Ok, I agree that strong artificial fragrance is offensive and accept that strong natural body odor is not offensive to you. I hope you will at least accept as fact that it is not the cultural norm in the US and that to many, strong body odor is offensive.
I agree. In fact, I have the same criteria for natural body odor and artificial fragrance. Neither should be evident outside of your personal space. If I can smell either from three feet away or more, it’s a problem. I don’t want to smell your cheap-ass aftershave, your expensive cologne, your armpits or your crotch. And crotch odor applies to all human beings. Some guys think as long as their pits are okay, they’re all good. Those guys are often seriously, horribly incorrect.
I didn’t say centuries. I think it’s fair to say that something that was unacceptable in your parent’s generation and possibly changed during your grandparents generation or before qualifies as social mores that are generations old, especially if there is a mature generation younger than you. My own anecdotal experience as a forty-something with grandparents born in the early 20th century is that none of them tolerated body odor by the time I showed up in the 1970s.
To me, being clean means being more than free of dirt. It means being clean of dirt and odor causing bacteria thriving on your body. And make no mistake, sweat doesn’t smell. The bacteria that thrive in warm moist places on your body is what smells. I’m cool with people who don’t agree with me up until the point that their bacterial party becomes unpleasant for me to be around. I think that’s the point of this thread.
If you want to smell a bit natural if I get into your personal space, that’s fine. Your prerogative. If you smell enough to stink up an elevator or offend people three feet away or more? You’re probably not doing yourself any favors and likely interfering with your own success in both employment and social endeavors.
Agrees with my earlier remark that the current American “paranoia” (Broomstick’s word) is all or mostly a Miracle of Modern Marketing. Right up there with those other frightful terrors, Rings Around The Collar And Bathtub.
Bathing seems to be in the news of late. Seen just this afternoon on Yahoo: Do You Really Need To Shower Every Day?, Grace Gold, Yahoo News, Jan. 14, 2015, responding to the uproar over Nava Rivera’s recent remark that daily showering is “a white people thing”:
Back in the 90’s I remember deviating from my favorite laundry detergent, Cheer, and trying a box of Tide. Man, that stuff made me smell like a pack of cats pissed on me.
Have never and will never buy another box of Tide again. Back to the good old Cheer.
Well, aside from the fact she seems to be generalizing from one white person to all of them (hmm… what do we call generalizing from one member of a group to all members of that group…?), I sort of agree with her.
Don’t get me wrong - there ARE times when showering frequently makes sense. There have been times when I showered 2-3 times a day but all of those involved situations where I was working outside in filthy conditions in high heat. I was genuinely dirty and sweaty whether I had actually started stinking yet or not.
But for most people, if they’re just sitting and not exerting themselves, don’t need to shower every single day. They might be in the habit of doing so, they might feel better doing so, but they don’t need to do it. Not even for the comfort of others because if you do shower every other day, don’t exert yourself physically, and wear antiperspirant you’re still not going to stink up the place (with the note there are some exceptions based on personal chemistry).
In my experience, black people are just as much into showering as white people. If not more. It may be a Western thing, but I wouldn’t say a “white” thing.
Now, black people don’t wash their hair every day. I’ve encountered more than a few horrified expressions when I tell (white) people that I only wash once a week. But if I washed my hair on a daily basis, my hair would be so dried-out and frizzy that I would be horrified. Hair oils can actually be a good thing.
Yes, well, a lot of white people have a lack of understanding that between actual structural differences (hence, the different texture) and some of the very harsh treatments some black people subject their hair to, black hair has very different care needs than theirs.
Just selling “ethnic” hair care products has been an education for me.
Also, some of those white girls who complain they can’t grow their hair long are having that problem from over-washing their hair, which leaves it so brittle it breaks off before it gets long.
I am kind of wondering about this new “dry shampoo” that’s starting to appear on the shelves, don’t know if that’s going to help or hurt.
Yes, I wash my hair every other day or every three days. E. Indian here, and I’m pretty sure I could get by with once a week, but then I’d never be able to get the brush through it (it’s thin and tangles super easy.)
You reminded me, I used Tide for the longest time, and loved the smell. But I soon found I was allergic to it! After much experimentation I discovered Arm & Hammer Sensitive Formula, which works well. But my allergies have only increased as I’ve gotten older.
I was kinda surprised when my wife told me she doesn’t wash her hair, ever. Except if she uses straightener she uses neutralizing shampoo. Her scalp is dry as a bone and has no odor. She actually puts on “oil” all the time(I don’t know what the product actually is).
Our son too, I once used baby shampoo on him and wow it created some kind of crazy flaking rash. Never again, and his scalp and hair feels DRY.
She once when I had not washed my hair for a few days was like why does your hair look wet, and she was shocked at how greasy it felt lol.
YUP, that is the one thanks. God that stuff, once when I was sick with pneumonia and everything smelled bad to me and I think I was surviving on milk alone I was in a food court that REEKS of it and I had to get out of there I felt I would vomit.
It almost certainly IS actual oil, no need for quotes. Sometimes they add things like scents, but a lot of the time even those are essential oils. Common ones at my store are olive oil, tea tree oil, and jojoba oil but there are others, blends, all sorts of variations.
When I was pregnant I was able to wash just fine (although shaving my legs was a different matter) but I kept thinking I smelled weird. I’d ask my husband and he’d look at me like I was crazy, but you know, hormones, right? It wouldn’t be strange if you did smell weird! For awhile in the beginning of the third trimester I was convinced I smelled a little like a small carnivore. Like an opossum or something. He said I didn’t but I’m not so sure.
I went out with a chick that did bathe regularly but her idea of bathing was running a bath, dumping a cup of scented bubble bath into the tub and sitting in it for 30 - 60 minutes. Like it was a ‘bath’ that eats rust off of steel or something, she figured, I guess, that the bubble bath was supposed to eat the stink off of her ass, it didn’t, and neither did I… unfortunately, she was kinda my type, except for the stank.
America was notorious for Germ Phobia before WWII. Certainly Post WWI – I don’t know prior to to that. And Hotel: An American History By A. K. Sandoval-Strausz tells me that “In 1885 a German author observed that in England in some hotels the American System of bedroom and own bathroom has been imitated”
When the inlaws break out the fish, it’s not “day old”: it’s aged. In English it’s called “dried fish”, but it’s obviously been fermented as part of the preservation process.
My office building is relatively small compared to most…the last time someone microwaved some stank-ass fish, the entire building reeked for hours. Glad we didn’t have customers in that day. I also remember the day one of the ladies reheated some chicken that smelled plain rotten; when a co-worker very tactfully asked what was in the microwave, the lady proudly said that it was chicken purchased at a substantial discount from a nearby grocery store.
Another notable food stench: the Wendy’s closest to my office doesn’t change their fryer oil very often. You can always tell when someone brings back Wendy’s for lunch. gag
One of the ladies in my company’s customer service department wears so much cologne that you can track her movements around the office by following the scent trail. I’ve never noticed any B.O. or hygiene issues with her; just the massive, massive amounts of cologne.
I also remember the day one of the ladies reheated some chicken that smelled plain rotten; when a co-worker very tactfully asked what was in the microwave, the lady proudly said that it was chicken purchased at a substantial discount from a nearby grocery store.