Vintage sanpro: anyone remember giant towels with loops and belts?

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The first ones mum gave me were huge affairs with an elastic waist belt. There were these loops at each end that you threaded through to wear - felt like you were straddling a hammock and made you walk like a jockey. The horror.

Then there was the Bunnies incinerator at school - a terrifying steampunk monstrosity that you fed the used towel in and it would make an appalling noise as it mashed it up. Oh, I wonder if that was why mum called towels 'bunnies'?

I quickly discovered Vespre towels - someone had the rather bright idea that regular press on towels always bunched into a particular curved shape in use, so why not make them in that shape? I liked those.

I was a late tampon adopter - started at 18. Tho I liked the ones with the pull-out compact applicator (Compak??), I always wondered - who the hell thought those sharp plastic teeth was a good idea??

I went meno before mooncups happened, sadly so I can't comment.

Ah, memories ...

This is fascinating - tampons in ancient history. Also kudos to Wikipedia for saying 'women'.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampon

Dr. Whites

Yes, I used the hammock contraption for my first periods. Horrible, made you sweat and very uncomfortable. I insisted on tampons very quickly, had to use Lilets Super after trial and error with Tampax and others with scuffy/ pinching applicators.

In sex education class, the school nurse told us our monthly bleed could fit into an egg cup. I knew this was rubbish as my monthly bleed - if aggregated - would be sufficient for the last scenes of Carrie.

I've just had a baby in Thailand and here they put you in the old-fashioned pads with the belt after delivery! I was aware from friends that this would happen but I'm only 36 so had no prior experience of them... I only know of their existence from reading Judy Blume's 'Are you there God, it's me, Margaret?'

I don't remember what I had post-delivery in the UK, I presume I supplied my own pads and therefore they must have put me in underwear?

I'm planning to try a cup this year. I hope I take to it because it would be great not buying tampons!

You can still buy those pads.

I remember those looped pads being available but I went onto Bodyform. I remember when Always came out and the thinness of them was a revolution.

I also remember Always Ultra coming out and couldn't fathom the thinness!

I also remember tearing pads in half lengthways and flushing. In those days they looked like mashed up paper with a papery layer and remember being told not to flush the ones with a plastic backing!

I also remember some plastic pant type things with poppers to attach a sanitary towel to, this must have been in the early 70s

Did anyone else's school have the urban myth of the charred hand in the incinerator?

TheAlphaandtheOmega, those were called Nikini pads, and the plastic knickers you poppered the pad into rustled and creaked noisily as you walked and were horribly sweaty and smelly!

Yes, elastic belt with loops, a family box of those pads (4 girls and mum) was the size of 3 dozen pampers! Was very envious of those girls who started a couple years after me & could afford smaller newly invented stick-ons as I had old fashioned ones right up to 1982. Being Eco conscious meant non-applicator tampons (which work better anyway). In the 90s we had disposable mooncups called "instead".

Bit too young for the belt loops. My first ones were big thick ones that just felt huge and horrible. When I was in hospital after my c section they used a similar pad, they felt so huge and wierd.

i was very suspicious the first time I caught sight of the always ultra super thin ones. Could not believe they would work.

At school there was a bin attached to the wall, but I don’t remember anyone ever using it. We used to flush them rather than face the mortal shame of having other girls knowing you had your period.

Can’t remember ever seeing an incinerator in the toilet Surely that was a disaster waiting to happen.

Not that I need them these days, but I always preferred the old-fashioned pads without the plasticy bit - and none were scented!

I also remember tearing pads in half lengthways and flushing. In those days they looked like mashed up paper with a papery layer and remember being told not to flush the ones with a plastic backing!

I assume nobody is flushing anything now? Even if it claims to be flushable?

Oh the horror of carting a gigantic brown paper bag with a pack of kotex in it home from the mortifying visit to the little chemist who kept them behind the counter. This was late 70s and supermarkets weren't much if a thing yet.

My mum gave me the belt but thankfully never had to wear it. I went straight on to tampons IIRC.

Nikini - that was the one, they were very sweaty and rustled a lot.

Ah Dr Whites! I remember the boys grabbing us in between our legs checking us for EPC ... extra padded crotch. Teachers did nothing...

If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?
I’m 46 and can’t remember them. We did used to flush our towels down the toilet but they seemed to just be made out of a cottony type substance.
I remember the Always revolution. Much more comfy! And recently I’ve been saddened with them adding fragrance to absolutely everything (I can’t use them now - gives me a delightful combination of cystitis and thrush)
I now use washable pads. Which makes me feel a bit better for all the times I used to flush towels down the loo.

Oh and as a teenager they started advertising sanitary pads and tampons on TV. Weird how cloaked in shame periods were (and still are)

Oh god! I remember Nikini pads - horrible things. I bet your average teenager would be horrified if they had to wear those now. And the incinerators in the toilets (sick, not envy)

We had no sanitary bins in my school. Everything went straight down the loo

My mum went to a residential girls boarding school. She remembers those sanitary towels. They said they were only allowed one per day, they had to take it to be burned in the schools incinerator. She also remembers the odd sanitary towel falling out of someone's pants during outdoor pe!

Sorry to be ‘that’ person, but i think that using the term ‘sanpro’ is actually adding to the casual misogyny/shame of periods.

If you are avoiding using ‘Sanitary’ because of the connotations of periods needing to be clean/sterile then why not use menstrual protection?

I remember the belt ones - my mother bought the 'stuff' for me in anticipation, but as I didn't start menstruating until I was 17, I only used it once and then bought stick on pads. Mother used cloths and washed them (by hand, no machine) in her teens - glad I missed that, not at all like the nice neat reusables you can buy now.