this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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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?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

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 :)

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

You just described my usual routine. If I didn't shower that day, I'll put on some fresh deodorant and all.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

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.