Oil bath, a weekly or at least biweekly ritual once, has almost become extinct now. It was mandatory on days like Deepavali or on occasions like marriage, but very few attach importance to it these days. In the eighties, the price of gingelly oil shot up and our elders decided to dispense with the biweekly oil bath on grounds of lack of time and cooperation from the children.
Oil massage is a time-consuming affair both for the person concerned and the individual to whom the job is assigned and is a luxury in nuclear homes. In many families, the mother was particular about giving an oil bath to both girls and boys—Tuesdays and Fridays for girls, and Wednesdays and Saturdays for boys—saying the body heat had to be cooled for the school-going kids or for long and soft hair. Then it was pushed to Sundays. The kids used to make a big fuss about going through the process because not all oil could be removed after the bath or because they lost their playtime. Sleeping during daytime after an oil bath and a special nourishing lunch were disallowed.
Moms or sisters whose services used to be requisitioned, were always careful about applying oil to the face at the end lest the kids complain they could not open their eyes and throw tantrums. The protesting ones used to be told that they would be born as monkeys in the next birth if the oil was not applied to cover the whole face.
A few drops of sesame oil used to be put inside the nostrils. Coconut oil, warmed, was used for sick children. Once the massage was over, the kids clad in loincloth were made to wait, for the massage to be effective. Then they would be led with closed eyes, because of the oil covering the eyes, to the bathroom for a hot water bath. Water had to be sprinkled first to get the approval of the bathers because some would complain that it was too hot.
The oil used to be specially prepared with items like chillies, pepper, cumin seeds etc. and heated and cooled to room temperature before the massage. It was a ritual on Deepavali eve in every home. Soap nuts and shikakai have been used to make natural hair care products for centuries. Shikakai’s benefits ranged from preventing hair fall to taking care of dandruff and even lice.
There were taboos about the days the bath could be taken. New moon days were not accepted except on Deepavali and on that day, there was an injunction that one should have it before sunrise. In the present scenario, such practices have been given the go-by and a time will come when shampoos rule the roost. Shikakai powder is already a brand item with all sorts of claims made about the special properties of its ingredients.