# Let's ponder what's up with people who don't bathe regularly. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 10, 2011, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-ponder-whats-up-with-people-who-dont-bathe-regularly/577843 "2011-04-10T05:26:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-ponder-whats-up-with-people-who-dont-bathe-regularly/577843/161 "2017-03-22T08:06:48Z")
Heh. The funk of 40,000 years. Read half of the 1st page before seeing the date. Then I saw **Norinew’s** name and got all sad. To add to the funk, I’ll admit that I sometimes skip a day on weekends, but any more than that is just icky. ---
**Author:** ![memyselfandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@memyselfandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/memyselfandi)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-ponder-whats-up-with-people-who-dont-bathe-regularly/577843/162 "2018-03-16T02:35:55Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > FUZZ? As in like, mold? I’m sorry but this made me laugh out loud!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! ---
**Author:** ![memyselfandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@memyselfandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/memyselfandi)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-ponder-whats-up-with-people-who-dont-bathe-regularly/577843/163 "2018-03-16T02:39:30Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I dispensed Drysol, a prescription antiperspirant (which is not the same as deodorant) several times when I worked in retail pharmacy, and recommended it to people who inquired. They were usually embarrassed about their sweaty palms and soles, but it can be used any place on the body where excessive drenching sweat is a concern. It can be prescribed by any physician, or even a PA-C or ARNP, and I never encountered an insurance company that didn’t pay for it. Even so, it wasn’t all that expensive, and people generally didn’t use it every day either. > > And I used to know a very sweet elderly woman who was clean, but she had a very peculiar odor that was a combination of BO, cooking odors, and God knows what else. :eek: I was at the library one time and got on the elevator, and knew she was in the building…and I was right. I told my parents about her, and my mother said that when she was a kid, Grandma had a friend who was like that. Older people have been raised to shower maybe twice a week if that. When they were young…water wasn’t cheap and many older people had to bathe in houses without water supply. They’d heat water on the stove and pour it into a big thing they used for a bathtub (they didn’t have regular bathrooms back them; but outhouses where they did their business…). Gross as it might sound…many were lucky to bathe once a week or less…Bleh!! ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-ponder-whats-up-with-people-who-dont-bathe-regularly/577843/164 "2018-03-16T03:49:38Z")
Realizing that the OP is from 2011, my thoughts would be depression, mental illness, phobia, lazy. RE: Body odor. [There’s a gene for that](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-lucky-two-percent-of-people-have-a-gene-for-stink-free-armpits-2508106/). Supposedly most Koreans have this gene, hence an almost non-existent deodorant market. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-ponder-whats-up-with-people-who-dont-bathe-regularly/577843.md?page=8)