# It's OK to smell. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 9, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075 "2011-10-09T15:32:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/61 "2011-10-10T13:23:25Z")
> [@Tracyfish](#): > > I don’t even know where to start with this list, so I guess I’ll just ask when it became snooty to bathe regularly? > > As far as the OP, I don’t recall ever being turned off by a guy because he smelled good, but I have been turned off by guys who smelled bad. Some women may be turned on by a man’s natural scent, but not all. I’m attracted to the way that some men smell, regardless of bathing habits. Other men don’t smell good, so they’re not attractive. Attractive men who smell good to me smell better when they’re sweating, but not if they’ve been stewing in their sweat for hours. How do I know this? I used to work out with a group of 10-15 guys, some of whom smelled disgusting as soon as they started to sweat, and some of whom I had to keep my distance lest I be turned on by their manly sweaty smell while trying to learn new skills-- it was a big enough distraction that it’d occasionally impede my progress. It’s purely pheromones working at that level, so I can’t control which people smell bad to me. That said, I make an effort to shower regularly, but I have a temperature range for which I put on deodorant; if it’s cool enough that I’m not going to sweat, I don’t need deodorant. If it’s warm enough that I’m really likely to sweat, deodorant is mandatory for me. I don’t really sweat unless it gets quite warm, and I don’t get smelly unless I’m working out strenuously and/or it’s been a few days since I’ve washed the mandatory parts ([the George Carlin standard](http://www.tagtele.com/videos/voir/46533): see the 5:24 mark) due to illness. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > Speaking of which, there is a beer called “Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout” which in one set of ratings got a 4.5 out of 5 for smell. Go figure. I happen to like Old Rasputin Imperial Stout-- it’s got a stronger, malty nose to it, but it’s definitely not for those who haven’t worked their way up to stronger, more bitter stouts. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/62 "2011-10-10T13:34:36Z")
Wasn’t there a study that said certain hormonal scent from men’s sweat keeps female healthy or something like that? ---
**Author:** ![Bloodless\_Turnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@Bloodless\_Turnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bloodless_Turnip)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/63 "2011-10-10T15:11:50Z")
Getting into bed without showering is just…gross. If you’re single then it _might_ be okay, if you’re not…it’s just gross. I can’t imagine how much someones head must stink after 6 weeks of not bathing. Gross. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/64 "2011-10-10T15:21:24Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Smelling of physical exertion, if you’re buffed, is ok. M or F. (Hear me, ladies?) > > Smelling of ass is never ok. > > Smelling of anything is not ok unless you’re buffed. So I can forgoe a shower so long as my Druid companion continually casts Bear’s Endurance upon me? ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/65 "2011-10-10T16:30:20Z")
I married my husband in part for his smell. He smells right to me. Other men do not. So I think that, to some extent, personal smell is underrated. However (big however), he showers every day. Thanks to his genetics, he quickly smells like BO if he doesn’t shower and use deodorant on a daily basis. His brother, who does not use deodorant (though showers daily) quickly fills an entire room with his stench. It’s absolutely repulsive. Anecdotally, I’ve yet to meet a woman who thought it remotely attractive for a man to go without showering for several days. But that’s just my circle of friends. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/66 "2011-10-10T19:47:47Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > YUCK. > > I’ve always been the type to shower every morning. SOMETIMES I shower at night and and set my hair (when it’s long) and then take a bath with a shower cap on in the morning…but I don’t even understand people who shower at night and then sleep for 8 hours in and wake up and think…oh hey, I already took a shower! > > Bleeech. Usually people can tell. I always shower at night, because that’s when I feel grodiest. I also have more TIME to get ready, and my hair needs to be completely dry to style, and a blow dryer would take up too much time. It’s not like I don’t get up and wash my face and brush my teeth and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/67 "2011-10-10T20:18:09Z")
I shower 4-5 times a week. I used to shower daily but my dermatologist told me not to bathe or wash so often because it was damaging my skin so I cut back and I haven’t run into any problems. I wear clean clothes and sleep on clean sheets so I don’t think skipping a shower every so often is the worst thing in the world as long as you are otherwise pretty clean. Brush your teeth, wear deodorant, and wash your clothes regularly and if you aren’t doing some type of physical labor during the day you should be just fine with showering every other day if need be. In my experience people who wear strong perfume or wash their clothes in heavily scented detergent smell way worse than someone who showers every other day. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/68 "2011-10-10T22:07:26Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Smelling of physical exertion, if you’re buffed, is ok. M or F. (Hear me, ladies?) > > Smelling of anything is not ok unless you’re buffed. This blanket statement was prompted by what, exactly? I’m not a fan of muscular builds. Not a fan of lean builds, either. In fact, the height and shape of a man I find is so varied I have no “type” to subscribe to. I like the way a clean, sweaty man smells _if_ I find him appealing, which is _not_ restricted to how he looks. At all. Can any ladies in this thread swear they are attracted to smelly men if they are muscular? Or attracted to all smelly, muscular men? Or attracted to all muscular men, smelly or not? Wait, didn’t we have a recent thread in which most responders claimed to be repulsed by overly muscular men, and quite a few who preferred a softer figure? C’mon, Doug, we women are far more complicated than you give us credit for. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/69 "2011-10-10T23:26:01Z")
[QUOTE=Grunthos the Flatulent] \*\*Ode To A Small Lump Of Green Putty I Found In My Armpit One Midsummer Morning \*\* ``` Putty. Putty. Putty. Green Putty - Grutty Peen. Grarmpitutty - Morning! Pridsummer - Grorning Utty! Discovery..... Oh. Putty?..... Armpit? Armpit..... Putty. Not even a particularly Nice shade of green. ``` . [/QUOTE] .. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/70 "2011-10-10T23:36:58Z")
As a gay man, I will say that sweat from physical exertion is a bit of a turn on, if the guy is attractive. But not days old BO, which is a completely different smell. I used to work for my dad’s roofing company, and some of his employees were in great physical shape and after a hard day’s work… well let’s just say I was a little uncomfortable sometimes! ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/71 "2011-10-11T00:50:44Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Hah! I say the same thing about people who shower in the mornings. I can’t imagine jumping into bed with the day’s crustiness on me. > > I think it depends if you’re a night sweater. I don’t sweat at night so when I wake up, I don’t feel grimy or dirty. But I do have excretions during the day. Unless I’m just too exhausted to do anything before falling asleep, all of that grime needs to be washed off before I dare get into bed and mess up my sheets. > > As long as some soap and water is touching your body SOME time during the day, I don’t think anyone will notice. What’s even worse is when people wear the same pjs all week. I change my pjs (and underwear…habit from the days when I had sex, I guess, haha, so I go through 2 a day) every night. EW to the people who don’t wash their sheets often, though. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/72 "2011-10-11T00:58:40Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > What’s even worse is when people wear the same pjs all week. I change my pjs (and underwear…habit from the days when I had sex, I guess, haha, so I go through 2 a day) every night. > > EW to the people who don’t wash their sheets often, though. I shower at night, and only change my pajamas and sheets once a week. (I do wear fresh underwear every night, though.) What do you imagine is going on in bed, other than sex, that is causing a person to become so disgusting? ---
**Author:** ![JessMagic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c0e974/32.png) [@JessMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessMagic)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/73 "2011-10-11T01:44:18Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > But even when I was a kid and we didn’t have a shower, I still took a bath every night. Or do you mean you didn’t even have a regular bath tub either? No, we had a bath tub. I didn’t bathe every night though! I’m fairly certain that I didn’t stink, and that my parents weren’t neglecting me, or doing anything out of the ordinary. I dunno, maybe things were a bit different back then. OK, kids shower daily, or even twice daily now. More people have access to showers and central heating now than they did in the 80s. Think I might be taken to the cleaners (puns - brilliant) on this one… ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/74 "2011-10-11T01:52:10Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > I shower at night, and only change my pajamas and sheets once a week. (I do wear fresh underwear every night, though.) What do you imagine is going on in bed, other than sex, that is causing a person to become so disgusting? Dead skin cells? Crappy hair? Sweat? For most people, there’s just a…look about them. It’s not _nasty_ per se, but it’s not _fresh_. At night, I wash my face, brush my teeth, put on clean underwear and pjs and climb into bed. My son sleeps with me (he’s six) and we have our own comforters. He sweats more than I do at night, but I’ve always been a morning shower-er. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/75 "2011-10-11T02:08:53Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Dead skin cells? Crappy hair? Sweat? For most people, there’s just a…look about them. It’s not _nasty_ per se, but it’s not _fresh_. > > At night, I wash my face, brush my teeth, put on clean underwear and pjs and climb into bed. My son sleeps with me (he’s six) and we have our own comforters. He sweats more than I do at night, but I’ve always been a morning shower-er. So you change your underwear at night and then again in the morning? That’s…interesting. (My mother allieviates this problem by not wearing underwear at all when she sleeps, and then bathing in the morning. I don’t think I would like this, but it makes more sense than changing my underwear after doing nothing for eight hours.) I also wear the same pjs for a week. Why? Because I take a shower right before I put them on, so I’m at my cleanest. It also makes for a smaller laundry load. If I changed pjs every other day or so, my laundry would quickly fill up. I really doubt you can tell who’s wearing the same pjs day after day and who’s not. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/76 "2011-10-11T02:11:34Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > I shower at night, and only change my pajamas and sheets once a week. (I do wear fresh underwear every night, though.) What do you imagine is going on in bed, other than sex, that is causing a person to become so disgusting? Um, dead skin, sebum, skin oil, sweat, saliva and toss in a microscopic bit of fecal matter (just because there seems to be a microscopic amount in damn near _everything):eek:_ ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/77 "2011-10-11T04:06:48Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > So you change your underwear at night and then again in the morning? > > That’s…interesting. > > (My mother allieviates this problem by not wearing underwear at all when she sleeps, and then bathing in the morning. I don’t think I would like this, but it makes more sense than changing my underwear after doing nothing for eight hours.) > > I also wear the same pjs for a week. Why? Because I take a shower right before I put them on, so I’m at my cleanest. It also makes for a smaller laundry load. If I changed pjs every other day or so, my laundry would quickly fill up. > > I really doubt you can tell who’s wearing the same pjs day after day and who’s not. I just like the feeling of fresh cotton undies. 😃 It’s just like the feeling of, “Mmm, I just brushed my teeth and my face is all tingly from the soap and it’s time for bed – ooops, can’t forget some soft cotton against my crotch!”) Or if I’m wearing ‘work underwear’ (you know, the appropriate kind for some of us, ahem), I change into ‘chillax underwear’ when I get home. (My son just takes his off. He HATES wearing underwear.) I guess I don’t live on the edge much. 😃 I change my tank/top every night but will go a few in the same sweat pants. I don’t re-use a night shirt without washing, though. You know what else is awkward? Women who only wear one bra…over and over again. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/78 "2011-10-11T04:42:11Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > I shower 4-5 times a week. I used to shower daily but my dermatologist told me not to bathe or wash so often because it was damaging my skin so I cut back and I haven’t run into any problems. \ I live in a very dry place, and I shower about every other day, too. Showering every day makes me feel like my skin is tight as a drum, and itchy as all hell. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/79 "2011-10-11T05:31:43Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I live in a very dry place, and I shower about every other day, too. Showering every day makes me feel like my skin is tight as a drum, and itchy as all hell. And lotion doesn’t help? ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075/80 "2011-10-11T11:52:18Z")
I can’t get in bed without a shower. And I have to wash and style my hair in the morning, so I end up taking two showers a day. If I’m not planning to leave the house except for my walk, I’ll skip the morning one. I’m not sure what happened to the little girl I used to be. She hated bathing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-ok-to-smell/599075.md?page=5)