How do people not know they smell?

I smell of garlic for 24 hours - I generally don’t use it.

Also, companies like Dove sell whole body deodorant. So there’s no real excuse for it at all.

A bit of transient BO is tolerable as it’s v hot and sweaty atm so I’ll be forgiving, but that acrid smell of someone hasn’t washed for a long time is awful.

Usually these people do generally have mental or physical health conditions but it doesn’t mean it’s pleasant to be around! if not, then I truly don’t understand.

There was a bloke in Tesco pushing a kid in a trolley. He stunk out every aisle he went into. It was horrific like a mixture of grease, piss and sheer filth. Mind you, he looked grubby and so did the kid.

Europe does have bio and non-bio detergent

That Neglect goes hand in hand with poverty

nhs dentists may be available for children - if the adult is registered as a private patient , or on the other side of a city that someone with no money can only get to by a 4 hr round trip walk

neglect does go hand in hand with poverty as that goes hand in hand with depression and mental exhaustion trying to make ends meet. Who has time to nag a child when that takes effort and all your effort for the day has already been used up?

Talking about garlic sweat.
Somebody told me that if I wanted to avoid a colicky baby (DC1 had a bad case) I should drink fennel seed tea.
I started in week 38 and by the time DC2 was born it was coming out of my pores and into my clothes.
Not a day of colic,🤔 but even now the smell takes me right back to the early days…

My brother and his wife currently smell badly of BO.

She doesn’t believe in washing powder use around babies, so the whole household doesn’t use washing powder (or I suspect much soap) when they have a baby, and they currently have an 8 week old. I’m not sure showering is top of this list either.

I think they’re probably nose blind to it. It’s pretty grim.

Honestly I don’t know. I think it must be nose blindness though.

Theres a woman at work and she absolutely stinks of BO. It can’t be poverty because she’s on a very good salary.

Worked with another woman a few years before, she absolutely stunk, that unwashed musky, greasy, bin smell.

When I met dh he’d get really sweaty and stink if BO by the end of the day, he knew and was really embarrassed about it. It became apparent that he was using body spray rather than deodorant or anti perspirant. He simply didn’t realise. I got him some proper stuff and the problem was solved.

Growing up my parents smoked non stop and used a chip pan, we must have gone to school stinking but never realised.

I genuinely think people become nose-blind to their own odour. I've known 2 people who had to be taken aside aside at work and spoken to about personal hygiene who both reformed -so they both clearly did care but didn't know. One was a woman in her 30s who smelt terrible for years.

Tooth brushing is the bane of my existence. I've been brushing DS's teeth since before he had them, then came the screaming when I went near him with the toothbrush (6-18 months), and even now he hates it and tries everything to stop it (and still occasionally screams.) Daft child!

One of my exes used to only have one bath a week, and wouldn't shower. He also thinks sharing bath water is acceptable!

OP, this happened to me in a supermarket. That’s bad enough, but it was a member of staff!

It's often people's clothes rather than their bodies - if their clothes aren't being washed properly. It's hard to get a smell out of clothes if you don't have access to a washing machine.

Also, trainers. I was in a supermarket during the heatwave last month (where I live the heatwave was relatively brief) and there was a man whose trainers were stinking to high heaven - it was very obviously a 'trainers' smell, I have no idea what the rest of him smelled like as the trainers overpowered everything, but he didn't otherwise look unkempt, he was well dressed.

That isn't poverty, it's severe neglect.

There are still NHS dentists for children. Dentists have packs they can give out, toothpaste/brush. They will offer extra to children who they know won't get toothbrushes bought for them. Foodbanks/community groups have hygiene packs. It's neglect/abuse, not poverty. It could be MH in the parent's case, but support is available.

😆🤣

My dad sometimes smells. Not extremely bad but enough that I can smell it when he moves near me. He has extremely sensitive skin and showering everyday leaves him sore. He has tried every deodorant/antiperspirant going including the natural salt rocks and they all leave the skin raw and blistering. He washes/showers as often as his skin allows it. Can I also add that he has no sense of smell at all, never has. He's excellent at changing dirty nappies lol

What are you wearing that it takes you two minutes to get it off?!

I’m declaring this thread full of stinky buggers who want to make excuses instead of getting in a shower.

It isn't always. I've worked in DV services and there's a lot of men who use their body odour/pissing all over the bathroom etc as a form of abuse.
An old neighbour started to not put clean clothes on, or wash. I offered to do his washing, thinking that he was struggling. He was of the opinion that it wasn't fair that he was on his own, so he wasn't going to be fair to the World. He'd been abusive to his wife and children. His daughter had to give him the ultimatum that he either puts on the clean clothes she's bought him, or he doesn't come.
Then there's entitlement and laziness, that seems to hit some men over 50 and another strange phenomenon, I've had to ask my DP why he suddenly thinks that his clothes don't need washing. He didn't have an answer. He has lost most of his sense of smell.
If it is wee, then it can be bladder issues and not affording pads. There's period help, but not tena. I think that it should be addressed at school/training, even at the job centre etc.

I've only ever noticed people who really smell occasionally, a couple of times it was a urine smell on someone very elderly and a couple of times strong BO coming from somebody.

The worst though was a woman in a big supermarket who absolutely stank of garlic, it must have been pouring out of her skin and breath as several other people visibly moved away from her. She appeared totally oblivious, was not badly dressed or particularly elderly either. She just reeked.

Some people have conditions that mean they smell despite all their best efforts.

I am more likely to have to cross the road to avoid an over chemical smell - too many products - that triggers asthma - than a BO smell which is just ( very) unpleasant

I do the former regularly and the latter not even yearly

Part of me was gleeful (I'm only human!)

But my ds and her ds where best mates (he is a lovely lad-i have to give her credit for that)

I just saw it as her karma (I don't believe in karma as such-its just the closest word I can think of)

She was the sidekick to the real bully who has the most miserable life ever now

Both have left me with a hatred of bullies and I will stand up to them and always stick up for the underdog (as a few have learned over the years)

My DS’s former TA always stank of BO. It was so bad I was paranoid people would think it was me when we stood chatting or whatever. She was otherwise clean- hair looked washed and tidy, nails done, clean clothes etc but really bad smell. Presumably bad or no deodorant and they become nose blind, I don’t know. I think some people shower in the morning and don’t put deo on believing the wash is adequate.

Ten seconds to get clothes off - WTF are you wearing to disrobe so quickly? 🤣 I'm envisaging those male stripper trousers! The 20 seconds to get out and towel off - do you not get dressed afterwards? I hereby declare the literally 2 minute shower the equivalent of the Mumsnet legendary chicken

Your last paragraph - I wonder too if that's the case (ie getting acclimatised to your own smell). It's like when I'm in a smokey atmosphere, it reeks and I'm very conscious of it. To begin with... Then I'm acclimatised to it and don't realise how much I'm smelling until 1) taking my clothes off when home, and 2) waking up in the morning, wondering what the smell is and realising it's my hair. Ugh

It literally does. Ten seconds to get clothes off. 90 under hot water. 20 to get out and towel off.