To not 'get' anti-perspirants

[bakeroony]

I think this is going to be a controversial one

The thought of using an anti-perspirant gives me the creeps. To me, it's like using a product to cut down on your saliva, or other secretions, and it just seems unnatural and wrong. I haven't used it since I was a teenager and got fed up of all the white marks, not to mention the scaremongering about products containing aluminium.

I'm slightly more comfortable with the idea of deodorants but again, I hate the thought of slicking my armpits with a sticky product just to smell a bit more like a toilet freshener. I'm 'lucky' to have the dry earwax gene and everyone I've asked (I did a study as part of this at Uni too) says they can't detect an odour, but I think I'd feel this way even if I did produce BO.

I usually just spritz a bit of perfume and get on with it. To me, sweating is a beneficial thing for the body.

Does anyone else feel the same or am I completely on my own here?

DH gets very sweaty and stinky very quickly. He used to hate anti-perspirants, as they made him sore, but, thankfully, now wears an alcohol free roll on and doesn't get the irritation that he used to. And smells better.

low blood pressure sweaty Betty look here

Hmm interesting Sauce, I've always had lower than normal blood pressure and all HCPs in the UK were always very pleased but am in Germany now, will be interesting to see if they react differently. I need a new prescription for my pill shortly so will be checked I expect.

I think the title and basic idea is misplaced and a bit silly. Basing your argument on the fact that you have a specific gene that means you don't have the same perspiration as others. Then criticising products made for the issue you don't have.

Empathy? Insight? Or just wanted to stir up a debate?

I have a gene which stops it from smelling. Yet the companies still insist I "need" to use a product to stop sweat production altogether.

I've said this three times now!

ooh, I have low blood pressure too, and I also feel that I sweat a lot, but I didn't know there could be a connection. My dh certainly agrees that I sweat far more than him, he used to think I was just being very overly sensitive, a bit obsessive, until I asked him a few times to actually smell the clothes I was putting in the wash that he thought couldn't possibly be dirty. He soon understood!

And I do suffer from fainting especially in the summer

Sauce that article is a bit dodgy in terms of actual fact.

"Chronic low blood pressure is said to cause tiredness, giddiness, black-outs, anxiety and sweating. It is known as "constitutional hypotension" in German medical textbooks, but the diagnosis is not well accepted elsewhere."

I'm afraid that low blood pressure is a fact not an opinion. Just as high blood pressure is a fact.

I think you're wrong baker, I don't think these products are aimed at you personally. They're just aimed at people in general. From an extremely quick google it sounds like the "dry earwax gene" is astonishingly rare anyway, so it's a bit like someone with no feet complaining that they see adverts for shoes. The majority of people have feet so it's fair for companies to advertise shoes. No?

I don't think the gene is all that rare. More research is probably needed. I don't have East Asian ancestry (I've studied my origins extensively) so tbf it might be some form of mutation. I've heard of plenty of people in this country who have dry ear wax - sure we're in the minority, but I really think the "need" for anti-perspirant is overegged by the media.

I just find it sad that a natural function is regarded as so disgusting. Fair do's that some people want to disguise the smell, but stigmatising sweat in such a way? ComposHat's post further up is a prime example of how extreme some reactions have become.

YY, what Bertie said.

Honestly winterhat, the non-smelly sweat gene is a real thing. You know how young children don't pong under their pits when they run around and get sweaty? Some adults don't either. It's down to whether they express "ATP-binding cassette transporter sub-family C member 11"

Ha ha! That's a nice concise name for it, isn't it?

Yes, having read through more carefully, I now get the gene thing. I hadn't connected "dry earwax" with not getting BO and wondered why people kept comparing the two!

How have the companies insisted that you need to use the product? Have they specifically contacted you or put out an ad targeting people with this gene? I assume that people with the gene are in the minority, so most people do need to use a deodorant or anti-perspirant if they want to avoid smelling. There's lots of products out there that I don't need or want but there's adverts for them because lots of people do.

You would 'get' antiperspirant if you had spent a week in Tenerife with a room mate who did not believe in deodorant/antiperspirant and also didn't seem to wash daily, and you were stuck on a coach next to them every single day

I don't really 'get' this thread to be honest.

I don't get it Misc - I didn't read it that low blood pressure was being contested - just that it was a cause of health problems? I'd read the article years ago and haven't recently re read.

I'm not posting that article as anything other than a point of interest to those that sweat a lot and have low blood pressure. I'm not going to defend or qualify as don't care enough

I have low pressure so I know it's a fact of life.

bakeroony I don't think companies are insisting you need to use their products. They're aiming the ads at the majority of us who don't have the gene you do. Most of us will often see ads that don't apply to us, aimed at people with a different age/gender/income bracket/interests to ourselves.

You do realise that the adverts are aimed at millions of people, not just you, don't you, bakerooney?

Your OP is as daft as complaining that Fixodent want you to buy denture fixative, but you don't have dentures, so you don't need it.

Just ignore the adverts that are irrelevant to,you. Job done.

I'm a sweaty Betty too

I really do need anti-perspirant and deodorant because if I don't, my clothes get ruined- they become discoloured, and sometimes there's a residual smell even after laundering them. (I'm another one who spent my teenage years only wearing certain fabrics/colours/fit to minimise visible wet patches).

In fact in summer I need to use a super-strong anti-perspirant that I put on overnight and wash off the next day to help minimise it. I also often have to wipe my brow with a tissue, and I've got stinky, sweaty feet too

I do shower every day btw.

Having lived in a tropical country for years I can tell you that this idea that you smell if you don't use a deodorant is just rubbish.
Seriously, I have never met someone who was smelly apart from one situation: after exercising.

And this was in a place where you could feel the sweat dripping from you from sitting down on a chair! So the sweat wasn't just around the armpits but all over the body.

The issue of having wet armpits is different. It's the sight of it that make people queasy. And i do get that.
But not so many people are affected like this in this country that they would need deodorant (there is actually a name for the condition but I can remember its name). For the rest of us, maybe 95%, this is not necessary.

I must be a right stinky bastard because if I didn't use a deodorant I'd be intolerable to be around.

there is also another issue. On a very physical level, sweating does have a use and by using antiperspirant we do affect that. One could wonder what could be the consequence of it.

Eg if you were to use an antiperspirant all over your body, you would actually put yourself in a difficult situation as you would struggle to regulate your body temperature (which is done thanks to perspiration)

My husband has loads of earwax- but never smells of BO.

I don't have any - and sweat like a trooper. Even the heavy duty men's anti-perspirant doesn't stop me smelling.

I do use anti-perspirant, though I've found lately due to early menopause that it doesn't seem to be working any more. I have to wash and reapply two or three times daily.

I never used to smell. My feet and fanjo are fine, but my armpits? I could weep.

Moment are you thinking of goldfinger and covering every pore with gold paint? It doesn't end well.

Oh eck. I've known a few people who wouldn't use deodorants or antiperspirants because they were "unnatural". Every one of them stank; I mean, really stank.