# Old person smell - its real **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 2, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999 "2012-07-02T14:16:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/41 "2014-05-06T00:20:24Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > Different life stages have different smells. Ever smell a clean, newborn baby? > > Dirty newborn babies also have a distinctive smell. Sometimes I wonder how the human race has survived when I smell that spit up and poopy pants smell. > > My mother said sixth grade was her least favorite grade to teach because of the smell of the students. > > I’m wondering, other than the disease issue, how much this has to do with not taking a bath. It’s difficult for the elderly to stay clean. > > Collectively a room full of thirty-year olds can smell pretty ripe after a few days of not bathing. Different smell but still not appealing. Acrid sweat, sebum and menstrual blood. > > Some posts teeter close to ageism, prejudice that’s still relatively safe. That’s a funny thing, in my opinion. We’re not all going to get fat, change our sexual preference or skin color but, if we’re lucky, we’re all going to get old. Laughing/sneering our fears away? Sorry, but not everyone gets old. I had some friends that didn’t. They died (young). ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/42 "2014-05-06T06:29:32Z")
My great grandparents were the last generation of my family to have old-person smell. They were born in the late 1800s, and for the almost 100 years they were around, never accepted newfangled notions about daily bathing. I read an article a few years ago about how Japanese schoolgirls openly mock men over 40 who have the dreaded old-person smell. Japan can be a cruel place. ---
**Author:** ![Gretel\_burps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@Gretel\_burps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretel_burps)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/43 "2014-05-08T05:52:26Z")
I have noticed that old Men tend to smell like urine while old Women do not smell that much. I have to ask: why the smell of urine? ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/44 "2014-05-08T10:09:31Z")
I’m 74 and male. I smoke cheap cigars. They disguise they “old folks” smell. Advise your older family members/friends to smoke cheap cigars. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/45 "2014-05-08T13:43:53Z")
> [@Gretel\_burps](#): > > I have noticed that old Men tend to smell like urine while old Women do not smell that much. I have to ask: why the smell of urine? I’ve noticed that older women with stress incontinence wear pads or adult diapers to absorb urine well enough to lock away the odor, while more men insist on underwear, which doesn’t. Eta: it may be that greater volume of incontinence, more likely in women due to physiology, is actually motivating them, so more urine leads to choices which produce less urine odor than just a few drops of leaking several times a day. ---
**Author:** ![ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisUsernameIsForbidden)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/46 "2014-05-08T14:22:01Z")
My gramma smoked so it was mothballs and marlboro lights and burnt coffee. ---
**Author:** ![ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisUsernameIsForbidden)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/47 "2014-05-08T14:27:27Z")
> [@steveroo](#): > > I’m only in my late 50s, but first thing tomorrow I’m going to buy a giant-size bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Soap and a loofah. Maybe I’ll do it right now; **Walgreens** is open 24 hours. Trader Joes and Whole Foods carry this soap at a reasonable price. Oh, I forgot you’re old, and never heard of those places. Where do you buy your clothes, JC Penney? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/48 "2014-05-11T02:31:00Z")
> [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](#): > > Trader Joes and Whole Foods carry this soap at a reasonable price. Oh, I forgot you’re old, and never heard of those places. Where do you buy your clothes, JC Penney? > 😃 Drive all the way across town when there’s a Walgreens on every corner? What do you think I am, some kind of hot-rodding juvenile delinquent? And what the fuck is wrong with JC Penney? They have an outstanding selection of plaid pants. Oh, and get off my lawn. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/49 "2014-05-11T02:38:38Z")
I’ve never noticed this smell around my 93 year old grandpa and 87 year old grandma who live together in a small duplex. I have smelled “old person” smell in other elderly people’s homes though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999.md?page=2)