# When going on a date, bathing is recommended. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 12, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900 "2003-07-12T04:10:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/21 "2003-07-12T17:47:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > \*\*Oh, and this reek was well beyond simple I-showered-this-morning-but-had-a-long-hot-day reek (and it wasn’t even hot here yesterday). This took me back to packed-like-sardines-on-a-bus-in-Leningrad-during-a-period-of-soap-and-detergent-rationing-at-short-person-armpit-height-to-tall-Slavs reek. \*\* Take heart-some single guys are concerned with personal hygiene, and don’t yak at length about their past. Ancient proverb: Crowded elevator smell different to midget. :eek: ---
**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:** [July 12, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/22 "2003-07-12T18:14:47Z")
I went on an internet date way back when with a guy who was kinda similar; we hit it off great, he was smart and funny and all that, but he was…how do I say this delicately? He had scum on his teeth. Not just “I haven’t flossed today” build-up, but large, thick layers of scum. As in “haven’t brushed my teeth since I was a kid and my mother made me” scum. I have to say, I can’t really remember what the rest of him looked like (not particularly great, IIRC), but I sure do remember the scum-covered teeth. The thought of kissing him gives me the creepy shivers to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Morrigoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@Morrigoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morrigoon)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/23 "2003-07-12T18:24:25Z")
I have a friend who’s guilty of all of the above - and he’s out there on the internet, folks. We, his friends, have to ask him to shower for us. This guy gets REALLY ripe in just a day, AND likes to rewear clothes, AND has nasty teeth, AND forms bubbles at the corners of his mouth when he talks, AND doesn’t seem to understand how disgusting it is to watch someone put drops in their eyes in public (which he does frequently due to his contacts drying out). This thread is cracking me up because, aside from the guy who opened the door in only a towel, you could all be talking about my friend, LOL. Oh wait, it really isn’t that funny, is it? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/24 "2003-07-12T18:27:47Z")
Oh, bah. Women _appreciate_ the masculine odours of a man who’s clearly been toiling at hard, physical, manly work, with no time for feminine fripperies like bathing. All the women I date tell me so. (Well, actually, what they say is “\ \ ackkk \ [sub]I have to go now[/sub] \”, but I know what they _mean_ … ) ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/25 "2003-07-12T19:09:55Z")
Fabienne to Butch, in **Pulp Fiction** : “I like the way you steenk.” Well, **I** wouldn’t! Insert \ nose-pinching smiley here ---
**Author:** ![Siegfried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Siegfried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siegfried)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/26 "2003-07-12T20:00:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by matt\_mcl \* > \*\*We finally got to the point of fooling around (I believe we were watching the finale of DS9), he took off his clothes, I got close up… \*\* Damn it, everyone seems to have gotten more action during the DS9 finale than I did. I got was a bagful of Lay’s potato chips dumped in my lap as I tried opening them. Not showering before a date, especially a first one with someone you’ve never met in person before, is just incomprehensible to me. I mean, that’s just icky. I’ve only been on one date ever in my young life, and it was with a woman I’d been friends with for almost four years. I spent the two hours before that date showering, scrubbing, brushing, shaving, combing, lathering, deodorizing, and sanitizing for it. Heck, I even took the iron to my undershirt and jeans. You have my sympathies, **Eva Luna**. What a bummer of a date. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/27 "2003-07-12T20:02:16Z")
What if he showered before the date, but was so nervous about meeting Eva Luna that he was sweating profusely? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/28 "2003-07-12T20:26:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tamerlane \* > \*\*My god, woman! Would you have him catch his death of the _ague_ or _bloody flux_, just to suit your peculiar upper-class sensibilities? Plenty of time to bath when the annual rains come again. 😛 > > - Tamerlane \*\* Bloody flux? I thought that onle women got that ;D ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/29 "2003-07-12T20:59:00Z")
Not a date, but when I was taking a Shakespeare class, I had one of these stinky guys that sat in front of me. And it was assigned frickin’ seating (part of the reason I hate assigned seating). So I’d have my head down, taking notes or something, and dude would lean back, which would compress his shirt like a bellows, and this WAFT of foul stench would hit me. Oh, god! It was awful. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/30 "2003-07-12T22:10:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steve Wright \* > \*\*Oh, bah. Women _appreciate_ the masculine odours of a man who’s clearly been toiling at hard, physical, manly work, with no time for feminine fripperies like bathing \*\* Ah, but how sweaty is one likely to get at work if one is a lawyer? Besides, “manly,” out-plowing-the-fields sweat has quite a different odor than three-day-old sweat. And since he wasn’t visibly sweaty and didn’t exactly have a physique that led me to believe he’s stopped off for a quick game of soccer after work, either a) he has some sort of medical problem, and apparently one which prevents him from wearing deodorant or changing into clean clothes, or b) he has no personal hygiene. Odds are it’s the latter. Mmmmm, soccer players… ---
**Author:** ![Carcosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@Carcosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carcosa)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/31 "2003-07-12T22:56:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > \*\*Ah, but how sweaty is one likely to get at work if one is a lawyer? > \*\* Oh, a lawyer. In that case a shower probably wouldn’t have made any difference. I’ve been lucky enough never to date a soap-challenged girl but we did have a guy in military school who refused to shower more than once every few days. We ended up giving him a good ( non-consensual) washing with some rather stiff brushes. He was never a problem after that and I think most of his skin eventually grew back. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/32 "2003-07-12T23:06:41Z")
**Eva** , by any chance was your date the guy who started this thread: [Damn Bitch, Why Should I Take a Shower, We Are Not Having Sex](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=176907)? ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/33 "2003-07-12T23:34:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dewey Cheatem Undhow \* > \*\ ***Eva** , by any chance was your date the guy who started this thread: [Damn Bitch, Why Should I Take a Shower, We Are Not Having Sex](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=176907)? \*\* Nope; this guy was at least polite and had a modicum of interpersonal skills, even if his judgement in other departments did kind of suck. And I can’t imagine him calling me a bitch. Although I suspect there is very little nookie in his future, and certainly none from me. ---
**Author:** ![Hugh\_Jass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4da419/32.png) [@Hugh\_Jass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hugh_Jass)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/34 "2003-07-12T23:49:08Z")
\take a shower? (scribble, scribble), brush teeth? (scribble) pleasant conversation? (scribble, scribble) This is gold, Jerry, GOLD! I am _so_ gonna score tonight. ---
**Author:** ![wireless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@wireless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wireless)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/35 "2003-07-13T00:01:58Z")
Well today my alumni magazine arrived in the mail, and it contained [this article](http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0703/0703gaz2.html) on how male armpit perspiration applied to the upper lip of ovulating women ( :eek: ) affected their mood - in a positive way! So maybe, **Eva Luna** , your date was just operating on the cutting edge of science! but still… :barfy: ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2003, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/36 "2003-07-13T00:10:17Z")
Well **Eva** that’s the last time I go out on a date with you!:mad: 😛 ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/37 "2003-07-13T00:31:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > **Ah, but how sweaty is one likely to get at work if one is a lawyer?** During my first semester of law school, the professor of my 8 a.m. class announced that all students were required to bathe regularly – he’d gotten complaints that one or two of our classmates were a little too ripe. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/38 "2003-07-13T00:49:36Z")
I must be lucky, because the only persons whose body odour I found offensive were my father’s and one of my sisters. Then I saw a program regarding the inate ability of related individuals to avoid mating due to olfactory influence, which made a lot of sense for me. This [site](http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1134/n7_v107/21084296/p4/article.jhtml?term=) outlines the study that precipitated this idea. > [@](#): > > A controversial finding, published in 1995, suggests that the sense of smell also plays a role in human mate choice. Claus Wedekind and colleagues, at the University of Bern, presented women with T-shirts imbued with the body scent of men with various HLA haplotypes. The women (who were not taking birth control pills and were in the middle of their menstrual cycle, and thus at their most fertile) preferred the T-shirts of men with HLA haplotypes unlike their own. The women also tagged these T-shirts as smelling like their current partners, suggesting that odor has something to do with their real-world mate choices. (Interestingly, women who were taking the pill–which simulates pregnancy–preferred T-shirts of men with HLAs like their own.) > > Rachel Herz and Elizabeth Cahill, also at Monell Chemical Senses Center, would not be surprised to find that women attempt to sniff out a genetically proper mate. Surveying both sexes about which senses are important, they found that “for females, how someone smells is the single most important variable” in choosing a lover. If odor does provide information about the immune system, it makes evolutionary sense for women to pay attention to smell: they have much to lose if they mate with an inappropriate male and give birth to a baby with a reduced ability to fight off disease. So if you find that the guy you are dating stinks, be grateful for the warning that you may be related to him. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2003, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/39 "2003-07-13T04:48:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by OpalCat \* > Bloody flux? I thought that only women got that 😃 😃 _bloody flux_ = charming medieval term for dysentery ( and probably cholera ) _ague_ = similarly origined term for malaria - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2003, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900/40 "2003-07-13T07:40:03Z")
Back when I was in my first year of med school, I did an elective in the Sleep Clinic–my first real clinical experience. I remember telling **CrazyCatLady** one night–“Baby, if we ever weigh a combined 750 pounds, and smoke six packs of cigarettes a day between us, and we finally have to go to the doctor to deal with the resulting sleep apnea, could we at least bathe sometime in the week before the appointment?” None of this was any exaggeration. I remember the nurse walking out of the exam room and watching as the waft of stench drifted across the room and registered on people’s faces. Some people really have no clue. Dr. J [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-going-on-a-date-bathing-is-recommended/187900.md?page=3)