storage areas during the first 6 months of the crisis.
All visitors / late arrivals to be quarantined for 10 days during first 6 months of crisis.
All suspicious food sources (old tins etc) to be treated with absolute caution (food taster volunteers!)
Internal cleaning of the home / retreat to be of a standard that would satisfy conditions for an operating theatre or strive to be as hygienic as possible.
Washing and cleaning of clothes, crockery and pottery that ensures sterilisation be adopted every day during the first year of the crisis.
All waste foods that are not being recycled / composted to be buried in a way that rodents and animals can not dig them up.
All rodents, squirrels, and scavenging types of wildlife to be eradicated within a 500 yd radius of the home / retreat if possible.
All cesspits to be limed and filled in every two weeks.
All used bandages, dressings, nappies, sanitary products to be treated as though they are lethal and must be incinerated.
All water for consumption and personal hygiene MUST be boiled or chemically treated, never presume anything about the quality of water.
All fruit and vegetables must be washed with clean water.

The above suggestions are by no means complete and it’s your own responsibility to ensure that high levels of hygiene are maintained, I suggest that any member of your group who chooses to ignore your hygiene protocols be dealt with as though he were a mass murderer.
An outbreak of flu is an inconvenience to you now whilst you are healthy, but post collapse it will kill your young, your weak and old folk, Imagine what an outbreak of dysentery or gastro enteritis will do to your groups integrity, Measles, mumps, TB are going to crucify those who don't maintain their health and hygiene protocols.
Please don't forget that post collapse most forms of wildlife will be a risk to your group especially if rabies travels down the channel tunnel. The hairy tailed tree rat (grey squirrel) is as big a disease carrier as the brown rat, and don't forget feral dogs and cats they will have been feeding of all sorts of unpleasant carrion.
Post collapse most cute furry things are not to be trusted.

Oh snap!

That means i've gotta kill my fluffy kitty with a machine gun....MY AVATAR IS PROPHETIC!!!

reply to post by TheRandom1


Loved the idea of making your own soap, supplies, etc. but could not locate any "recipes" on this "how to" link.

????

Originally posted by DivineGypsy9
reply to post by TheRandom1

 

Loved the idea of making your own soap, supplies, etc. but could not locate any "recipes" on this "how to" link.

????

Try these
www.open2.net...

www.teachsoap.com...

My first thought was the popular solar shower. Easy enough to construct if you have a black trash bag with you.

Two other items that would be considered "gucci" but I find them handy. One is a hand powered washing machine. Ive tried the old washboards, while light, they are a pain to work with.

Washing

The other works only if you have a survival "retreat" established ahead of time, as its a structure. That would be a sauna. Depending on where you are, the concept of a solar shower may not prove usefull year round, nothing cleans out the pores like a good sauna and a dive into a snow bank.

reply to post by TheRandom1


Your entirely correct, good hygiene in a survival situation does help to boost morale. Although at the time, you probably won't be thinking of hygiene as a priority - it really is!

Bad hygiene is almost, if not as deadly as the weather or an enemy force hunting you.

Think simple tips like disposing off your rubbish under the ground away from camp, and watch where you create your field latrine - you don't want to be infecting the same underground water supply that your using for drink water!

And don't forget the baking soda! Whether your brushing your teeth or getting the last 5 days worth of stench out from under your arms, Arm & Hammer has you covered. Even licks a bad case of heartburn in a few seconds. Have some raw honey hanging around, for minor cuts, scrapes and burns, it's jsut as effective as Neosporin in preventing infection.

THis guy CockatooPaul is an Aussie bush tucker & survival expert. Here's a recent vid about how to get soap from the 'soap tree' in the aussie bush. I imagine there's something equivalent in most countries. Please be careful where you wash in the bush as you could be spoiling good drinking water etc.

au.youtube.com...




[edit on 27-10-2008 by Shar_Chi]

You left the most critical item off your list.

Laxatives.


Start eating nothing but wild meat and in two weeks you will be taking turns pulling petrified turds from one another.

It is a common mistake. Wild game does not have enough fat to be a steady diet. If you do not consume enough plant roughage, you will bind up and die a very miserable and humiliating death.

Add a plant guide to your list of Hygiene aids.

Sorry duplicate.

[edit on 27-10-2008 by Cyberbian]

Originally posted by TheRandom1
Ok folks, one thing I don't think has ever been discussed on here is hygiene in a survival situation, if shtf then bartering with hygiene items can really make you the man/woman.

I saw this thread pop up while I was banned so I couldn't mention then that It has been discussed several times but it was early on in the when the ATS survival forums was created. I will see If I can find any of the old threads. One of the discussions was started by me.

The best piece of hygiene advice I can offer is that each member of your group be allocated their own cutlery/mug/bowl and use only their own - our bodies ae great at dealing with our own bacteria but not someone else's.

If you're in a tough situation water will probably be very precious and you won't want to waste it. so lots of washing will be out of the question. I've read in a post nuclear attack pamphlet about washing using a cup of water, by damping down a flannel, and starting by washing your hands and face then moving on to feet, underarms and finally genitals. And again, each person should have their own wash cloth and towel. The important part is making sure these are properly cleaned/bleached/disinfected.

The other real biggie as far as safety is concerned is food hygiene. I work in the food industry so understand the importance of avoiding cross contamination and searing the outside of meat to kill off bacteria. Don't ever handle raw meat/fish/poultry and then prepare food that will be eaten raw withoujt washing your hands.

Don't worry about a dirty face or smelly armpits but whatever else you do, try and keep some water for washing your hands.

Cheers

Well it seems everyone has brought something great to the table on this subject.

I wonder if there is an american equivalent to that australian soap tree, anybody know?

-Lahara

Originally posted by Cyberbian
You left the most critical item off your list.

Laxatives.


Start eating nothing but wild meat and in two weeks you will be taking turns pulling petrified turds from one another.

It is a common mistake. Wild game does not have enough fat to be a steady diet. If you do not consume enough plant roughage, you will bind up and die a very miserable and humiliating death.

Add a plant guide to your list of Hygiene aids.

I got to say that growing food would be a lot easier and healthier than hunting animals for food, you'll be wasting energy a lot less, not to mention your supply of animals will run really short in a small amount of time if a lot of people are eating meat from wild animals, I think winter time would be the best time to do the meat only thing, seeing how not many edible plants grow in the winter.

So if you grow a garden, maybe covertly (planting small amounts of different vegetables in different areas), then you don't have to worry about the laxatives, colon problems (including colon cancer) or a lack of animals to eat. People can get a long just fine on a vegetarian diet, take the gorilla for example. It's just a good idea to have more than one source of food though.

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed, great info on here

-Lahara

[edit on 29-10-2008 by TheRandom1]

reply to post by TheRandom1


In desert areas you can find something called a Soaptree Yucca. Evidently native americans used the internal fibers as a type of soap.

Soaptree Yucca

If you are like me and live nowhere near Yucca trees, homemade soap really isnt that difficult if you can find a lye deposit, which I think are fairly common with some research across the US. There are a host of soap making sites online with a quick search.

Still back to one of my earlier posts on this thread, I still think the way to go in the winter would be a sauna, and simply bathing in a lake or under a solar shower in the summer as opposed to making soap which I would find difficult and time consuming. But thats just me.