Dr White's looped sanitary towels

[florriepeck]

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.

Does nobody remember Lilia in the pink cardboard box with white feathers on it??? We had Dr White's at school but this was my mother's preferred brand. Still the same hold up system though! Urghhh!

My mum started her periods in the late 1940's. Her family was quite poor (outside loo, tin bath in front of the fire once a week) and couldn't afford sanitary towels, so she had to pin rags into her knickers. The rags were kept in a drawer in the sideboard, so she would have to fetch one from there, under the watchful gaze of her large family, before venturing down the garden to the outside loo. I think they washed them by soaking and then boiling them. She told me that the very first thing she bought with her first wage packet was a packet of Dr Whites and a looped sanitary belt, so to her they were the height of luxury! My teenage daughters have recently switched to washable period knickers, but we have the "luxury" of a washing machine, so can just do quick rinse cycle and then in with normal wash. Usable panty liners just get chucked into the wash the same any other underwear.

I remember Bodyform coming in too, and that cringeworthy advert with "Bodyformed for you" as the slogan.

What shape of a body did they use to design and sculpt that crap? I never did work that one out. Everything then was so uncomfortable, unless you were able to use tampons. They were OK.

@MrsToothyBitch

@Poohpooh- a friend of DMs used the tena incontinence pants she bought for her own elderly DM once in a period emergency. She said they were quite good! I have the occasional surprise "flash flood" level bleed & I've been tempted myself.

They would seem ideal in certain situations! Wish I had thought of this when I got my period whilst travelling China by train and the squat toilet

Our dog once cut himself badly and I remember my mother using a Dr White to stem the blood flow.

Worked a treat until it was time for walkies - guess who's turn it was to take him out - not a good look to be accompanied by a large mutt with a sanitary towel strapped to his leg..

I found a packet of Dr White's in my mum's wardrobe and used to use them as a face mask when I played with my chemistry set.- looping them over my ears.

I use tena lady ( well Asda own brand ) every day due to urine incontinence issues. They're great for periods. Pop a normal sanitary towel inside so you can just change that rather than the whole thing.

I also use them on the dog when she's in season. Fab. 😂

Pop a normal sanitary towel inside

What? You shove an ST up you, like a tampon?

Oh blimey, I remember the looped STs and the stretchy pink belt. And the dreaded "incinerator". And being shown these giant mattresses when we had "the talk" from the nice lady from Dr Whites.

But luckily, I was at boarding school when I started my periods in the early 80s, and of course you did whatever the older girls did. And everyone (and I mean, everyone) at my school used tampons (Lil-lets). I realise now this was quite ahead of its time. The only time in my life I have ever used STs was after having my children, when the blissful comfort of a giant, spongy wodge of sanpro to sit on was literally just what the doctor ordered.

I remember them so well from 1960; they were vile. My mother used to never buy enough for me, so used to take hers and then get shouted at! Then I discovered the stick on ones and once I'd had sex for the first time discovered I could use Tampax. A life changing moment.

Pop a normal sanitary towel inside

What? You shove an ST up you, like a tampon?

I read it as sticking a normal sanitary pad inside the Tena pants, so you use them like knickers, but no fear of leaking.

@ColourMyDreams

Pop a normal sanitary towel inside so you can just change that rather than the whole thing.

That’s genius!

@thenightsky
What? You shove an ST up you, like a tampon?
Well i suppose if you rolled it up small enough, you could do
But no, i mean to lay one inside the Tena, as you would in your knickers

No, inside the Tenalady!

When I started in 84 or 85 I went to the school councellor to be given a Dr Whites looped. Of course I had no means of attaching it, so it just had to sit loose in my knickers all day. Lovely! I had no idea how they were meant to be held in place.
We had Bunny incinerators in the girls loo at school but they didn't work anymore, as far as I know.
I'm eternally happy the Mooncup exists now.

I started secondary school in 2000 and we had to wear PE knickers indoors. That meant tight thick navy knickers over your normal underwear and a polo shirt.

Bloody awful for those who were conscious of hairy legs and sanitary towel wearers.

Really proud that I was there when some students made a stand and the uniform was changed to allow leggings for use indoors. About bloody time too!

A friend of mine bought some when they were sold in a cardboard box, so this was quite a long time ago.
She tucked them under the apron of the pram while she went into a shop, leaving the pram outside.
When she came out, her darling child had found them, opened the packet and threw them all over the pavement apart from one which was looped across his ear

we had those flippin blue bins at one school trouble is they took up such a lot of room hardly able to sit on the loo seat
my mum told me when she started her periods it was just rags to go in her pants as she had to walk 3 miles into school and same back she could not go home to change so she had to take a spare rag in a brown paper bag then put the used rag in it. must have been awful keeping it in her satchel all afternoon as she had won a scholarship to grammar school i assume they would do gym etc so not sure how she would manage that

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

This comment is fascinating to me. I don't know which question to ask first

My first questions is why has she not seen a doctor to ask when menopause will start

We used them to play surgeons with. Disembowelling soft toys with the pads looped over our ears and mums tights keeping our hair tidy. I can still see it. She went fucking ballistic when she found us but then laughed. Funnily enough absolutely none of us went into medicine

@Fanciedachange1 that's crazy they had those even as recently as 2000. I started secondary in 1997 and we were definitely in shorts or joggers for pe!

Hi hubby's sorting bags out from under the stairs, I started up sewing and he gave me a paper bag with from a pharmacy.. There's a brand new Dr whites sanitary belt inside, which brought me to this page. We are in our mid 50s so must be at least 30+ year old.. There's used one but obviously washed too.. I used these when had my son.. 4 grand kids now... But used stick ones when started aged 14.. Was allergic to them all luckily didn't need anything from 23..Shame can't put pic up but it's white box pink borders n butterfly n flowers in pink n purple.. Supposed they tried to make it appealing adjustable luxury sanbelt.. No price box same size palm of hands

If anyone is still interested in this thread, I still used them for start of period as stick-ons don't stick to loose knickers!
Been out of stock since beginning of year and Lil-lets say no demand and no longer made or available. That's progress I suppose?

[quote Sooverthemill]@Sarah it's because they were believed to break the hymen so that meant you weren't a virgin as only your husbands penis was supposed to do that and you would bleed on your wedding day as proof of your virginity. So my mum was worried my future husband would doubt my chastity. My mum was a child of the 30s. I wasn't allowed to sleep with my BF until married ( they clearly believed sex only happened at night in a bed)[/quote]
Still happens.

I was told to forbid girls from taking tampons from the emergency supplies if they were under 16 and to let her know if any said they did use them in one job. Not an official line, just the backward thinking of one woman who had therefore policed the hymens of thousands of girls over her career.

I never actually told her, but there was no way on earth I was going to hover over a kid and humiliate them, much less waste safeguarding's time with nasty little comments about how they deal with menstruation - so they were moved to be in exactly the same place as the towels and anybody needing supplies was told 'they're over there - help yourself to what you need'.