I'm sorry, personal what? Is there a GitHub link where I can compile that?

When you're so busy remembering to FOSS that you forget to floss 😢

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'.

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.

This is the way.

Or Hippies

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.

and can get away with only one shower a week usually.

I gotta ask, what is your weather like where you are, because no one could get away with one shower per week where I live (about 26 to 32 Celsius on average), let alone if doing some physical activity, whether for pleasure or work.

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

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.

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.

Everywhere around the world soap + shampoo should be free. And deodorant should be as cheap as possible. It should be a basic human right.

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.

Well written on both parts, and it's often a combination of both. When you have mental health issues, it can also be harder to get stuff to make a shower or anything else nicer. Be it issues doing laundry, so you don't have completely clean towels and/or fresh clothes to put on afterwards, or having shampoo, conditioner, etc.
I often get stuck because I haven't showered, haven't been able to force myself to do laundry, and/or forgot to buy products. Then you really don't want to leave your home because you get anxiety over others seeing or smelling you, so you're just stuck with that anxiety for days until you manage to do anything about it.

When you live in the countryside, you have to spend several hours getting the bath house ready. During the summer you can go for a swim and it's just as convenient as showering.

In winter however... Washing yourself takes effort.

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.

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.

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.

I’d take a bet you were a fast shower person. In and out in 5 min. I know I was just like that as a teen in a house of 7 people. Body odor problem was notable enough that I carried deodorant on me. I, like you, learned this simple trick later in life but shared it with my kids to help them through teenage years.

you're supposed to let it sit on the skin for a while before scrubbing and rinsing

Part of this is due to the heat opening your pores on your body and the soap doing its job by cleaning out the bacteria and oils that cause the smells. Scrubbing also plays a big role too, lather and rinse using a scrubber!

Doing this has allowed for me to skip shower days and I just need to scrub my head/face to remove oils before bed. I still wear deodorant, but it’s lightly scented because otherwise I have a naturally strong orange(fruit) smell that can get overpowering (to me).

I know we’ve got some cold shower bros out there and don’t worry, this still works in cold showers, just over longer stretches of time. I know this because Mother Nature doesn’t often preheat her rivers while I’m camping, but I still stay fresher than my peers.

First off, not everyone who doesn't wear deodorant smells, and secondly, some people shower regularly and use deodorant and still smell.

Yea... This is something people love to say, but it's not true for 99% of the stank out there. Is there people like that? Maybe, probably, but it's much more likely they just have poor hygiene.

It's the same with people that have bad breath... Somone will comment, well actually there are people with this genetic disease passed down by Attila, that even if you brush 8x a day you still have bad breath!!

Yea... Ok buddy.

How much distance are we talking about?

Same. Haven't found one I like the smell of yet. I'd rather shower more often than use them.

You missed one: depression

That last one... How did you put up with that?

If your vagina smells bad, you should go to your doctor in case you have an infection. Vaginas should smell neutral to mild. That said, You're really not supposed to use any kind of soap in or directly around a vagina, so it's a bit concerning that you mention lack of soap and smelly vaginas in the same point. Vaginas are self cleaning and using soaps (especially with any kind of fragrance!) Can lead to serious issues. Clean with water and a newly washed wash cloth (only if you use non scented, mild detergent) or water and a clean hand. You should not clean anything past the exterior.

Let your body clean itself out with your natural lubricant, and then clean the outside with water daily.

If only the codes to Zion's mainframes were the solution.

We’re obviously not getting the hint!

Next week's post:

Why do guys named Steve not shower regularly or wear deodorant?

450 pounds

So svelte! You must be the envy of all the other moderators!

My advice is to use a body wash or soap with salycitic acid. It's in products for preventing or treating acne - the salycitic acid 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 on 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.

You might want to try a medication for hyperhidrosis.

It's especially weird to me that they're so much harder on the ones who skip deodorant than the ones who skip showers. Aren't showers what actually takes the smelly shit away instead of masking it? I wouldn't be surprised if I found out these threads are created and/or maintained by deodorant marketing.

It seems my test was successfull. Probably the same 4 people everytime.

Alum stone

I can almost smell you from here

You need a different deodorant. I'm a pretty heavy sweater and changing to Certain DRI "prescription strength" was a game changer for me.

I had this issue and I started using acne body wash instead of the aveeno I normally use. I use the dove men’s care spray on deodorant and have no issues. Trimming / shaving underarm hair helps as well.

Time for another shower then. In summer I'll take at least 2 showers a day if not 3

If you have ever worked on the floor of a casino, you would be appalled at the amount of disgusting pigs who gamble.

One of the common definitions of “regularly” is “frequently”. E.g. “We used to meet regularly, but less and less as time went on.” This is also why frequent customers are called “regulars”.

edit: "Happening or doing something often" is even the first definition of the Cambridge English dictionary. Misinterpreting OP's use of "regular" just feels like Stack Overflow level pedantry.

I shower every 2nd day. The 2nd day of Christmas and Easter.

Thank you. I am a 2-3 day showerer as well. I do wash my face every day, wash my hands regularly of course, and wear antiperspirant deodorant. I tend to shower when my hair has finally become oily enough that it's noticable, of if I start smelling bad, but my body somehow doesn't produce much of a smell. It's not that I'm just used to my own smell, I've had it confirmed by plenty of people. Even on day 3, I'm generally fresh. I do try to put a hard day 3 limit on myself, though. Times when I've pushed it to 4 days have not been so great lol

Go to a doctor

Sounds like illness or diet. Better to see a doctor.

I don't get how showering is less than an hour affair for any women at least. Between washing my hair, washing my body, shaving under my arms, and shaving my legs, that's easily 30 minutes. And then the whole applying moisturizer so my skin doesn't totally dry out from the shower, toweling off, lying in front of a fan to actually feel dry, and semi drying my hair, that's an hour (plus my hair is still wet for hours after). This does not include the time spent convincing myself to shower. I shower twice a week. Less if I don't have anything going on that week/ I get to stay home.

I don't, because my hair is naturally straight, but a lot of women also have to completely reset their hair with every shower too, blow drying, straightening, curling - whatever they do to look professional again.

I absolutely do use deodorant though, and I also clean under my pits with a washcloth between showers if I ever start to smell anything past neutral

Wait... what? Do you live in the Amazon or something? You should probably go see a doctor

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.

Try acne body wash. It made a big difference for me, before switching I was using aveeno. I use the Amazon brand version of this: https://www.neutrogena.com/...

Make sure you’re using a wash cloth, loofa, etc not just your hands. Scrub well.

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!

My momma used to say that if you can smell yourself, other people have been smelling you for days.

Don't know what your issues are, but I have aquagenic urticaria. There are waterless, alcohol based 'soaps' that I rely on heavily.

you don’t like showers

Gross. This person prefers BO to deodorant.

Some people also just don't smell. I found that hard to believe, but my GF a) never sweats and b) even when she does, it's not smelly.

I get away with it because body odor is largely impacted by meat intake.

I've encountered plenty of smelly vegetarians and vegans.

I swear I don't smell bad, I've asked others.

How sure are you they weren't just being polite?

Diet plays a role, but I've found it's far more down to the spices one consumes. I'd bet the strongest component is hormones and genetics.

Meat intake? I'm a vegetarian and if I don't use deodorant, my pits stink within hours.

Vegans are always hilarious. They blame so much on meat and pretend they’re better for not eating it.

I had a vegan ex once, I remember her getting drunk and throwing up going “This can’t happen I’m vegan” as if somehow her super diet made her beyond a mere mortal and gave her a super stomach.

You remind me of her.

Apparently it could also have to do with the microbiome on the skin too, there are a couple companies developing probiotic deodorant based on the flora of people who naturally don't smell very bad. It's a balance of good bacteria versus stinky bacteria and I can see how things like antibiotic use and diet can have an impact on that balance just like it does in the gut, but a decent portion of it does seem to be genetic.

I rarely ever eat meat (and almost never red meat) and my BO still smells if I don't shower or use deodorant daily

I'll smell you. I'll smell you so good.

though the people I've met that smell bad are usually you're average American young adult man

This doesn't make any sense...there is a huge movement to use cold water to wash clothes, and hot water unless it's extremely hot, isn't staying hot enough to kill off bacteria. Were you using detergent correctly?

Obviously those ones are not whom op is complaining about

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.

That's not a good reason though. There are plenty without aluminum. Toms and Native are two I know of without searching. Also it easy and cheap to make homemade with coconut oil.

Antiperspirants use aluminum. Standard deodorant does not.

And there is your answer. Some people stink because they fill their head with pseudo scientific nonsense to rationalize not engaging in basic hygiene tasks.

Bacteria come from the environment. I don't understand how the iodine treatment you recommend prevents future exposure.

Why do so many comments look like AI now.

Many people are allergic to antiperspirants.

imagining a body builder applying purfume after washing off at the gym

"I WEAR IT BECAUSE I'M NOT A CHILD. YOU WANNA GO?!"