I’ve seen conflicting historical accounts about this, and I’m not sure where the conflict is coming from. In “Clean: A History a Personal Hygeine,” Virginia Smith talks at length about Tudor period bathing and cleansing noting plumbing for baths in Henry VIII’s Hampton court, bathing practices for more common folk, and noting that public bath houses were closed later in his reign.
However, Ruth Goodman, specializing in domestic history, has mentioned that during the Tudor period people were afraid of miasmas and would avoid wet baths so would comb their hair clean and wipe with dry cloth. I’ve heard this specifically as something ascetics grappled with, but not the common person.
Does anyone know more?
Both of your sources are essentially correct in my understanding. The rich had the best access to efficient hot water plumbing, while the poor might have to bucket it from a nearby water source like the Thames or a well and boil it. The public bathhouses were inspired by Turkish bathhouses the Crusaders encountered, and replaced the earlier Roman ones which had declined a few centuries after the fall of Western Rome. People would even put aromatic ingredients like herbs or perfumes in water to treat themselves. But they became associated with prostitution, particularly the prominent ones is Southwark, and because they were a place for gathering exposed people together they were suspected as a vector for the plague. This is where the miasma theory is relevant, because as well as the actual threat of transmission via fluids it was believed that infections could become vapours in the air that entered through the pores. It was further believed that because hot water opens the pores, it also left them open for this. As a result, after Henry's legislation the baths in Southwark became the Southwark Stews, with the bathing a secondary element.
However, bathing and even bathing in hot water did not end in the 16th century with the increasing emphasis on miasma theory. It became somewhat less regular, but private bathing did increase with the closing of public bathhouses, so it did not end. Elizabeth I bathed every month, and this was considered above average, so we can imagine the average person might bathe 5-9 times a year say, depending on their access to water and their personal standards (women probably bathed more than men for example). Another element was emphasised with a special degree of vigour however, the cleaning of linen underclothes. In the 16th century the standard underbelly of any garb was the undershirt (chemise or shift), the hose (stockings, with men typically wearing two piece ones whereas women women wore only the lower half piece and made-up with longer shifts) and for men also a codpiece and drawers. These underclothes were cleaned regularly and vigorously using a type of soap called lye and beaten with paddles before hanging out to dry. It's an exhaustive process, so the fact that in households without servants the women of the house were doing this bright-and-early for hours each morning shows they were no slouches on cleaning at this time. They even used men's pisses as a stain remover if needed, which funnily enough is actually effective and men do have slightly stronger concentration of the relevant chemicals in urine.
Additionally, cleaning your faces and hands in cold water was regular and hair was cut, washed with lye and brushed and combed. For the rich there were also perfumes, incense and the pomander; an orange cut open and stuffed with spices with you could carry as a portable air freshener. They loved perfume so much so that the 16th and 17th century in rich households clothes were kept in a perfumed wardrobe so they were always scented. A more ordinary household wouldn't usually have these but a household of the "middling sort" might be able to spring on perfumes or incense on special occasions. Finally it is worth noting that it was standard to have a drain or pit in the floor of your kitchen so the floor got less dirty and the floors were of course washed.
I hope this has given you a clearer picture of Tudor hygiene.
*DO NOT WASH ANYTHING WITH LYE.
EVER!*
Lye is a powerful alkaline that will burn flesh, hair, and fabric as badly as the same strength of acid.
U/somecrazynerd has gotten the detail/terminology perilously wrong.
Lye is the stuff used for traditional drain cleaners like Drano. Danger!
Soap is not lye. Lye is not soap. To make "lye soap," which was just "soap" back then, you start by running rain water thru wood ash to get the lye. Then you mix it with melted fat to saponify the fat, turning it into soap. Then you remove as much lye as you can from the soap. You pour the soap in big molds to make blocks and let it harden. You cut it in smaller blocks as it "ripens" with age.
This information is available in many "independence" or "old ways" books, like the Foxfire series.
Because soap was strong stuff, getting soap in your eye was pretty painful, unlike modern detergents designed to be used around the face.