Well, I know that title got your attention. So now…I’ll explain! Ever since I hit puberty, I have been sort of off&on in my deoderant wearing habits. I sometimes (okay, rarely) wear it, and when I don’t know one ever knows. My best friends defend me when they come to terms with the fact that I don’t need it. They say, “yeah, she sweats like everyone else, but she never stinks”. I’ll admit, sometimes after a few hours of yardwork I tend to get that “sweaty little kid off the playground” smell, but it has never been b.o. My mom never really needed deoderant either. Now to my question- Someone recently told me that wearing deoderant (or anti-persperant) would cause my body to require it more (possibly giving me b.o.) I don’t know if I quite buy this theory or not. Any opinions or knowledge to share?
Hey Tipi, interesting question. My opinion is that it’s personal preference. I do know that Americans have a little bit of a phobia about body odor hence: body bath gel, perfumes by the gazillions etc etc ad nauseum. Sometimes hormones and their fluctuating levels (especially in women) can change the “strength” of your body odor. I’m not sure how old you are but I’m sure you’ll find as I did, that the older you get, the stronger you smell. No biggie.
I have heard some people claim that because anti-persperants contain aluminum salts(?) and stuff, you can absorb them through your body and, since high body aluminum levels have been possibly linked to Alzheimer’s Disease, have a greater chance at Alzheimers.
You know the FDA would be all over that one if there was conclusive evidence.
I’d say save your money and be glad you don’t need it!
I had the most amazing roommate. He never bathed, didn’t wear deodorant, and rarely changed his clothes (outer or under), but yet he never smelled. (His personality did, but that’s another story.)
He went for a two month stretch once without bathing, and only changing clothes about three times. No smell.
Hmm, I thought, I must just be so used to smelling him that I don’t notice it any more. Not so. Visitors, when questioned later confirmed the lack of BO. And you would think that after two months he could stop a charging bear at ten paces. His girlfriend commented on ths phenomenon, and said she thought that maybe he just had a natural protection against BO causing bacteria, or something.
I used to use the stuff when I was a teenager but stopped when I was about 16 and haven’t used it since (18 years), and don’t need it. Well…at least no one’s ever complained to me about not using it.
I don’t see how you could conceivably develop some chemical reaction that would make you “need” it.
Now, here’s something a little tangential to this thread: when I’m not in a long-term relationship with a woman, my sweat or b.o. doesn’t have any distinction to it. But when I’m living with a woman for long periods of time (over 6 mos. to a year), my sweat begins to smell like hers.
Is this just psychological, or does anyone have a similar experience or know of a scientific cause?
All these situations are probably explained by the fact that B.O. is caused by bacteria, not sweating. Perhaps the non-smelly roommate had somehow developed an immunity to the stink-causing bacteria. Ditto for the original poster.
Tom, I’ve never heard of your situation happening before, but it could be caused by the fact that you’re starting to share your girlfriend’s bacteria. In other words, you’re growing a culture. Of course, the fact that her perfume may be rubbing off on you, or you may be washing your clothes together, or you lying in her sheets, etc., that is causing her smell to rub off on you.
Tom, I think a likely explanation would be that, living with a woman, you acquire similar diets (eating together all the time), which would potentially cause you to smell similarly.
This is just conjecture, of course, but it’s my conjecture, which makes it far superior to the conjecture of others.
OK, you probably know this, but bear with me.
A deoderant is a compound which prevents sweat from stinking, usually by killing the buggies which make the stink.
Anti-perspirant keeps you from sweating altogether. It does this by plugging up the sweat glands. You have to use an anti-perspirant for 5 (IIRC) days before it starts working. If you missed a day, you would probably have to go another day or two before it started working again.
So it may be the anti-perspirant effect that tipiwoo’s friend was talking about. Or it may be that clogging up the sweat glands allows the buggies in the sweat glands to proliferate, and when a day is skipped, the sweat is extra-rank.
Preventing sweat has always sounded like a bad idea to me. The body often uses sweat as a way of removing toxins. One of my pet theories is that they are going to eventually determine that wearing anti-perspirant contributes to cancer.
Because of this, I never buy ant-perspirant. And it ain’t easy finding deoderant without an anti-perspirant. Of course, like tipiwoo, I only use deoderant sporadically, so an anti-perspirant wouldn’t help anyway.
Mastery is not perfection but a journey, and the true master must be willing to try and fail and try again
Gracie, I have always wondered about the deoderant rock crystal thing myself. It’s $8-10 for one thing and that seems to be alot for something that may or may not work. I see it all the time at the drug store and the two token containers are covered in dusk. The skeptical side of me has always wondered if these rock cystals are for armpits what laundry discs are to dirty clothes.
>>I had some friends who got on a kick a couple of years ago of using some sort of deoderant rock/crystal. Does anyone know what that was? Does it work?<<
I knew someone with multiple chemical sensitivities who used the rock and swore by it, but for all I know, it may be a block of aluminum salt. I don’t know what’s in it. I probably have a catalog somewhere that would tell me though, because my last roommate subscribed to a bunch of earth-mother type publications.
I go the deodorant-no-aluminum route too. The local co-op carries a product with mild perfume and baking soda. It works perfectly well, although I’m a person who tends not to sweat much, so it may be me.
There is a connection between aluminum exposure and Alzheimer’s, although not necessarily the aluminum salts in anti-perspirant. There’s also a very tenuous connection between anti-perspirant and breast cancer. But there’re links between many, many things and breast cancer.
–Rowan
Shopping is still cheaper than therapy. --my Aunt Franny
The crystal rock stuff does indeed work to prevent you from stinking. Unlike the manufactured products, though, you need to apply it daily for it to work.
Not only does it work, but the block of crystal that costs you 8 bucks will last several times as long as you stick of Degree. As in one-two years. So it’s economically healthy, as well.
I never used to stink. I remember one time I wore a shirt for a couple of days on vacation, and went to smell it to see if I could wear it again. I was surprised at what I smelled, so I had my husband smell it, without telling him what to expect. We both agreed that it smelled like chocolate ice cream. That was the only time for that though. Most of the time it just didn’t smell like anything.
Then I had a baby. Everything changed. My body chemistry decided that underarm odor was long overdue. Now I can get bo without even sweating
I’ve used the crystal and it’s far superior to anything i’ve ever used. It’s worth the cost…think of all the bottles you buy in a little over 2 years (that’s how long mine lasted). I highly recommend it.
MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!
Body odor has a great deal to do with genetics. Remember the comments about blacks houses “smelling funny?” Well, to the Japanese and other Asians, our (white) houses ‘smell funny’!
Asians (varies) have the smallest sweat glands, ‘whites’ are intermediate, blacks have the largest. Simple fact and nothing to get racist about.
Your friend was perhaps some genetic ‘mutant’ who had small sweat glands. Smells can dissipate quickly on clothes, so mebbe that explains it.
At any rate, if you shower daily and after acute exercise, you won’t need deodorants either. Or, alternatively, live with a community of non-bathers who eat tons of garlic and onions. You won’t be able to smell a five-day-old dead racoon at five inches!
>>I’ve used the crystal and it’s far superior to anything i’ve ever used. It’s worth the cost…think of all the bottles you buy in a little over 2 years (that’s how long mine lasted). I highly recommend it. <<
But what IS it? Is it a chunk of Aluminum salt? If it is, I wouldn’t recommend it.
If you really want to go natural, and stay away from plastic bottles, you could emulate my friend Christina the earth-mother, and use a powder puff to dust your armpits with baking soda. Works for her.
–Rowan
Shopping is still cheaper than therapy. --my Aunt Franny
I had the most amazing roommate. He never bathed, didn’t wear deodorant, and rarely changed his clothes (outer or under), but yet he never smelled. (His personality did, but that’s another story.)
He went for a two month stretch once without bathing, and only changing clothes about three times. No smell.
Hmm, I thought, I must just be so used to smelling him that I don’t notice it any more. Not so. Visitors, when questioned later confirmed the lack of BO. And you would think that after two months he could stop a charging bear at ten paces. His girlfriend commented on ths phenomenon, and said she thought that maybe he just had a natural protection against BO causing bacteria, or something.
Any thoughts?
Lissa, is your friend named “Buck” by chance? I knew a guy very similar to hium when I used to do Rocky in San Antonio. He was the filthiest man on Earth. (I know this is a little off topic) He rarely bathed or washed his clothes but rarely did he smell. Everyone that knew him had a similar hypothesis, “After you get so dirty, the dirt on top blocks the smells on the bottom.” Pretty gross. Oh, Buck was so dirty that he was dishonorably discharged from the military. I won’t get into it.
Now back on topic, I am a male and I rarely wear deoderant. Most people would not know if I did not tell them. I usually take two showers a day (sometimes more, rarely less) and stay as clean as possible. When it gets real humid around here, I notice that I get a “rub rash”. That is wear your underarm rubs itself raw (very similar to a diaper rash). When that happens, I put some baby powder on under there and it goes away.
So then answer me this…I used Dry Idea for years. Every pore in my body could sweat, but my pits stayed dry. One day, it stopped working. So, I switched to Degree. The same thing happened after a couple of years. I still can’t find a non-aerosol deodorant/antiperspirant that works for me.
