Told DH he smells

[okydokethen]

DH has a physical job and self care isn't high on his list generally.

He likes long hot baths, but doesn't rinse after and quite frankly tonight he stank afterwards. I said something like 'you need to try and rinse after the bath, I think because it was so hot you've got sweaty so there's quite a strong smell'.

He's obviously pissed off and was very defensive. Not sure I can soften this can I?

Slight de rail here but why soap and not shower gel? I always have baths but I've not used a bar of soap in years! I use shower gel. Admittedly I don't do much to leave me ponging of BO but I'm curious why this wouldn't do the job but soap would?

He says he doesn't care. He stormed off.

It's definitely the bath that's a problem as showering is fine, it's his pits for those who are asking - but after getting out of the hot bath is covered in sweat especially on his back I can see it.

No to bodywash or shower gel. Just bars of soap.

I know most don't need to rinse off after a bath but he is filthy from his work - he leaves a great black and brown ring around the bath. He needs to chill in the bath then wash thoroughly- with soap and then rinse with hose or in shower.

Could it be that he isn't adequately drying off after his bath ? In our house we have a simple colour code which keeps every inch of us dry: White for hands, brown for feet, green for torso, thighs and seat. And in the cupboard beneath the stair you'll find the red for pubic hair.

Are the towels nice and clean… not musty smelling?

I use soap when I shower in the mornings. Sometimes if my back is really painful I'll run a bath put in olbas bubble bath and soak.

I'm with the Japanese, a shower to get clean a bath to relax.

Are you Harvey Denton?

Could you convince him with some of the muscle soak bubble bath? My DH wouldn't be on board with anything that smells girly or looks feminine at all, but he has a physical job and so I pitch it as he needs a lot of the muscle soak in his bath to help/prevent aches and pains and it becomes a "health" thing related to his job rather than a self-care thing (he's not into that).

😂

Can you get someone else to tell him? Like a friend or something? Where he'd feel embarrassed rather than nagged (sorry, I hate that word and I know that's not what you're doing, but you know what I mean)

I've cut straight from OP to the end. Fresh sweat doesn't smell. If he's in a hot bath, any fresh sweat he makes won't smell. He's failing to wash off the stale sweat from 12-24 hours ago that does.

I wash his towel after each use (I don't for me and kids) but I couldn't re use it. It's soaked with sweat.

Is he very big? Does he have folds of skin or anything which could have sores/infection that he hasn’t shown you? That could be causing a lot of smell.

Me neither.
Unless he works down drains or a sewage plant. But they have staff showers.

I don't understand this either.

OP says it's armpit BO

He's not overweight or particularly hairy.

I don't have sex very often @AuntJudy and this is part of the problem.

I have never used shower gel or cream in a bath. I use original imperial leather soap in the bath.

I only use shower gel or cream if im having a shower.

Soap has a chemical ingredient that kills germs.

He need to use soap as other have said and also scrub with a flannel.

Coal tar soap is antimicrobial in a way that normal soap isn't.

Hibiscrub, which is used by surgeons to clean their hands before operating, is also antimicrobial. It contains chlorhexidine, which sticks to the skin for hours and stops bacteria from dividing during that time. Hibiscrub is the only thing I've found that will both stop my armpits from still smelling nasty after I've showered and not give me thrush when used on my vulvoanal area.