

The Great Unwashed - cwan
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/fashion/31Unwashed.html?src=me&ref=general

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forensic
I've smelled lots of stinky people and never told them they stink.

If everyone acts like me, it makes sense that these people don't get told they
are stinky.

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gojomo
Business opportunity: "Honestly, do you stink?"

A total stranger and/or scientific equipment rates your aroma. Because in
general, it's hard to smell yourself, and taboos can make it hard for your
friends and coworkers to give honest feedback.

~~~
k3dz
this could be a web app too.. where you could anonymously tell people they
stink

~~~
stephencelis
One of the ideas on <http://failin.gs>

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sp4rki
I live in central America, so skipping a shower or two WILL get you on peoples
lousy side. Hell in here you'd have to shower twice a day as a minimum. Oh and
no deodorant? Oh man I've heard that "but I don't stink!" excuse a million
times. Yes you freaking do!

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tgriesser
I don't think that I could skip the daily shower, if only for the fact that it
is one time out of the day where you can just let your mind and body
completely relax.

PG talks about the ability to find your top ideas in the shower:
<http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html>

~~~
rflrob
For me, the 5 minutes in the shower substitute for coffee: it helps me feel
awake and ready to go.

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smellyboy
People are so sold on the you are disgusting and smell and only buying product
will save you.

Personally I like a shower every day but saying that I haven't bothered with
soap or shampoo for maybe the last 5 years. I also don't bother with
deoderants. Strange though it may seem people never notice and are happy to
sit next to me and give me hugs etc.

Lots of stinky people actually wash very often. If I was smelly I'd do
something about it too.

~~~
groaner
You make it seem like this is a non-issue for you, but it looks like you
created a new account to comment on this. Are you concerned about this opinion
being linked with your real (or better-known) identity?

~~~
smellyboy
It's my first comment so I needed to think up an account name.

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CoreDumpling
_In fact, Ms. Palmer, the chief executive of Osea, an organic skin-care line,
often travels to meet business contacts at the five-star luxury hotels where
her line is sold. They might be surprised to read that Ms. Palmer, a petite,
put-together brunette, showers “no more than three times a week,” she said,
and less if she hasn’t been “working out vigorously.”

She contends that a soapy washcloth under her arms, between her legs and under
her feet is all she needs to get “really clean.” On the go, underarm odor is
wiped away with a sliced lemon._

Some of us ought to note that it's not necessary to be the model customer in
order to build a successful business.

Personally, I'd have a hard time getting over the cognitive dissonance,
though.

~~~
rflrob
"On the go, underarm odor is wiped away with a sliced lemon."

A sliced lemon seems like it would be at once more expensive and less
convenient than a stick of antiperspirant, though mitigated somewhat if you
happen to have a lemon tree.

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feral
>other gold standards of personal hygiene, like frequent shampooing and
deodorant use.

Using deodorant does not have an effect on hygiene. Hygiene is about being
clean; deodorant is about being dirty and not smelling like you are.

Being clean is important; if one has sufficient hygiene (in most climates),
deodorant might not be necessary - it certainly shouldn't be referred to as a
hygiene product.

~~~
stephencelis

        Using deodorant does not have an effect on hygiene.
        Hygiene is about being clean; deodorant is about being
        dirty and not smelling like you are.
    

Many deodorants do fight bacteria to an extent, and if you use an unscented
stick, you'll still sweat your own scent without the bacterial funk.

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cobralibre
Anecdotally, my father claims that a little body odor was much more socially
acceptable when he was growing up in north Texas during the 50s and 60s
(consider that climate and the typical clothes that an adult would wear out of
the house during that time). My mother, meanwhile, is Vietnamese and wears no
deodorant at all.

In fact, I was surprised to see no discussion at all of Asian Americans; east
Asians generally have fewer apocrine glands and thus less body odor.

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mmaro
Most people are used to putting copious amounts of detergent in their hair
every day. This makes the scalp's oil production go into overdrive. Stop
shampooing and your hair is like an oil slick. This effect takes many months
to go away, thus making most of us dependent on shampoo.

~~~
kilian
Exactly. If I don't shower every day, my hair gets really oily. I've often
wondered what would happen if I indeed let those months pass and get a more
"natural" secretion of oil, but the time it takes it just too much.

~~~
mmaro
There are some ways to mitigate the problem during the transition: showering
more frequently, furious manual hair-cleaning in shower, natural shampoos,
washing with just conditioner.

~~~
smellyboy
Or just shave your hair off and start afresh ;)

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dreaming
Back in high school, I became incredibly paranoid about hygiene to the extent
that I damaged the skin on my hands through overwashing, and was paranoid
about not touching my shirt/pants after i'd been on a train, between the time
when i'd washed my hands and walked to the kitchen table to eat.

At one point I realised it had all gone completely crazy, and during uni I
took a conscious choice to relax, and to try and be more 'normal.' This meant
observing the way others behaved, when they washed their hands, what they
touched, what they considered normal. The diversity of the way people act, and
what they think is clean/dirty is startling. I'm still perfecting my own
middleground, and the people in this article are doing their best to reconcile
so many differing ideas.

The instance in this article that people perceive deodorant-ness as
cleanliness is amusing in the least, and nauseatingly smelly for the worst
scented deodorants.

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tomjen3
There seems to be a continuum here: I don't shower everyday during winter, but
during summer I have to - otherwise I stink too much.

I guess it depends on what you do, how much physical work you do, where you
live, and properly also on your body.

That said - no deodorant means I stink in a couple hours.

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kemayo
I stopped using antiperspirant a few months ago. Not for any health benefits,
since those seem tenuous at best... just because I never found antiperspirants
to work all that well for me, and the way skin feels when antiperspirant is on
it kind of weirds me out.

Still use deodorant, though. No complaints. And my wife has certainly been
known to tell me "you smell, go shower", so I think she'd be honest in this
area.

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jacoblyles
I skipped shampooing my hair for a few days on vacation this Summer and I was
shocked at how much better it looked. Ever since, I shampoo about once a week.

I never found a hair style that worked for me until very recently. It turns
out that if I just don't do a damned thing to it, it looks awesome.

If you have frizzy, dry hair, try letting it keep its natural oils for a day.

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stellar678
“removing some of the good bacteria that help maintain a healthy balance of
skin.” ... this quote makes me think there's about to be a huge market at
Whole Foods for probiotic cosmetics. Anyone for starting a line of kombucha
lotions?

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stretchwithme
I stopped using antiperspirant several years ago and just use deodorant. Yes,
there is a difference. The former contains aluminum, which is associated with
Alzheimer's. And if you're a women who applies this stuff after shaving your
armpits, you're really soaking it up.

I suspect the sexual pheromones are impaired more by antiperspirant than
deodorant, so you may want to do different things for a job interview than for
a date.

As far as showering, why not do it more frequently but without as much soap?
Sometimes, I just do the smelly parts :-)

There are many things which are worth doing more frequently than doing
perfectly. Cleaning in general is one of them. The AVERAGE cleanliness and
avoiding extreme uncleanliness is far more important than getting something
perfectly clean on a regular basis.

~~~
stephencelis
From the article:

    
    
        Some [...] are concerned about antiperspirants containing 
        aluminum, even though both the National Cancer Institute 
        and the Alzheimer’s Association don’t share those 
        concerns.
    

Antiperspirants are better avoided for the damage they do clothing than the
damage they do the brain.

~~~
stretchwithme
I'd rather be safe personally since there's little downside. just because it
hasn't been recognized as a risk by some groups doesn't mean eventually become
clear that its a risk. I don't need to have the same standard of proof that
they do or any at all when I decide to steer clear of something that some day
might turn out to be a risk.

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w1ntermute
Print version:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/fashion/31Unwashed.html?_r...](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/fashion/31Unwashed.html?_r=1&ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print)

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salemh
Utilizing less chemicals, like baking soda for deodorant link:
<http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-personal-products/>

~~~
harrybr
Baking soda is an amazingly effective anti-odorant - I think it works by
creating a pH that discourages bacterial growth. Seriously.

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binaryfinery
Please don't post links to pages that redirect me to a login. It sets a bad
example.

