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Original poster

Dr White's looped sanitary towels

304 replies

florriepeck · 12/02/2020 15:01

I didn't know these were still a thing!
DM used to buy these for me when I first started my periods in the 70s.
Saw some today on the shelf in my local chemist while I was hanging around waiting for my prescription to be dispensed.
I was tempted to buy some: remember them being so soft and comfortable .Didn't see any of those belts to wear with them, though.
Set me wondering: does anyone use looped towels these days?
Must be a market for them if they're on sale.

OP posts:
EngagedAgain · 12/02/2020 15:49

@JangledBat, my goodness, I can imagine the risk of it sliding down the leg! I remember these, but weirdly I can't remember having any problems with them, but expect I had such short light periods then iyswim. Certainly made up for it later in life, very heavy ones became the norm.

Fairypiggy · 12/02/2020 15:48

I remember reading about these in a Just Blume book and being confused! Think it may have been in Deenie?

shinynewapple2020 · 12/02/2020 15:48

Where did you live @roundturnandtwohalfhitches ? I started my periods when I was 12 in mid 70's and only ever wore stick on pads. Perhaps the stick on's were more expensive?

Lol at @jaffacake2 's tale.

longtimelurkerhelen · 12/02/2020 15:47

OMG They must be ancient very old stock, were they dusty?

I first discovered these when I unexpectedly got my period at school in the late 1980’s. I had to go to the school nurse for sanpro. She handed me one of these looped towels, I asked what the fuck I should do with the loops. In the end I cut the loops and tied them onto my knickers and then went home to get the proper pads like a civilised person!

User12879923378 · 12/02/2020 15:45

@JangledBat Grin

MrsToothyBitch · 12/02/2020 15:44

These were still on sale in the local supermarkets & chemists when I started in 2001. I pointed them out to my mother (a '50s child and 60s teen and traumatised former wearer of them) and she recoiled im horror and amazement that they were still used! I started with pads; which I considered bad enough, started using Lillette tampons as soon as possible.

User12879923378 · 12/02/2020 15:43

I only know about these from reading "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret" Grin

CaptainMyCaptain · 12/02/2020 15:42

I just read that link and there was no way you would wear a Nikini under swimwear.

SerenDippitty · 12/02/2020 15:42

I started my periods in 1974 and even then there were sticky backed pads available. I never used looped towels. Dr Whites Panty Pads were the first ones my mum bought me.

Cascade220 · 12/02/2020 15:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

jaffacake2 · 12/02/2020 15:40

We weren't really told much about periods in the 60s and my friends mother gave her some looped towels telling her to wear them when she got a monthly " headache ".
She got a headache on the train home from school and put one on her head looped over her ears !

CaptainMyCaptain · 12/02/2020 15:40

Nikini - the plastic went hard and jabbed into you. Horrible. There was a reason it used to be called the Curse.

sunshinesupermum · 12/02/2020 15:39

Oh yes those awful nikini things. Why would anyone wear anything like them or the loop sanitary belts nowadays? I blessed the stick on towels when they arrived.

AuntieMarys · 12/02/2020 15:36

are they still blue and white striped?

Puzzledandpissedoff · 12/02/2020 15:35

Come to think of it, does anyone else remember the horrible Nikini system?
Now they really were uncomfortable ...

www.paddi.org.uk/nikini.html

CaptainMyCaptain · 12/02/2020 15:32

I not only had to wear a sanitary belt but we also had to wear grey woollen stockings and suspenders with our school uniform (mid 60s) I was trussed up like a turkey.

InfiniteSheldon · 12/02/2020 15:30

I preferred them to the sticky ones and always went belt less luckily I no longer have that problem or my eyebrows

roundturnandtwohalfhitches · 12/02/2020 15:29

Ooft. I remember these from my early teens in the early 80's. It was horrible. The belt got stuck up the crack of your arse. And yes they did show when we were doing PE in gym knickers. They really were sadists in those days.
I ended up using Sellotape doubled over on the underneath side to stick to my knickers instead. I secretly bought tampons in a chemist in a different town as well because my mother wouldn't let me use them. And then new towels appeared. So thin, so sticky, so fucking amazing.

mondaypolomint · 12/02/2020 15:29

I hated them with a vengeance, and the belt thing too.

When I started my periods all the sanitary belts in our house were being used by my mum and my sister, so my sister made me a kind of of belt out of string - coarse string too! Then she sent me off to school with it all cutting into me. No wonder I hated the whole paraphernalia of periods.

RuthW · 12/02/2020 15:28

My mum still likes them. She puts them in her tights without a belt. She has never worn knickers. She's 83.

JangledBat · 12/02/2020 15:27

I had those when I first started. I slept at my grandma's one night and came on in the morning. She was popping to the shop so I asked if she'd get me some of those new stick-on towels. She looked at me strangely and said "Ooh, don't they hurt when you take them off"?

No, grandma, they stick to your knickers.

I'll never forget 😀

CaptainMyCaptain · 12/02/2020 15:26

I wore the belt and looped towels when I started. They were very restrictive and I was scared of them moving around, I was sure they showed when I had to do PE in gym pants.

SVRT19674 · 12/02/2020 15:25

I always wondered what you did with those loops...ancient.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 12/02/2020 15:23

I remember my late mum using these, but goodness knows where your chemist's getting them from now - I just googled them and there are none available online

The belts used to be a circle of elastic round the waist, with "hangers" back and front with sort of split clips, but you can't get those now either (unless you made one, I guess?)