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 anyone remember the press on pads that used to have a lining interspersed with tiny blue pieces of plastic in addition to the sheet at the back? I could never quite figure out the point of that...

SerenDippitty I think Libresse is now the brand name in other countries for what the UK calls Bodyform?

I don't recall any 2-layer things, though ... any chance of a link?

I remember tearing up the new sticky ones to flush away, that was before the introduction of the blue gel crystals (or whatever they are). They were basically paper and cotton wool.

At my school (posh grammar) some of the older girls used the incinerator to light their cigarettes.

A friend of mine was out with boyfriend and they stopped so that she could call at a house. As she started up the pathway there was a frantic yell from boyfriend. When she had pulled up her trousers, the ST must have come off the front hanger and was swinging gently from the back of her trousers as if she had a tail!

What were the "incinerators"?

@TheMemoryLingers the memory of the godawful song on that advert is certainly now lingering. Thanks not thanks

A sort of stove in the toilets that burnt the sanitary towels. Horrible smell but I suppose it disguised the cigarette smoke.

At my school (posh grammar) some of the older girls used the incinerator to light their cigarettes

YEEEESSSSS!!!!

This thread's bringing back memories I'm not especially proud of ...

My Great Grandma (b. 1911) bemoaned in the mid-90s that that catalogue had ceased to sell her favoured style of knee length bloomers. I suppose when wearing under garments like that, there is a logic to securing with a belt.

DGM has complained about the awful standard of sanitary product avaliable in the house and that must have been by 1950s standards!

Yes, I remember it all - the loops, the belts, the funny clip at the front that you fed something through, the smell, the clumping inner, then the gel inner on the first thinner pads. Ugh. The advent of panty liners. The adverts for tampax / lil-lets in Jackie - 'can you use tampons even if you aren't married?

Does anyone else remember Lillia towels? I remember standing in the chemist with my mother and a lady was asking for them at the counter. I couldn't have been very old.

I was given a little pink elastic belt, it was just a narrow flat elastic thing, soft and adjustable, it would always get loose and slip down. Also had to wear a suspender belt which also fell down, and stockings which would slide down at the tops. Life was uncomfortable in those days.

I had these the first few months I started: the belt really wasn’t designed for a woman’s figure and I remember mum warning me not to move else blood would go everywhere. I was 9 at the time so of course it did and as I had PCOS from the start my bed looked like a crime scene. They were a lot cheaper than the sticky backed santitary towels so mum made me wear them until she got sick of washing my sheets. Once we went to the sticky backed ones as a family we never bought them again.

They looked something like this, Bezalelle

Urrgghh.

That was what I was presented with when I started 42 years ago. No discussion, just a dire warning never to display any evidence of what was going on in front of my dad. I can still recall how bloody (no pun intended) uncomfortable they felt ... this horrid great 'wodge' between your legs which felt like I imagined a nappy to be though a lot less secure, and a lot less efficient at keeping its contents in place. The whole trussed up sensation, the fear that everyone could 'see'. Was just horrific, and combined with my mum's attitude that the whole business was shameful, made me feel 'unclean'.

I put up with them for a couple of months before (mortifyingly) begging my mum for some of the stick on pads I'd seen advertised in magazines. Again, no discussion, she went and bought the cheapest, nastiest stick on pads she could find .... the brand was 'Pennywise' (mentioned upthread) which came IIRC in yellow plastic packaging, and they were useless for anything more than a light flow - they certainly weren't shaped to your body and the glue wasn't very good! I lived in dread of my periods as a teen because of the insecurity and the regular leaking, my mum made it very clear it wasn't to be talked about more than absolutely necessary. And while there wasn't the same variety there is now, there was definitely better stuff available than the most basic pads I was given. It made me feel quite uncared for I guess.

All that made me determined my daughter would be as comfortable as possible. To that end, I always told her we'd buy whatever sounded suitable until she found a version/brand that did the job best, and I'm happy to buy her new stuff to try as required ... and that there'd always be stocks in the cupboard - no 'making do' until I could get to the shop like my mum did to me. FFS, it was a regular occurrence. My (now elderly) mum recently decided it was 'okay' to ask me about my periods (40 years too late) and if I still had them. TBH I felt like telling her to eff off though I didn't.

I'm 65 and I think my generation were the last to have to endure really uncomfortable underwear like that.

@Sooverthemill I remember being very confused by the don't wash your hair old wives tale. I never knew which hair they were talking about.

I remember seeing these in the airing cupboard (where my mum stored them) when I was young, never knowing what they were. Remember clearly getting the new sanitary belt when it was my time and feeling very grown up.

*SerenDippitty I think Libresse is now the brand name in other countries for what the UK calls Bodyform?

I don't recall any 2-layer things, though ... any chance of a link?*

Can’t find one unfortunately but remember the adverts in Jackie magazine. They came in a green packet with leaves all over.

The adverts for tampax / lil-lets in Jackie

I remember those adverts. If you sent an SAE various brands would send you a sample of their tampons/towels and a little glossy booklet about periods. I used to like sending off for things in those days (for the excitement of getting something in the post) and ended up with several of the little booklets tucked in my dressing table drawer.

Oh god - the incinerators, funny what your mind blanks out. I was terrified of them.

I remember Libresse @SerenDippity. My mum used them and that's what I was given when I started in 1978. My periods were irregular and when I started out of the blue one day, Mum didn't have any of the sticky back pads and gave me a looped towel and a belt. I was fascinated by the antiquity! Felt really weird to wear though, very insecure.
So glad I'm through the menopause and don't have to consider these things anymore!

They must be ancient.

The only place I ever saw them was in the school loos. They cost 2x2p and came in a box with 2 safety pins to fasten them on. We also had a hideous incinerator that looked like a relic from the war.

My mum used to give me the money to go to the chemist to buy Simplicity size 2 which were like bricks and when I got tampons once I got a right rollicking because apparently they are only for married women or women who have had babies. Who knew? It didn’t say that on the packet

I was given these by my mum before I started my periods in 1983!

She was older than average (by the standard then, probably more usual now) when she had me and had been through the menopause at least ten years before I started. She'd always used the belt and looped towels and I think didn't know the sticky ones existed.

In a way I was lucky that I actually started when mum was away and I was home with dad. He was completely unembarrassed (possibly unusual for a man of his generation but that's having daughters for you), but he had the sense to realise I was embarrassed and phoned my eldest sister to come round. She arrived with a bag of sticky pads having realised that mum has probably given me the belt.

If mum had been home when I started I might have endured the belt a lot longer!