Amou Haji

Amou Haji was not his real name, but an affectionate nickname generally given to elderly people, roughly meaning "old timer".[2][3] He lived in the village of Dezh Gah in Fars province. He did not bathe for over 60 years—from c. 1957–62 until shortly before his death in 2022—because he feared that soap and water might cause disease.[4] He claimed that he had become a hermit due to "emotional setbacks" after a heartbreak.[1][3][5][6]

Amou Hajji was celibate, ate meat from dead animals he found (especially rotting porcupines), drank water from puddles and rusty oil cans, smoked animal dung using an old pipe, donned a war helmet to fend off the cold, and lived in a hole that he had dug himself.[3][7][8] To manage his hair, he burned off the excesses with a flame. His skin was covered with soot and pus as a result of his refusal to bathe.[9]

He was photographed smoking multiple cigarettes simultaneously,[9] and refused water, food, and other basic necessities offered to him.[10] He said that these attempts to care for him made him sad.[4] Once, a few young men attempted to forcefully give him a shower, but he managed to escape.[2]

Author Claudia Hammond described Haji as having a "face and beard caked in mustard-brown earth" and that he "blends in" to the "barren landscape of southern Iran" and that, when he sits still, he "resembles a rock".[11]

His story was covered in a 2013 documentary titled The Strange Life of Amou Haji.[2][3][12]

Despite his unhygienic lifestyle, he lived to the age of 94. He died a few months after bathing for the first time in 60 years, having been persuaded by the inhabitants of the village to do so.[4]

• Dirty Dick – a London merchant who refused to wash after his fiancé died on their wedding day.