So, I’ll preface this by saying that I do have a specific person in mind with this post; however, I haven’t seen him in about 20 years, have no plans to see him, and at this point I’m not that concerned with his well being so there’s no need to suggest a bathing intervention or anything - he is now stinking up other people’s lives.
Now then, I used to know a guy. I’ll call him Steve because that’s his name. Anyhow - at the time I knew him he was about 24 or 25 or so. Reasonably good looking guy, styled his hair daily, shaved his face often enough, wore stylish clothing and shoes.
However, Steve didn’t bathe. I think the entire time I knew him he may have showered once. This was an ongoing thing with him. I was dating his brother and picked Steve’s name in the X-mas pick a name thing - not knowing the guy at all I asked bro what to get him and bro suggested one of those fragrance gift packs where you get the bath gel, shave balm, etc, along with some cologne. Ok - fair enough. Steve was very unhappy when he opened it. ‘Bath products! Huh.’ and tossed it aside.
I didn’t get it until later when I found out that people regularly bought him bath products to spur him into cleaning himself. I was pissed at my BF, as an aside.
Steve once called his roommate into his room because there was something wrong with his feet. He showed roomy - his feet were red, and cracking and covered in white fuzz. The mother of all cases of athlete’s foot, apparently.
So, lets speculate - what the heck was up with this guy? Have you ever known anyone with similar habits? I can answer any questions about Steve if anyone has any.
Oh - and to be clear - Steve had access to bathing facilities as well as a variety of bathing products (as previously discussed) so lack of access wasn’t the issue, although I understand it could be for some people.
I’m going to guess mental disorder - water phobia, maybe? A “normal” person doesn’t avoid bathing long enough for fungus to grow to visible proportions on their feet. I should say, I am too scared to look at pictures of athlete’s foot - it doesn’t normally cover your feet in white fuzz, does it?
For normal people who don’t bathe it’s because they don’t know that they need to. I’ve met people who said they didn’t wear deodorant because they didn’t need it, even though I could tell, from five feet away that they did.
The obvious question is: didn’t anyone ever ASK him: hey steve, why don’t you bathe?
(I jsut read today that bathing daily is actually bad for you, from a disease standpoint, because it breaks down your “horny layer” of skin, which protects you. I stopped bathing every day after I went through menopause and I realized that my once-oily skin had done a reversal on me and is now very prone to dryness, as is my hair. So as long as the weather is cool and I haven’t exerted myself, I prefer to avoid stripping my skin and hair on a daily basis.)
Wow. This guy sounds really bad. My first instinct would be a phobia since he didn’t even try to clean his fungi-fied feet.
But I do have a somewhat related story. My long distance ex girlfriend didn’t bathe the entire time she stayed over at my house the first (and last) time. She didn’t smell bad, but she looked dirty, and used a lot of perfume. However, since it was not something I noticed about her when we met at choir camp, I suspect she was just freaked or grossed out about using someone else’s shower.
I later found out she was all sorts of crazy, and had just been hiding it from me.
Sound less like Athlete’s foot and more like very dry skin. I get this in my flat in the winter, it’s REALLY dry. The skin on my feet turns red and dry and then it itches and the white stuff, I’m willing to bet, is dried skin that is flaking off. Normally when you bathe, it comes off in little bits, so you don’t notice.
As for why people don’t want to bathe, beats me, I only wish to God I had a tub in my flat, I’d live in it. All I got is a shower
I’d say depression, except that he was styling his hair and all that. I’m chronically depressed/bipolar, and I’ve heard that aversion to bathing is common in bipolar disorder. I love the feeling of being fresh and clean but I really hate to shower and brush my teeth. I have to force myself to do it.
I have a water phobia, so I don’t bathe as often as is typically expected. However, it is a necessity so I bathe regularly (two or three times a week). It’s probably not a very pleasant experience for people on occasion, but I try to be considerate and bathe enough to not be horrendously offensive to the nose.
Yeah, apparently some people can’t smell themselves. Or they think that if they wear enough perfume/cologne/deodorant that it’ll cover up the stench. Instead you get Eau de Dirty Human PLUS Cheapass Cologne.
However, I gotta say that Steve’s brother should have known better than to suggest a fragrance set. Sure, Steve NEEDED to bathe (or shower) but it’s clear that nothing short of being dragged into a tub by a half dozen burly people and scrubbed on a regular basis would take care of his problem.
I’m pretty sure that Steve’s brother knew EXACTLY what he was doing and did it to shame his brother into bathing, ignoring the fact that I would be the one who looked like a bitch. He was kind of a dick that way.
Regarding the athlete’s foot Guin, I never saw it but I was told it was like actual mold growing on his feet. The roomy was a lifeguard and so he knew from athlete’s foot - I don’t think dry flaking skin was the issue - I’m pretty sure it was full on rotting feet.
FWIW, Steve never washed his clothing either, or changed his under things (socks/underwear). He would go to work as a fry cook, come home, take off the gross, greasy fry clothing and put on his going out outfit.
However, he always styled his hair, used and electric razor so his face was smooth, wore stylish clothing, etc. That’s the weird thing - he took time with is appearance, he just didn’t clean himself.
Ugh, that is just gross. I’ve been known to go a week sometimes without bathing due to laziness or depression or whatever, but when I can smell myself that’s when it’s time to bathe.
