40+ Amazing Facts About What Hygiene Was Like For The Vikings

Yes, the Vikings were intelligent enough to figure out how to have hot and cold water taps, just like us, and they also liked taking baths. Regarding the Vikings from Iceland, we at least have one certainty. Due to its location on two divergent tectonic plates, which results in a lot of geothermal activity, which warms up subsurface water, Iceland has a lot of natural hot springs. There is archeological proof of outdoor baths like the ones in the image, where individuals could regulate the temperature of the bathing water using water pipelines that went from distinct hot and cold springs.

There are a few things that have unquestionably altered in Scandinavian civilizations since the Norse age, however, it goes without saying that expectations of men and women in society are continually changing. One of them is that men’s hair used to be washed and trimmed by women.
It’s unknown why precisely if wives were the only ones who performed this service for their husbands, or if it was more of a hairstylist service. However, we are aware that it was a big honor. In some literary stories, women make the commitment that they will be the only ones to wash and trim a certain man’s hair for the rest of their lives.