For centuries, lack of hygiene has always been associated with lower life expectancy, a reality that both science and death figures have endorsed over the years. However, there is always an exception that breaks the rule, as is the case of Amou Haji, the ‘dirtiest man in the world’ who has died at the age of 94 after half a century without showering.
This man from the village of Dejgah, in the province of Fars (southern Iran) was known throughout the world for his dirty and unusual habits: not bathing for fear of getting sick, smoking five cigarettes at a time and even vacuuming manure from a metal pipe.
But not only that, there were many myths surrounding his figure: from the fact that he ate roadkill and rotten porcupine meat, to the fact that he drank five liters of water a day collected from puddles in a rusty bucket.
An unusual lifestyle that made Haji almost become a tourist event. So much so that thousands of tourists went to visit him and posted videos of his peculiar behavior. He was even the protagonist of a documentary filmed in 2013 called “The Odd Life of Amou Haji”.
Apparently, a few decades ago he decided to get dirty after having suffered emotional problems, then he began to isolate himself and reject the idea of bathing for fear of getting sick, assuring that he suffered a real aversion to soap and water.
Even so, surprisingly, the latest medical studies carried out on Haji by British specialists with the aim of finding any disease in the man revealed that he was in good health, despite his unhygienic habits. In fact, they claimed that he had managed to develop a very strong immune system.
Haji died shortly after bathing for the first time in 60 years.
Surprisingly, coincidentally or not, Haji took a bath for the first time in 60 years a few months ago, as “the villagers took him to a bathroom to take a bath,” notes Iran’s IRNA agency, and before long the 94-year-old man years died.