Amou Haji has the unenviable reputation as being the filthiest fella who has ever walked the earth

Going a week without a wash would be most people’s worst nightmare, but this bloke miraculously managed to avoid coming into contact with a bar of soap for a whopping 60 years.

It’s quite the mean feat, but boycotting bubble baths isn’t really something which most people want to be known for.

However, Amou Haji – dubbed ‘the world’s dirtiest man’ – didn’t really give a hoot that he had quite the unenviable reputation for being the filthiest fella who has ever walked this earth.

His skin was that caked in muck that an author who visited him in Iran claimed that he ‘blended into the barren landscape’ and ‘resembled a rock’ when he sat still.

It’s certainly an interesting achievement, but people aren’t exactly chomping at the bit to compete with that claim to fame.

Haji – whose name is actually an endearing moniker for an elderly person – managed to go more than six decades without cleaning himself after choosing to avoid freshening up over fears that being clean would make him sick.

He reckoned that soap and water might cause disease, so avoided them both like the plague, which meant his skin was covered in ‘soot and pus’ after years and years of grime had built up.

Amou Haji was dubbed the world’s dirtiest man after going more than 60 years without a wash. (AFP via Getty Images)

The 94-year-old lived between a hole in the ground and a brick shack which was built by locals in the Iranian village of Dejgah, while he also took an unorthodox approach to eating and drinking too.

His favourite food was said to be rotten porcupine, as well as the corpses of other dead animals he would come across, before he then washed his unappetising meals down with unsanitary water from puddles or rusty oil cans.

As well as that, Haji was reportedly partial to puffing on a pipe filled with animal faeces – but despite his unhealthy and downright bizarre habits, he somehow still lived a long life and made it to his mid 90s.

The world’s dirtiest man passed away on 23 October, 2022, just a short time after villagers had finally persuaded him to take a bath.

Haji had been badgered by residents for years to clean up his act, but he stuck to his guns and always refused.

He died aged 94 in October 2022 shortly after bathing. (AFP via Getty Images)

He explained that offers of water, food and attempts to bathe him from his peers made him feel ‘sad’, suggesting that Haji was perfectly happy with the wacky way he lived his life.

According to local media, he finally succumbed to the pressure and had a wash a few months before his death – but as he had feared, he became sick shortly afterwards and passed away.

Haji has certainly left a lasting legacy though, as well as sparking a lot of debates about the importance of good hygiene.

People got an insight into his unusual lifestyle thanks to a short documentary he was the subject of, titled The Strange Life of Amou Haji, which was released in 2013.

Haji claimed that he had ended up becoming a nomad due to ’emotional setbacks’ he suffered after a heartbreak when he was younger.