Shampoo

The word shampoo in English usage dates back to 1762, with the meaning ‘to massage’. The word was a loan word from Anglo-Indian shampoo, in turn from Hindi champo.


The term and service was introduced by a Muslim Bengali entrepreneur Sake Deen Muhammad, who opened a shampooing bath known as Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths in Brighton, England in 1759. His baths were like Turkish baths where clients received an Indian treatment of champi (shampooing) or therapeutic massage.

He was appointed ‘Shampooing Surgeon’ to both King George IV and William IV. Deen was also the first Indian to write and publish a book in English, Travels of Deen Muhammad in 1794.