The question about hygiene in the West came up the other day from someone wondering if cowboys brushed their teeth. Well, some did and some didn’t. The lack of dental care was prevalent during the 19th century. What about deodorant/body odor? Besides an occasional bath, was there anything used for body odor?
Tools to clean teeth have been around since prehistoric times. The Chinese are credited with inventing the first toothbrush in AD 1498, using hog or horsehair bristle. People used twigs

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus