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What Was Aztec Hygiene Like
Aug 14, 2025
The Aztec, a collective of Mesoamericans who thrived from the 14th to the 16th centuries, were the inheritors of ancient cultural traditions from their Olmec, Mayan, and Toltec predecessors. Aztec hygiene practices reflected earlier practice, continuing a dedication to cleanliness and purity.
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The Aztec were a collection of Mesoamericans who thrived from roughly the 14th century through the 16th century
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And when Spanish conquerors first encountered the Aztec peoples, they were amazed by their techniques for keeping themselves and their surroundings clean
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So, today we're going to take a look at what hygiene was like in the Aztec Empire
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The Aztecs were the inheritors of ancient cultural traditions from their Olmec, Mayan, and Toltec predecessors
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As such, Aztec hygiene practices reflected those ancient customs and continued their
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dedication to cleanliness and purity. Their concerns about personal hygiene and sanitation were interwoven with spiritual considerations
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So the Aztecs far exceeded the standards of their contemporaries in this department
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While London was still drinking out of the sewage-clogged Thames as late as the mid-19th
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century, the Aztecs, centuries earlier, were going to great lengths to provide clean water
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to the masses and rid the air of perceived pollutants. The Aztec peoples were well aware of how important water was to all aspects of life
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This consideration led to the development of systems of cs in the empire's major cities
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In Tenochtitlan, for example, the cs not only supplied residents with water
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they were also a fully functional public transportation system. Conquistador Hernán Cortes commented that Tenochtitlan was big, with wide and narrow
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streets alongside half cs where they paddle their canoes. Cs that brought fresh water for
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personal use were lined with plaster, matched by accompanying networks to remove human waste and
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other detritus. Cortes recorded that alongside one of the city's causeways were two aqueducts
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made of mortar. Each was two paces wide and six feet deep, and along one of them, a stream as wide
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as a man's body carried very good fresh water into the heart of the city. The Aztecs drank from that
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stream, and the other, which was left empty, was used when the people wished to clean the first
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c. The cs and aqueducts also effectively kept fresh and salt water separate, which was
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essential for both individual use and irrigation purposes. Another incredible benefit of the
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extensive water system in Aztec cities was the fact that it allowed for baths in private homes
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While most Aztecs took cold baths, they also occasionally participated in steam baths for
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for ritual purposes. An Aztec steam lodge, Temezcal, was an enclosure with no windows that featured a heated floor
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dashed with cold water It was built in accordance with long Mesoamerican practice and was used for purification of the body after physical conflict to aid in healing curing an illness or serve as
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a site for women to bear children. Like most aspects of Aztec hygiene, the Temazcal was connected to spirituality
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The goddess of the steam bath was Temazcaltesi, a deity whose image was kept on display nearby
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Tazol Pelt, the fifth goddess, protected the entrance to the Temazcal, overseeing the
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process by which people rid themselves of physical and spiritual grime. Aztecs didn't have soap in the
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modern sense of the word, but they did take advantage of the cleansing properties of numerous
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plants. For example, the roots and fruit from the copo xacote, later called the soap tree by the
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Spanish, produced a lather that could be used to clean the body and clothing alike. The shuamoli
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plant, also known as the amoli, had similar properties. Described as being long and narrow
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like reeds with a shoot and a white flower, it acted as a cleanser. The large thick roots were
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used to remove hair, and the small slender ones were used like soap. During the month of Atem
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Ostli, the 16th month of the solar calendar during which the rains fell by the grace of
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Tlatlac, Aztecs often avoided bathing their hair, body, and clothing as a sign of sacrifice
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and penance. Similarly, women didn't wash their faces while men were away fighting
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The Badianas Manuscript, also known as Labellus de Medicinalibus, Indorum Herbis
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or Little Book of the Medicinal Herbs of the Indians, is an herbal text from 1552
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which records that the Aztecs had acute concern for underarm odor. The book recommended that when smelly and goaty, a person should enter a very well-prepared bath
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and there wash the armpits thoroughly. To kill the odors, it recommended washing with the pulverized plants Chivashiwit, a human and dog's bone recently removed from the body, and the juice of all well-smelling flowers and plants
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Sounds like a Bath and Body Works lotion. To keep body odor away, Aztecs also applied deodorants that were made from ingredients like copal gum, amber oil, and balsam oil
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To overcome the fetid odor of the infirm, patients were anointed with a perfume made of flowers, pine needles, and fruit
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Women also wore perfume, presumably similar to the concoction applied to sick and injured individuals
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Curating smells wasn't limited to the body. The Aztecs burned incense as well, especially priests, during religious rituals, as scents
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were crucial to spiritual practices. According to the Florentine Codex a 16th century work by Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahag Aztec women believed that remaining clean and pure was the ideal way to find a husband As one of the few first
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accounts of Aztec society that survives today, the Codex contains insights into cultural traditions
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in the Aztec world. Among other things, this includes a father advising his young daughter
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to wash her face and hands, and to clean her mouth in the mornings, but never to wear makeup or
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put red on her mouth to look beautiful. The father added that makeup and paint are things
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that light women use, shameless creatures. If you want your husband to love you, dress well
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wash yourself and wash your clothes. According to Sao Goon, courtesans, or women who dressed and
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groomed herself in order to please, used makeup and perfumes, including a yellow cream called
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Ashen, which gave them a dazzling complexion. He also noted that these women, being what he
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described as loose and lost, also sometimes wore rouge. Regardless of the preferences of men like
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Bernardino de Salgun, women did often wear makeup, although in moderation. The most common cosmetic
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was ashen, a yellow mud of sorts spread on the skin. According to a contemporary chronicle
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Aztec field surgeons tended to their wounded skillfully and healed them faster than did the
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Spanish surgeons. The quality of care administered on the field also carried over to everyday life
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Priests and healers that practiced surgeries and bloodletting rituals to promote health
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also distributed treatments made out of oils, herbs, and other natural products to heal cuts
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of all kinds. Aztec healers trained in using herbal remedies to treat everything from headaches
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to coughs to low-grade infections. For example, juice from the nopal cactus root was used to
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reduce swelling, and bark from the elen tree was mixed with wax, egg, and other herbs to treat
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inflammation and fever. They even used hair to suture cuts and scrapes and were capable of making
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casts. According to friar Bernardino de Saugun, the broken bones were carefully set and the limb
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placed between splints of wood, tied lightly with a cord. A plaster then was applied to the break
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composed of gum of the okoshotl tree and resin and feathers. The limb and the splints together
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were encased in a second covering of rubber-like gum. As part of maintaining cleanliness
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Aztecs, like many ancient peoples we've covered in our hygiene videos, used salt and urine to clean their teeth
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Other materials like ashes, honey, roots, and barks were also used. To keep their breath fresh, Aztec women were known to chew a gum
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thought to be a mixture of chicle, which is derived from the sapodilatry and bitumen When Bernardino de Saug tried the substance he found it gave him a headache He also said that when a woman chewed chicle the Aztec word that has become chicle
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she made a clacking noise with her teeth, like castanets. As a remedy to toothaches and infection
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Aztecs could rub charcoal on their teeth. But if the tooth problem got too advanced
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removing it was a necessity. Luckily, that was something they could do safely and humanely
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Dentists could pull a tooth, but not before applying a mixture of vinegar and snake venom
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This made for a relatively painless tooth removal, after which a mixture of herbs was applied to protect and cure the open wound
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Aztec dentists also filled teeth, filled cavities, and applied jewels to incisors
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while so-called ladies of the night dyed their teeth red or black to distinguish themselves
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Most dental plans today aren't that good. Networks of cs in Aztec cities made it much easier to keep the heavily populated areas clean
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When the streets of Tenochtitlan, for example, were swept, the detritus and dirt could be thrown into one of the cs
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which then removed the waste from the city. Sweeping and cleanliness was a fundamental part of maintaining order in Aztec society
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Women swept their homes every morning as a way to honor their domestic space
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while priests swept temples and schools to keep out unwanted and potentially threatening
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spiritual forces. Cities also had public toilets available, the waste from which would be collected
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and used as fertilizer. It could also be channeled out of the city by one of the cs or by other
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waterways, which helped keep human waste from contaminating the water supply. As Hernán Cortés
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explored Tenochtitlan, he observed, establishments like barbers, where residents go to have their
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hair washed and are shaved. Hairstyles for men in the Aztec empire varied significantly
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with priests keeping long locks that were sometimes matted with soot, while common men
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wore their hair short. Boys were shorn until the age of 10. At that point, they grew out a patch
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of hair on the backs of their heads, which was only shaven once they'd proved themselves to be
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a successful warrior. Women could dye their hair using black mud or a green herb called
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chwick-wilet that produced a purple shining in the hair. Some women shaved their heads completely
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while older females, particularly mothers, had long hair, divided at the nape of the neck, and pulled back with a cord
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Dandruff was treated with a urine cleaning and a hearty scrubbing with ground avocado pits
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Clay would then be used to bring color back to one's locks. In the event of scabies, men and women had their heads shaved
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and, again, were doused in urine and herbal mixtures of pine wood
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cottonseed, and avocado to eliminate the pests. It was pretty much like they had fully functional salons
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with a lot more urine