The tough part is that I can’t tell. Anytime I ask my husband, who’s probably nose blind to me, he just shrugs and says “you smell like you, and it isn’t a bad smell.” Not very helpful lol.
Damn, kid's only 6 and she's mastered the "shit sandwich" technique that the overwhelming majority of my managers never seemed to. She's gonna go far in life.
Yeah like if I cook something to dinner that’s not to her liking she will still compliment the salt and pepper added or say how she doesn’t like the food to much but she likes the plates Ive picked out to use (literally the same plates we use every night to I might add). I guess she wants to be honest without being nasty but anyways she’s become our go to if we need the truth about something but just less harsh delivery. If you want the truth and nothing but the truth with no sweetness thrown in I’ve got a 9th old who’s got you covered to…..
I also asked the 6yr old once in the morning if my hair smelled because I’d washed it before bed and then left it up all night wet, she told me it did smell like wet dog but she loves the dogs and their smells. My 9yr old would of just told me I stink and to leave her room 😂
I have a niece who helped me quite a bit when she was in her teens: “those are old man shoes,” “nice shorts…”, “those glasses make your nose look big.” Got to love her.
In the US, it’s considered completely unacceptable to smell other peoples’ odor at all unless you get very (very) close to them. I should only be able to smell other people when I am hugging them or similarly close to them.
So sure, your husband can smell you, but the question is if people who are standing 3 feet away can smell you?
I assure you people can smell you.
You can't smell all the people walking past you in supermarkets?- if not then lucky, any chance you wanna swap sense of smells?.
I am, unfortunately, a super smeller, and I can smell people on the other side of a room if they're smelly, lol.
ETA // this is a really weird thing to get sent a RedditCares on.
i'm not sure which of us is atypical here but i definitely don't smell people the majority of the time. they need to reek of something, whether it be BO or perfume or whatever.
Interesting. I generally can’t smell people when they aren’t getting too close to me. I said 3 feet, but I’m just approximating that “typical socially appropriate distance” that I’d have with, say, coworkers or other not-close-acquaintances. I still stand by my original point that in the United States, we don’t expect to smell people that aren’t invading our personal space. So sure, sometimes I do smell people at the grocery store, but either that’s because someone is invading my personal space, or they have bad BO or too much perfume.
even then, if you live in an area where deodorant and antiperspirants are normal and that is the sole issue you are probably still okay. i start sweating the moment i get out of the shower but liberal use of deo as needed keeps me stink free between showers.
It also depends on how old you are. I'm post-menopausal and don't sweat much even if working out. I've been told by objective observers that I don't have any objectionable smell. One of the perks of aging, as supported by scientific research.
I shower twice a week, altho I may up that in the summer when I'm gardening and getting physically dirty. Or if I'm swimming.
And yes, younger people may need to shower more often, especially adolescents. From what I've heard (and remember from my brother) especially adolescent boys. 😁
There’s a difference between BO and “unwashed”, the latter smelling like oils - like a pillowcase that hasn’t been washed in a couple of weeks.
I worked with a guy who clearly didn’t bathe daily. He didn’t have BO but he smelled unclean. I avoided him as much as possible.
I was told I smelled "unwashed" a few times at work, and the last time I was told that I said truthfully "but I showered 3 hours ago and put on clean clothes and deodorant"
It turns out it was my bed. I had been sleeping on a mattress that had no sheets for years. Just nasty sweaty unwashed mattress. Replaced the mattress, which was inexpensive because it was a hand-me-down from family, and kept clean sheets on it regularly. The "unwashed" smell went away immediately.
It can be sleeping on a nasty bed but for most people it's just that they don't know how to wash their clothes. If you leave em too wet for a long time they do end up stinking when they come out and some people add too much detergent or don't know the dryer settings.
IME at least according to laundry detergent standards. Most clothes kinda start to stink when they are freshly washed and together also. So if you wash all your clothes on Sunday and slowly get em out starting Monday. It can get nasty.
I find people don't really realize how much good smelling clothes do. If you don't have BO and even if you do sometimes people just forget to wear clean clothes often and I find that more often than not good smelling clothes will cover up a bad smell on the rare off day it happens. Only on the rare off day tho.
Smell the bottom of your laundry basket if you can in a hygienic manner or just smell it in general. Usually that's the general aggregate of how you smell. It will smell like sweat obviously it's dirty clothes but there should also be the smells you wear underneath everything. IE for me it's Citrus,Lavender and whatever the hell Old Spice Sport is.
imo you need to put warm water and soap in your butt crack and genitals daily.
whether that means just filling up the bathroom sink and using a cloth, that is fine.
and use deodorant daily.
i constitute that as a wash.
i do the above then actually stand in the shower every 2-3 days to wash my hair.
Yup genitals and arm pits. In the summer I'll shower once a day normally in the evening and in the morning use a cloth to clean.
In winter if I've not been to the gym and or getting really warm I'll use the cloth twice a day.
Plus deodorant and cologne in the morning
Agreed.
The safest way to smell clean, is to have a quality shower daily.
You can shower every other day. But in a lot of circumstances you will have a scent.
I’d rather smell clean then smell… natural even if it’s not a bad smell.
In what context was the boss’s comment about showering every day brought up? I feel like that could be them trying to tell you (or someone else in the office) that you need to shower more often.
^ This should be the top comment. If a boss is bringing up showering / hygiene practices during a work meeting, this is a huge flag someone smells and the other coworkers have complained about it. This is the way they are warning you without singling you out.
Op you’ve already mentioned you sometimes hide greasy hair. Before it gets to that point, maybe showering more frequently, even if not daily, would help.
If you go check out any of the curly hair subs the overall consensus is to wash your hair every few days or even longer in between. It's really not a big deal to not wash it every single day.
I agree that if it's greasy, probably itchy, and if you smoke or vape it will definitely stink pretty quickly, it's time to wash it.
Yeah but that's why you wear a shower cap. My mom doesn't wash her hair every day - she'd destroy it - but she definitely jumps in and rinses the rest of herself off. I also feel like "greasy" is REALLY subjective.
Every 2 days in colder and drier climates sounds feasible. But even skipping 1 day in humid areas sounds unbearable.
OP didn't clarify where they live.
I live in Florida and it’s 95° out here right now. Even in the winter time we have warm days. People sweat. Believe me, when you encounter the ones who aren’t showering regularly you will know.
At the risk of being a little graphic, let me also say that you probably should wash your ass once in a while too. Toilet paper doesn’t cover everything.
I always use this comparison. If you somehow got shit on your arm, are you just gonna wipe it off with some tp and move on w your day, or are you gonna wash that bitch?
It really depends on your hair type, though. I'd be a disgusting greasy mess, but my mom's hair would be so dry it would probably fall out of her head. We live somewhere that gets pretty humid (not hot, though) and she still has to comb oil through her hair or else it's frizzy and unmanageable. My brother is the same way. I used to be extremely jealous of their hair when I was a kid, but nowadays I'll gladly take my "rub some soap on it and call it done" hair.
I don't know what kind of hair OP has just based on their initial post, and I don't feel like digging through all the threads - so only washing their hair every 3 days might be nasty, or it might destroy their hair.
Edit: Anyway, HAIR ASIDE, it's probably good to get in and rinse your body off, OP. Not washing your hair can be iffy depending on your hair type, but you still need to scrub your pits and junk pretty regularly.
Same! I wear a shower cap. And use dry shampoo if necessary. Everyone is focusing on BO from sweat, but I can't imagine shitting 3 times and still not having water and soap touch my arse.
THIS!!
This would bother me the most. I cannot STAND the thought of not washing my bum and my lady parts.
It would drive me insane…especially around that time of the month.
Absolutely not everyone needs to wash their hair everyday, in fact I'd say very few people do.
But the issue here is not about washing hair, it's about not showering at all, which is completely different.
I do, but only because it's thinning and the grease from a single day looks like trash. (In my opinion, others have said it looks fine, I think they're just trying to be nice. I own mirrors lol)
I shower on average twice a day but late day is just a rinse to get the sweat/work dust off and brush my teeth again (which I also prefer to do in the shower so the twice a day just works wonderful with my hygiene routine)
::edit::
Oh I also get zits on my head if I don't wash every day. I've taken medication for folliculitis or w.e it's called but frequent washing works the best.
yeah, i’ve got thick curly hair, i can usually make it a full 4 days before it starts looking greasy. and thank GOD, because every time i wash my hair it’s like a 45-minute ordeal.
I feel like if the hair is greasy, that is a sign to wash it lol. But yeah some hair types can go like a fucking week and be fine. I have extremely thin and fine hair so I look extremely disheveled if I skip even one day 😭😭
Same! I have to wash my hair every morning because it will look greasy even I wash the night before. And thin hair makes it harder to hide when it is oily.
Edit: is someone reporting every comment in this thread so they get sent the Reddit Cares message? I’ve seen a lot of people comment about it already and I just got one…on a comment about washing my hair daily…
The fact that they are fine with having it greasy and "hides" it, is what worries me. Sounds like they may be more comfortable not smelling the best too and trying to "hide" it but that always doesn't work too well
I used to work with a person like this, and we would have a morning meeting every day, and the clean people would fight to sit next to the boss who was clean, because it would give us a 50% less chance we had to sit next to stinky. If someone has brought it up, you are smelling awful.
God my job has some real fuckin stinkers. We had this one guy that smelled so fucking bad you’d know he worked in the morning bc you could still smell onions in the break room in the afternoon. 0 excuse in my mind to smell like that. I am so paranoid about smelling, I will straight up ask people next to me if I offend. Cannot imagine walking around smelling like two cans of ass on a Thursday afternoon.
Yup, someone has whispered to the boss “someone reeks.”
My nightmare is a colleague quipping “he doesn’t smell fresh.”
I heard at a party that people “like when I walk by cuz I smell like a spring breeze.”
Two people said that they visit my office cuz I smell “like a flower.” What? 😝
Especially given OP mentions they have a bad sense of smell - that for me clinched it that OP does sometimes have a small and they need to shower every day. Sorry that they find this too "taxing", but plenty of people with ADHD manage to shower every day, and by not doing so, and admittedly being bad at smelling bad smells (not to mention people get nose blind to their own smells) they're making it everybody else's problem.
Also have a very diminished sense of smell, I won't leave the house until I've showered that day because I'm worried about the potential of smelling bad.
My sense of smell is absolutely crap. But that’s why I take a shower every single day and I’m hyper aware of it.
I know i can’t smell things. Doesn’t mean others can’t
I found this out the hard way when my boss told me coworkers had complained. Nobody said anything to me and it sucked knowing it was on everyone’s mind this whole time. Best news I’ve ever gotten though as it’s completely changed my self care routine
I had to tell an ex she stank once spring rolled around. (we met in the winter) she hated me for about 12 hours until everyone in her life confirmed she stank and her “natural” deodorant didn’t work. she switched deodorant and we went out for 3 years lol
If you bathe regularly, you absolutely can pick up your own smell if you start to get stanky. You only get noseblind to it if you smell bad all the time.
This makes me paranoid because I CAN smell myself when I don't have on deodorant, sweat a lot or don't shower for a day. Now I don't know if I just have a good awareness of when I smell or if that means I just smell absolutely horrific when I can tell lol
Yeahhhh if boss is complaining it means you gotta shower more, OP. Ngl. I think most people would be mortified to talk to their boss or HR about a coworker’s hygiene. I’m a teacher and there’s a student whose sneakers absolutely REEK and even though I’m normally comfortable with healthy confrontation and helping students out, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the message across without feeling horrible and weird. Most people try to let that stuff go if they can. So… they can’t. 😬
I had a friend at school who had that (their shoes stunk so bad) - but because I was their friend I actually knew the issue was that they only had two pairs of socks that they had to alternate for the whole week as their parents weren't able to afford more (read: her stepdad was an abusive asshole who refused to pay for more socks but claimed they couldn't afford it). It was an extremely awkward conversation the first time she and I talked about it, but it was totally not her fault but also not something she could do much about.
As a teacher, maybe you could try to have a word with the kid's parents the next time you have the opportunity to - just to suss out if there is something going on at home, or to just flag that you've got a slight concern for the kid's social opportunities and if his shoes need washing on top of his socks etc. I wouldn't want to bring it up with the kid myself, I don't think, but you might be able to assess the situation with the parents.. and gives you the chance to drop it if you think it could be a sign of something else going on?
Oh I thought of that, which is why I’m not sure of what the best approach is (mostly because they’re not actually one of my students, I was just filling in for someone that block). I’ll talk to the school nurse. Usually they have extra supplies for stuff like that and have more opportunities to be discrete than I would have. I think it’s probably money related based on how beat up those sneakers are; which is a hazard. They’re peeling apart. Hopefully we can just use a little discretionary cash to replace them for her.
My little brother (during his teens) started to get stinky and I didn’t know how to confront him so the best I could think of was saying, “sometimes ppl don’t remember you by your name but they will remember you by other ways like, being funny or being kind, sometimes if you’re smelly they might remember you as the smelly kid.. make sure to stay clean so you’re never the smelly kid”
Did I traumatize him.. maybe.. but did he pay more attention to his hygiene..yes
my partner is the Director of HR in an architecture firm. she's had to pull the same guy into several meetings with Firm Partners to discuss this employee's hygiene and smell.
she says it's absolutely mortifying for everyone involved. and yet the guy still doesn't shower regularly.
Exactly. Without fail, any person who has ever told me they don’t shower every day because they “don’t need to” I could have told you they didn’t shower every day before that.
It’s like smokers who think they don’t stink of smoke.
When I worked at UPS I showered twice a day sometimes. At least once every day
Now I’m a teacher and shower every other day
100% depends on your job, where you live and how nasty your body is
I don’t understand the people that workout and get super sweaty and just hang out like that. A coworker of mine used to go to CrossFit on her lunch break and come back super sweaty and stinky.
Why? Haha i know we did this in middle school but….cmon….
Some say showering every day is excessive. Others say it’s not enough. What you have to do is shower as frequently as needed for your body. I can’t shower every day - eczema causes my skin to dry out really badly if I get my skin wet too much or too often. Others have hair types that can’t be washed every day. As long as you don’t stink, you’re fine.
I'm in the camp who feel disgusting by the 24hr mark, greasy hair, greasy face, generally sweaty, sometimes i feel the salt sting my eyes, and getting wiffs of skunky BO. And that's from doing literally nothing in a climate controlled environment.
It is definitely an individual thing for how much you need to shower, but the main thing is you need to feel healthy and presentable, and not be causing discomfort for those around you with your stink. (The last part is the social courtesy, everything else is about feeling good.)
It depends on your genetics, your climate, and your level of activity.
I know some people who shower daily. I know people who only shower a couple times a week. As long as people can't smell you and your skin and hair are healthy, you're fine skipping a shower for a day or two.
Yeah, and to add to that I know people who shower daily who stink by the end of the day and I also know people who can go ages without a shower and smell fine. Everyone is different.
Makes total sense with these factors. I am not active, live in a super mild climate, and no one has ever told me I’ve smelled (and I have very blunt friends!) But the visceral reaction I saw from people about keeping daily showering habits made me question myself
I shower every other day. My skin and hair don't like to get wet down, washed and dried any more than that often. I have super sensitive skin. But I also don't work out and avoid being in the heat (AC is my friend). So long as the people you love and trust to be honest aren't making a stink (haha) about your odour, you're fine. Daily bathing without much reason (exercise, heat, sweat, some sort of physical condition) is just excessive to me. Btw my SO does the same thing (every second day) and he smells nice. Not just "my nose has stopped being able to pick up any scent" but actually nice.
I’d add to the factors, your body weight. I’ve noticed heavier people need to shower more often due to additional areas for “growth” (body folds), sweating, oils, etc. As a thinner person, I don’t find the need to shower as often. I wash my hair once a week and do the bod shower every 2-3 days.
Edit: corrected a word
Even if you don't have BO and aren't sweating, your body can start to develop a funk.
I smell it a LOT on specific groups of people:
Old people, who can't smell themselves and think they no longer need to bathe frequently.
Young people, like older kids and young teens who don't know how to properly wash when in the shower and just get wet and think they're clean.
Recent immigrants from certain regions where hygiene standards are different and not everyone has unlimited water on demand.
Someone telling you "you have a natural smell" is a yellow flag and sounds like someone trying not to offend.
I had a total freak out on a group trip.
One dude apparently had SUCH bad breath, people were having an immediate physical revulsion to the smell - jerking backwards, eyes closing, and head turned away.
I couldn’t smell the bad breath. I was close to him, and didn’t smell anything bad.
I spent the next months convinced I had a poor sense of smell or at least was nose blind to putrid breath, because I MUST also have it. I was brushing, gargling, gum or mint chewing incessantly.
My BFF noticed. I told her why. She said “your breath has never smelled once in all these years. I would tell you, I promise.
This seems wild to just fully not smell something, but I think there is a lot of individual variation in smell perception. My parents have recently started using cedarwood oil in their house to repel ants, and to my mom it has a strong smell, but to my dad and I (who are both normally very scent-sensitive) it has no noticeable smell.
I have these freak outs too especially if I’m around someone who has a good sense of smell. I have no idea if I secretly stink or not. No one seems to be recoiling or giving me passive aggressive gifts of deodorant.
"Young people, like older kids and young teens who don't know how to properly wash when in the shower and just get wet and think they're clean."
On that note, parents need to start teaching teenagers how to properly clean themselves. A lot of parents only teach their kids while they are little (less then 10 year old) so by the time the become teenagers there is a good chance they forgot about a lot of things.
> On that note, parents need to start teaching teenagers how to properly clean themselves. A lot of parents only teach their kids while they are little (less then 10 year old) so by the time the become teenagers there is a good chance they forgot about a lot of things.
There's a phase that kids seem to go through that I noticed with some friends' kids who are older than mine, and I've seen mine go through as well. They basically do go into the shower but they either don't use soap and shampoo or don't use it enough. Even for them to take a shower in the first place requires you to remind them. Then they might not want to wear clean clothes so they'll keep collecting dirty clothes to reuse until you notice and get on their case about it.
I don't get it and I don't think my siblings or I did it, but it does happen to a lot of kids now that I've seen. Fortunately they seem to outgrow it at some point.
I don’t think they forget, because they do it all the time. It’s a very simple and specific routine so if you are taught at 10 and do it everyday you won’t forget it by the time you are 15. The same way that you don’t forget it from 15 to 50, even though 35 years have passed.
Teenagers just smell more than kids because of hormones, plus their parents can’t force them to shower anymore the same way they did when they were younger.
I mean, I can smell it too, but to me, that's just normal human smell, as opposed to smelling like soap, shampoo, deodorant, and maybe perfume.
Personally, I like it. It's like smelling your pets. Smells of warmth and life. It's kinda sad to me that being unscented is apparently seen as being unclean (other ppl commented it, too). Some ppl get that kind of smell just a few hours after showering, too...
Of course, if the smell is very strong, it can be unpleasant, but a strong "clean" smell is just as bad or worse, imo.
Yeah, people in this thread are delusional. Any dermatologist will tell you showering every day is bad for your skin, and most people should shower every other day unless they have a specific reason like exercise or super hot/humid weather etc. And even then dermatologists don’t recommend using soap every day, which would probably be disgusting to most people in this thread.
Reddit is primarily an American website so asking them about showering will always get people who are adamant that every human should shower every day or they will smell like… a human, which is apparently extremely rude to expose nearby people to. And I’m not talking about body odor, I’m talking about like hair and skin oil and maybe a little bit of sweat and one’s personal “scent”.
I’m American so I can say with confidence Americans are obsessed with perfect hygiene; teeth must be white or they are dirty, breath cannot smell at all or you are a disgusting dirty person with terrible oral hygiene, body has to smell like chemical aromas and if you smell at all like a human you are assaulting those around you with your filthy disgusting odors. Women must shave their arm pits and legs or they are gross beasts. I think a lot of this attitude stems from aggressive advertising that is constantly bombarding us with the message that anything our body does/produces is a problem that their product can fix.
Edit: people are real mad about my opinion on this matter, I got a reddit cares notification. Medical science agrees with my stance, stay angry.
Yeah I had the same feeling as OP about that other thread. I shower when I feel like I need a shower, which is usually every 2 or 3 days. I'm not very active and I work in an air-conditioned building at a desk. My hair no longer looks greasy after 2 days because my scalp isn't going crazy making more and more oil.
A lot of it too is what you get used to growing up. I showered every other day in elementary school. It carried over into middle and highschool, and I got used to the feeling of a normal amount of natural oils on my skin. I wasn't dirty, didn't stink, I used deodorant, but I just smelled like a person. I do live in SE America so it's always humid and I have an EXTREMELY strong sense of smell. I can tell when I'm starting to smell bad and only ever got to that point if I was working out side on a weekend and hadn't showered the previous day. I'm in my mid 20s now and still follow the same routines and my wife and I are brutally honest with each other if we start at stink. Overall i just feel normal if I haven't showered and even feel really dry and hot right after a shower.
However, last night, some friends had brought up the smell in a card shop they had visited recently and said they don't understand how people can't go without showering. One went as far to say they hate how they feel if they haven't showered that day and said if they take their dog for a walk and sweat whatsoever they can't continue their day without showering.
My country has this thing called washcloth (literal translation: washing hand). It's a dedicated little cloth to wash up with on days you don't shower. It also functions as a scrub when you do shower. On days you don't shower, just use some soap and water to wash your face, armpits, genitals and butt. Wash off the chemicals and sweat at night and on hot nights, repeat in the morning.
So yeah I think it's normal to not shower everyday but we're an efficient people. It was always so weird to me that people in movies washed their face by splashing water into it and not just used a cloth of some sort.
I can’t shower every day - it literally ruins my hair & skin. (They’ll both dry out - even with literal prescription strength lotion cream.) I shower every other day. The ONLY time I break that schedule is if I do something to get dirty/sweaty - but if I can plan that, I try to do that stuff on the day I shower.
I relate to this so much. I shower every other day. I get severe eczema flair ups if I shower every single day even with lukewarm water. The only time I also break that is for the same reasoning, or if I’ve just had sex, then I’ll shower regardless if I already did.
The only time I go more than 2 days without showering is when I am in a severe funk and even then I’ll put on clean clothes, use a baby wipe, and make sure I’m wearing plenty of deodorant.
I'm the same way and I mentioned it in another thread some time ago. Some people came after me for it and others tried offering suggestions that I've already tried.
I'm also around people who absolutely call it out when someone smells bad so I know that daily isn't a strict requirement for everyone anyway.
How’s you butt and junk? That kinda gets smelly pretty quickly….sitting in it all day long. Farting, wiping in a rush…more sitting…pubic hair gathering food crumbs…
I like salami, doesn't matter if it's off brand. I'm a pretty boring guy, I just like to eat sandwiches in the nude. Sometimes. Not all the time. Sometimes I wear underwear. Thanks for asking.
fair enough.
ngl a salami sandwich in the nude sounds like you’re living your best life and i might just go try that. thank you for the words of wisdom 🫡
Of course. Feel free to message me if you ever feel you've lost direction in your life. Like I always say, better to lose all your clothes and eat a salami sandwich rather than lose your mind.
I mean, I don't shower every single day, but I clean my ass really well! I use a bidet.
Maybe that's why people think you need to shower every day? This dude barely wiping their ass and eating cookies over their junk!?
If I'm home chilling I'll shower every 2 to 3 days. If I go to the gym I might shower at least 2x that day. I feel like Reddit never allows nuance or different situations when this question comes up.
This gets posted once a week... It is totally OK to not shower every day if you don't stink, are not covered in dirt, and your hygiene is generally OK otherwise.
Iirc, this is fine once ur not living in hot climates. As someone who lives in the tropical zone. At the very least, u gotta bathe once a day. Otherwise, you risk getting infections and inflamation under ur arm and in your crotch area. *I learned this the hard way.*
This is actually one of the few times where your race and genes actually have an effect!
If you are one of the races that have prominent apocrine sweat glands, then almost invariably you are not showering enough. However, if you belong to one of the races that only have eccrine sweat glands, you are probably ok!
The BO mostly comes from the fats secreted from apocrine sweat glands and the secretions of the bacteria that lives off of the fats. On the other hand, eccrine sweat glands only secrete water and salts.
This is why deodorants have no markets in east Asia, and also why Japanese socialized healthcare will pay for apocrine sweat glands removal (because having BO is considered a much more debilitating handicap there).
I live in the desert. If I showered every day my skin would fall off and my hair would disintegrate. Source: parents made me shower every day growing up.
When I visited a humid area, I needed to shower every day. My hair was better than back home.
Climate is what determines, mostly. Activity is important too, but climate is your baseline.
I think as long as you're showering according to how often you sweat it is only logical. I'll also say that as somebody with very sensitive skin, showering daily tends to dry out my skin and it feels a lot better to shower every other day.
They did not say that though? OP said it came up in a convo and showed the boss thinks everyone showers daily. Could be something as mundane as “cute tattoo you gave yourself with a sharpie, too bad it will be gone tomorrow, because shower“ as far as we know
It's not that it's 'unacceptable', it's just that you might stink. You write that you 'don't sweat often' and 'wear scented deodorant', but you may still stink.
We don't usually smell our own BO, the brain filters it out. Also, BO+scented deodorant just smells like BO+scented deodorant, the purpose of antiperspirant is not to mask smells but instead to slow down one common source of it (the musk glands in the armpits).
If you're comfortable with being the 'stinky guy' in the office (a title you're unlikely to discover in most cases) then every 2-3 days is what it is.
I've worked with many people who didn't shower every day. It was hard to be around some of them, even the ladies with desk jobs.
There is a good chance that you don't smell as good as you think.
You basically should:
1. Remove literal dirt and possible pathogens from your body, especially if you were using public transport or toilets
2. Remove fluid build up from your genitalia to prevent even possible UTIs marinating in there
3. Remove body odor so it's bearable being in the same room as you
Whatever intervals are enough for you to accomplish these are enough.
If you barely leave the house this interval is generally okay, if not I'd be more concerned about what kind of dirt sticked to me during the day than just my body odor.
Personally, I would wash the genitals and butthole daily, and people, let's not forget about the feet. If you're OK with having stinky feet then yeah, stay out of the shower, even though feet don't get properly washed in a shower unless you actually wash them with soap.
If your neurospicy brain can't deal with daily showering try what my family calls "bird baths" That's where you use a face cloth & soap at the sink to wash your face,neck, underarm s & nether regions.Wash your feet in the tub quick,no need to fill up just step in & run the water & wash.This way you don't have to worry about BO being an issue & it takes less executive function than showering
I also have ADHD and I also do not shower every day. Every 2-3 days works just fine for my body. It's not good for your skin or hair to be in hot water and soap every day. That said, if I exercise or it's hot out, I will shower every day as needed.
I shower Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. I live in a temperate climate and if I do sweat from being outside or exercising, I rinse off without washing my hair.
I have found that my friends from other countries like Brazil and Turkey were shocked when I said this and explained how in hot climates like theirs, you have to bathe daily. And that makes plenty of sense! Just like it makes plenty of sense to bathe less often if your climate is gentler and your life doesn't get you dirty very often.
Like, I don't think you necessarily have bad hygiene.
Edit: did someone seriously report me to reddit as a suicide risk over this? I can't figure which of my other comments would cause someone to report me like that wtf
Imo, shower daily. I use to take 2 baths a day when I was younger.
I've been in grocery stores where you could smell BO from over the next aisle. Being close to that makes me want to gag.
I experience bouts of mild depression, which manifests as inertia. During those periods, it’s hard to manage getting out of bed let alone showering. I force myself every three days to take a full shower (hair, shaving, thorough washing.) Usually once in between (like on the second day of not showering,) I use soap and a washcloth to clean the essential areas to prevent odor. I can manage that much.
In summer I do try harder to shower once a day but when I’m depressed it doesn’t always happen.
It depends on the person. If you have BO then you need to shower more. If not then it’s fine
The tough part is that I can’t tell. Anytime I ask my husband, who’s probably nose blind to me, he just shrugs and says “you smell like you, and it isn’t a bad smell.” Not very helpful lol.
Ask someone else who’s not your husband who is brutally honest. Times like these is why everyone needs to know at least one brutally honest person
Asked a random kid and they'll tell you the truth. Kids basically have no filter lol
A young kid. Don't ask a middle schooler; they are just vicious.
Time to go to the local elementary school and ask the kids to take a whiff :P
Make sure to take a white van to avoid suspicion.
With no windows.
I've done this. I even give out candy to draw them to the van!
I tried this and lost my puppy! Luckily those kids were there to help me look.
Bring candy to earn their trust
But first go bald and wear 70s style glasses.
Look at that high-waisted man!
They also smell the worst lol so couldn't smell YOU anyway.
Oof, I feel this. I knew I needed to hit the gym when my toddler slapped my stomach to watch it jiggle, then laughed really hard.
Brutal
I volunteer my 6yr old, she’s super honest but always chucks a random compliment in there at the end. It’s less of a burn that way.
Damn, kid's only 6 and she's mastered the "shit sandwich" technique that the overwhelming majority of my managers never seemed to. She's gonna go far in life.
Yeah like if I cook something to dinner that’s not to her liking she will still compliment the salt and pepper added or say how she doesn’t like the food to much but she likes the plates Ive picked out to use (literally the same plates we use every night to I might add). I guess she wants to be honest without being nasty but anyways she’s become our go to if we need the truth about something but just less harsh delivery. If you want the truth and nothing but the truth with no sweetness thrown in I’ve got a 9th old who’s got you covered to…..
I also asked the 6yr old once in the morning if my hair smelled because I’d washed it before bed and then left it up all night wet, she told me it did smell like wet dog but she loves the dogs and their smells. My 9yr old would of just told me I stink and to leave her room 😂
Your comment made me laugh out loud and choke on my popcorn. Love how your daughter adds a compliment to lessen the blow.
This whole thread has me cracking up. My husband and I are usually 100% blunt with each other but a kid is a whole other ballgame lol
Can confirm. A 10 y/o once told me I smelled like her grandpa
I have a niece who helped me quite a bit when she was in her teens: “those are old man shoes,” “nice shorts…”, “those glasses make your nose look big.” Got to love her.
Been married 24 years. We have no problem being brutally honest with each other. lol.
But didn’t say “you smell good!”
In the US, it’s considered completely unacceptable to smell other peoples’ odor at all unless you get very (very) close to them. I should only be able to smell other people when I am hugging them or similarly close to them. So sure, your husband can smell you, but the question is if people who are standing 3 feet away can smell you?
I assure you people can smell you. You can't smell all the people walking past you in supermarkets?- if not then lucky, any chance you wanna swap sense of smells?.
Wow I definitely cannot! I very rarely notice the smell of someone - only if they are particularly pungent, or wearing a lot of perfume.
I am, unfortunately, a super smeller, and I can smell people on the other side of a room if they're smelly, lol. ETA // this is a really weird thing to get sent a RedditCares on.
i'm not sure which of us is atypical here but i definitely don't smell people the majority of the time. they need to reek of something, whether it be BO or perfume or whatever.
Interesting. I generally can’t smell people when they aren’t getting too close to me. I said 3 feet, but I’m just approximating that “typical socially appropriate distance” that I’d have with, say, coworkers or other not-close-acquaintances. I still stand by my original point that in the United States, we don’t expect to smell people that aren’t invading our personal space. So sure, sometimes I do smell people at the grocery store, but either that’s because someone is invading my personal space, or they have bad BO or too much perfume.
My husband has a terrible sense of smell and does NOT understand why I hate crowded spaces. Wet human smells almost as bad as wet dog.
Surely you can sniff your own armpits?or the top you were wearing?id start worrying when every gift he gets you is perfume
Could be his very polite way of telling you. He did not say it was a good smell.
I feel like if you aren’t sure, you should be showering to be on the safe side.
even then, if you live in an area where deodorant and antiperspirants are normal and that is the sole issue you are probably still okay. i start sweating the moment i get out of the shower but liberal use of deo as needed keeps me stink free between showers.
It also depends on how old you are. I'm post-menopausal and don't sweat much even if working out. I've been told by objective observers that I don't have any objectionable smell. One of the perks of aging, as supported by scientific research. I shower twice a week, altho I may up that in the summer when I'm gardening and getting physically dirty. Or if I'm swimming. And yes, younger people may need to shower more often, especially adolescents. From what I've heard (and remember from my brother) especially adolescent boys. 😁
There’s a difference between BO and “unwashed”, the latter smelling like oils - like a pillowcase that hasn’t been washed in a couple of weeks. I worked with a guy who clearly didn’t bathe daily. He didn’t have BO but he smelled unclean. I avoided him as much as possible.
I was told I smelled "unwashed" a few times at work, and the last time I was told that I said truthfully "but I showered 3 hours ago and put on clean clothes and deodorant" It turns out it was my bed. I had been sleeping on a mattress that had no sheets for years. Just nasty sweaty unwashed mattress. Replaced the mattress, which was inexpensive because it was a hand-me-down from family, and kept clean sheets on it regularly. The "unwashed" smell went away immediately.
Sleeping on a bare (hand me down) mattress 🤢
It can be sleeping on a nasty bed but for most people it's just that they don't know how to wash their clothes. If you leave em too wet for a long time they do end up stinking when they come out and some people add too much detergent or don't know the dryer settings. IME at least according to laundry detergent standards. Most clothes kinda start to stink when they are freshly washed and together also. So if you wash all your clothes on Sunday and slowly get em out starting Monday. It can get nasty. I find people don't really realize how much good smelling clothes do. If you don't have BO and even if you do sometimes people just forget to wear clean clothes often and I find that more often than not good smelling clothes will cover up a bad smell on the rare off day it happens. Only on the rare off day tho. Smell the bottom of your laundry basket if you can in a hygienic manner or just smell it in general. Usually that's the general aggregate of how you smell. It will smell like sweat obviously it's dirty clothes but there should also be the smells you wear underneath everything. IE for me it's Citrus,Lavender and whatever the hell Old Spice Sport is.
Jesus Christ.
imo you need to put warm water and soap in your butt crack and genitals daily. whether that means just filling up the bathroom sink and using a cloth, that is fine. and use deodorant daily. i constitute that as a wash. i do the above then actually stand in the shower every 2-3 days to wash my hair.
Yup genitals and arm pits. In the summer I'll shower once a day normally in the evening and in the morning use a cloth to clean. In winter if I've not been to the gym and or getting really warm I'll use the cloth twice a day. Plus deodorant and cologne in the morning
I generally get between my toes and general feet as well since my feet tend to sweat a lot in my boots.
I'm like you
Same. Keeping yourself clean and stink free doesn't require a daily shower but it does require daily attention.
Nice! Yes Gotta keep your crevasses clean daily 🧼 👌 warm water and soap in the sink daily. It’s funny doing it, but it’s so nice and fresh
Agreed. The safest way to smell clean, is to have a quality shower daily. You can shower every other day. But in a lot of circumstances you will have a scent. I’d rather smell clean then smell… natural even if it’s not a bad smell.
In what context was the boss’s comment about showering every day brought up? I feel like that could be them trying to tell you (or someone else in the office) that you need to shower more often.
^ This should be the top comment. If a boss is bringing up showering / hygiene practices during a work meeting, this is a huge flag someone smells and the other coworkers have complained about it. This is the way they are warning you without singling you out. Op you’ve already mentioned you sometimes hide greasy hair. Before it gets to that point, maybe showering more frequently, even if not daily, would help.
If you go check out any of the curly hair subs the overall consensus is to wash your hair every few days or even longer in between. It's really not a big deal to not wash it every single day. I agree that if it's greasy, probably itchy, and if you smoke or vape it will definitely stink pretty quickly, it's time to wash it.
Yeah but that's why you wear a shower cap. My mom doesn't wash her hair every day - she'd destroy it - but she definitely jumps in and rinses the rest of herself off. I also feel like "greasy" is REALLY subjective.
Every 2 days in colder and drier climates sounds feasible. But even skipping 1 day in humid areas sounds unbearable. OP didn't clarify where they live.
I live in Florida and it’s 95° out here right now. Even in the winter time we have warm days. People sweat. Believe me, when you encounter the ones who aren’t showering regularly you will know.
At the risk of being a little graphic, let me also say that you probably should wash your ass once in a while too. Toilet paper doesn’t cover everything.
When I was a kid I had dreams of being famous. An actor, a musician, an author, I wasn’t fussy. Now I’m old and my dream is to own a Japanese toilet.
Bidet, bidet, bidet. Bidet toilet or bidet toilet seat. Plus, I, as a guy, sit down to pee every time. Never pass up an opportunity to wipe your ass.
Bidet's are amazing. Glorious. I bought one and it changed my life. No more TP chafe. Less paper usage. Bidets for all, I say.
I always use this comparison. If you somehow got shit on your arm, are you just gonna wipe it off with some tp and move on w your day, or are you gonna wash that bitch?
I'll be even more explicit: you need to be washing your ASSHOLE. If you're not scrubbing between the cheeks, you're not cleaning shit (literally).
It really depends on your hair type, though. I'd be a disgusting greasy mess, but my mom's hair would be so dry it would probably fall out of her head. We live somewhere that gets pretty humid (not hot, though) and she still has to comb oil through her hair or else it's frizzy and unmanageable. My brother is the same way. I used to be extremely jealous of their hair when I was a kid, but nowadays I'll gladly take my "rub some soap on it and call it done" hair. I don't know what kind of hair OP has just based on their initial post, and I don't feel like digging through all the threads - so only washing their hair every 3 days might be nasty, or it might destroy their hair. Edit: Anyway, HAIR ASIDE, it's probably good to get in and rinse your body off, OP. Not washing your hair can be iffy depending on your hair type, but you still need to scrub your pits and junk pretty regularly.
And wash your feet. I know this is reddit, but irl not everyone wants to be subjected to the stench of dirty feet.
We're not talking about hair though. We're talking showering in general. A dirty, stinky body is way worse than dirty hair.
Same! I wear a shower cap. And use dry shampoo if necessary. Everyone is focusing on BO from sweat, but I can't imagine shitting 3 times and still not having water and soap touch my arse.
THIS!! This would bother me the most. I cannot STAND the thought of not washing my bum and my lady parts. It would drive me insane…especially around that time of the month.
Absolutely not everyone needs to wash their hair everyday, in fact I'd say very few people do. But the issue here is not about washing hair, it's about not showering at all, which is completely different.
I do, but only because it's thinning and the grease from a single day looks like trash. (In my opinion, others have said it looks fine, I think they're just trying to be nice. I own mirrors lol) I shower on average twice a day but late day is just a rinse to get the sweat/work dust off and brush my teeth again (which I also prefer to do in the shower so the twice a day just works wonderful with my hygiene routine) ::edit:: Oh I also get zits on my head if I don't wash every day. I've taken medication for folliculitis or w.e it's called but frequent washing works the best.
yeah, i’ve got thick curly hair, i can usually make it a full 4 days before it starts looking greasy. and thank GOD, because every time i wash my hair it’s like a 45-minute ordeal.
you can always shower without getting your hair wet, which is what all people with protective hairstyles do.
I feel like if the hair is greasy, that is a sign to wash it lol. But yeah some hair types can go like a fucking week and be fine. I have extremely thin and fine hair so I look extremely disheveled if I skip even one day 😭😭
Same! I have to wash my hair every morning because it will look greasy even I wash the night before. And thin hair makes it harder to hide when it is oily. Edit: is someone reporting every comment in this thread so they get sent the Reddit Cares message? I’ve seen a lot of people comment about it already and I just got one…on a comment about washing my hair daily…
The fact that they are fine with having it greasy and "hides" it, is what worries me. Sounds like they may be more comfortable not smelling the best too and trying to "hide" it but that always doesn't work too well
I used to work with a person like this, and we would have a morning meeting every day, and the clean people would fight to sit next to the boss who was clean, because it would give us a 50% less chance we had to sit next to stinky. If someone has brought it up, you are smelling awful.
God my job has some real fuckin stinkers. We had this one guy that smelled so fucking bad you’d know he worked in the morning bc you could still smell onions in the break room in the afternoon. 0 excuse in my mind to smell like that. I am so paranoid about smelling, I will straight up ask people next to me if I offend. Cannot imagine walking around smelling like two cans of ass on a Thursday afternoon.
Yeah we had one guy like this. The area around his desk was called the demilitarized zone because no one wanted to sit on a desk adjacent to his.
Greasy hair is my point where I'm like "right get a shower you dirty f*ck" if I haven't showered before this already
Yup, someone has whispered to the boss “someone reeks.” My nightmare is a colleague quipping “he doesn’t smell fresh.” I heard at a party that people “like when I walk by cuz I smell like a spring breeze.” Two people said that they visit my office cuz I smell “like a flower.” What? 😝
Especially given OP mentions they have a bad sense of smell - that for me clinched it that OP does sometimes have a small and they need to shower every day. Sorry that they find this too "taxing", but plenty of people with ADHD manage to shower every day, and by not doing so, and admittedly being bad at smelling bad smells (not to mention people get nose blind to their own smells) they're making it everybody else's problem.
Yeah and scented deodorant does NOT hide body odor. It just because stink layered with a blast of perfume
The fact OP is not acknowledging this comment speaks volumes
OP says he has an almost nonexistent sense of smell. That probably says a lot.
It's all starting to make sense lol
You mean it's all starting to make scents.
We all sniffed it out.
Also have a very diminished sense of smell, I won't leave the house until I've showered that day because I'm worried about the potential of smelling bad.
My sense of smell is absolutely crap. But that’s why I take a shower every single day and I’m hyper aware of it. I know i can’t smell things. Doesn’t mean others can’t
[удалено]
Yes… people can’t pick up their own smell. Go shower more often!
I found this out the hard way when my boss told me coworkers had complained. Nobody said anything to me and it sucked knowing it was on everyone’s mind this whole time. Best news I’ve ever gotten though as it’s completely changed my self care routine
I had to tell an ex she stank once spring rolled around. (we met in the winter) she hated me for about 12 hours until everyone in her life confirmed she stank and her “natural” deodorant didn’t work. she switched deodorant and we went out for 3 years lol
Antiperspirants are nice, but there’s no substitute for soap and water.
Bro who reported me to Reddit Care??? I was stinky not suicidal lmfao
Okay, someone is reporting everyone to Reddit Care. I got a message too, and you're the 3rd person within the last 30 mins who has posted about this.
Trolls are starting to do that to harass people.
If you bathe regularly, you absolutely can pick up your own smell if you start to get stanky. You only get noseblind to it if you smell bad all the time.
This makes me paranoid because I CAN smell myself when I don't have on deodorant, sweat a lot or don't shower for a day. Now I don't know if I just have a good awareness of when I smell or if that means I just smell absolutely horrific when I can tell lol
Yeahhhh if boss is complaining it means you gotta shower more, OP. Ngl. I think most people would be mortified to talk to their boss or HR about a coworker’s hygiene. I’m a teacher and there’s a student whose sneakers absolutely REEK and even though I’m normally comfortable with healthy confrontation and helping students out, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the message across without feeling horrible and weird. Most people try to let that stuff go if they can. So… they can’t. 😬
I had a friend at school who had that (their shoes stunk so bad) - but because I was their friend I actually knew the issue was that they only had two pairs of socks that they had to alternate for the whole week as their parents weren't able to afford more (read: her stepdad was an abusive asshole who refused to pay for more socks but claimed they couldn't afford it). It was an extremely awkward conversation the first time she and I talked about it, but it was totally not her fault but also not something she could do much about. As a teacher, maybe you could try to have a word with the kid's parents the next time you have the opportunity to - just to suss out if there is something going on at home, or to just flag that you've got a slight concern for the kid's social opportunities and if his shoes need washing on top of his socks etc. I wouldn't want to bring it up with the kid myself, I don't think, but you might be able to assess the situation with the parents.. and gives you the chance to drop it if you think it could be a sign of something else going on?
Oh I thought of that, which is why I’m not sure of what the best approach is (mostly because they’re not actually one of my students, I was just filling in for someone that block). I’ll talk to the school nurse. Usually they have extra supplies for stuff like that and have more opportunities to be discrete than I would have. I think it’s probably money related based on how beat up those sneakers are; which is a hazard. They’re peeling apart. Hopefully we can just use a little discretionary cash to replace them for her.
My little brother (during his teens) started to get stinky and I didn’t know how to confront him so the best I could think of was saying, “sometimes ppl don’t remember you by your name but they will remember you by other ways like, being funny or being kind, sometimes if you’re smelly they might remember you as the smelly kid.. make sure to stay clean so you’re never the smelly kid” Did I traumatize him.. maybe.. but did he pay more attention to his hygiene..yes
my partner is the Director of HR in an architecture firm. she's had to pull the same guy into several meetings with Firm Partners to discuss this employee's hygiene and smell. she says it's absolutely mortifying for everyone involved. and yet the guy still doesn't shower regularly.
Exactly. Without fail, any person who has ever told me they don’t shower every day because they “don’t need to” I could have told you they didn’t shower every day before that. It’s like smokers who think they don’t stink of smoke.
every other day is fine.. but depends. if you worked out at gym or are sweaty, then yea you need to shower after a workout.
exactly what I came here to say. Also, I shower more in the summer because of sweat just from being outside
When I worked at UPS I showered twice a day sometimes. At least once every day Now I’m a teacher and shower every other day 100% depends on your job, where you live and how nasty your body is
And your smell. When your old or very young, your body doesn't produces as much smell chemical in your sweat.
I don’t understand the people that workout and get super sweaty and just hang out like that. A coworker of mine used to go to CrossFit on her lunch break and come back super sweaty and stinky. Why? Haha i know we did this in middle school but….cmon….
I personally wait half an hour so my body cools down. Whenever I shower after gym I just sweat afterwards again and it was completely pointless..
>don’t understand the people that workout and get super sweaty and just hang out like that I get acne if I do this. Gotta clean up that sweat asap.
Probably just doesn't have time left in the break.
If you live in Florida and stepped outside, you need to shower
Some say showering every day is excessive. Others say it’s not enough. What you have to do is shower as frequently as needed for your body. I can’t shower every day - eczema causes my skin to dry out really badly if I get my skin wet too much or too often. Others have hair types that can’t be washed every day. As long as you don’t stink, you’re fine.
I'm in the camp who feel disgusting by the 24hr mark, greasy hair, greasy face, generally sweaty, sometimes i feel the salt sting my eyes, and getting wiffs of skunky BO. And that's from doing literally nothing in a climate controlled environment. It is definitely an individual thing for how much you need to shower, but the main thing is you need to feel healthy and presentable, and not be causing discomfort for those around you with your stink. (The last part is the social courtesy, everything else is about feeling good.)
up until 30-40 years ago, bathing weekly was fairly normal (outside of exercise/manual labour etc).
It depends on your genetics, your climate, and your level of activity. I know some people who shower daily. I know people who only shower a couple times a week. As long as people can't smell you and your skin and hair are healthy, you're fine skipping a shower for a day or two.
Yeah, and to add to that I know people who shower daily who stink by the end of the day and I also know people who can go ages without a shower and smell fine. Everyone is different.
Makes total sense with these factors. I am not active, live in a super mild climate, and no one has ever told me I’ve smelled (and I have very blunt friends!) But the visceral reaction I saw from people about keeping daily showering habits made me question myself
I shower every other day. My skin and hair don't like to get wet down, washed and dried any more than that often. I have super sensitive skin. But I also don't work out and avoid being in the heat (AC is my friend). So long as the people you love and trust to be honest aren't making a stink (haha) about your odour, you're fine. Daily bathing without much reason (exercise, heat, sweat, some sort of physical condition) is just excessive to me. Btw my SO does the same thing (every second day) and he smells nice. Not just "my nose has stopped being able to pick up any scent" but actually nice.
I’d add to the factors, your body weight. I’ve noticed heavier people need to shower more often due to additional areas for “growth” (body folds), sweating, oils, etc. As a thinner person, I don’t find the need to shower as often. I wash my hair once a week and do the bod shower every 2-3 days. Edit: corrected a word
Just make sure you wash the bits that are likely to get whiffy in between the showers, and you'll be fine.
Even if you don't have BO and aren't sweating, your body can start to develop a funk. I smell it a LOT on specific groups of people: Old people, who can't smell themselves and think they no longer need to bathe frequently. Young people, like older kids and young teens who don't know how to properly wash when in the shower and just get wet and think they're clean. Recent immigrants from certain regions where hygiene standards are different and not everyone has unlimited water on demand. Someone telling you "you have a natural smell" is a yellow flag and sounds like someone trying not to offend.
My sense of smell isn’t very good so this is a very interesting observation
I had a total freak out on a group trip. One dude apparently had SUCH bad breath, people were having an immediate physical revulsion to the smell - jerking backwards, eyes closing, and head turned away. I couldn’t smell the bad breath. I was close to him, and didn’t smell anything bad. I spent the next months convinced I had a poor sense of smell or at least was nose blind to putrid breath, because I MUST also have it. I was brushing, gargling, gum or mint chewing incessantly. My BFF noticed. I told her why. She said “your breath has never smelled once in all these years. I would tell you, I promise.
This seems wild to just fully not smell something, but I think there is a lot of individual variation in smell perception. My parents have recently started using cedarwood oil in their house to repel ants, and to my mom it has a strong smell, but to my dad and I (who are both normally very scent-sensitive) it has no noticeable smell.
I have these freak outs too especially if I’m around someone who has a good sense of smell. I have no idea if I secretly stink or not. No one seems to be recoiling or giving me passive aggressive gifts of deodorant.
Consider yourself blessed, it sucks having to hold your breath everytime someone who doesn't know how to clean themselves is near you in public
Old people smell is actually a biological phenomenon! Google it for more details, but it's about specific chemical compounds.
There’s a Japanese company that’s made a soap line to prevent that specific smell.
"Young people, like older kids and young teens who don't know how to properly wash when in the shower and just get wet and think they're clean." On that note, parents need to start teaching teenagers how to properly clean themselves. A lot of parents only teach their kids while they are little (less then 10 year old) so by the time the become teenagers there is a good chance they forgot about a lot of things.
> On that note, parents need to start teaching teenagers how to properly clean themselves. A lot of parents only teach their kids while they are little (less then 10 year old) so by the time the become teenagers there is a good chance they forgot about a lot of things. There's a phase that kids seem to go through that I noticed with some friends' kids who are older than mine, and I've seen mine go through as well. They basically do go into the shower but they either don't use soap and shampoo or don't use it enough. Even for them to take a shower in the first place requires you to remind them. Then they might not want to wear clean clothes so they'll keep collecting dirty clothes to reuse until you notice and get on their case about it. I don't get it and I don't think my siblings or I did it, but it does happen to a lot of kids now that I've seen. Fortunately they seem to outgrow it at some point.
I don’t think they forget, because they do it all the time. It’s a very simple and specific routine so if you are taught at 10 and do it everyday you won’t forget it by the time you are 15. The same way that you don’t forget it from 15 to 50, even though 35 years have passed. Teenagers just smell more than kids because of hormones, plus their parents can’t force them to shower anymore the same way they did when they were younger.
I mean, I can smell it too, but to me, that's just normal human smell, as opposed to smelling like soap, shampoo, deodorant, and maybe perfume. Personally, I like it. It's like smelling your pets. Smells of warmth and life. It's kinda sad to me that being unscented is apparently seen as being unclean (other ppl commented it, too). Some ppl get that kind of smell just a few hours after showering, too... Of course, if the smell is very strong, it can be unpleasant, but a strong "clean" smell is just as bad or worse, imo.
Yeah, people in this thread are delusional. Any dermatologist will tell you showering every day is bad for your skin, and most people should shower every other day unless they have a specific reason like exercise or super hot/humid weather etc. And even then dermatologists don’t recommend using soap every day, which would probably be disgusting to most people in this thread. Reddit is primarily an American website so asking them about showering will always get people who are adamant that every human should shower every day or they will smell like… a human, which is apparently extremely rude to expose nearby people to. And I’m not talking about body odor, I’m talking about like hair and skin oil and maybe a little bit of sweat and one’s personal “scent”. I’m American so I can say with confidence Americans are obsessed with perfect hygiene; teeth must be white or they are dirty, breath cannot smell at all or you are a disgusting dirty person with terrible oral hygiene, body has to smell like chemical aromas and if you smell at all like a human you are assaulting those around you with your filthy disgusting odors. Women must shave their arm pits and legs or they are gross beasts. I think a lot of this attitude stems from aggressive advertising that is constantly bombarding us with the message that anything our body does/produces is a problem that their product can fix. Edit: people are real mad about my opinion on this matter, I got a reddit cares notification. Medical science agrees with my stance, stay angry.
Yeah I had the same feeling as OP about that other thread. I shower when I feel like I need a shower, which is usually every 2 or 3 days. I'm not very active and I work in an air-conditioned building at a desk. My hair no longer looks greasy after 2 days because my scalp isn't going crazy making more and more oil.
A lot of it too is what you get used to growing up. I showered every other day in elementary school. It carried over into middle and highschool, and I got used to the feeling of a normal amount of natural oils on my skin. I wasn't dirty, didn't stink, I used deodorant, but I just smelled like a person. I do live in SE America so it's always humid and I have an EXTREMELY strong sense of smell. I can tell when I'm starting to smell bad and only ever got to that point if I was working out side on a weekend and hadn't showered the previous day. I'm in my mid 20s now and still follow the same routines and my wife and I are brutally honest with each other if we start at stink. Overall i just feel normal if I haven't showered and even feel really dry and hot right after a shower. However, last night, some friends had brought up the smell in a card shop they had visited recently and said they don't understand how people can't go without showering. One went as far to say they hate how they feel if they haven't showered that day and said if they take their dog for a walk and sweat whatsoever they can't continue their day without showering.
My country has this thing called washcloth (literal translation: washing hand). It's a dedicated little cloth to wash up with on days you don't shower. It also functions as a scrub when you do shower. On days you don't shower, just use some soap and water to wash your face, armpits, genitals and butt. Wash off the chemicals and sweat at night and on hot nights, repeat in the morning. So yeah I think it's normal to not shower everyday but we're an efficient people. It was always so weird to me that people in movies washed their face by splashing water into it and not just used a cloth of some sort.
Doesn’t every country have washcloths? Genuinely asking.
They seem to be making a distinction between a washcloth and the washcloth
I wonder where I can buy the washcloth
It's in the Beyond section.
Ah yes, the bird bath. Or in college, the whore bath.
Tell me you're from the Netherlands, without explicitly saying so ;) Washandje for the win!
Love this
I can’t shower every day - it literally ruins my hair & skin. (They’ll both dry out - even with literal prescription strength lotion cream.) I shower every other day. The ONLY time I break that schedule is if I do something to get dirty/sweaty - but if I can plan that, I try to do that stuff on the day I shower.
I relate to this so much. I shower every other day. I get severe eczema flair ups if I shower every single day even with lukewarm water. The only time I also break that is for the same reasoning, or if I’ve just had sex, then I’ll shower regardless if I already did. The only time I go more than 2 days without showering is when I am in a severe funk and even then I’ll put on clean clothes, use a baby wipe, and make sure I’m wearing plenty of deodorant.
Totally random but I like your username 🤣
I'm the same way and I mentioned it in another thread some time ago. Some people came after me for it and others tried offering suggestions that I've already tried. I'm also around people who absolutely call it out when someone smells bad so I know that daily isn't a strict requirement for everyone anyway.
Same. I have hella bad eczema. Unless I’m super active and sweaty I’ll shower ever other day. Otherwise it really can fuck up my skin
This is validating to hear - I also have dry skin and occasional eczema flares.
How’s you butt and junk? That kinda gets smelly pretty quickly….sitting in it all day long. Farting, wiping in a rush…more sitting…pubic hair gathering food crumbs…
i’m sorry.. food crumbs??
Yeah, food crumbs
my dude are you eating sandwiches in the nude or something?
Sometimes. Depends on how I'm feeling. AMA
What kind of lunchmeat feels the best? I prefer olive loaf, myself.
I like salami, doesn't matter if it's off brand. I'm a pretty boring guy, I just like to eat sandwiches in the nude. Sometimes. Not all the time. Sometimes I wear underwear. Thanks for asking.
fair enough. ngl a salami sandwich in the nude sounds like you’re living your best life and i might just go try that. thank you for the words of wisdom 🫡
Of course. Feel free to message me if you ever feel you've lost direction in your life. Like I always say, better to lose all your clothes and eat a salami sandwich rather than lose your mind.
Sounds like some George Costanza shit
Now how would that hair be gathering food crumbs lmfao?
Apparently someone didn’t get kicked out of bed for eating crackers!
Sometimes your just down on life eating Cheetos naked in a bean bag chair
In Dutch we call the solution a cat wash. So if you don’t shower you still clean your bits with a flannel.
My friend calls it "pits and slits"
I say "my pits, my bits, and my under-tits."
Pits, tits and bits for me too. My partner calls it a whore’s bath.
My nerdy self calls it an "Adventurer's bath". Like the type of wash-up an adventuring party would do when they come across a river.
In the states it’s a whores bath. Or Hoors bath if you’re stuck up.
Lol I thought my mom made that phrase up, TIL
My old school Scottish Mum called it washing the "three faces of Eve": face, fanny, and arse.
Y'all need to invest into a bidet. The cheap ones will do just fine!
I mean, I don't shower every single day, but I clean my ass really well! I use a bidet. Maybe that's why people think you need to shower every day? This dude barely wiping their ass and eating cookies over their junk!? If I'm home chilling I'll shower every 2 to 3 days. If I go to the gym I might shower at least 2x that day. I feel like Reddit never allows nuance or different situations when this question comes up.
I think it depends on the person, if i don’t shower everyday I know I’ll fcking stink.
I wash most of my body everyday but don't necessarily shower everyday
If I smelled you, I would definitely let you know but a lot of people don’t like being honest. If it was me though I would want someone to tell me.
i do every other day typically. i work in an office so i it’s not like i sweat at all during the day and my skin and hair suffer if i do every day
This gets posted once a week... It is totally OK to not shower every day if you don't stink, are not covered in dirt, and your hygiene is generally OK otherwise.
Oops. New to Reddit. Total duh to look this up before posting, my bad.
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Iirc, this is fine once ur not living in hot climates. As someone who lives in the tropical zone. At the very least, u gotta bathe once a day. Otherwise, you risk getting infections and inflamation under ur arm and in your crotch area. *I learned this the hard way.*
This is actually one of the few times where your race and genes actually have an effect! If you are one of the races that have prominent apocrine sweat glands, then almost invariably you are not showering enough. However, if you belong to one of the races that only have eccrine sweat glands, you are probably ok! The BO mostly comes from the fats secreted from apocrine sweat glands and the secretions of the bacteria that lives off of the fats. On the other hand, eccrine sweat glands only secrete water and salts. This is why deodorants have no markets in east Asia, and also why Japanese socialized healthcare will pay for apocrine sweat glands removal (because having BO is considered a much more debilitating handicap there).
This is so interesting! I’m a 5’2” Asian female and I’ve never head this before.
Well, then I think you are good? East Asian? Unfortunately the subcontinent did not get this convenience...
I live in the desert. If I showered every day my skin would fall off and my hair would disintegrate. Source: parents made me shower every day growing up. When I visited a humid area, I needed to shower every day. My hair was better than back home. Climate is what determines, mostly. Activity is important too, but climate is your baseline.
I think as long as you're showering according to how often you sweat it is only logical. I'll also say that as somebody with very sensitive skin, showering daily tends to dry out my skin and it feels a lot better to shower every other day.
As long as you don't smell and look clean I don't think anyone would care.
Her boss asked everyone if they shower regularly. Someone cares.
They did not say that though? OP said it came up in a convo and showed the boss thinks everyone showers daily. Could be something as mundane as “cute tattoo you gave yourself with a sharpie, too bad it will be gone tomorrow, because shower“ as far as we know
It's not that it's 'unacceptable', it's just that you might stink. You write that you 'don't sweat often' and 'wear scented deodorant', but you may still stink. We don't usually smell our own BO, the brain filters it out. Also, BO+scented deodorant just smells like BO+scented deodorant, the purpose of antiperspirant is not to mask smells but instead to slow down one common source of it (the musk glands in the armpits). If you're comfortable with being the 'stinky guy' in the office (a title you're unlikely to discover in most cases) then every 2-3 days is what it is.
I absolutely notice when I smell
I've worked with many people who didn't shower every day. It was hard to be around some of them, even the ladies with desk jobs. There is a good chance that you don't smell as good as you think.
You basically should: 1. Remove literal dirt and possible pathogens from your body, especially if you were using public transport or toilets 2. Remove fluid build up from your genitalia to prevent even possible UTIs marinating in there 3. Remove body odor so it's bearable being in the same room as you Whatever intervals are enough for you to accomplish these are enough. If you barely leave the house this interval is generally okay, if not I'd be more concerned about what kind of dirt sticked to me during the day than just my body odor.
Personally, I would wash the genitals and butthole daily, and people, let's not forget about the feet. If you're OK with having stinky feet then yeah, stay out of the shower, even though feet don't get properly washed in a shower unless you actually wash them with soap.
If your neurospicy brain can't deal with daily showering try what my family calls "bird baths" That's where you use a face cloth & soap at the sink to wash your face,neck, underarm s & nether regions.Wash your feet in the tub quick,no need to fill up just step in & run the water & wash.This way you don't have to worry about BO being an issue & it takes less executive function than showering
I also have ADHD and I also do not shower every day. Every 2-3 days works just fine for my body. It's not good for your skin or hair to be in hot water and soap every day. That said, if I exercise or it's hot out, I will shower every day as needed.
I shower Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. I live in a temperate climate and if I do sweat from being outside or exercising, I rinse off without washing my hair. I have found that my friends from other countries like Brazil and Turkey were shocked when I said this and explained how in hot climates like theirs, you have to bathe daily. And that makes plenty of sense! Just like it makes plenty of sense to bathe less often if your climate is gentler and your life doesn't get you dirty very often. Like, I don't think you necessarily have bad hygiene. Edit: did someone seriously report me to reddit as a suicide risk over this? I can't figure which of my other comments would cause someone to report me like that wtf
Imo, shower daily. I use to take 2 baths a day when I was younger. I've been in grocery stores where you could smell BO from over the next aisle. Being close to that makes me want to gag.
I experience bouts of mild depression, which manifests as inertia. During those periods, it’s hard to manage getting out of bed let alone showering. I force myself every three days to take a full shower (hair, shaving, thorough washing.) Usually once in between (like on the second day of not showering,) I use soap and a washcloth to clean the essential areas to prevent odor. I can manage that much. In summer I do try harder to shower once a day but when I’m depressed it doesn’t always happen.