The article gets quite a lot right. Both sets of products are solving problems that didn’t exist, and create problems that very much do. These range from psycho-social problems to physical environmental problems.
The answer is don’t buy either. But that means being ok with being able to smell one another. That would be a return to the default state of probably a million years. But how are we all going to do that at the same time over night?
I didn’t say don’t use anything, I said it’s valid to decide not use products marketed as “deodorant” and “Antiperspirant”. It’s not like I follow that advice. I wear deodorant, and aftershave. But I have experimented with not wearing any, and using “eco” ones.
What I am saying is that I do agree with what is in the article, which is summarised as both products have created a false problem, and used that to create a market.
And it isn’t at all like AC. Humans smell. It’s not a completely negative thing to me. I don’t want a completely sanitised olfactory experience. If you wash daily, most of the time, Antiperspirant isn’t needed. But depends on what you are doing and what the climate is. In temperate conditions, I can go a day without smelling any different, without deodorant on. It changes when the weather is hot, and if I do strenuous exercise. But you can just wash more often.
What I’ve found is that certain soaps change the situation, as does what I eat. Garlic and Cumin seems to have a significant effect.
Nope. Wear your deodorant. It was invented because it makes people smell more recently cleaned, which has always been more hygienic and therefore more appealing. The problems do exist absent of culture and marketing.
I appreciate the advice, but I already do wear deodorant. I guess whether they are problems or not is subjective. I’m not convinced that being sanitised is a good thing. Microbiome of the skin is a thing. Being more hygienic and therefore more appealing is also subjective. Hygienic isn’t high up on my list of qualities of value. Obviously, there’s a threshold and everyone has a different value for it.
Yeah, my experiences during COVID when I couldn’t leave the house and stopped wearing deodorant is that the smell doesn’t become less. I didn’t wear deodorant for over a month and it was the same.
Have you tried just using just water while washing armpits? This had by far the greatest effect of reducing BO for me. I mean it’s still there, but not that it concerns me most of the time, I’m also sometimes washing armpits with water during the day, when I’m sweating more than usual.
I’m no expert, but there’s a chance you’re just getting used to the smell (Of course everybody is a little different and some people barely smell and others, like myself, have quite a strong smell). Which, ironically is kind of the point. I believe before deodorant people had ways to make themselves smell nicer, but I don’t think they had anything that completely stops the BO like deodorant does for such a long period of time. So, I guess it kind of did solve a problem that didn’t exist, because people normally would smell.
On the other hand, at this point most of modern society likes when people do not smell like BO, So I will be continuing to use deodorant.
true, perfume etc. is nothing new, probably older than cultivating plants.
chance you’re just getting used to the smell
Maybe slightly, but as soon as I’m using soap, I quickly notice stink after a short time after showering as counter-example.
I think the body just has use less fluid to nurse the skin after washing with just water, and than there’s a slightly different skin-flora I think.
I sometimes use DIY deo (basically soda+coconut-oil) when I’m noticing stink, but rarely, that works quite well, while being somewhat neutral in smell.
most of modern society likes when people do not smell like BO
I’m not so sure about that. Probably not a strong stale-sweat BO, but there are studies, where fresh sweat had IIRC a strong arousing effect on the opposite gender. I guess it quite depends on the BO…
I may not be the norm, but I’m somewhat opposed to most of the often penetrant deo smell. I also would consider my sense of smell rather sensitive (I hate the fumes of motorcycles and cars in the road-traffic, and often hold breath there)
So what you’re telling me is, the solution to stop bacteria from producing smells is to let it multiply and thrive? Everyone who has ever given me the advice you’re giving me stinks of BO. Our ancestors stank. You’re not producing less stank, you’re just getting used to it.
Well the “stink” is AFAIK produced by bacteria etc. after sweating, i.e. stale sweat.
AFAIK fresh sweat has a somewhat arousing effect on the opposite gender.
I guess, when you’re not constantly drying out your skin by washing all the body fats away, it just needs to produce less body fluid to nurture the skin etc. which leads to less stink, because it can be washed away quite effectively (but less so the body fats) by just using water (not as effective as with soap etc. though, but it takes maybe 2 hours or so and then I’m stinking when using soap, btw. counter-example to that I’m getting used to the stink). I also think the different composition of the skin flora may add to that.
Before you’re judging, have you tried washing the skin with just water (my skin health has improved since using only water on the body, and I have rather sensitive skin)?.
You’re not comparing apples to apples when you compare the worst and most overpowering body spray to “Slight body-smell”.
And you smell less after establishing a no-deodorant routine. You still smell, and a lot at that. Diet isn’t going to get rid of that. People still notice and you still stink.
You still smell, and a lot at that. Diet isn’t going to get rid of that. People still notice and you still stink.
I haven’t said that I don’t smell at all, but just using water, and avoiding stale-sweat (by washing with water, which is rather effective). But I wouldn’t consider it a lot, at least not, when the people aren’t like really close, or straight up sniff my armpits ^^
Maybe worth adding, is that I almost exclusively wear merino-wool shirts, which likely helps further reducing BO
But that means being ok with being able to smell one another.
I worked for an international company and during the company retreat, HR had to gently tell a few people to wear deodorant.
Not trying to shit on cultures and countries that don’t believe in it, but it smelled like a teenage locker room had sex with a mtg convention. Even the hippy developers were disgusted.
I’m in the minority, even among the people I associate with offline, but I’m concerned about the shit that’s in everything. Anything I put on or in my body. That also includes things I put on my dog or the food I give him. If I see/smell someone treated their lawn recently I don’t let him walk on their grass because I know he’ll lick his paws later and get sick.
Are you talking about the nuud stuff or the “gluing glands” stuff? Because if it’s the latter, I’m not convinced that it doesn’t harm or “put something in the body.”
Ooh, haven’t heard of this. I’ve been using a regular deodorant without anti perspiration the last few months and… it’s ok. But now that it’s getting hotter, I reach for the old aluminum stick if I have to go into the office.
I bought this (impulse buy, but on sale!) and we’ll see how it goes! My wife will tell me if it’s not working :)
I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by it! I wish I had known about it sooner. I had tried aluminium antiperspirant, non-aluminium deodorant, the crystal, and charcoal paste, and none of it worked as well for me or made it through the day.
The biggest complaint I have with the nuud is that I have to wash it off my hands after applying.
There were a couple small studies that raised concerns about aluminum in antiperspirants. Larger higher quality studies found no issues.
There are no real antiperspirant ingredients in the product you linked. Zinc oxide is a mild astringent which could possibly reduce sweating but if it does at all it’s not by much. Microbial claims around silver in deodorant are dubious at best. No studies have shown it to be particularly effective at inhibiting odor causing bacteria. Anyone with BO will stink on top of the smell of deodorant.
The product doesn’t claim to be an antiperspirant, and it’s not. It also doesn’t have any fragrance for deodorant.
I recommended the product because it works for me better and longer than anything else I have ever tried. I still sweat, but even 8 hours after working out, my underarms still don’t smell when using this stuff. During the winter, if I wasn’t particularly active, It would last 4 days.
You don’t need to personally attack me. I’m sharing my experience in the hopes it helps others. I’m not paid by the company or anyone else. I have no secret agenda.
I never use deodorant. Also don’t ever use shampoo. I shower once every two days. Never get complaints. Working as a nurse, I;m always close to people who would definitely tell me if I smelled bad. Not saying this will work for everyone nor that everyone should do the same. I do however think that the industry has been successful in marketing these products as must-haves for daily use and I know that’s a lie. Many people who wash regularly won’t have strong odor with or without deodorant or shampoo. I did use them during puberty and I was a bit uncertain when I stopped. They work on your insecurity, and so you’re inclined to keep using these products, everyday, all the time, just to be sure. No one wants to smell bad. I volunteer in a sort of day care for the homeless and the shame people feel when they smell bad and others notice is incredibly large so it makes sense people stick to their deodorant just to be sure. There’s also really no harm in it, but I feel like our hygiene-cleanliness culture is quite extreme sometimes. Deodorants are a real solution for a real problem obviously, but many people over do it and when overdone people reek of deodorant or perfume. Like old ladies on a bus. Yuck.
I’m using shampoo for hair, though only because I think a lot of filth that’s flying around in cities (and dust in rooms) collects there (and it gets itchy).
But as a counter example: I washed my feet with soap a long time ago and had constantly issues with fungal infection there. Then I stopped that (and only use water) and never had these issues again…
Unless we’re talking about washing hands I disagree. Soap is bad for your skin. Water alone is enough to do away with any dirt on your body, and the downside of soap is that it also does away with all sorts of oils that your skin needs to function properly.Of course there are mild soaps, but still it’s not really clear to me what the benefit of soap would be.
I know that the ones that don’t shower don’t use deodorant either (or it just stops working after some time…) but you can definitely smell when showering regularly.
Yes, I’m not arguing that. There’s a whole lot of emphasis on “propere hygiene”, it’s not just “showering a lot”.
Sometimes excessive showering can cause your skin to lose it’s “natural” properties and bad bacteria might set up colonies, and then the overt showering will keep the natural skin balance from balancing itself.
Also, diet affects one a lot.
I don’t think everyone who sweats, smells. And some sweat smells straight up good. (Again, given proper hygiene, and this good sweat smell is usually connected to intimate activities.)
I’m a guy who showers daily and tries to make sure I don’t smell (breath and body). Today, however, I am off from work and only washed my face. I’ve had that not so fresh feeling all day.
I’m going to take shower right now.
edit - shower complete. also, i was trying to quote ghostbusters in the beginning but messed up it. it should have been “I looked at the comments, Ray”.
I think the anime fans are just traumatized by the overwhelming stench of axe body spray from the high school gym changing room, and are now scared of deodorant
I assume the article is going for “we should be okay with body odor” which feels very granola. Not everyone needs deodorant, but many do if they don’t want to smell. Antiperspirant can be bad for your body, but deodorant should do the trick for most, by masking the sweat smell with their preferred scent.
The article is screen grabbed and cropped to remove the context and increase outrage. It’s actually about debunking all natural deodorants claims about detoxing.
'Cept deodorant does nothing to remove the stench from the weirdos that don’t wipe their ass after taking a shit, which is a large bulk of people at the conventions I’ve been to. 🤢
as a gay, I take some undeserved pride in being so terrifying to straight conservatives that many of them started walking around with poop on their butt because they’re scared if they touch their b-hole they’re suddenly gonna “break” and go gay
I did read the article. They go into the history of modern deodorant and antiperspirant and the marketing of them. They talk about how antiperspirant is safe to use but the narrative that it causes cancer keeps growing regardless of what scientists say. They also relate having conducted an experiment with deodorant instead of antiperspirant and how many people could probably get away with just deodorant.
At no point do they say we should abandon all hygiene.
It’s some gene that is mostly present in asians compared to whites, blacks, etc, my friend group has one individual that said he didn’t use it, and he’s black, everyone else will smell sour if stopped.
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