Like, I travel around for work and I’ve met plenty of people from all backgrounds.
Why is there a demographic of people who don’t seemingly bathe regularly, or at the very least wear something to cover up their BO? I could understand if it’s an allergy, or even religious reasons (though the people I’ve met that smell bad are usually you’re average American young adult man) but recently (like in the past week, recently) I’ve met a concerning number of people who don’t seem to wear any kind of deodorant or possibly don’t even bathe regularly; it’s starting to become an issue for me, as I don’t even want to interact with them when I can smell them walking up from 3+ feet away yet I need to for work.
Does anyone have any possible insight?
I look forward to reading what an online community that specializes in Linux and Star Trek memes has to say about personal hygiene…
I’m sorry, personal what? Is there a GitHub link where I can compile that?
Is this a joke I’m too C# to understand?
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This had me rolling on the floor… 😅
When you’re so busy remembering to FOSS that you forget to floss 😢
People should shower regularly, but I find the aromas wafting from people who use many fragrance products far more offensive and offputting than someone smelling like a human. Some people’s shampoo, laundry detergent and deodorant (not to mention body spray, cologne or perfume) are so strong that I can smell them from 5 feet away, and the odor lingers for several minutes after they leave an area. I don’t really care what it smells like as much as that I seem to be allergic to these fragrances, and sneeze, get red eyes, my nose starts running my lips swell a bit. This is why some places have instituted a fragrance-free policy - as many as 25% of people have an allergy to various components of these perfumes. Unfortunately it’s a very touchy thing to explain to people as the average person thinks they’re doing something virtuous by wearing a bunch of fragrances and it makes them more appealing to be around.
People become nose blind to their perfumes and deoderants so they put on more and more over time to smell the same (from their perspective). My mom has the same issue but claims it’s all in my head.
My mom and dad’s hair products are about the worst thing imaginable. After they take showers I can hardly go in the same room as them for 3-4 hours and the scent even lingers for 5-10 minutes after they walk out. She said ‘huh? it has a scent?’
Every single day, when I am out walking my dog, a jogger comes by smelling of like a shit-ton of soap/perfume/deodorant/body spray - I nearly gag. These guys (and sometimes girls) are so terrified they might smell sweaty when doing something, you know, sweaty, like jogging a couple of miles…it boggles my mind.
Who taught people we have to smell like artificial bouquets of flowers all the time, even when exercising, ffs?
Yeah, and when your body wants to sweat, you MUST stop it. I’ve wondered with all the different scented products people wear at the same time, why they want to smell like the average of 12 different synthetic flowers.
Who taught people we have to smell like artificial bouquets of flowers all the time, even when exercising, ffs?
Detergent and perfume companies
And this is why I don’t do deodorants and perfumes.
And I don’t explain as well, I just steer away from that person.
You can find unscented antiperspirant, FWIW
That’s what I do and if I need to smell nice for a fancy gathering I’ll put on a small amount of something nice smelling (beard balm, cologne, or something else)
Yes, but they’re a lot more expensive than the mainstream ones.
Holy mother of URLs, Batman!
Here’s a cleaned up version without all those nasty trackers attached: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Arm-Hammer-ULTRA-MAX-Solid-Antiperspirant-Deodorant-Unscented-2-6-oz/10810917
Yeah, I clicked it though, cuz… it’s from Wallmart, what are they gonna track here, I don’t live in the US, lol 😂.
Dude, I don’t live in the US 😒.
I had a really weird thing years back, never since then.
Middle-aged white women wearing something, no idea what, would gag me out. I don’t mean it was merely offensive, I mean I’d hold my breath near them. Made me low key nauseous.
Had that problem for a couple of years, haven’t smelled that for maybe 10 years. Anyone have a clue what I mean or what it might have been?
LOL, and you would hate my wife. She’s Asian, so I’m not sure she’s capable of body odor, but she’s so paranoid about it she bathes twice a day and hoses herself in perfume, hair too. I love it up close, but I don’t think you would pick it up from 5’.
I’ve become familiar with several different classes of horrible fragrances that people use. There’s the one that smells like salty roses, one that smells like ‘old ladies’ (this gross light flower-lavender scent?), one that’s like a bunch of synthetic grapes and other fruit, the ‘cotton candy’ kind of dryer sheet scent, some that smell like flowers mixed with burning plastic… not sure which one you might have encountered. I find if I take antihistamines it’s more ‘huh, I smell that’ vs. a toxic emergency, but I prefer to just avoid it. I do hold my breath in some circumstances, like if I have to walk down the laundry detergent aisle in the grocery store.
I actually can smell many people’s scents from 5 feet away and still smell their fragrances after they exit an area. I’m probably more sensitive because I don’t wear clothes coated in this stuff and sleep in sheets soaked in it.
That’s disgusting. You’re seriously telling me you prefer week old BO over the average deodorant? That’s exactly why it’s called de-“odor”-ant. OP wasn’t talking about covering yourself in axe body spray or copious amounts of perfume, he asked why people don’t shower and use deodorant.
Yes, because it doesn’t give me an allergic reaction. Clearly you’ve never experienced that but maybe you could imagine the difference.
You know not everyone smells as bad as you do without Deodorant, right?
Like you have a really strong opinion for something that genetically is different person to person both in what comes out and what is perceived.
Different from person to person, yet all the people I could smell all smelled very similar, like sweat and feet mixed with ass and bad breath. Every. Single. One.
There’s a bit of a selection bias though.
Obviously you don’t smell the people who don’t smell, but not all of them wear deodorant.
I have never smelled anyone’s natural body odor that smells good. Do you think poop smells good too? That’s natural.
Sounds like a you problem. Moreso that everything smells like poop to you if it’s not artificially created.
I want to try to be a bit nicer but wow you went from body odor to poop to argue natural smells. Isn’t the typically poetic phrase of smells to “smell like flowers” you know…a natural occurrence in nature?
My point is that natural isn’t always good. I know, a hard concept to understand. Human BO doesn’t smell like flowers
Also means it’s not always bad. You can’t dictate what people should do and decidedly say it will always be gross off of a “sometimes” like you’ve been doing in this thread.
You’re honestly arguing a lot of “maybe” for what other people say while being very black/white yourself. Might want to check that.
Depressed.
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Hippy
They’re a hippy for having emotions? Yikes. What does that tell you about your worldview?
I am friends with a lot of hippy-archetypical folks… and many of them don’t do the bathing/deodorant thing with the frequency that’s commonly expected by the majority. Just saying they choose to be au natural… and maybe that’s ok.
I’m actually a little surprised that my hot take got so much hate… I inferred was there are multiple reasons that people don’t bath. I posed this as an or… as an alternative. I didn’t suggest depression isn’t a reason.
Oh ok, I misunderstood then. I thought you were playing a little game of word association, not suggesting an alternative. My bad!
I was this kid all throughout my school years.
Parents never taught me any kind of personal hygiene, and my house was filled with a thick smog of smoke, so my sense of smell is still shot to this day. To give an idea how bad it was, I was asking for dentures when I was 14 because my teeth were literally falling out. The water in our house was spotty at best, on top of the hygiene thing, so baths were maybe once every 2 weeks or so. My parents always had a fridge stocked with Coca Cola, but almost never drinkable water.
Besides pointing at my parents, I don’t really have an explanation for you, but I’ve definitely “been there.”
It took a lot of effort, but I’ve come a looooong way since then. Like… unrecognizably so, thankfully - other than the dentures, at least.
If anyone is reading this, and in a situation where their home life or depression or whathaveyou is putting you in this kind of situation: Just know that things can and will get better. I know how difficult and embarrassing it can be when you’re deep in it, but all you gotta do is be a little bit better than yesterday (when you’re able). It takes time, but it’s totally worth it.
Wow thank you for sharing. I grew up poor and grubby too, but my folks were health food nuts, so I think I got spared the worst of it compared to some people I’ve seen.
I’m so glad things have got better for you.
I don’t think you’re going to find anyone that admits to smelling bad. I assume people who smell bad do it because they don’t know that they smell, so they don’t try to change anything.
Yep, that’s likely the problem with most people. It’s nothing you usually talk about and people won’t change problems they aren’t aware off. We should probably normalize talking about it without anyone being offended.
Actually, I saw two people saying they prefer BO. Bewildering admission if you ask me
Yeah that weirded me out too. Comes across as someone making excuses for not wanting to practice basic hygiene though.
I prefer it to perfume.
And I saw someone being an asshole regarding their preferences.
Preferences?
Not stinking up a whole room goes beyond a preference into a biohazard warning.
Make that two, I suppose.
What is it with this extremism? People don’t instantly turn into heaps of rotting garbage the moment they neglect to put some chemicals on their underarms.
extremism ._.
Yes. Is “biohazard warning” not hyperbolic in the extreme?
So, expecting basic hygiene from people is extremism now?
No, calling a smell that you find unpleasant a “biohazard” is extreme.
If, hypothetically, I found body piercings to be distasteful, wouldn’t it be kind of an overreaction for me to demand that paramedics come fix the “stab wounds” on people with piercings that I encounter?
I mean actual shit smell is a biohazard, though. Like if someone didn’t wipe well enough, that’s a biohazard (very minor, but still).
My girlfriend finds showering and bathing extremely painful due to several very severe skin conditions. She’s also allergic to almost every deodorant that doesn’t cost a ridiculous amount. She doesn’t sweat a whole lot so it’s usually not an issue, and can get away with only one shower a week usually. Her conditions are pretty rare so I’m not saying everyone who doesn’t shower regularly has what she has, but there might be factors at play for some that give them legitimate reason not to shower. Or it could just be laziness
Copying and pasting my answer from the same question just 2 weeks ago:
How do you know they all weren’t wearing it?
There are a lot of people who do wear it but continue to smell because of underlying medical conditions. For example, fruity smelling body odor can indicate diabetes. People with a rare genetic condition called Trimethylaminuria can smell strongly of fish. It all depends on what bacteria (which outnumber your own body cells by 10 to 1 even though they are only 2% of your body mass) and what balance of enzymes you may or may not have.
Reducing perspiration can and often does help, concealing the odor with different ones can help, but sometimes people’s bodies just aren’t right for whatever mass produced product they have bought. Sometimes that can be fixed with medication. Sometimes it can’t.
https://kbin.social/m/asklemmy@lemmy.ml/t/638513/-/comment/3647566
Another sucky condition is chronic hyperhidrosis, which causes excessive, sometimes permanent (my case), sweating. I bathe every day, sometimes multiple times a day, and reapply deodorant every 5 hours or so, but even then, if you catch me at an inopportune time, I may well be sweaty.
Ugh that H word right there. I had hyperhidrosis most of my life up until my late 20’s. I started using this painful stuff called Drysol which I think just worked by murdering my sweat glands
You may want to have your physician follow on that. AFAIK, studies show that chemical solutions which destroy the ability to sweat also increase severely the risk of cardiovascular illnesses.
I highly recommend isotretinoin (accutane) for hyperhidrosis. Its primarily prescribed for zits, but off label for hyperhidrosis. Its not fun when you’re on it but the changes are seemingly permanent. A full year after completing his treatment and my husband is still much less sweaty and his skin is much clearer to boot.
Talk to your dermatologist!
be careful with Accutane I went from a normal happy kid to attempted self harm in 3 months. then they took me off it and all the bad thoughts just stopped.
I appreciate the tip, but looking at the list of adverse effects, I’d rather stay as I am.
Oh noes not my heckin medical conditionroos
Believe it or not, most of us don’t actually need to shower every day. If you’re not doing a lot of physical work or don’t work in a place with a lot of grime, you can honestly get away with showering less often. Technically the same goes for deodorant but I wouldn’t go a day without it lol.
I personally shower once every day, but I don’t shampoo my hair nor use body wash all over my body every day. I’ll usually use conditioner only for my hair and I will regularly wash my pits, feet, privates, butt, and ears with body wash, but I only really use shampoo and use body wash everywhere like twice a week or so. I also apply deodorant every day. No comments about bad smells from everybody including a people who will straight-up comment on stuff like that, and I’ve actually got a lot of compliments about my hair :)
I do sort of agree, but also there’s a lot of people who don’t think they need to shower but really do. I know people who will argue that they only need to shower 2 or 3 times a week but they stink.
Maybe they say 2-3 times a week when the reality is that they’re hedging based on reaction and they actually shower closer to once a week.
That said, I realized recently that I could smell someone else’s unwashed hair. I have no idea how recently they washed it, but now I’m semi-paranoid about how fast that happens. I shower (including hair washes) at minimum every other day, with an occasional weekend spent at home when I’m extra lazy and don’t shower all weekend. I sure hope my hair doesn’t smell like that on day 2.
I think it really varies per person, I know people who genuinely shower twice a week and are fine, but I have one person in my mind now who showers daily and I can tell when I see him in the evening if his shower was in the morning.
And yeah, I can absolutely smell hair grease, it’s quite a lot once you identify the smell.
Try an all natural solid bar shampoo. I went from my hair feeling lank and greasy in day two after a wash to only having to wash it twice a week.
I feel like the chemicals in just mainstream shampoo reak havoc on hair and lock you in to a daily use cycle.
You just described my usual routine. If I didn’t shower that day, I’ll put on some fresh deodorant and all.
I’m not surprised. I forget when I looked up the research, but several hair typed definitely don’t need shampoo as much as people think they do. That we have another product (conditioner) yo undo the damage shampoo does to out hair is astounding.
As for the overall bathing thing, I agree. It depends on what you do day to day, your environment, and genetics. With all three of those factors, some people need to bath more often than others need to.
Most of my washing routine is actually for chronic pain. I don’t need to scrub for smell too much, but hot water feels good on pained areas.
Sometimes I’ll go a few days when I’m working from home and not going anywhere out of pure laziness. But if I’m going to be interacting with other people, shower guaranteed beforehand.
Same same. Dental hygiene and face care routine is a must twice a day, but other than that I can go a couple of days without a shower. I’ll be the first to admit I can get a little stanky, but there are no other people around to witness it. I think the issue with these unwashed people OP mentioned is their willingness to enter the public domain at peak stank, and their inability to notice it themselves.
Same. It just doesn’t compute to harm your skin when you don’t plan to meet anybody. And I don’t smell my own body odor anyway. Your skins microbiome and the environment say thanks. OTOH if you’re sweating much you should consider a shower because the initial healthy effects of sweat on your skin wear off, when it’s clogging your pores with toxins and bad bacteria it washed of beforehand.
It’s when I start smelling myself that I know I am extra stanky.
A lot of people simply don’t know proper hygiene because they were never taught it.
A shower doesn’t mean let the water run over you for a few minutes and then spray on some deodorant. Lather some soap in to a flannel and scrub every part of your body, and if you sweat badly use antiperspirant.
But it’s recent thing you’ve noticed. People might be cutting back on things due to budget. Not many people would admit that they’re not showering because of financial worries.
I was that person as a kid. I‘m autistic and my proprioception (feeling of body stuff) is all over the place. I didn’t know back then but I do now.
My parents didnt tell me and I had to learn by being bullied for it at school.
Since its not always easy, I have a different take on cleaning:
- if you can, shower at least every two days
- if you sweat a lot or work manually, shower daily
- no need to scrub your whole body, just clean your arm pits, genitalia and butthole, more if a spot is dirty
- wash your hair according to your skin. Hair should not be greasy but if that can be achieved by washing 2 times a week thats fine
If you‘re in a bad mood/are broke and cant shower use a piece of cloth and spot clean mentioned areas.
Use deodorant daily, if you sweat profusely like I do, use stronger/prescription deodorant.
I hope that helps.
I was brought up before showers were something that most people had installed, and we just washed at the sink with a flannel cloth. We washed face, pits, bum, and feet twice a day, and only had a bath once or twice a week. I still just do a wash of the important bits at the sink with a cloth if I’m feeling very apathetic.
Exactly.
Fair shout and well written post.
I work manual labour, so it’s a full wash for me every day!
Thanks. Appreciate the feedback.
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Lather some soap in to a flannel and scrub every part of your body
That’s not recommended by dermatologists. Soap destroys the acid layer on your skin that keeps bacteria out. As a regular thing, you should therefore only lather on soap where the bacteria buildup is high enough, i.e. under your arms, in your butt crack and other skin folds.
Unless you got super sweaty, you shouldn’t soap up your arms and legs every day.
I can’t stand the feel of human-produced skin oils building up anywhere on my body. I need to feel squeaky clean to feel clean. But that might be just my own personal mental problems. I never even use lotion. I just can’t stand grease and oily substances. Seeing or feeling my own fingerprints on my devices sends me into a rage of wiping everything down with alcohol.
For what it’s worth, scrubbing to get that “squeaky clean” feeling removes the protective layer of sebum between your skin cells. It dries out your skin, and hence, causes your body to go into overdrive producing more oils. As a result, you end up really greasy by the end of the day. After learning this, I backed off the temperature of my daily shower, switched to a pure Castile soap, less of it, and stopped scrubbing vigorously. Now I don’t leave oily smudges on my phone screen, except after sweating a lot. Also, no more itchy, dry skin and cracking knuckles in the winter.
Phones and keyboard are filthy, but it’s more about people usually not cleaning them enough and not about people not being clean enough.
The amount of bacteria on thoroughly and often soap-washed skin very quickly rises high because of the missing acid and/or oil layer.
The “only use soap on armpits+groin+feet most of the time” recommendation is not made up.
Fair point. When I said soap, I really meant a body wash, of which pH balanced versions are available.
You also have an oil layer that keeps certain kinds of bacteria out, so don’t destroy that one. As said: most days, just lather pits, groin, and feet, simply rinse the rest with water.
Everywhere around the world soap + shampoo should be free. And deodorant should be as cheap as possible. It should be a basic human right.
Didn’t someone just ask this like, a week ago?
We’re obviously not getting the hint!
Next week’s post:
Why do guys named Steve not shower regularly or wear deodorant?
Wearing deodorant has nothing to do with bathing regularly.
You can bath regularly and not need deodorant, every body is different. Also depends on the activities done between each bath/shower.
Now some people do not bath regularly and use deodorant or perfume, that never ends up well in terms of odor.
The older I get, the more I sympathize with Agent Smith from the Matrix. What is it with people and their stink?
If only the codes to Zion’s mainframes were the solution.
sorry, i shower twice a day and wear deodorant but i just sweat so damn much that i end up smelling within a few hours no matter what :(
My advice is to use a body wash or soap with salycitic acid. It’s in products for preventing or treating acne - the salycitic kills the bacteria that causes body odor. You can also apply a toner with salycitic acid directly to your armpits (Stridex pads work well for this - they even make ones that are larger for use.in the body). I do this and have zero B.O. Some people use other antibacterial soaps like Hibiclens or Paroxyl.
Also make sure that you are wearing clean clothes (wearing the same tshirt a couple of days in a row is taking a chance).
ETA: This won’t help reduce sweating but it will help with the bacteria that feeds on the sweat.
How about anti perspirant? Or is that what you meant? I’m a major fan of Arm & Hammer everything. Works, not perfumy, inexpensive, all that.
Your body is supposed to sweat. I shower twice a day rather than block my pores.
You might want to try a medication for hyperhidrosis.
A deodorant does not replace washing your body. The combination of both smells is the most terrifying. I hate the smell of all deodorants, so don’t use them. But I shower sufficiently, you won’t smell me from a distance. Promised.
How much distance are we talking about?
