To think people should keep their b.o under control in public places?

[Whirliwig72]

Ok so there is a lady on a course I'm on who has really really strong stale sweaty smell. It's so bad that I'm finding it hard to concentrate. Not a one off unfortunately as she smelt last week too:( How do people not know when they smell? Would I be unreasonable to say something to her and what on earth could I say that wouldn't cause huge offence? Thinking of taking a 'plague type pomander' with me to smiff next week!

Sniff even

It would be better to say something to the course leader and have her/him tackle it.

How long is the course? If it's not a long one, can you just sit as far away as possible and ride it out?

Some people suffer with hyper hydrosis (not sure that's spelt right) and no matter how hard they try, sweat incessantly. There is only so much you can do to cover the smell of b.o. Most attempts make it worse and are not kind to your skin/clothes. So, she may well know she stinks.

It's another 8 weeks or so in quite a small room - we moved around the room a few times today doing role play etc and I could still smell it really strongly. Without giving the course name away it has a few babies on it so the windows are kept closed which does not help I was so paranoid today in case anyone thought the smell was coming from me!

I don't get it either OP. Old BO smells awful, but so do garlic, rats p and cow/ horse s and I get customers who stink of these all the time! eww

Definitely ask the course leader if they can have a word and hopefully they will couch it in a general way and not obviously look at, or not look at, the lady with the issue. My FIL stinks sometimes and I hate it. My MIL has bad breath too at times and that is just as unpleasant.

Lovehandles - but only old sweat smells bad surely this woman is just scrimping on the soap?

Actually op, there are often cases where the person absolutely CANNOT help it. I had a teacher in secondary school who had this condition. She stank. Badly. Took showers every morning, went home at lunch to shower again and again in the evenings. But it did nothing to help the situation. She was horribly bullied by pupils in the school. Felt so bad for her because she was one of the best teachers I ever had and she was fantastic at her job. She told our class about her difficulties on a retreat weekend away when we were doing group activities to combat bullying. So upsetting, but she's getting on with her life - far as i'm aware shw's still teaching at the school.

So maybe cut your classmate some slack op...

When pregnant the second time something horrible happened to me, and I produced the copious amounts of the most vile smelling sweat. The armpits of my tops were constantly wet and stained. It made me want to retch within an hour of showering, no matter how much deodorant I wore . When not pregnant I don't even bother with deodorant and never smell (have checked with dp).

So while I sympathise with you having to smell BO, please do consider whether she can help it or not - perhaps she can't.

Even if she sweats incessantly, it doesn't necessarily cause B.O

B.O is stale sweat so if she washes every day and wears clean clothes...she should be able to keep on top of it during the day.

Even if she nipped to the loo now and then with a babywipe and a roll on deodorant.

She might have a terrible condition but more than likely she doesn't shower or use deodorant.

I have been on the bus and wanted to be physically sick because a fellow passengers BO has been that bad.

Have had three work colleagues with this problem. One was lazy; one was French and very odd (kept talking about killing lots of English people with axes) and the third one wore nylon shirts.

The first one was told by his boss to sort it out because it was against H&S rules; the second one was told by the head of HR that he had to clean up or leave; and I left a note in the pocket of the third one's lab coat, just a photocopy of the H&S guidelines, with the section on personal hygiene and apparel highlighted. (This was after leaving several notes on his labcoat asking him to change it more regularly - including a couple that suggested it needed a decent burial, it stank so much).

In all cases, the problem resolved.

Your fellow student may not realise that she has a problem - but I agree that you should ask the class tutor to deal with it rather than you doing it personally.

Maybe she is just a dirty mare, but just wanted to make the op aware of the possibility leQueen

And in the case of my teacher, the actual sweat stank. Even fresh sweat. Bloody horrible condition. You could literally see the sweatstains spreading before your eyes. God know how much money she spent on clothes because they were all ruined in a matter or weeks.

You could always use the approach of DD. Currently there is a fad for keeping a jellybelly airfreshener in your pencil case.
Adopt that instead of a pomander.
I really do sympathise. I was, for a time, the person who had to counsel the stinky people in my role as ward sister.

I hate stale B O if someody is a bit wiffy then thats ok but that stale smell sends me queasy stood behind somebody in a shop last week and she really was ripe , she was chatting to the server for ages i had nowhere to move to just held my breath , I do think OP you should mention to the course organiser , Im sure they could handle it better ,

OP can you take a nice new perfume to the course next week and offer it round ?

OP can you take a nice new perfume to the course next week and offer it round ?

I worked with a guy years ago who swore by this crystal thing instead of deodorant. Or soap.

If his jacket was hung next to yours, then you would smell nearly as bad. Mank, mank, mank. He lodged with me, so I know exactly how clean he was. Not very.

A woman I work with refuses to use deodorant 'beacuse it give you cancer'. She also doesn't think people should wash too often as 'it strips you of your natural oils'.

Lovely lady but you can tell if she's been in a room.

Hide behind a wall and when she walks past attack with dettol

I once saw an episode of Vanessa feltz's chat show years and years ago and there was a woman on it who had all the glands in her armpits removed because she had such a bad bo problem and sweat all the time. Even after removing all the sweat glands she still stunk of BO but very lightly. I think some people can't help it and because they smell it all the time they don't realise it smells disgusting anymore.

I've been in this scenario, I'd usually check there's no asthmatics and spray myself copiously with perfume and the like to block out the smell. Ironically the stinky person usually moves as "The smell of the perfume is too strong."

Obviously in a room full of babies you haven't got this option. YANBU. Febreeze her outside of the room or complain.