I’ve been running an experiment since tenth grade. I read somewhere (random news article/manosphere article?) on the internet that deodorant is a redundant ‘men’s health’ product that does not really make you smell that much better. In fact, the article argued, all one needs, to smell good, is to take a good old-fashioned shower. In theory deodorant only masked the smell of sweat, which wasn’t that bad anyway. The article also stated that it potentially blocked pheromones that women can smell and find pleasing. If memory serves, it was something along the lines of, each man has his own musky scent, which women will find naturally appealing.
So, halfway through tenth grade I stopped wearing deodorant. I was a little curious if what I had read was true and I was curious what would happen if I smelled as bad as deodorant advertisements warned I would without “protection”.
Since then, I have received almost zero complaints. In fact, I have gotten compliments. Once, in history class in tenth grade I sat next to an attractive Norwegian girl. She told me that I smelled nice and ask what cologne I was wearing. Apparently I smelled like Abercrombie and Fitch. Another day I was sitting with a girl in my lap during a 5 minute break between math classes. She too, told me that I smelled like Abercrombie and Fitch.
I discussed with one of my lady friends and she’s never had a complaint about my smell before.
Ironically, the only time I’ve ever heard a complaint about my smell was from a guy, a friend of mine from school. I had been very busy over the past three days at the time and neglected to shower in that time.
My experience leads me to believe that deodorant is one more product I’ll never need to buy.
I am however curious about Baking Soda. [Redacted] advocates its use, so I may look into the matter some time in the future.
~Wald
I’m going to try this as I’ve been thinking about it recently. I figure as long as I’m showered and don’t have pieces of shit still trapped in my asscrack, I’ll be fine. I haven’t used shampoo on my hair in about 18 months. That’s another money racket right there.
Do you still use body soap? Or do you just wash yourself down with water?
I do use a body soap. Haven’t felt the need to not to.
In university I use the reverse of what you use, shampoo but no soap. I kind of just use the shampoo as ersatz soap because I’m too lazy to go by shower gel.
I’m not advocating being a slob, but I am curious about how far people go, in the discarding the ‘unnecessary’ health products direction.
I’ve done this experiment many times myself. Even going a couple days without a shower to cultivate a moderately gamey body odor.
I’ve gotten the same results you have, except maybe with stronger polarity on both sides. Viz, and to wit: I’ve had several girlfriends stick their face in my armpits, inhale deeply, and swoon: “You smell SOOOOO good!”
Yeah. They love that shit.
I’ve gotten 3-4 complaints, always from men. I believe it’s because my scent is stronger & more masculine than theirs. It’s a territorial sort of thing.
A buddy in grad school, a big beefy black dude named Tareq, he noticed the same thing. He said, of strong male sweat: “Bottle that shit & sell it. Women go crazy for it.”
So I rarely use deodorants now. Occasionally, I’ll use some essential oils, if I know I’ll be sweating a lot and it’s in a business setting.
I’ve also noticed that I can tell a lot about my physical being by my scent. For example, caffeine makes it stronger, sometimes in a pleasant way, sometimes not. Physical activity gets it going, pleasantly. Even a good night of sleep will change it, making it good, strong, potent, and healthy.
Cool blog, by the way. I stop in here from time to time. Keep up the great work.
Hmmm…I’ve never purposely tried going days without a shower.
I’m gonna have to try that that out and report back.
Do you still wear cologne?
I’m glad you like the blog.
No, no cologne, ever.
Only essential oils. I’ve found some blends of oils that I really like, or I blend my own. Some examples: pine, cedarwood, sandalwood, vetiver. That combo is amazing.
Just a few drops on the fingertips, rubbed into the ‘pits. That’s it.
I’ve also tried the baking soda bit. It works, but the result is no smell whatsoever. Kinda boring. When it stops working a few hours later, it stops all at once. I find that it doesn’t work all day, and requires a re-application in the afternoon, or before going out for the evening.
Do these essential oils last all day?
Where do you buy them?
The oils kind of fade by the end of the day, but are still detectable.
I get them at health foods stores, whole foods & the like. There are a ton available online, but the stores tend to have samples you can smell.
Women are either attracted to you or they are not. This is a biochemical thing that is not under their control and you smell is part of this.
So, by not masking your natural smell, you are helping signal yourself. This has the following consequences (1) woman who are already attracted to you will receive your signal and signal back, (2) women who are not attracted to you will treat you worse, and (3) men will treat you worse.
In addition, when your body odor is really intense, you will turn off women who are attracted to you but not especially strongly sexually attracted to you in that moment (meeting a girl without having showered after you were in the gym = bad, but working up a sweat in sex = good)
Deoderant / aftershave / cologne seems to me to be a good idea at work or a male dominated activity, but less of a good idea on a date or trying to pick up women.
What you are saying sounds like it makes sense, but my experience contradicts it.
At the current university I go to (less than 12% female), it is not uncommon for people to shower only when they have to (after PT, Parades, really hot days). This was the only place I got one comment on my smell from another person.
Here I have a reputation as something of a lady killer, comfortable (sometimes overly so) with the topic of sex, and the person who disliked my smell enough to comment was the only other guy (who has no girlfriend) I would categorize as experienced with women.
Perhaps the presence of discipline and structure or the ubiquity of people doing as I do prevents other men from commenting on my smell.
What do you make of my experience?
No one needs shampoo. It’s the equivalent of dumping a vat of acid on your scalp.
If you have long (metalhead/hessian) hair, the extent to which it damages your hair becomes immediately apparent. Conditioner however is useful because it detangles knots without burning everything to a fray.
If you have short hair, you really don’t need to buy either one.
“I’ve also noticed that I can tell a lot about my physical being by my scent. For example, caffeine makes it stronger, sometimes in a pleasant way, sometimes not. Physical activity gets it going, pleasantly. Even a good night of sleep will change it, making it good, strong, potent, and healthy.”
There really is something to this. pay attention to your scent when you are under stress or having a “low testosterone” day. It gets noticeably unpleasant.
Where did you find that out about shampoo?
Would you say that I should continue to use conditioner but throw out or give away my shampoo?
I used to be the same way. I quit using deodorant for a long time, and that was when I would get compliments about how I smelled! It even got creepy at one point. In high school I was seeing this girl for a while, and whenever I would go to her house her mom would give me a big hug and sniff deeply, telling me how good I smelled. Looking back now I probably could have banged her, although she wasn’t really attractive.
Lately I’ve been wearing deodorant. Just fell back into the habit. I think as of today I will stop though.
What got you back into the habit of wearing deodorant, out of curiosity?
I really don’t remember. I think it’s just one of those things everyone does and I just started doing it too.
But now that I’m reminded of how effective my natural scent can be I’m going to quit putting it on. I think I’ll even try to look for some non-scented soap to use when I shower. I will report on my blog if I get any compliments or complaints.
I look forward to it.
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If I dont wash my armpits stink badly, no woman has ever complemented me on my smell 🙁
I still take showers, I just don’t use deodorant. That is to say, I wash them with soap in the shower, but don’t do extra.
Wald, don’t not take a shower but you might want to try showering wtihout using soap and just letting the water do its job. This way your skin is not stripped of its natural oils.
There is a thing called “co-washing” which means “conditioner wash”. You wash your hair with conditioner and skip shampoo. Do it once a week for 3 weeks and then on the 4th week wash it with shampoo to clarify it and release any “build up”.
Make sure the conditioner (and the occasional shampoo) you use are 100% natural and organic though. No chemicals!
Another thing you can do is wash your hair with baking soda and then condition/rinse it with vinegar. Vinegar makes the hair soft and shiney.
There are LOTS of youtube videos of all of the above so you can get recipes and make your own natural home hair and skin products.
Coconut oil mixed with baking soda is a great natural home made deodorant. You can make it into a solid form by adding corn starch, which solidifies it. Youtube videos will show you how. Make sure the corn starch is organic/non-GMO.
Thanks – I will definitely look into washing my hair with vinegar, or apple vinegar.
I’ve often heard about it. And coconut oil. I gotta get me some of that stuff; liquid, white gold, I hear.
Wald