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People Who Don't Wear Deodorant or Seemingly Bathe Regularly, Why? (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago by Zahille7@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

232 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Like, I travel around for work and I've met plenty of people from all backgrounds.

Why is there a demographic of people who don't seemingly bathe regularly, or at the very least wear something to cover up their BO? I could understand if it's an allergy, or even religious reasons (though the people I've met that smell bad are usually you're average American young adult man) but recently (like in the past week, recently) I've met a concerning number of people who don't seem to wear any kind of deodorant or possibly don't even bathe regularly; it's starting to become an issue for me, as I don't even want to interact with them when I can smell them walking up from 3+ feet away yet I need to for work.

Does anyone have any possible insight?

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[–] fiat_lux@kbin.social 26 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Copying and pasting my answer from the same question just 2 weeks ago:

How do you know they all weren't wearing it?

There are a lot of people who do wear it but continue to smell because of underlying medical conditions. For example, fruity smelling body odor can indicate diabetes. People with a rare genetic condition called Trimethylaminuria can smell strongly of fish. It all depends on what bacteria (which outnumber your own body cells by 10 to 1 even though they are only 2% of your body mass) and what balance of enzymes you may or may not have.

Reducing perspiration can and often does help, concealing the odor with different ones can help, but sometimes people's bodies just aren't right for whatever mass produced product they have bought. Sometimes that can be fixed with medication. Sometimes it can't.

https://kbin.social/m/asklemmy@lemmy.ml/t/638513/-/comment/3647566

[–] Gabu@lemmy.ml 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Another sucky condition is chronic hyperhidrosis, which causes excessive, sometimes permanent (my case), sweating. I bathe every day, sometimes multiple times a day, and reapply deodorant every 5 hours or so, but even then, if you catch me at an inopportune time, I may well be sweaty.

[–] sarcasticsunrise@lemm.ee 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ugh that H word right there. I had hyperhidrosis most of my life up until my late 20's. I started using this painful stuff called Drysol which I think just worked by murdering my sweat glands

[–] Gabu@lemmy.ml 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You may want to have your physician follow on that. AFAIK, studies show that chemical solutions which destroy the ability to sweat also increase severely the risk of cardiovascular illnesses.

[–] sarcasticsunrise@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

Good lookin out m8. I haven't used it in about 15 years, but still

[–] AnimePhantasm@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I highly recommend isotretinoin (accutane) for hyperhidrosis. Its primarily prescribed for zits, but off label for hyperhidrosis. Its not fun when you're on it but the changes are seemingly permanent. A full year after completing his treatment and my husband is still much less sweaty and his skin is much clearer to boot.

Talk to your dermatologist!

[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

be careful with Accutane I went from a normal happy kid to attempted self harm in 3 months. then they took me off it and all the bad thoughts just stopped.

[–] Gabu@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago

I appreciate the tip, but looking at the list of adverse effects, I'd rather stay as I am.