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.
Neither. I just don’t smell. Confirmed by partners over the years. As it turns out, it’s genetic. One perk of being Korean I suppose.
The non-functional ABCC11 allele is predominant among East Asians (80–95%), but very low among European and African populations (0–3%).[6] Most of the world’s population has the gene that codes for the wet-type earwax and average body odor; however, East Asians are more likely to inherit the allele associated with the dry-type earwax and a reduction in body odor.[6][32][34] The reduction in body odor may be due to adaptation to colder climates by their ancient Northeast Asian ancestors.[32] Wiki: Body Odor (Genes affecting body odor section)
Cool. My smelllessness has a name. I am european though, but the description fits. I guess I won the generic lottery
Regular deodorant works just as well as antiperspirant for stopping scent, and if you don’t sweat all that much, there is relatively little difference.
This is what I do. I don’t like the ingredients that make up antiperspirants so I stick with not stinking.
I generally don’t sweat too badly either, which helps.
Exactly. Luckily I don’t sweat much or smell much, so basic solid unparfumed deodorant works fine.
I sweat the same amount with deodorant and antiperspirant! Either way, under my arms are going to be a little wet, but also I don’t smell either way.
If I go a day without deodorant though, I can definitely tell
So here is what I’ve noticed.
The acceptance of sweat BO is partly a cultural thing. At my workplace we have people from all over the world, and there are certain parts of the world where it is clearly uncommon to wear deoderant. Both men and women, although I have noticed it far more with men. I guess if everyone had natural BO, it wouldn’t seem so unusual.
This is not to be confused with uncleanliness, I’m sure these people shower, the scent is purely one of sweat from hard physical labor. It is never better or worse, but always the same and in fact, you can identify people by their particular unique scent.
Sometimes I’m a bit disturbed by strong manly BO because they are too… arousing. Specially in places like at work where feeling arousal is the last thing I want.
It’s not just cultural in terms of nations it’s also dependent on the type of work. You’re going to be critical of a taxi driver stinking of BO when he sits in an air conditioned cab all day, but not somebody doing physical labour in the open air
The primary cultures that don’t use deodorant and smell like a wet ox, in order:
- Magic the Gathering tournament players.
- Board game café customers.
- Gamescom attendants.
Don’t forget smash players that no life the tournament scene
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.
Antiperspirant made me stink more. I switched to non antiperspirant deodorant years ago and it seems to be the right product for me. I do run cooler than most and didn’t sweat at all till I was 22.
And yes any sweat will eventually smell so daily showers are part of this routine.
I couldn’t really get antiperspirant to work though, really. Always my underarms would smell at the end of the day, and my shirts as well. That doesn’t happen anymore.
ETA: I think you have some bias at play here - you don’t really know if the stinky people you meet are wearing antiperspirant, or if the good smelling people you meet aren’t.
Some people don’t sweat that much. For example, I have to use antiperspirant to avoid body odor but my wife don’t need to use one and I can’t smell odor.
This is probably related to this genetic trait. I have wet earwax and body odor, while my wife has dry earwax and no body odor.
Quote from the article:
In general people with the non-functioning ABCC11 variant don’t need to wear deodorant.
Wet earwax??
Yep this actually varies among people. The “wet” type is soft kinda like warm candle wax, and more common in the West. AFAIK the “dry” type is more brittle and crumbly and more common in East Asia.
Apparently I got that too. Confirmed by my first gf, I barely smell while sweaty. And my earwax is dry/flaky.
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.
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.
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.
Anti-perspirant makes the rest of my body sweat a lot more as suddenly I can’t just use my pits to cool my body.
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”
Do you mean deodorant? I don’t use antiperspirant because it actually makes me sweat more in my experience. I’m not alone on this either.
As many others have said, the choice is not between antiperspirant and nothing. I use deodorant but no antiperspirant.
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!
Deodorant exists.
Deodorant only masks the B/O scent for long enough for the wearer’s nose to forget about it. The rest of us still smell it when you enter a room.
Again, that’s not what deodorant does.
Bad deodorant, sure. The good ones will try to eliminate the bacteria causing the BO so you don’t smell without having to mask it. There’s definitely loads out there that don’t get rid of the smell though.
But yeah, people should wear good deodorant and not antiperspirant in my opinion.
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.
