This Man Refused to Bathe for 65 Years—What Happened After His First Wash Left Everyone in Tears

At 94 years old, an Iranian man named Amou Haji, from the village of Dejgah in Fars province, had not taken a shower for more than 65 years. His body was always covered in dirt, and he lived a very unusual and isolated life.

Amou lived in a small, open brick hut that his neighbors built for him, but for many years, he slept in a hole in the ground. His diet was shocking to many—he ate rotten porcupine meat and other roadkill, drank water from a rusty oil can, and even smoked animal waste in his pipe. He also smoked multiple cigarettes at once.

When asked about his way of life, he said that he had suffered from emotional difficulties in his youth. Though he never shared exactly what had happened, he claimed that it made him avoid bathing, fresh food, and clean water because he feared they would make him sick or bring bad luck.

Sadly, after decades of living in this way, it was only when locals convinced him to take a bath that he fell ill and passed away. According to the IRNA news agency, Amou Haji died on October 23, 2022, just a few months after he finally agreed to wash.

Although much about his early life remains unknown, as he grew older, people in his village came to respect and admire him. The name “Amou Haji” is an affectionate title given to elderly people in Iran. “Haji” is usually a term for someone who has completed the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, but in his case, it was simply a nickname.

People in the village said that his aversion to bathing came from emotional troubles in his past, but no one knew exactly why. Some reports speculated that he may have been heartbroken in his younger years, while others believed he feared becoming sick.

Despite his extreme lifestyle, Amou Haji defied expectations and lived for more than nine decades. He survived on rotten meat, mainly porcupine, and drank about five liters of dirty water every day, collected from puddles.

He had no family, no wife, and no children. For many years, he lived in complete isolation. In winter, to keep warm, he would wear an old, worn-out war helmet on his head. He never cut his hair in a normal way; instead, he would burn the ends with fire to keep it under control. His skin was covered in thick layers of soot and dirt.

Amou Haji’s story fascinated people around the world. BBC journalist Claudia Hammond, who visited him, described how his face and beard were caked in dirt, making him blend into the dry, barren landscape of southern Iran. When he sat still, he looked like a rock.

He was photographed many times, and in 2013, a short documentary titled The Strange Life of Amou Haji was made about him. While people were curious about his extreme lifestyle, the beauty of the land he lived in was also striking—vast open fields, bright blue skies, and distant mountains on the horizon.

A journalist from Tehran Times once wrote that, in some ways, Amou Haji was freer than many people. He had no rent or mortgage to worry about, no gas or electricity bills, and no concerns about everyday responsibilities. He lived under the open sky, with the entire horizon as his backyard.

Although many people were concerned for him, he once admitted that attempts to take care of him made him sad. Once, a group of young men tried to force him to take a shower, but he managed to escape. However, after many years of resistance, locals finally convinced him to bathe. Some reports suggested they did this because he was lonely and found it difficult to make friends due to his extreme hygiene habits. Unfortunately, a few months later, he passed away.

There is some debate about who holds the record for the longest time without taking a bath. One of the previous record-holders was Kailash Singh, a man from India who claimed he had not showered for 39 years. However, if Amou Haji’s claim of 65+ years without bathing is true, he easily holds the record.

Amou spent much of his time smoking. In a rare 2014 interview with Tehran Times, he revealed that his favorite meal was porcupine, though he was also content with any kind of roadkill he could find. Photos from 2018 showed him smoking multiple cigarettes at once.

Earlier in 2022, a team of doctors, led by Dr. Gholamreza Molavi from the Tehran School of Public Health, conducted medical tests on him. They were surprised to find that he had no serious bacterial or parasitic infections, except for Trichinosis, a parasite from eating raw meat. However, even this didn’t seem to cause him any symptoms.

Dr. Molavi concluded that Amou Haji had survived so long because his body had adapted to extreme conditions. Over decades of exposure to dirt, contaminated food, and untreated water, his immune system had become incredibly strong.

Despite living a life that seemed unthinkable to most, Amou Haji remained in good health for many years—until, ironically, he finally took a bath. His death shortly after left people in shock, wondering if the bath had contributed to his passing.