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?
Is this a joke I’m too C# to understand?
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This had me rolling on the floor… 😅
When you’re so busy remembering to FOSS that you forget to floss 😢
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.
My mom and dad’s hair products are about the worst thing imaginable. After they take showers I can hardly go in the same room as them for 3-4 hours and the scent even lingers for 5-10 minutes after they walk out. She said ‘huh? it has a scent?’
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?
Who taught people we have to smell like artificial bouquets of flowers all the time, even when exercising, ffs?
Detergent and perfume companies
Yeah, and when your body wants to sweat, you MUST stop it. I’ve wondered with all the different scented products people wear at the same time, why they want to smell like the average of 12 different synthetic flowers.
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.
You can find unscented antiperspirant, FWIW
That’s what I do and if I need to smell nice for a fancy gathering I’ll put on a small amount of something nice smelling (beard balm, cologne, or something else)
Yes, but they’re a lot more expensive than the mainstream ones.
Holy mother of URLs, Batman!
Here’s a cleaned up version without all those nasty trackers attached: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Arm-Hammer-ULTRA-MAX-Solid-Antiperspirant-Deodorant-Unscented-2-6-oz/10810917
Yeah, I clicked it though, cuz… it’s from Wallmart, what are they gonna track here, I don’t live in the US, lol 😂.
Dude, I don’t live in the US 😒.
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.
Yes, because it doesn’t give me an allergic reaction. Clearly you’ve never experienced that but maybe you could imagine the difference.
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.
There’s a bit of a selection bias though.
Obviously you don’t smell the people who don’t smell, but not all of them wear deodorant.
I have never smelled anyone’s natural body odor that smells good. Do you think poop smells good too? That’s natural.
Sounds like a you problem. Moreso that everything smells like poop to you if it’s not artificially created.
I want to try to be a bit nicer but wow you went from body odor to poop to argue natural smells. Isn’t the typically poetic phrase of smells to “smell like flowers” you know…a natural occurrence in nature?
My point is that natural isn’t always good. I know, a hard concept to understand. Human BO doesn’t smell like flowers
Also means it’s not always bad. You can’t dictate what people should do and decidedly say it will always be gross off of a “sometimes” like you’ve been doing in this thread.
You’re honestly arguing a lot of “maybe” for what other people say while being very black/white yourself. Might want to check that.
week old BO over the average deodorant
That’s a false dichotomy though. The obvious third option is to shower every day and wear clean clothes?
Depressed.
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This is the way.
Or Hippies
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.
Oh ok, I misunderstood then. I thought you were playing a little game of word association, not suggesting an alternative. My bad!
I am friends with a lot of hippy-archetypical folks… and many of them don’t do the bathing/deodorant thing with the frequency that’s commonly expected by the majority. Just saying they choose to be au natural… and maybe that’s ok.
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.
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.
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.
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
Yeah that weirded me out too. Comes across as someone making excuses for not wanting to practice basic hygiene though.
I prefer it to perfume.
And I saw someone being an asshole regarding their preferences.
Preferences?
Not stinking up a whole room goes beyond a preference into a biohazard warning.
Make that two, I suppose.
What is it with this extremism? People don’t instantly turn into heaps of rotting garbage the moment they neglect to put some chemicals on their underarms.
extremism ._.
Yes. Is “biohazard warning” not hyperbolic in the extreme?
So, expecting basic hygiene from people is extremism now?
No, calling a smell that you find unpleasant a “biohazard” is extreme.
If, hypothetically, I found body piercings to be distasteful, wouldn’t it be kind of an overreaction for me to demand that paramedics come fix the “stab wounds” on people with piercings that I encounter?
I mean actual shit smell is a biohazard, though. Like if someone didn’t wipe well enough, that’s a biohazard (very minor, but still).
My girlfriend finds showering and bathing extremely painful due to several very severe skin conditions. She’s also allergic to almost every deodorant that doesn’t cost a ridiculous amount. She doesn’t sweat a whole lot so it’s usually not an issue, and can get away with only one shower a week usually. Her conditions are pretty rare so I’m not saying everyone who doesn’t shower regularly has what she has, but there might be factors at play for some that give them legitimate reason not to shower. Or it could just be laziness
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.
During the summer it can get up to 30, during the winter down to -20 ish. -5 up to 20 is the normal range though. Not sure how but she rarely sweats. She’s always freezing cold. Her sweat also doesn’t really smell much, not sure if that’s a pH balance or what, idk much about that.
Copying and pasting my answer from the same question just 2 weeks ago:
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.
https://kbin.social/m/[email protected]/t/638513/-/comment/3647566
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.
Ugh that H word right there. I had hyperhidrosis most of my life up until my late 20’s. I started using this painful stuff called Drysol which I think just worked by murdering my sweat glands
You may want to have your physician follow on that. AFAIK, studies show that chemical solutions which destroy the ability to sweat also increase severely the risk of cardiovascular illnesses.
Good lookin out m8. I haven’t used it in about 15 years, but still
I highly recommend isotretinoin (accutane) for hyperhidrosis. Its primarily prescribed for zits, but off label for hyperhidrosis. Its not fun when you’re on it but the changes are seemingly permanent. A full year after completing his treatment and my husband is still much less sweaty and his skin is much clearer to boot.
Talk to your dermatologist!
be careful with Accutane I went from a normal happy kid to attempted self harm in 3 months. then they took me off it and all the bad thoughts just stopped.
I appreciate the tip, but looking at the list of adverse effects, I’d rather stay as I am.
Oh noes not my heckin medical conditionroos
A lot of people simply don’t know proper hygiene because they were never taught it.
A shower doesn’t mean let the water run over you for a few minutes and then spray on some deodorant. Lather some soap in to a flannel and scrub every part of your body, and if you sweat badly use antiperspirant.
But it’s recent thing you’ve noticed. People might be cutting back on things due to budget. Not many people would admit that they’re not showering because of financial worries.
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.
I was brought up before showers were something that most people had installed, and we just washed at the sink with a flannel cloth. We washed face, pits, bum, and feet twice a day, and only had a bath once or twice a week. I still just do a wash of the important bits at the sink with a cloth if I’m feeling very apathetic.
Exactly.
Fair shout and well written post.
I work manual labour, so it’s a full wash for me every day!
Thanks. Appreciate the feedback.
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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.
I can’t stand the feel of human-produced skin oils building up anywhere on my body. I need to feel squeaky clean to feel clean. But that might be just my own personal mental problems. I never even use lotion. I just can’t stand grease and oily substances. Seeing or feeling my own fingerprints on my devices sends me into a rage of wiping everything down with alcohol.
For what it’s worth, scrubbing to get that “squeaky clean” feeling removes the protective layer of sebum between your skin cells. It dries out your skin, and hence, causes your body to go into overdrive producing more oils. As a result, you end up really greasy by the end of the day. After learning this, I backed off the temperature of my daily shower, switched to a pure Castile soap, less of it, and stopped scrubbing vigorously. Now I don’t leave oily smudges on my phone screen, except after sweating a lot. Also, no more itchy, dry skin and cracking knuckles in the winter.
Phones and keyboard are filthy, but it’s more about people usually not cleaning them enough and not about people not being clean enough.
The amount of bacteria on thoroughly and often soap-washed skin very quickly rises high because of the missing acid and/or oil layer.
The “only use soap on armpits+groin+feet most of the time” recommendation is not made up.
Fair point. When I said soap, I really meant a body wash, of which pH balanced versions are available.
You also have an oil layer that keeps certain kinds of bacteria out, so don’t destroy that one. As said: most days, just lather pits, groin, and feet, simply rinse the rest with water.
Everywhere around the world soap + shampoo should be free. And deodorant should be as cheap as possible. It should be a basic human right.
Add tampons ans pads to that
The few people I know with this issue fall into one of two categories.
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Access issues. There are some kinds of road blocks accessing a quality shower/bath. Which makes showering/bathing is an uncomfortable activity for some reason. Maybe it’s that their shower is really small and cramped, with a low quality shower head. Maybe it’s an issue where the water quality is low in the shower they have access to. Low quality water can have an odor people find uncomfortable, or it can dry out their skin making their skin feel dry even while under the water. People naturally avoid things that make them uncomfortable even subconsciously.
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Mental Health. I suffer from this occasionally. I love showering, it’s extremely relaxing, but for whatever reason the process of getting into the shower is such a huge barrier to overcome. You feel like absolute dog shit. You know that a shower would make you feel better, but for whoever reason no matter how hard you try, you cannot push through the transition of wanting to shower, to taking that first step towards doing it. And it all compounds together to make you feel like an even bigger piece of shit for not being able to do something so basic. Until eventually you’ve doom scrolled the entire day away and now it’s dark out and you’re tired and you’ve got a stress headache because you’ve barely even ate today either while you just stewed in your own filth.
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.
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Sometimes I’ll go a few days when I’m working from home and not going anywhere out of pure laziness. But if I’m going to be interacting with other people, shower guaranteed beforehand.
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.
This is literally what I’m talking about.
HOW do people go out in public if they know they stink? How can they live with themselves not being clean at least semi-regularly? It’s baffling to me.
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.
It’s when I start smelling myself that I know I am extra stanky.
Wearing deodorant has nothing to do with bathing regularly.
You can bath regularly and not need deodorant, every body is different. Also depends on the activities done between each bath/shower.
Now some people do not bath regularly and use deodorant or perfume, that never ends up well in terms of odor.
Believe it or not, most of us don’t actually need to shower every day. If you’re not doing a lot of physical work or don’t work in a place with a lot of grime, you can honestly get away with showering less often. Technically the same goes for deodorant but I wouldn’t go a day without it lol.
I personally shower once every day, but I don’t shampoo my hair nor use body wash all over my body every day. I’ll usually use conditioner only for my hair and I will regularly wash my pits, feet, privates, butt, and ears with body wash, but I only really use shampoo and use body wash everywhere like twice a week or so. I also apply deodorant every day. No comments about bad smells from everybody including a people who will straight-up comment on stuff like that, and I’ve actually got a lot of compliments about my hair :)
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.
Maybe they say 2-3 times a week when the reality is that they’re hedging based on reaction and they actually shower closer to once a week.
That said, I realized recently that I could smell someone else’s unwashed hair. I have no idea how recently they washed it, but now I’m semi-paranoid about how fast that happens. I shower (including hair washes) at minimum every other day, with an occasional weekend spent at home when I’m extra lazy and don’t shower all weekend. I sure hope my hair doesn’t smell like that on day 2.
I think it really varies per person, I know people who genuinely shower twice a week and are fine, but I have one person in my mind now who showers daily and I can tell when I see him in the evening if his shower was in the morning.
And yeah, I can absolutely smell hair grease, it’s quite a lot once you identify the smell.
Try an all natural solid bar shampoo. I went from my hair feeling lank and greasy in day two after a wash to only having to wash it twice a week.
I feel like the chemicals in just mainstream shampoo reak havoc on hair and lock you in to a daily use cycle.
You just described my usual routine. If I didn’t shower that day, I’ll put on some fresh deodorant and all.
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.
First off, not everyone who doesn’t wear deodorant smells, and secondly, some people shower regularly and use deodorant and still smell.
The diet, genetics, and what kind of bacteria live on your skin will affect the body’s odor. I struggled with body odor for years before I discovered that I was showering incorrectly. I learned that after lathering the soap and getting covered by it, you’re supposed to let it sit on the skin for a while before scrubbing and rinsing; this discovery which many consider obvious was new to me, and it stopped my body odour completely to the point I don’t need deodorant at all by simply showering with a correct technique.
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.
Oh yeah, I have been speedrunning my showers for most of my life, and no one ever told me I was doing it wrong. Only discovered the proper way to shower after seeing a professional car wash… Lol.
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.
A deodorant does not replace washing your body. The combination of both smells is the most terrifying. I hate the smell of all deodorants, so don’t use them. But I shower sufficiently, you won’t smell me from a distance. Promised.
How much distance are we talking about?
You choose. Plus I bet I won’t like to smell your deodorant. Like most perfumes others are applying. Worst is if deodorant or perfume is used instead of washing yourself. This last comment is not on you by no means.
Same. Haven’t found one I like the smell of yet. I’d rather shower more often than use them.
Really? The Bearglove scent from Old Spice smells JUST like jolly ranchers it’s crazy.
Alun stone changed my life for that reason
My experiences with stink.
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Old people. Some were raised to shower infrequently because regular bathing wasn’t a luxury they had access to growing up. They carry this habit with them now. Source: I used to work with lots of old people.
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People from cold climates who move to warmer ones. Sure, in Amsterdam you can shower once a week but move to Australia and you stink. Source: My ex-father-in-law is Dutch, living in Australia.
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People who avoid soaps and deodorants because they prefer natural alternatives or ‘splashing and rinsing’. They think they don’t stink. Most girls I’ve met with bad smelling vaginas fall into this category. Source: Dating.
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Teenagers who haven’t worked out puberty yet. Source: Used to work in a school.
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Re-wearing unwashed clothes too many times. Source: Figured this one myself.
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People who prefer to stink. When you don’t bathe and don’t use deodorant, you get used to the icky feeling and the smell to the point where you prefer it, and a shower and soap then makes you uncomfortable (itchy/tingly). Source: Ex-girlfriend.
You missed one: depression
That last one… How did you put up with that?
Especially with the smelly vagina point earlier in the list. 🤢
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.
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