Amou Haji was an 83-year-old Iranian, and he probably deserved the title of the world’s dirtiest man who ever lived.
He had never bathed in the last 67 years of his life. Haji was said to be terrified of water, resulting in extreme avoidance of bathing. Moreover, he believed that he’d fall sick if he bathed and this has stopped him from taking a shower in over six decades.
If you are interested in such feats, the last record of the longest time going without showers belonged to a 66-year-old Indian man, Kailash Singh, who had not taken a bath over 38 years.
“Amou” is an endearing word in Farsi used especially by kids for kind men to show their affection. He, however, with his bathing practices posed a challenge to anyone who wanted to hug him for affection.
Amou Haji had some peculiar dislikes and likes
It’s not just bathing that Haji disliked. His disgust for fresh food and clean drinking water takes the title of the dirtiest man in the world to a whole new level. Not only that, he preferred his favorite meal of rotten porcupine meat. He drank 5 liters of water every day for health purposes, but only from a large rusty oil can.
He used to fill his smoking pipe with animal feces instead of tobacco! To trim his hair he didn’t use clippers — he just burned it off over an open flame. An old war helmet kept his head warm during the winter.
He lived in a hole in the ground, much like a grave, to keep him grounded and in touch with the reality of life or perhaps save him from cold weather and rain.
Seldom did he sleep in an open brick shack that the villagers constructed for him out of pity. Locally, he is known as Amou Haji.
He was always covered in ash and dirt. According to Tehran Times, Haji decided to live an isolated life after he went through some emotional setbacks in his youth. The exact details of the setback are not known, and perhaps even Haji didn’t remember.
Locals in the area all treated him and his condition with respect, understanding that his fear of getting sick was the reason he avoided water.
A few years ago, when a group of villagers took him to a nearby river in an attempt to bathe him, he threw himself out of the car and ran away.
Ultimately the villagers successfully managed to give Haji a wash. Sadly, just after a few months of taking his first bath in 7 decades, he died at the ripe age of 94, ironically, just months after taking his first wash in decades.
