Smelly people first thing in the morning making me cross

[Wherecanitbe]

I completely understand in the UK we are currently experiencing extremely high temperatures, however......

why is it so many people smell really strongly of B.O first thing in the morning? I was on the bus Saturday morning around 9am and their were one or two people who smelled really strongly, not just slightly. This morning I was in my local shop around 10am and the man in front of me smelled that strongly that when he left, the smell even lingered.

I can understand if it was towards the end of the day, then it would be more reasonable that people would have B.O. I am just really irritated how these people think it's acceptable that other people have to put up with their offensive smell.

We have those rubber hose things but use them to wash the dog in the bath 😆

Im 52 and grew up in the 80s in the UK. We definitely had bathrooms just not showers....we personally didn't get a shower fitted until I was aged 13 (1987) and it was over the bath (,no room for a separate cubicle). Until then we only had a bath on a Friday night ("bath night") and would have a flannel wash in between. Nobody smelled. All our clothes were clean. ....but I do recall often wanting more of a bath so I would have a bucket wash whilst sitting in an empty bath (especially on hot days after school when I'd feel sticky icky). I wouldn't dare run the bath every day as my parents were very frugal so a daily bath would be deemed a luxury. It's served me well....we've had a broken boiler a couple of times so boiling a kettle and using that to have a bucket wash didn't faze me at all...

A massive 1967 government survey revealed that roughly 25% of all homes in England and Wales still lacked a dedicated indoor bathroom and toilet.

By 70s most houses had bathrooms - early 90s it was less than 1% of homes without.

Electric showers got main stream in 80s - though like indoor bathrooms had been around since 1920s or before.

Tin baths in front of coal fires were a thing but as PP say heating water was hard work and more needed in a cold wet climate.

Second world war it was due to restrictions common to share bath water by soulder and households. To conserve the coal needed for the war effort, the British government actively encouraged families to restrict their bathwater to just 5 inches which even the Royal Family practiced this. Not sure a strip wash looks as bad then and if you grow up with that it's your normal.

That and huge slums still being common in 60s - perhaps not so surprising it took till 70s for a bathroom to become standard.

It's rare now for people not to have showers - so it's not a reason for people to smell - but more clothes being sythentic push to wash at lower temps for economic and environmental reasons and people saving money by using washing machines less - as drying in colder homes due to costs also a factor. Drying outside should help with this though apparently there a rise in restrictions in doing so.

Depend when and who they were but suspect world was smellier overall.

Ruth Goodman very good on this - cleaning practises and clothes washing.

I'm 56, grew up in a council house, we had a bath on Sunday and a flannel wash during the week. I used to sit in the bath in summer like the poster quoted with a bowl of water.
And then there was the drought of 76, not only were you limited as the water was cut off in some places, but you were encouraged to share a rare bath.
We had a sticker for the car that said "We've had a dirty weekend - saving water".
I do wonder how some people on MN would cope with any kind of crisis.

I'm 59 and used to have a shower every morning, but now I've scaled back to three a week, along with shaves, with thorough washes the other days.

It's so true :)

A car in 1976? I hardly knew anybody who even drove then, let alone owned a car. Certainly, not one person in my extended family had a car or knew how to drive. Growing up in 1976 was another world entirely, certainly in the Glasgow area.

We had a car in Glasgow in the 70s and both my parents drove. Having 2 car households was less common admittedly

Both my parents had a car in 1976. And we were very working class but they worked opposite shifts and couldn’t have got to and from work otherwise.

My Dad drove plant machinery for a living, sometimes abroad, he needed a car to get from site to site. It was a rusty Austin something or other and later on he bought a wagon. He did his own mechanics.
Not really sure how many on our estate had cars, there were plenty of motorbikes that we'd ride and one traveller family had ponies that were grazed on the wreck or nearby verges.

A car in 1976?

Dad drove Mum to hospital in his car couple years before that for first birth - both parents drove in 60s both very working class - rural locations it was to them freedom.

Quick google says in 1971, about 52% of households had access to at least one car. However, over 40% of households still had no car and one car ownership was the norm where there was a car.

So image in city with everything closer by and possibly some public transport driving may have more in that 40%. It's interesting how thing slowly become necessaries or norms - we don't drive and get some really odd comments - internet and mobile phones are examples over most on here's lifetimes.

A question for the elder generation about laundry. In my family clothes went into the wash if they were dirty/smelly, ie, they would be good for a few wears except for things like socks, underwear etc. Was that normal? The way now seems to put everything in the wash after one wear. That would seem inconsistent with people being smellier now but I do think that cigarette smell probably covered a multitude of sins in the old days.

Dad had a manual job, so his clothes went in daily. I did my own washing at high school, and washed my shirts and underwear after one wear, washed my Mum's too. Jeans, skirts and jumpers would be when dirty - which is still what I do. I can't remember about bedding and towels - although we only had smaller towels, no bath sheets, we'd only just got central heating and had to dry larger things over the hall banister or outside.
Edited to add, cigarette smoke was an issue. I'd often wash my hair in the kitchen sink as it was long and horrible in bed if it stank. I can't believe looking back that when I went to college at 16, the canteen and everywhere was full of smoke. Came home reeking everyday.

Yes, up until the Smoking Ban in Scotland in 2006, clothes stank of smoke even after only a couple of hours in a pub or club. Denims, shirts, jumpers, and coats went straight in the wash. Now that's not strictly as necessary. Obviously smoke clung to hair as well.

Re cars - in the late 60s and 70s most people in our childhood suburbia had cars.

Re BO - I do think many teenagers and young people still smell even when they shower twice a day.

Re daily showering and shaving (as in legs, underarms shaving) - showering absolutely, feminine shaving daily cannot be healthy or necessary

Sounds like others washed their clothes more, but I don't recall us smelling (and we were a non-smoking household too). My DB had a friend who honked, and the fact that we noticed it means I think we didn't.

We had to keep our PE kit in our lockers all term, including the obligatory navy knickers. Our kit did stink and like you, I think because we knew that smelt then it wasn't normal for us to be smelly. The changing rooms stank too, all the smelly kit was in wire mesh lockers. I've not thought about this in years!

That's feral!! 🤣

We took our PE kit home after every lesson (this was the 1980s). Post-PE showering was also compulsory, unlike my children's schools now: apparently they just ladle on the deodorant instead.

At my school there was also a box of lost property PE kit that people who forgot to bring theirs had to use. Items in the box were never washed, as a deterrent.

Tbh I wear most of my clothes a few times before I wash them as that saves work. I don't think I smell and no one says I do but bad breath aside I don't encounter smelly people but it's not summer here and I'm never on public transport.

How to people manage not to wash after exercise? Even just a 30 min walk or a yoga class means I have to shower and that’s 4-5 days a week. Weekends I will shower after cleaning the house or being out and before going to bed. I just can’t fathom exercising then wiping my bits and pits with a cloth and calling it a day 😆

It was compulsory in our school as well unless you were on your period. Walking through a long communal shower naked and having to face the queue of other girls waiting to go in was one of the worst experiences of my life.

Also nobody stayed in long enough to get clean. They just literally walked through and out.

It was such a hideous thing to make people do. I used to get signed off PE as much as possible to avoid it.

Same, although it meant most of us were apparently on our periods every PE lesson - I don’t think the teachers who were meant to be supervising liked the situation any more than we did, so it was never challenged!

First three years of secondary we had showers we had to run through and if it was more than a week of not doing it due to period teachers got very ratty and threatening and they kept records ticked you off - felt very off at the time.

Then it suddenly stopped - no showers at all - so PE hot and sweaty get back into uniform and then in class rest of the day. Lots of scented sprays. Don't think our kids had access to showers after PE lesson either.

With some women, it's period or menopausal stuff, but other than that, I fully agree with what you say!

No excuse for B O abuse!

So some women smell of periods and menopause? Fucking hell that’s gross