do you not smell body odor or do you just get used to it?
Genuinely curious. I have met a few people of different walks of life that I could tell did not and I have always used it, so I’m just curious. I know there was a couple that stopped using it for around a year, and they said their body actually end up not perspiring as much as when they used antiperspirant, but I’d like to know other people’s experiences.
I’m not a fan of antiperspirant. They’re supposed to stop you from sweating but for me they just make my sweating worse for when they eventually run their course. So i just use deodorant now.
I have sensitive skin under my armpits it seems so I have to be careful with what did I use under there and the only ones I seen to get away with are the natural ones that try to neutralise the smell by killing the bacteria that create that smell rather just masking the smell like most standard deodorant. It’s not 100% but it’s better for my skin and it’s better than putting nothing at all on.
I’ll never use antiperspirant again though, they just clog up pores and what they clog pores with is often a big pollutant to the rest of the world or at least damaging to the environment around you for little animals.
I definitely have BO, but I can’t smell my own, typically. however, I also just don’t find the smell of sweat/BO particularly offensive.
I’ve started using not an antiperspirant, but a substance that acts like a deodorant, because my partner is VERY sensitive to smells and mine apparently sets her off pretty badly.
Dude… Maybe re read what you wrote and reflect on it?
There’s a cliche of Internet folk with poor hygiene and it’s something that should be addressed but it can be awkward for people to bring it up.
I think you should read their comment again. Their partner took one for the team and now they are exploring products that will limit BO. We know nothing about their hygiene based on this comment. Some people start to smell the same day they come out the shower.
I’m not against criticism, certainly the number of downvotes suggests I phrased it poorly or should have kept my views to myself.
I tried to present my views in a neutral manner without accusation. I used the term reflect because as you state I have no idea of the user’s situation so it’s for them to reflect.
I used a separate paragraph for the reference to hygiene in order to make a distinction between what I did and did not know. What I had hoped to raise was the distinction between hygiene and just applying masking products. But I didn’t know how to communicate that without being more specific.
I apologise if I caused offense. None was intended. I’m some random person online, my views are my own, if I have caused offense I hope that can be easily dismissed as just another provocative voice online.
I get where you are coming from and I agree that a lot of people suffer from BO that can be easily remedied by better hygiene. Some have never learned the proper way to shower and some are depressed. Then there are those with medical issues. I think part of what makes the topic of hygiene so awkward to broach is that unless you know they are not showering, calling them out can be less than helpful.
That said, don’t fret about the downvotes. They really don’t mean much. And my comment was not meant to be harsh. I use italics for emphasis, but not to be rude. I hope this exchange does not discourage you to make comments!
I don’t use anything but water under my arms. I found that after a while my armpits stopped smelling as bad. Maybe I’m just lucky. It’s all about bacteria. The sweat itself has no odor but the bacteria unde your arms feast on the sweat and starts producing smelly “farts”. I found that over time I build up bacteria that doesn’t smell and bacteria that actively remove any smel, so if I smell from stress sweat it’ll dampen down quite a bit over the following hour or so. Treat your armpits like a sour dough in your fridge. It’s a set of healthy bacteria you don’t want to accidentally kill. Interesting enough if I use soap to wash every day my armpits starts smelling stronger again so for daily wash I basically just use a lot of water and rince each armpit for a solid 30 sec to a minute each rubbing with my hand. Soap kills the good bacteria too and makes it worse. If you use any only use a tiny little bit. I also found that shaving my armpits makes me smell so much more and it’s uncomfortable too because I can feel the sweat drip down because it has nothing to cling too and cool you down which is exactly what it’s ment to do, so I basically just let my hairs be and it helps me sweat less and smell less. I’m lucky I don’t have that much hair but I’d assume it could be trimmed rather than shaved for many. There’s a reason we have hairs under our arms and they do serve an Important function. For me gone are the days of yellowed t-shirts from deodorant and Gone are the days of allergy inducing perfume.
I learned something about people when I was married to this certain guy for a while. his armpits never smelled. But his feet did.
I’ve always been the opposite. My feet never produce odor. But my armpits do.
conclusion. Not everybody needs deodorant on their armpits.
I simply do not have bo. I’ve never worn deodorant because se I’ve never needed to. I’ve had the non existence of my non bo confirmed by men, women , and non gender confirming individuals.
My nose/sinus/throat is all very sensitive to perfumes and aerosols these days, and even if it’s not strong enough to close my throat up and choke me, it still tends to make me feel sick. I’ve not used any spray and rarely any smelly stuff for over a decade.
Most soaps and some shower gels are fine though, so there’s no problem with starting a day “clean”.
On the morning train, you can normally smell people who use deodorant instead of washing. It’s quite hard to describe - air freshener in a festival toilet? Artificial sweeteners on a stilton cheese? Anyway, if their perfume isn’t strong enough to physically harm me, I don’t care.
I used spray deodorants as a teenager, and unscented roll-ons for many years after - but after stopping using it, I found, like the couple you mentioned, that I didn’t sweat as much, and the sweat that was there didn’t smell as bad. Oddly enough, anecdotal evidence suggests my natural smell increased my attractiveness quite significantly. Of course, all of these may have just been coincidental factor of age/hormones/circumstances etc though.
I was a bit paranoid for some years, and always asked/checked with trusted people “do I smell?”. I found I can smell myself when I do.
My work is sometimes quite physically demanding, so during the ~two months a year when it’s potentially warm (Northern UK), you can get a bit sweaty - but so is everyone else. If you really feel the need, a quick armpit wash in a sink at lunchtime, or a “festival shower” with a wet-wipe would sort that out.
Anyway, so the rough answer is “There is less body odour. You get used to what’s there. Most of it smells quite pleasant, sometimes even to the extent of it being animalistically magnetically attractive”
I’m allergic to aluminum-based antiperspirants, and I didn’t know there was another kind for a long time, so I’ve always just used deodorant. It has never been a problem for me.
Course not, it’s a problem for everyone around you though.
I’m not sure you understand what a deodorant does. It doesn’t stop you from sweating, but it makes you not smell.
I’ve never had any complaints, but go off.
I usually wear deodorant (which generally has an antiperspirant in it), but there are days when I don’t/haven’t; in this limited experience I’ve noticed I would generally smell worse if I haven’t been active. It seems like being up and moving around and sweating from ‘labor’ rather than sitting and sweating (not sure how to word that) is less likely to significantly smell. With all that said, I do try to shower after the gym or when I return inside after working on significant outdoor projects.
P.S., another data point to consider is the individual’s age, as hormone levels (generally tied to age) could also influence perspiration
Are you by chance stressed out when you’re sitting and sweating? I think stress sweat smells worse.
I’m honestly surprised by the amount of gross people here. It doesn’t matter if you asked some people about your smell. You don’t use deodorant and go about your day, you smell. It is as simple as that. Sure, right after a shower of when lying on the couch the whole day you might be fine. But as soon as you start moving, you smell.
Let the down-votes come :)
Genetics aside, the amount of cope and pseudoscience in these comments is really a spectacle. I don’t care enough to debate the point… Do they not know about olfactory fatigue? It’s not that you smell less folks, it’s that you get used to it.
Yeah I went without deodorant for a few weeks while I healed from a rash caused by another deodorant (usually aluminum fucks with me, but this one didn’t have aluminum, don’t know why I reacted so badly to it). I could smell my own stink when I raised my arms.
But yeah, people who just go “natural” don’t realize how much body odor they carry. I’ve met many people over the years who just stink to high hell, but don’t realize or don’t care how much they smell.
To be honest, I think this can also depend a lot on the climate that you’re from. In cold and dry climates you don’t necessarily get as smelly. When I moved to a hot and humid place it was like “okay, showers are a multiple times a day thing here, I guess.” Even when staying inside and loafing about in air conditioning it was noticeably worse. There’s a number of factors that change from person to person too… some people are greasier, some people are stinkier. You should probably shower and deodorant up whenever you’re going to leave the house and be near other people as a rule of thumb, but I think a fair number of people don’t shower every day and can get by okay.
Definitely. Me personally, I sweat in humid and hot climates in a certain way but even when it’s dry and cold I get this weird sweat where my body is cold but my armpits are sweating like crazy. It also doesn’t help that you wear warmer clothing you constantly have to shed when going inside…
I’m used to a drier climate. When I’ve visited some places that are more humid, I’ve been surprised how much more I can smell everything. Every person. Every place. Around corners. What’s on the ground. Everything.
I do wear a scented antiperspirant because I like how it smells, it doesn’t react badly with me and I don’t wear a lot of other scents. But yeah, some places require more than that even.
In cold and dry climates you don’t necessarily get as smelly
This 100%, for me at least
hell, I shower once a week, when I’m not doing manual labor like, say, construction or weightlifting. (which I then shower immediately after.)>
I don’t smell at all by day 6, but my hair gets mildly greasy, so I wash it.
live at 6273ft above sea level, in a “high desert plains”, acccordig to google.
YMMV, obviously.
worth noting that I’ve also been noseblind since birth, and the only feedback I have in my scnents (or lack thereof) has been my family’s noses, and my partner’s nose.
Fun fact, there’s around 2% of people that don’t produce smell when they sweat. The smell comes from bacteria that eat a certain chemical in sweat, and the folks don’t produce it, i.e. no bacteria or smell.
Oh, they can still smell.
Deodorant user here. I smell great because of it. I didn’t like antiperspirant because I also found I smelt worse because of it and it never really stopped the sweat very well anyways.
Something you may not factor in though is people expire at different rates. Also, some people smell worse than others regardless of expiration time and some perspire more.
Unless it is a very hot day you don’t really notice it. I sometimes put it on when I feel like I might sweat throughout the day but it isn’t really necessary and no one really cares.
deleted by creator
bro just say baking soda
i know a couple of people with health issues that make it so they can’t, so they use powder instead. Gold Bond or baby powder, usually. i think it also depends on how much you sweat.
ITT: Stinky liars.
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.
I knew a guy in university who absolutely reeked. He was a really nice person and I befriended him in a casual way (like sit together in a lecture, chat in the hall). It was clearly a medical thing but people ostracized him and talked behind his back about how he must never shower. I felt really bad for him.
It’s a legitimate disability, and certainly I don’t envy anyone with this issue. We’ve all been taught that people who have maybe acne or body odor or sweating issues or dandruff or whatever else are just people with “poor hygiene”, but the reality is that products and buildings are made to meet the needs of the most ‘average’ person (usually defined by a company selling something), and there is so much variation in how bodies function. When you’re trying to make a product that maximises usage and sales, it’s ironically easy to exclude a lot of people.
Thanks for being kind to that person, I’m glad you were able to see (and smell) past it.
For anyone else who does experience limitations because of their body odor, check out the Job Accessibility Network’s list of possible accomodations for this symptom of your disability. Because medical issues that cause you to be ostracised and limit your ability to function in society are a disability and you deserve an equal opportunity to thrive.
Preach. For a long time I was given shit for dandruff. No matter how clean my hair was, I’d always have dandruff. Wasn’t until I decided to let my hair grow out to donate it, and thus learnt about how to take care of it properly, that it was the shampoo and conditioner I was using that caused it in the first place.
Now it’s clean and healthy, with no dandruff. Bodies are hella weird.
That’s a fair point. I guess only one or two I knew said they didn’t use it because of the aluminum, but I didn’t get to ask more about it.
I know people who don’t use antiperspirant because they tell people about it, and how aluminum causes breast cancer and Alzheimer’s. Neither claim is substantiated. Aluminum consumed in food from being cooked in/on aluminum can contribute to Alzheimer’s. The one claiming aluminum causes breast cancer said “Just think about it. It makes sense.”
I personally don’t wear antiperspirant but only when I’m planning on not leaving the house, because sweating feels good sometimes. Not in summer, and I’ll usually wear shirts that absorb snuggles help evaporate my sweat. It gets the salt out and feels better after a workout when I can sweat more.