this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
176 points (88.9% liked)

Asklemmy

44184 readers
1183 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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?

(page 3) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] thawed_caveman@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I never talk to anyone so i have no incentive to other than my own comfort. I do feel more comfortable when i'm clean, but my mere comfort often doesn't feel like reason enough when executive dysfunction makes a shower is a 1-hour affair, plus i have a weird anxiety around thriftiness so i don't like to "waste" the warm water and soap.

Same reason why the house isn't as clean as it could be. It would be cleaner if anyone came in here ever, but no one does, so the only reason to vaccuum is my own satisfaction, which isn't worth the time and effort.

All told i end up showering every ~5 days in winter and once a day in summer, and i never touch the perfume bottles. I actually don't really get the point of perfume or deodorant tbh, seems like the solution to BO is a shower.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Whisper06@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

I was once a stinky man and while I don’t want to use this as an excuse, I had a not so great childhood and struggle with mental illnesses. I’m still not always the best at taking care of myself but I’m better than I was and I make sure I’m mostly clean.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

How do people not smell bad?

My clothes are drenched within a few hours, if I’m sitting somewhere then there is a puddle under my feet in less than 30 minutes

Even in the shower I’m dripping/have BO while using soap

[–] Birdie@thelemmy.club 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Are you on any meds? I was once taking a medication (an NSAID) that caused excessive sweating, and it took me longer than I'd like to admit that my new med and my sweaty head were related.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] SecretPancake@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So I shower relatively regular and definitely before I go out meeting people. But deodorant I keep forgetting since I started working from home when Covid began. I don’t go out often and for going to the grocery store I don’t care, so it’s not ingrained into me anymore. But I don’t think it’s so important since I just showered anyways.

[–] Chobbes@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, leaving the house was always my cue to shower and now that that’s not as regular of a thing I’m all out of whack!

[–] OmgItBurns 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know I will let myself go when I'm in the midst of being deeply depressed, but then again I usually don't get much past my bed then. So that could be some of it.

I used to have a buddy that stank to high heaven, good dude overall, but damn did he smell. Turned out that he never washed his clothes. Once he got in the habit of doing that the problem resolved itself quickly.

The only other thing I can think of would be some Andrew Tate types going on about some made up benefits of 'natural male musk ' or something like that. Not sure if anyone is doing that, but I could see some men taking to that advice.

[–] Devi@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

I had a workmate who was quite eco consious and used to rinse his clothes in cold water and then put them on the line. He was fine mostly, I never noticed a smell, but we had to have a chat when his 14 year old son got a meeting at school about how badly he smelled.

Some people just don't know the norm.

[–] Melody@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Personally; I manage my BO. If I can lift my shirt up, pull my head inside the shirt, and smell my own armpit odor, then I'm in need of some DO.

I've been using a Dove branded Spray-On (AP/)DO for Women and it's effective. By combining the acts of applying DO, then, changing clothes; I don't particularly sweat over much.

I Do Shower on an As-Needed Basis. That's saying that I do shower, without committing to any specific showering pattern or timing basis. If you try to imply I don't shower regularly you will look foolish.

If I stink, then it's either uncommonly hot and humid or I have not yet had the opportunity needed to shower. The hows and whys of this are not important; but generally if I choose not to shower, it's probably for a good reason.

I do suffer from some allergies and disabilities. I won't comment on what they are specifically, but they do exist, so I keep my fragrances light and unobtrusive; and I try to shower only when I can manage to handle doing so. I'm not going to uproot or upset my health, focus, peace or routine just to take a shower to please someone arbitrary; but I do allow the people whom I live with and love to remind me gently should I forget about addressing my BO in the chaos of life.

This isn't saying that I don't care. It's saying I'm imperfect, I have a life, and I do get overloaded sometimes.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›