To think there's no excuse for being smelly?

[ohflowerofscotland]

eating out with DM and a lady has walked in and the smell of body odour was overpowering, so much so that it really put me off eating and made me feel sick.

what's the excuse for such poor hygiene? I've never understood it

You need to be careful here. I once worked with someone, but she had a medical, issue with her sweat glands, she was very upfront and open about it, and was getting treatment, but did have bad bo.

Many people smell not because they have not washed, but because they have not washed their clothes.

So if you are homeless, sofa surfing, living in a hostel with no washing facilities, washing clothes is not easy and expensive. Of course some people still manage to do it, but when things get very difficult dealing imaginatively with washing clothes with little money and no facilities, can just become one problem too much.

There is literally NO excuse.

Says someone who has never had a family member so mentally ill that they won't wash themselves and refuse to be helped. Must be nice...

Depression. People become too depressed to be able to do it

I once worked with a doctor who absolutely stank. She would wear the same polyester top for days on end. Genuinely it was disgusting to be in the same room as her and god knows what the patients thought.

Her seniors did speak with her but it didn’t make much difference.

Also apparently if you stop washing for long enough, you can no longer smell that you are smelly.
With elderly people not physically being able to wash themselves, or having early dementia that means they forget to wash.

I’ve recently had a baby, I come to the neonatal ward to visit her every day. I’ve noticed these past 3 days my armpits have been pongy but I can’t put my finger on why I’ve showered everyday and put on deodorant. I travel by bus the most strenuous it gets is a 12 minute walk to the bus stop. For the life of me I can’t figure it out and while yes it is embarrassing, I can smell myself. Am I supposed to stay in the house and not see my baby? Or go home once I’ve reached halfway to the hospital and shower again?

Sometimes people can’t smell themselves, sometimes it is a health issue. If it’s a person you’re talking about that has had a persistent problem then I would discuss it with them.

There used to be something I used in my teens called Driclor (?) it would stop you sweating but give you incredibly itchy underarms.

I have had mental health problems. There have been days I couldn’t even get in the shower or even care that I smelled. The people on here saying mental health is not a reason need to *** off.

I sweat a lot as a side effect of my medication. I can shower in the morning (bar soap) use deodorant and antiperspirant and I will still smell of BO by lunchtime as if I never had a shower.

I can't wear any deodorant with aluminium in it, it makes my armpits swell up painfully and itch and burn. Unfortunately I think its aluminium that actually makes deodorant work, the aluminium free ones I use usually work ok as long as its not very hot or I get very sweaty. During the heatwave I really struggled and had to wash my armpits and reapply deodorant every hour or so, but I can't do that if I'm out and about somewhere for the day. I am very conscious of it when it happens.

Some people absolutely swear blind they don’t smell

On a recent thread here, a poster recommended a good way of cutting down on laundry was for the OP’s husband to wear a work shirt two days in a row

She absolutely swore that her husband looked and smelt as fresh at the end of the second day of wearing the work shirt as he did on the morning of the first

Absolutely not. I work with some stale, mildly stinky people and you can tell they don’t wash their clothes enough.

Also on the washing threads are people saying they can get a week’s wear out of a cardigan and several days out of work dresses.

Absolutely not.

I shower every morning. Clean top/dress. Deodorant on(tried many many types ,roll ons,sprays, for men,for women,24h,72h you name it) .

By lunchtime I smell (not massively but I do) . By the time I get home it's minimal movements to keep the smell in. By night time if for whatever reason I haven't had a chance to shower I fucking reek.

It's worse if I'm really hot and I move a lot.

Just because someone smells doesn't mean they wash only in Birthday and Christmas or are incapable of doing laundry or whatever.

Oh only showers at night and works in a very physical job in all weathers and never smells(the fucking twat!).

There's a big difference between a bit of sweat and odour from a days work; and the rank smell of poor hygene and unwashed clothes.

It's fair to say some people have a genuine excuse, but it's also fair to say some people just stink for no reason. There was a bloke I used to bump in to on the school run, a hippy type, looked clean and healthy, perfectly pleasant to talk to, my kids attended his kids birthday parties, his kids were always clean and well presented, he wasn't any kind of down-and-out, but my god, the reek of stale BO was absolutely breathtaking, the type that was clearly not fresh from one day. If you stoop up wind of him your eyes would water, I recall one of his daughters actually saying "daddy, you smell" and him replying something about deodorant being bad for the environment. Fucking wash your pits and your clothes regularly then, ffs.

@dottiedodah jeez let’s hope you never have a medical issue that causes you to smell, heaven forbid you get turfed out of Waitrose!
How on earth would a restaurant patron’s smell be unhygienic??? They’re not preparing your food or rubbing it on themselves before it gets to you. I’d love to see any food establishments trying to police that one and why stop there, I’m sure there are plenty of other people you could blanketly exclude too.

Also do you realise how many people have “picked over” supermarket food before you buy it? Rather than worrying about the people who smell (which has no impact on the produce), I’d concentrate on all the people who haven’t washed their hands after going to the toilet or have communicable illnesses. Are you one of these people that conveniently forget that vegetables are grown in fertilised soil/in the ground/thrown in the back of muddy machines etc? If a smell of someone briefly touching them makes you want to impose a ban, I dread to think how that will make you feel

YourSarcasm

Have you tried lime?

It's a faff but my dh has a medical condition where he can't use deodorant, any type.

He takes slices of lime and non fragrance wipes or tissue.
Put the lime slices in the wipe/tissue and wipe round your pits.

The dermatologist recommended this to him, may help others who can't use deo/ doesn't work for them.

There is a very real difference between someone having slightly smelly armpits on a hot day and a really strong smell of BO. Very few people have the latter. If they do there is always I suspect some underlying reason.
The slightly smelly armpits on a hot day is down to individuals and the time of life/hormones. It is perfectly normal. So is wearing a top 2 days in a row. Threads like this always bring out the extremists.

forgot to say, he keeps it all in a zipped food bag, and disguises it somehow if he's out.
He said he's had a couple of odd looks in the gents but fuck them, sometimes he has so much pain he couldn't give a shit.

Poverty, lack of hot water, not the right facilities in poor or transient housing, heavy manual work, allergy to deodorant, homelessness, domestic abuse (having to flee at short notice regularly). There are loads of reasons. Are you that naive? Perhaps you should feel sympathy.

Even if it is MH does that mean other people should have to stomach it?

What would you suggest to protect the washed from unpleasant smells? Stop people going out? Ban people who have medical problems from public spaces?

If people have shitty views can they be banned from the internet please and thank you.

I know someone who smells. No medical condition, been to the docs, no mental health issues. He showers 4 times a day, changes his shirt twice and uses the strongest deodorant they make. He just smells. Nothing he can do about it. He just does.

YABU - some people just have strong smelling body odour - they do wash and do use deodorant but are still liable to smell sooner than others. It's horrible for them. One of my colleagues was like this - very neat and well presented but did sweat a lot and smell.

Diabetes can make people sweat and smell too. ANother colleague had this.

Obese people or older people may find it harder to wash as sweat can get caught in the folds of skin and not get washed out.

I'm sure there are lots of other reasons too.

YABU

Shirley my husband has never used antiperspirant for some reason and never smells unless he's been doing some kind of sport. I don't think he ordinarily sweats much from his underarms, perhaps because he's never messed with his sweat production, or maybe he does but for whatever reason it doesn't smell. I reckon he'd get away with two days out of a shirt under most circumstances - maybe that poster's husband is the same and she doesn't realise it's abnormal. I couldn't in a million years!

I went to school with a girl who stank of BO. In addition her hair was always dripping grease and her clothes were filthy. Poor girl - she was painfully shy too. Both her parents were doctors which I always found odd.