Does anyone else smell this smell?

[mandymeans]

It's a smell of hair being blow dried

I don't know. I find it has a smell? I really like it and sometimes now blow dry my hair because of it

It's like a salon type smell. I don't know.

The second smell is the smell of ironing. I can smell that. And I really like that too!

Anyone else? I have asked elsewhere and got met with strange looks

I can smell all these things too - also assumed everyone could. My son can tell what I’ve cooked by the smell of my hair, even really specific things like “terriyaki pork - hmmm no, chicken”

I’ve always had a strong sense of smell and taste, it made me a fussy eater when I was a child - I could tell when the butter was different or if a piece of fruit was about to turn. It’s fine now I’m an adult, I like the strong smells and tastes, although I do have to empty the bin every day!

I also love memory smells - for me my mum is Chanel number 5. My dad is Castrol oil and the smell of a 2 stroke engine. School is dettol and something else. Summer is honeysuckle and cut grass. My wedding day is Tarte Au Citroen but that’s cheating as I chose it specially. Horses and roses are one particular holiday we had in France. My honeymoon is this amazing pine and jasmine smell.

One thing I can’t recall and I wish I could - my first son had SUCH a strong smell when he was first born. It infiltrated the whole house. But I can’t remember it! I know it’s in my brain somewhere but I don’t suppose I’ll ever smell it again now he’s 13! Maybe when he has a baby 😁

I completely get this. Since pregnancy it’s even more heightened (and I haven’t been pregnant for a long time)

i smell washing hung out on lines as a I walk by. I can smell laundry in the old folks home as a I cycle past. I love the smell of snow. Certain plants on hot days. Some people’s houses. Their house smells on their clothes.

to the PP - my newborns smelt delicious. Like warm biscuits. So do new born puppies if you can find one to sniff!

I loathe the smell of cares soap.

i can smell people who have digestive issues - on their breath and sweat.

Yes I read that, it's fascinating that some people have those super abilities.

Did you ever hear about James Harrison, the blood donor, he had really unique blood which could fight rhesus disease

I can smell when my children are sick and one had tonsillitis once and when I said to the Dr, I can smell the infection she didn’t seem surprised at all. I knew mine had more than a chest infection caused by a virus last year because I could smell it on him. It was pneumonia. My husband couldn’t smell it at all though!

I don’t know if it extends to other people though - my FIL has Parkinson’s and I’ve never picked anything up from him, smell wise.

@Ozgirl75 I was kept in the hospital for a few days after both babies and found the newborn smell on the ward almost overwhelming, like vanilla caramel... I remember saying to family members about it and no one else could smell it! I put it down to my own hormones!

As a kid, I spent hours sniffing my arms and knees in the summer, such a delicious smell ☀️

I cancelled the smells you mean.

Hair being dried - there is a hair smell and a hot scalp smell.

Petrichor and wet metal smell -reminds me of the play park in the rain.

Newborn- the sweet smell that is rotting flesh from their cord stump until it falls off( this fascinated our cat).

I don't find any of these smells pleasant.

I do , however, like the sugar puff smell of puppies feet ( which is apparently bacteria).

Can I bring some round?

Out of all the smells mentioned here the only one I can smell is petrichor.

I can't smell my children either though although apparently most people say they can and that they smell different if they're ill.

Yes - had to learn all about him for my job!

@Ozgirl75 yes to the caramel smell on a postnatal ward. I always think it is quite cloying. Like colostrum. Birth itself has a very distinctive smell. You can def smell it in a room when it is imminent.

Infections too you can def smell (wounds, placentas, amniotic fluid) but a UTI is something else. Sometimes I can be almost knocked sideways by it.

People definitely smell different when they are very ill or dying. I was shocked by how I smelt when I had pneumonia- awful - like foisty rooms and decay, despite washing and brushing my teeth when I could.

The smell when I put the aircon on in my car. Oh my goodness I love it. It only lasts a few seconds but I inhale that so quickly.

To me it’s more a burning/ singeing smell than a steam smell.

Isn’t it the lactating mums? I think milk smells sweet and it’s how babies locate the breast.

I can smell them and I used to like fresh cut grass but since hayfever I do not like it anymore, I do like rain smell and of course salty sea air but not when there is too much seaweed.

I don't like blowdried hair smell, hate it even more when I have to add spray.. another reason why I gave up my amazingly flattering fringe!

I like ironing as a chore and the smell. Very comforting and can listen to radio or watch TV one-eyededly

Super Smellers on here, can any of you smell Escentric Molecule 01 and 02? I can but then quickly it disappears only to reappear again here and there. Apparently only some people can smell them.

I loathe the smell of cold particularly on laundry.
It makes me heave so when people go on about hanging out washing because it smells fresh I'm baffled
Hot sunny day yes
Cold day 🤮

It's not that most people don't smell these things, it's that they're not so used to noticing and describing them.

Our society is heavily weighted towards visual sensory information - we notice a lot of detail, have a wide vocabulary, give what we see a lot of importance.

People are generally much less adept at noticing and articulating sensory information from smell, sound, taste, touch, bodily sensation.

It's all there though, we just have to give it more attention.

My favourite is the soft part of a horses nose, especially when it's cold

I can smell it on one of my friends to the point that in the past I’ve rung her and asked her if she’s been in our local John Lewis that day as I can smell it so strongly - and it’s very distinctive on her. Heavenly.

I can smell it on myself only fleetingly. One of my mums friends wears it. I’ve only met her once in 2014 but I can still recall how absolutely amazing (to me) she smelt. I followed her about all day.

I'm glad it's not just me then - I thought I was weird but now there's two of us, there's safety in numbers!

I've smelled faulty wiring before it burned the house down when DH and our LL at the time couldn't smell anything unless their noses were right up against the spot.

I'm the first to smell anything in our house.
One thing I couldn't smell strongly though was my own baby compared to other people's babies. I put it down to smelling my own milk off him and myself all the time..

I'd be interested in knowing what parkinsons smells like. A relative had it and I used to get a distinct but very light smell - like a dryness. Not a musty smell exactly but musty that was too old to smell musty? a kind of cleaner earthly mustiness of some sort.

I can definitely smell more I think than others
Could smell gas when nobody else could and it was a tiny leak
My bathroom currently smells damp which is driving me mad but I can't pinpoint where and nobody else can smell it

I also love perfume and candles, scent is a huge thing for me. One candle I bought was so evocative of a memory it made me cry, never had that before