# Create a "Manly" shampoo scent **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 6, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/create-a-manly-shampoo-scent/627389 "2012-07-06T03:20:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/create-a-manly-shampoo-scent/627389/21 "2012-07-08T01:16:01Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > My favorite and very manly (and discontinued, I think) soap was vetiver and cedar. Add some sandalwood if you want. Patchouli can work too. This is actually a traditional male cologne combination. A citrusy thing and an earthy/woody thing, sometimes with a piney thing, is apparently a guy scent. I don’t know if there’s any logic behind it, other than “this combo sells well to men, because this is the combo we’ve always sold to men”, but it’s well-known enough that it’s its own category of perfume, called “chypre”. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/create-a-manly-shampoo-scent/627389/22 "2012-07-09T16:44:11Z")
Unscented. A _ **real man** _ smells like himself. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/create-a-manly-shampoo-scent/627389/23 "2012-07-09T16:57:42Z")
What I use: [Grandpa Brand Pine Tar Soap](http://www.grandpabrands.com/catalog1280.html). It comes as a shampoo and conditioner and body gel too. But I don’t dork around with all that liquid shit in the bottles. Too frou-frou. Just give me a nice solid brown bar of pine tar soap and I’m good to go. The scent is a cross between campfire, raw lumber, rubber and baseball mitt with a slight undertone of motor oil. I’ll never wash with another soap again. It doesn’t leave much of a lingering scent on your skin or hair, despite the strong scent coming from the bar itself. The smell it leaves once you rinse is very subtle. But manly. In fact, it is damn straight the manliest scent for a personal grooming product you will find on the market. I’ll stake my clean, yet subtly-scented, hairy man nuts on it. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/create-a-manly-shampoo-scent/627389/24 "2012-07-09T16:58:22Z")
If I could find an unscented shampoo, I’d buy out the stock. Head & Shoulders used to have a borderline-unpleasant medicinal smell. I _liked_ it. Now it just makes Mr. Legend’s head smell like he’s just come back from lunch at a French whorehouse. Blech. So I vote for pine tar and teatree oil scent. That should be horrible enough. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/create-a-manly-shampoo-scent/627389/25 "2012-07-09T17:17:00Z")
Pine Tar soap is an honest smell, but it doesn’t last. Same for sandalwood soap. You need to rub something into your pores without washing it away; something made to react to the acidity of your perspiration. As with Coke vs Pespi, it’s a matter of citrus vs spice. Women are traditonally floral (citrus). Note how their clothes, beadspreads, etc. are decorated with them: because flowers are a _fertility symbol_. Men are symbolized with action/arousal: spice, peppers, saltiness. Me, I use a mixture of bay rum and anise extract. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/create-a-manly-shampoo-scent/627389/26 "2012-07-09T17:27:46Z")
The scent of [orange spice tea](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sgB4KcCgL._SL500_AA300_PIbundle-4,TopRight,0,0_AA300_SH20_.jpg). I know, I know, it is a foodstuff, but not a girly one. I do like both Bay Rum and Royall Lyme as well. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/create-a-manly-shampoo-scent/627389/27 "2012-07-09T17:31:37Z")
> [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](#): > > The idea is to attract women. So new shoes, wine boxes and cell phones. How 'bout just money? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/create-a-manly-shampoo-scent/627389/28 "2012-07-09T17:32:01Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > The scent of [orange spice tea](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sgB4KcCgL._SL500_AA300_PIbundle-4,TopRight,0,0_AA300_SH20_.jpg). I know, I know, it is a foodstuff, but not a girly one. > > I do like both Bay Rum and Royall Lyme as well. Royall Lyme is a very nice complement to the pine tar. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/create-a-manly-shampoo-scent/627389/29 "2012-07-09T18:53:06Z")
Petrichor. Or how parched earth smells after the first shower of rain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/create-a-manly-shampoo-scent/627389.md?page=1)