To ask about this (because I know we all love a person hygiene question!)

[Wetbankhols]

Lately, I can't always be arsed showering and don't notice any particular difference in how I smell.

HOWEVER, when I shower regularly, I seem to notice I get a bit more inclined to need to keep up the routine, if that makes sense.

Do you think showering more can actually cause you to sweat/smell more?

Oxters?! Just when I think I've heard all the regional variants of things someone chucks a new one out there.

I don't think washing your hair frequently makes it greasy, just the longer you won't wash the more it dries out in a desperate attempt to self clean

And your hair does smell horrible when unwashed

I sometimes get what I call groin cheese smell, in that crease between the thigh and body (legpits?), if I've been sickie with a virus/too depressed to haul my arse into the shower. Same with armpits.

I like cheese though...

Washing your hair strips the oils from your scalp/hair meaning that your body then tries to replenish them. Washing your hair daily is really not good for it. I was mine once a week or so and it barely gets greasy. For it to get to grim stage takes about two. (Thanks depressive episodes for working that one out for me)

When I'm "well" I will shower every other day - mainly because I don't work so I'm not as active as others can be. When I was working I'd usually shower daily, either before work or before bed - depending on what sort of day I'd had.

I'm the black sheep of my family though as all of my immediate family shower daily. I don't think it helps that DP is a grotty bastard not the best at maintaining good personal hygiene.

RubbishMantra

Do you mean the MingeHinge?

I usually wash every other day, although if I've done exercise or swimming or it's very hot in summer I will wash every day (although my hair usually still only every other day bar swimming). I don't think I smell, but on non-shower days I still rinse my face, dry shampoo my hair, rinse my bits, baby-wipe my pits, and apply deoderant. I get quite sweaty though, it's a side effect of one of my medications unfortunately. I only ever wash less than every other day unless if I'm very ill, maybe a few times a year and I never go out in that time.

I would like to train my hair to wash it only every third day though instead. It gets quite greasy but I've read washing your hair often makes it more greasy and is bad for it.

Oxters is definitely Scottish, although pronounced 'oak-sters' rather than ox as in the cow variety.

Rubbish I don't 'accept' oral sex. What can I say, I am one of life's givers

Oxters made me laugh, I'm from north east too, haven't heard that word in years!

I always have a bath before sex, oxters, oxcheeks, the lot

I pronounce it ock-ster. No oa here. And it's the only word i'd use. But i'm very north east.

We've just moved and our shower is crap because there's no water pressure so it's like washing in a dribble. Consequently I've only showered 3 times in 2.5 weeks. I am also depressed but most of the time showers are the only thing that get me started in the morning. I use one of those salt crystal deodorants that kills the bacteria (I think) and I find I don't smell for about 3 days if I use that. Normally I'd feel really gross but for some reason I feel fine being grubby.

Wow, Alba, I am in awe. That's seriously impressive! You win the soap dodger crown.

Thank you Wet, I feel rather accomplished

Oxters are mentioned quite often in Catherine Cookson novels so I think it may be a Northern expression

there are only 2 times when I really stink.

when my IBS plays up my sweat smells rank.
period week.

I have to shower daily when either of those happens. The rest of the time I can go a few days without noticing.

People's sense of smell differs a lot. Really, a lot.
I've known several people irl who don't wash daily/don't wash hair ever, that kind of thing. And the 'I wash my kids once a week' brigade. They're all convinced they don't smell.
They do. All of them. People are just polite, and the average Brit would rather eat their own head than tell someone they smell.

But yes, you smell. Sorry.its just that you've got a poor sense of smell, you're used to it or folks are too nice to tell you.

But duck is that actually true or one of those things people say? I can't see that there is any evidence that washing your hair often increases the production of oil

I don't think you do smell after not showering for a couple of days, at least as long as you wash your armpits and use deodorant. What I find is that if I haven't showered I just feel a bit sticky and sweaty, but no difference in how I smell. Every other day is more than enough in the winter I think, but the weather's getting better now.

"They do. All of them."

You can't know if all the people who don't have a daily shower don't smell because many would never tell you so you'll never find out.

It seems easier for me to get in the shower than it would be to go with all the washing bits in a sink. I sweat easily, I use a really good antiperspirant though but then I often get sweaty hair instead. So annoying. Then once my hair has been sweaty it's totally unmanageable. I wash hair every 2 days. More only if get sweaty.

I will admit I will happily not shower at all on weekends if I don't have to go anywhere or see anyone. I shower for the sake of working in a large office and also I really suffer with hormone imbalances and that can make me smell weird

I've read that a lot of shampoos have so much silicon in them that is what makes your hair appear greasy, it's not actually greasy it's the shampoo and conditioner residue. I cannot go more than 2 days, the thick type of hair I have just looks so awful unwashed and it's too short to do in a hiding style.

The smell I don't like is not body smells I hate the smell of damp musty clothes, if people haven't dried them properly or leave them in the machine too long they smell weird. It makes me heave, don't know why. I tried dating a guy once who smelt so musty it was only his clothes not him, but the smell was just unbearable sometimes - like sour lenor and then I felt like I smelt like that. I dumped him

Not necessarily Zaurak - if I think my OH or my kids need a shower (or me, as I'm sensitive to my own smell) I can smell it and them and would tell them. I also have a very sensitive nose and have been able to smell hormonal changes in my children and myself since I became pregnant. Smell is partly what repelled me from my ex, because he just smelled 'wrong'. Can't explain it better than that, but he was one who had to shower twice a day, if he felt unclean, and he was the only person I've ever smelled who had an unpleasant, rank, acidic odour. I think the current artificial scents in soaps/does/etc gave blinded us to a healthy body scent (not a skanky, I-smoke-20-a-day-and I -haven't-washed-for-a-couple-of-weeks-and-also-not-done-my-laundry-for-two-months kind of smell) and I have a feel his old need to be clean (whole other thread) interfered with his body chemistry.

Ocd not old. Sorry x