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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
I have never smelled anyone’s natural body odor that smells good. Do you think poop smells good too? That’s natural.
Depressed.
They’re a hippy for having emotions? Yikes. What does that tell you about your worldview?
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.
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.
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.
Actually, I saw two people saying they prefer BO. Bewildering admission if you ask me
Preferences?
Not stinking up a whole room goes beyond a preference into a biohazard warning.
