Is DD weird?

Why are they discussing washing habits? Can’t say I’ve ever given a rats ass about who washes when 🤷🏼‍♀️

She should have a flannel wash in between showers so she isn't putting new deodorant on top of old deodorant. This will also make her smell, using wet wipes after the loo will keep her fresh.

I've always showered every other day, with the exception of if I'm on my period or after exercise.

She's totally normal.

Kids are cruel and fitting in is always a priority for them. I would simply tell her thousands of people wash every other day and in many other countries it's less than that. But if she wants to shower everyday, it's only a quick one (no hair) on the alternate days to save water as otherwise it's bad for the environment. She can then relay that if the little darlings continue to go on about it. The environment isn't going to make itself sustainable, people have to make change.

When we were teens there was a conversation about how people had showers before bed and used deodorant. I must have looked confused because someone jumped on it and said oh my god when do you shower? And I said sometimes in the morning, sometimes just after school. There were loads of ‘really?’s’ and I felt like crap and started doing that for a while. Terrible how people can get into your head!

There are some questionable threads around at the moment.

I'm not going to share my teenage daughter's showering habits, OP, but maybe you have enough replies now anyway.

I read the study.

I also have a working nose, and teens do smell - 'yes' to musky, goaty, like urine, cheese, strong sandalwood. I can't think of a worse stench than a room full of unwashed teens, whether boys or girls. Maybe a barn full of goats.

While these threads make me despair a little, it’s what I love about MN - so fascinating to hear what other people think and how they live their lives. Honestly to me this is mental and I can’t imagine living with people who think like this. And you would think the same about me I am sure! I also can’t imagine anyone I know thinking like this, but who knows as I’ve never asked. It’s only on a forum like this we learn these things, and it’s just informative. I don’t need to change and neither do you (as long as we don’t want to sleep together of course ).

How would people even know?

Some people bloody reek and do need to shower three times a day (most MN users) but not everyone does. Your daughter is not a weirdo. Her friends don't sound great though.

Interesting I knew someone that wore the same office clothes two days in a row but it was so she didn't give to think about outfits.

Some people notice & some don’t. Used to work with a woman who would frequently come to work 2days in a row wearing same clothes, sometimes w same stain from previous lunch, and really not fresh looking but extra strong perfume .
Everyone talked about this behind her back - did she spend sexy night somewhere, sleep in her clothes? Just pick up what was on the floor?
I bravely mentioned it to her and she just laughed —- saying “you’re silly no one notices things like that!!”
Literally, everyone noticed. Personally, if I’m going to be topic of conversation, prefer it not be about my hygiene and dirty blouse.

People SEE and Smelll the people around them,

Teenagers smell. Believe me, if you have ever taught a room of them after they've had games you would know this.
I noticed this change of smell in myself again during menopause. I guess it must be the hormones.
A teenage boy who only showers three times a week and doesn't have clean clothes must absolutely reek. And it's neglectful

I'm British but have Scandinavian heritage (family)) and I think It is inherently the case that washing and cleanliness is important for public health, sanitation reasons. Your post suggests it wasn't that important in the past but my Grandma and Mum were quite persistent about it, they definitely weren't motivated by vanity. You have a Danish shower and don't waste much water. Equally, for hygiene reasons you are expected to shower naked before swimming as there is not as much chlorine in the pools. It is social responsibility to reduce illnesses and infections. So I don't see this as a competitive thing.

Why not get her one more shirt?

I mean it isn’t a rule but personally I do and would want my partner and son to. If you don’t shower or bathe daily do you at least wash your arm pits and bits with soap and water?!

And yet washing your hands when cooking wasn't even a considered thing until the 50s when mass produced chicken became a major food source after WW2 and the salmonella numbers spiked and still isn't really a thing in some countries.

OP daughter still uses scented oils and hygiene products thats not the same as daily showering.

Soaps have been around for a long time but not inherantly for personal scrubbing, they where used in the cleaning of pots, pans, linens not for having 'because your worth it' hair.

Public baths where NEVER a daily thing too.

I think her friends are being mean but do have a point.

Personally I would be encouraging my DD to be showering everyday. I assume she has periods? Really not very hygienic not to shower every day whilst on your period. Also teenagers have a smell about them - my DS started getting his teenage smell around 12 and that's when I started encouraging him to shower daily. Also unwashed hair can smell horrible!

I think it varies how often people need to shower but I would definitely get her another shirt and look at bar soap for under arms as it's so much better

Personally I shower every other day which works well for me but I REALLY shower - bar soap and wash everything from ears to in between toes, back brush and also use a bidet
Hair is twice a week

She's not weird at all. However - and I mean this kindly - she needs to learn when it's appropriate to share something and when to keep it to herself.
That was something personal that the others really didn't need to know.

Think you're slightly over-egging that pudding. The study is linked from the article, you should read it.

FFS.

If a teenage girl only showers every second day, she smells, and her hair probably smells too.

The increased smell of teens is a well known effect of puberty. I don't know why there are posters here who refuse to accept this basic and well observed fact.

Teens do not smell like fields of daisies or two week old babies.

Teen sweat contains aldehydes, steroids specific to pubescent and adolescents, and carboxylic acids. These chemicals are described as smelling of urine, musk, sandalwood, goats, cheese, and wax. Teens produce more of these chemicals than children and most adults, and they also produce more sebum than pre pubescent children and adults. The longer the sweat sits in the undisturbed sebum (oil), with bacteria attacking it as it sits, the stronger the stench. Bacteria work on sebum amd sweat all over the body. In the case of this teen, deodorant and body spray are added to the mix. The result is stench.

In plain language, teens need to shower daily.

In the case of this teen, deodorant and body spray, stale and fresh, are added to the mix. Other people have the right not to have to sit in a stuffy classroom near someone who last washed more than 24 hours previously, and is wearing the same shirt she wore yesterday or one that might have sat in a laundry basket with socks and underwear and damp towels since Monday. Even if a previously worn shirt has been hung up, it will smell.

www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/22/teenagers-armpits-smell-of-cheese-goat-and-urine-say-scientists

What a weird thread this is ....

What a bizarre post.

Yes, some teens smell. It's not an impossibility. Some adolescents, boys and girls alike, really honk. Adolescent sweat gands can be overactive.

There was a girl in my year in school whom you could smell across a classroom, and her siblings were similarly smelly. Her parents had no clue because the whole family had got used to it, and they believed in saving water. Finally, a teacher approached the parents because this woman was suffering from morning sickness, and the stench made her gag.

It is not fair on a teenage girl to send her to school every second day unwashed, coated in body spray both fresh and stale, and using only deodorant.

Everyone's hygiene needs are different. Whether or not you smell after one day without a shower is going to depend on:

• Age and hormonal changes
• Genetics - my body odour builds slowly, while my friend can barely go a half day without starting to smell
• General sweatiness
• Biological sex
• Sedentary vs active lifestyle
• How often you change the fabrics you come into contact with
• Whether you use toilet paper or a bidet
• Temperature and humidity
• Diet

I've lived with people who shower daily and yet are often very pongy because that's the way their genetics are. I've lived with people who bathe once or twice a week and don't stink. I've lived with people who shower but still smell like bum due to lax toilet hygiene.

And I know from personal experience that teenage girls can be very judgemental about showering. You can do everything "right" and shower once a day and they'll still pick on you for showering in the evening instead of the morning. Once they consider you an outsider, they will do everything they can to make you feel like an outsider.

Kinda wondering how many pp were the bullies at school...

OP - nothing wrong with your daughter. The friends sound like dicks. Unless she actually smells I'm not sure what lesson you'd be teaching her to double her shower time cos her 'friends' said she should. Where does that end, exactly?

To the pp who said we should shower after every shit? I have 3 poos a day - so 3 showers, right? 21 showers a week? C'mon, just get some bum wipes.