Asklemmy

How do you know they all weren't wearing it?

There are a lot of people who do wear it but continue to smell because of underlying medical conditions. For example, fruity smelling body odor can indicate diabetes. People with a rare genetic condition called Trimethylaminuria can smell strongly of fish. It all depends on what bacteria (which outnumber your own body cells by 10 to 1 even though they are only 2% of your body mass) and what balance of enzymes you may or may not have.

Reducing perspiration can and often does help, concealing the odor with different ones can help, but sometimes people's bodies just aren't right for whatever mass produced product they have bought. Sometimes that can be fixed with medication. Sometimes it can't.

Regular deodorant works just as well as antiperspirant for stopping scent, and if you don't sweat all that much, there is relatively little difference.

Do you mean deodorant? I don't use antiperspirant because it actually makes me sweat more in my experience. I'm not alone on this either.

So here is what I've noticed.

The acceptance of sweat BO is partly a cultural thing. At my workplace we have people from all over the world, and there are certain parts of the world where it is clearly uncommon to wear deoderant. Both men and women, although I have noticed it far more with men. I guess if everyone had natural BO, it wouldn't seem so unusual.

This is not to be confused with uncleanliness, I'm sure these people shower, the scent is purely one of sweat from hard physical labor. It is never better or worse, but always the same and in fact, you can identify people by their particular unique scent.

Some people don't sweat that much. For example, I have to use antiperspirant to avoid body odor but my wife don't need to use one and I can't smell odor.

This is probably related to this genetic trait. I have wet earwax and body odor, while my wife has dry earwax and no body odor.

Quote from the article:

In general people with the non-functioning ABCC11 variant don’t need to wear deodorant.

As many others have said, the choice is not between antiperspirant and nothing. I use deodorant but no antiperspirant.

Deodorant user here. I smell great because of it. I didn't like antiperspirant because I also found I smelt worse because of it and it never really stopped the sweat very well anyways.

Something you may not factor in though is people expire at different rates. Also, some people smell worse than others regardless of expiration time and some perspire more.

I've never once noticed someone's body odor. On the other hand, some who just finished showering using a fruity shampoo reeks imo. Ditto for people who use perfume or cologne. And those often can also cause allergies for many people...

I'm allergic to aluminum-based antiperspirants, and I didn't know there was another kind for a long time, so I've always just used deodorant. It has never been a problem for me.

Apparently antiperspirant is not that good for you so I did quit using it for a year or so after the pandemic so I was at home anyways. I would use more natural deodorant without aluminum or anything bad but maaaaaaaaaan my pits stunk and washing with soap didn't even eliminate it. After I started using it again because I couldn't even stand my own BO it disappeared immediately. I don't always shower every day and don't put it on except after showering and drying off and the smell after 2 days without a shower is much more pleasant than half an hour after showering during the time period I wasn't using it. Why that is, idk. You wouldn't think it would be that bad especially if I was showering. I would even try stuff like vinegar on my pits but it didn't help.

My nose/sinus/throat is all very sensitive to perfumes and aerosols these days, and even if it's not strong enough to close my throat up and choke me, it still tends to make me feel sick. I've not used any spray and rarely any smelly stuff for over a decade.

Most soaps and some shower gels are fine though, so there's no problem with starting a day "clean".

On the morning train, you can normally smell people who use deodorant instead of washing. It's quite hard to describe - air freshener in a festival toilet? Artificial sweeteners on a stilton cheese? Anyway, if their perfume isn't strong enough to physically harm me, I don't care.

I used spray deodorants as a teenager, and unscented roll-ons for many years after - but after stopping using it, I found, like the couple you mentioned, that I didn't sweat as much, and the sweat that was there didn't smell as bad. Oddly enough, anecdotal evidence suggests my natural smell increased my attractiveness quite significantly. Of course, all of these may have just been coincidental factor of age/hormones/circumstances etc though.

I was a bit paranoid for some years, and always asked/checked with trusted people "do I smell?". I found I can smell myself when I do.

My work is sometimes quite physically demanding, so during the ~two months a year when it's potentially warm (Northern UK), you can get a bit sweaty - but so is everyone else. If you really feel the need, a quick armpit wash in a sink at lunchtime, or a "festival shower" with a wet-wipe would sort that out.

Anyway, so the rough answer is "There is less body odour. You get used to what's there. Most of it smells quite pleasant, sometimes even to the extent of it being animalistically magnetically attractive"

I don't use deodorant or antiperspirant, and have not for years (decades even). I have asked and no-one has said I smell bad - although I'm not a heavy sweater. If I have worked out/done heavy exercise then I'll generally shower if I can, but even if I don't it's not a rank smell, just a 'musk' ( I have asked). I've worked with a guy that did use antiperspirant/deodorant and by half way through the day he was rank...

I definitely have BO, but I can't smell my own, typically. however, I also just don't find the smell of sweat/BO particularly offensive.

I've started using not an antiperspirant, but a substance that acts like a deodorant, because my partner is VERY sensitive to smells and mine apparently sets her off pretty badly.

Artificial scents make me break out, dry my skin out (in a bad way), gives me headaches, cause rashes, and/or cause excessive itching. Nickle, which is in many deodorants, causes rashes and chemical burns, literally had my neck bleed from a shit nickle necklace. Most deodorants will literally hurt me. Sure there are more "natural" ones, but they always feel gross or smell gross.

Sorry if it bothers you, but I'd rather not bleed from my arm pits.

Also people that use axe spray in small spaces, e.g. elevators, can get fucked.

ITT: Stinky liars.

Normal body smell is not harmful. People need to get over this weird idea that we are not animals.

Anti-perspirant makes the rest of my body sweat a lot more as suddenly I can’t just use my pits to cool my body.

Antiperspirant is one thing. Very few people use one without a fragrance though. I would rather smell basically any normal body odor over awful perfume crap, personally.

Anti perspirant makes many people smell more. Not less

I usually wear deodorant (which generally has an antiperspirant in it), but there are days when I don't/haven't; in this limited experience I've noticed I would generally smell worse if I haven't been active. It seems like being up and moving around and sweating from 'labor' rather than sitting and sweating (not sure how to word that) is less likely to significantly smell. With all that said, I do try to shower after the gym or when I return inside after working on significant outdoor projects.

P.S., another data point to consider is the individual's age, as hormone levels (generally tied to age) could also influence perspiration

Antiperspirant simply doesn't work with my job. In the summer months, I generally sweat from every pore for 8 hours and then I get to go home. It would be like trying to dam a river with a stone.

Deodorant on the other hand I keep on me, as it has a tendency to wash off before the day is done.

Say what you want about your preferred method of avoiding body odor, but this one works for me. And as for those who are saying something about 'natural sweat before trying to cover it with anything', that was definitely not the case for me. I still remember getting pulled aside sometime towards the end of third grade and being told I had to do something about my body odor.

I wear almost everyday unless I'm going nowhere. No I don't smell it til day 3 or 4.

Nose blindness is a thing.

dont like the smell. antiperspirants come in a wide variety of scents and, to me, they all smell fake, off putting. i sweat, I shower. is normal

Holy crap, there’s a kid at work…he’s really ripe. He’ll leave a room and you can still smell him 5 minutes later. He literally takes your breath away. How can he not smell himself???

I stopped using it probably two years ago or so, I am in my mid 30s. Frankly, after your teenage years, you don’t notice it as much. Puberty makes those things a lot worse.

I’m not saying, I smell like sunshine and rainbows, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was, and it’s just one less thing to purchase/worry about. I practice good hygiene and I’m not generally up in somebody’s face. If I know it’s going to be a very sweaty day or I’m going to be in close proximity, I will occasionally bust it out, but that is basically once every 4 to 6 months at this point.

I don't stink. People are generally surprised when I tell them I only use nothing or 'passive' deodorant.

I don't use anything but water under my arms. I found that after a while my armpits stopped smelling as bad. Maybe I'm just lucky. It's all about bacteria. The sweat itself has no odor but the bacteria unde your arms feast on the sweat and starts producing smelly "farts". I found that over time I build up bacteria that doesn't smell and bacteria that actively remove any smel, so if I smell from stress sweat it'll dampen down quite a bit over the following hour or so. Treat your armpits like a sour dough in your fridge. It's a set of healthy bacteria you don't want to accidentally kill. Interesting enough if I use soap to wash every day my armpits starts smelling stronger again so for daily wash I basically just use a lot of water and rince each armpit for a solid 30 sec to a minute each rubbing with my hand. Soap kills the good bacteria too and makes it worse. If you use any only use a tiny little bit. I also found that shaving my armpits makes me smell so much more and it's uncomfortable too because I can feel the sweat drip down because it has nothing to cling too and cool you down which is exactly what it's ment to do, so I basically just let my hairs be and it helps me sweat less and smell less. I'm lucky I don't have that much hair but I'd assume it could be trimmed rather than shaved for many. There's a reason we have hairs under our arms and they do serve an Important function. For me gone are the days of yellowed t-shirts from deodorant and Gone are the days of allergy inducing perfume.

I stopped using deodorant when I moved from the Gulf Coast to the PNW mountains near BC. I just don’t sweat much in drier climates, but I do bathe or shower every day and I shave my armpits plus I use a deodorant soap. I think if I stopped shaving or didn’t shower every day, I’d probably still need deodorant?