What Is A Bidet And How Can It Help With Accessible Hygiene?

In recent years, the idea of accessible design has moved beyond adaptations and become a fundamental aspect of how houses and especially bathrooms are designed.

For example, whilst wet rooms provide seamless, step-free, slip-resistant accessible bathing, they also create a comfortable, luxurious spa-like experience.

Similarly, whilst bidet toilet seats have become increasingly popular as a luxurious addition to a bathroom, they are also a vital addition to help with bathroom hygiene.

The bidet, both separate from and connected to toilets, has existed for decades, if not centuries, but it is not until recently that they have become a regular fixture in people’s homes.

To explain why, it is essential to know what they do and how they evolved, as well as how they reflect a changing attitude towards home design and accessibility.

 

What Is A Bidet?

A bidet is a device which sprays a jet of water upward, helping to thoroughly and hygienically clean the body in places that are difficult, painful or unhygienic to reach.

Whilst the concept is relatively simple, there is a wide variety of forms it takes with a range of added features. The three main designs are:

• Integrated Bidets – A bidet integrated into a toilet, either as a wholly combined unit or an add-on toilet seat.
• Standalone Bidets – A separate bowl that resembles a combination of a small toilet and a large sink.
• Bidet Shower – A hand-held shower nozzle close to the toilet is used for the same function as the other two types of bidet.

In certain countries, some types of bidet are more popular or even legally mandated in building regulations, but in the UK, the most common type of bidet is one integrated into a toilet, which is controlled either by valves or waterproof switches.

As well as jets of water, they can blow warm air to dry a user after washing themselves, as well as heated seats, lights, deodorisers, water pressure controls and even directional controls for the spray.

 

Where Did Bidets Come From?

What is somewhat unusual about bidets is that the basic concept was developed and evolved in parallel in several parts of the world.

The name itself is the French word for “little horse”, and early bidets in France in the late 17th and early 18th century resembled wooden ponies in design, with a bowl over which a user would straddle, as well as a raised section to use for balance.

Whilst variations of this bidet existed in several countries, to the point of being required by law in countries such as Portugal and Italy, it was almost non-existent elsewhere.

In the 20th century, with more widespread indoor plumbing, the bidet evolved to fit, and the earliest recognisable models started to exist.

John Harvey Kellogg, the co-creator of cornflakes, patented an early example of the bidet toilet seat, but the patent seemed to expire before it could be commercialised.

Interestingly, although the bidet toilet was refined in the United States, it was notoriously unpopular. The American Bidet Company launched the American Sitzbath in 1964, but no broadcaster, publisher or advertising agency was willing to help promote it, and it failed as a result.

The patent was licensed in Japan, but whilst it was similarly unsuccessful at first outside of hospitals, when it was developed into the integrated Washlet line of bidet toilet seats, it became significantly more successful.

This caused them to spread in the 2000s to countries and regions where they had previously been less popular, including Northern Europe, North America and the UK.

 

Why Have Bidets Become More Popular?

Up until the early 2000s, bidets were either ubiquitous or extremely rare, depending on where you lived. Some countries had one in every home, whilst others tend to be aftermarket attachments and adaptations.

This began to change partly due to their popularity in Japan, which led to a rapid technological evolution that enhanced their functionality, but it is linked to a change in approach for accessible design, where bathrooms are designed to be used by everyone.