Don't Wear Deodorant

[boxersbear]

A friend of mine says he never wears deodorant. To be honest he doesn't smell except once in a while he has a faint odor that isn't what I would call offensive. I was wondering how many guys out there don't wear deodorant and if you have any problem with odor. Also what kind of work do you do? I was thinking about stop wearing deodorant but not sure since I work with the public. He also says he doesn't use soap except on his face and ass. Anyone else only rinse and not use soap?

 

[Countryguy63]

For the majority of folks...NOT a good idea :684:

I happen to have developed an allergy to something in most antipersperant and deoderants (doc says it's the aluminum) so I am very limited in my choices. But, I guarantee you that I scoured the aiosles until I found something agreeable with my pits :wink:

While some may like BO, the majority of the public does not. So please, save it for a time when you're going to be at home and not out shopping :wink:

Now, that said, I enjoy a good light "manscent", but rank is rank!

 

[Tattooed Goddess]

you don't want anywhere NEAR me if i don't' slap that shit on right after a shower or atleast once or twice a day. The super strength stuff. We are not all created equal. My Dad is the same as me, my mom doesn't need it at all. I need the RX stuff. I have hyperhidrosis.

I was skating the other night and a regular came up to me and another guy talking, the huge waft of his funk came over the entire area when he was about 4 feet from us. It smelled like a thousand freshly cut onions. Ugh!

 

[Calboner]

I don't want to smell anyone's raw body odor, my own included. Doing without deodorant when you have access to it makes about as much sense as doing without dental care when you have access to it, with the difference that you are making others suffer rather than just yourself.

 

[vince]

I don't wear it and haven't needed it for ten years. For a period of about five years before that I was pretty rank at times. Even right out of the shower I could whiff the BO and within a few hours my pits would be skunky again. I got rid of it quite by accident one day when we had no soap in the bathroom except for some strong antibacterial liquid soap meant to wash surgical sites. I figured "what the heck" and used it to shower with. Afterwards, the BO was gone and it didn't come back for a couple days. So I used it again and after a week or so the problem was cured. My wife said I smelled sweet again! I checked it out and learned that bad BO is caused by bacterial infections and can indeed be wiped out by the occasional use of an antibacterial. A friend of mine says that once a week he slaps some vinegar on his pits and showers it off. You should also wash your clothes in one hot water cycle to help clear out the bacteria. They survive a regular wash and will re-infect your skin. Also trimming your armpits will cut back on oder. Turkish men shave their pits for reasons of cleanliness. You might not want to do that, but a trim will help.

Also, a diet heavy in meat will make you stink.

 

[ManlyBanisters]

vince is indeed wise.

I don't use conventional deodorant and I will never use anti-perspirant. I use this stuff:

PitRok Push Up Crystal Deodorant - PitRok

It neutralises the bacteria that makes the smell while allowing the body to breath and function normally. See, we are supposed to sweat - it's as natural and necessary as farting. I don't want to smell funky but I don't want to stop my body functioning correctly. A mineral salt product like the one I use allows that.

I feel for folks that sweat profusely, though, because obvious underarm wet patches are frowned upon as much as BO - which is unfair as they inconvenience no one but the sweater.

Note - apparently it works on foot odour too.

 

[HiddenLacey]

I use deodorant, I do however know two guys that say they do not and neither one of them ever smell bad to me.

 

[nudeyorker]

I wash the pits and butt crack with Dial Gold soap. I use gentle body wash everywhere else.

 

[midlifebear]

I live most of the year (10-11 months) in Latin cities where the humidity is high and the temperature is frequently 40 C. My husband of the last 8 years and I have discovered several things that help keep natural (and the way funky unnatural) body odor bacteria at bay.

1. We manscape our pubes and armpits. We don't shave off everything. We just keep "enough" pubic hair neatly trimmed. The less hair, the less play and breeding ground for the bacteria that generate funky stank.

2. We use plain glycerine soap scented with lemon peel oil to shower and bathe. It's cheap and doesn't dry out our skin. The same glycerine soaps (there are hundreds of manufacturers all over the world) also scent the glycerine with orange peel, lavender, lemon grass, rose petals, lilac -- you get the idea. But for the last several years the lemon smell is the one I prefer and that also lasts for a few hours after showering.

3. We do use deodorants upon occasion, but not every day. Instead, we each have our own deodorant salt crystal sticks (every health and beauty store carries them) for hitting the armpits and sliding between our moistened thighs. Note: We never use each other's stuff.

4. Because it's usually so hot and humid we tend to shower a minimum of twice a day, if not three times a day. To avoid dry skin I use cocoa butter (looks like a regular Hershey chocolate bar, but when you open it is just creamy white cocoa butter). The Husband uses expensive exfoliants for his face and expensive men's body creams. He's still stuck in the Hugo Boss era. But he never crawls into bed smelling like Hugo Boss products. He'd get the same moisturizing effect from some unscented body lotion, but . . . well, he's Argentine and porteños are BIG on splashing on lots of perfume or cologne. I, on the other hand, like smelling like chocolate.

5. As for what I refer to as the famous 'Mericuhn Butt Odor, we have bidets. So, in addition to the first phase of wiping one's ass with toilet paper we follow up (as do most people in Europe and large South American cities) with a comfortable warm soapy butt wash and a dry off with towels kept handy specifically for that purpose.

Unless you've been eating lots of garlic and live in a country where garlic is not commonly used in the local cuisine, you shouldn't have too much of a problem. Being soaked with sweat after a good run or just walking home 10 blocks from the nearest Metro Station is a great thing for your skin. Saunas are equally good. Just be sure to take a good shower and change clothes before getting back on the street (work) or expecting your mate to have no qualms about licking every nook and cranny of your body.

Good luck.

Addition: And two things ManlyBanisters and Vince mentioned are quite true. First, the "Pit Rock" is a salt that creates a Ph environment that bacteria doesn't like and has a hard time flourishing in. The antibacterial scrub mentioned by Vince also works. But in both cases it means always putting clean clothes on and not wearing the same T-shirt and shorts for a week without washing them. You also need to avoid the old habit of smelling a previously worn shirt and risk wearing it once again, unless you're French. Once, while camping for two weeks in the northern deserts of Mexico, I noticed I was beginning to smell funky. The deodorant crystal wasn't working because I hadn't had the opportunity to bathe for a few days (no water). However, imagine my joy when I discovered that rubbing generous gobs of Neosporin or triple antibacterial cream in my pits worked miracles. These are the same antibiotic gels/creams/greases meant for treating open wounds. But don't depend upon them forever. The bacteria are good at becoming immune to the stuff.

 

[Calboner]

vince is indeed wise.

I don't use conventional deodorant and I will never use anti-perspirant. I use this stuff:

PitRok Push Up Crystal Deodorant - PitRok

It neutralises the bacteria that makes the smell while allowing the body to breath and function normally. See, we are supposed to sweat - it's as natural and necessary as farting. I don't want to smell funky but I don't want to stop my body functioning correctly. A mineral salt product like the one I use allows that.

I feel for folks that sweat profusely, though, because obvious underarm wet patches are frowned upon as much as BO - which is unfair as they inconvenience no one but the sweater.

Note - apparently it works on foot odour too.

How is that stuff different from any so-called "conventional" deodorant? You must mean that it is a deodorant and not an anti-perspirant. I share your distrust of anti-perspirants and also avoid them. As you say, we are made to sweat, and it is not the sweat itself that stinks but the bacteria that it leaves behind. It is irritating, though, that in the profusion of underarm products available in a typical drug store, there will be very few plain deodorants, most being anti-perspirant deodorants.

 

[ManlyBanisters]

How is that stuff different from any so-called "conventional" deodorant? You must mean that it is a deodorant and not an anti-perspirant.

Must I? Then why do I make the distinction in the sentence, "I don't use conventional deodorant and I will never use anti-perspirant"?

Conventional deodorants are usually alcohol based. This isn't.

 

[luka82]

Just use something!
And shower regularly

 

[Tattooed Goddess]

Scientists have figured out that those who have gooey, waxy ear wax versus crusty crumbly ear wax struggle more with body odor from sweat. The Japanese think we Anglo's stink. They often have drier crusty ear wax compared to Anglo's.

Speaking of my mom never needing deodorant, she has the crusty ear wax. We know that certain parts of the body are connected in how genetically our body produces these substances.

I wash up with antibacterial soap, douse my armpits with very strong concoctions like astringent, alcohol, witch hazel, anything i can find to kill bacteria. I've tried it all. If i don't wear a strong anti-perspirant it could be pretty embarrassing in less than 24 hours.

Anno70 - Asian Earwax and Sweat Gene

 

[MarkLondon]

I've never used deodourant and most of my skin hasn't seen soap in 34 years now. If I was rank I think someone would have told me by now.

Here's the science behind it:-

Human skin, like the gut, is meant to be colonised by bacteria and there are bacteria that have evolved to very efficiently exploit that environment. If you wipe them out by using soap (all soaps are anti-bacterial, they rip apart the cell walls of most bacteria) you will be initially colonised by common environmental mircro-organisms that can thrive in the warm damp areas. But they are not specialised for that task and do not fully metabolise the sweat and sebum they are feeding on, releasing volatile waste products. BO is actually Bacterial (waste product) Odour, not Body Odour.

​

It takes about a fortnight to establish a natural and efficient skin flora once you stop annihilating it/soaping yourself. During that time you have to shower/bathe in warm or hot water several times a day or you will stink. Once you're through that, in a temperate climate once a day should suffice.

 

[sbat]

That might explain why my Turkish girlfriend pins me down and trims my pit hair. And I just thought she was trying to girl me up...but if other men do it to...:frown1:

I don't wear it and haven't needed it for ten years. For a period of about five years before that I was pretty rank at times. Even right out of the shower I could whiff the BO and within a few hours my pits would be skunky again. I got rid of it quite by accident one day when we had no soap in the bathroom except for some strong antibacterial liquid soap meant to wash surgical sites. I figured "what the heck" and used it to shower with. Afterwards, the BO was gone and it didn't come back for a couple days. So I used it again and after a week or so the problem was cured. My wife said I smelled sweet again! I checked it out and learned that bad BO is caused by bacterial infections and can indeed be wiped out by the occasional use of an antibacterial. A friend of mine says that once a week he slaps some vinegar on his pits and showers it off. You should also wash your clothes in one hot water cycle to help clear out the bacteria. They survive a regular wash and will re-infect your skin. Also trimming your armpits will cut back on oder. Turkish men shave their pits for reasons of cleanliness. You might not want to do that, but a trim will help.

Also, a diet heavy in meat will make you stink.

 

[SpeedoMike]

deodorant fails me... must use anti-perspirant, or else..

 

[DaveyR]

A few years back I developed an infection in the armpits. My Doctor advised me to stop wearing deodorant until it cleared up. I was horrified at the thought. He tried to assure me that as long as I showered at least once a day and wore clean clothes every day it would be highly unlikely that I would have BO. I took no chances and the first few days went home at lunch time and showered and changed my clothes. I confided in a couple of close colleagues what was going on and made them swear to tell me if I developed an odour.

I remained pretty fresh despite lack of deodorant and I think my Doctor was correct. Showering often and wearing clean clothes usually means you will stay fresh. People are unique though and there are always medical conditions too.

 

[HazelGod]

I haven't used commercial deodorant or antiperspirant in years.

I keep the pit hair and pubes trimmed, and I just rub a bit of baby powder (cornstarch, not talcum) under each arm after a shower. I'll re-wear dress shirts once or twice, but never any clothing that's been directly against my skin.

As for soap, I bathe with whatever the Mrs. has in the shower at any given moment...usually some flavor of Dove, though there's almost always a bar of Cetaphil antibacterial soap in there that she uses to wash her face.

 

[B_BeautifulDark]

I haven't found an antiperspirant that doesn't rub off and show up on darker clothes.

 

[BIGBULL29]

I hate deoderant. I'm French. But I wear it so not to offend others.

I only bath every 3 three days, unless I get very dirty or sweaty. It's not good for the skin.

All that said, toilet paper is not enough for cleaning yourself. Bidets should be in every household.