Re:What Did the Past Smell Like?
by thesuitonym on Monday December 14, 2020 @03:24PM
(#25422775)
Keep in mind that our bodies are used to regular bathing, and overproduce the oils and grease and other "junk" on our skin and hair. Of course a person who stopped bathing for a few weeks would smell terrible, but I do wonder if a person who hadn't bathed in months or years would smell so bad? Honestly, I imagine that the smell would be strong, and not entirely pleasant, but not horrible. More akin to a roofer coming home after a hot day. Smelly, sure, but it's not overpowering, and I could see that smell just fading away if everyone smelled that way.
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People who don't shower do smell very very bad after a while, that smell doesn't go away but somehow gets to this familiar rank baseline that I've noticed on a number of unshowered people one might encounter in public. Not sure why it always ends up on the same note smell wise, but fade away it does not.
Re:What Did the Past Smell Like?
by gradsmellstawa on Monday December 14, 2020 @04:29PM
(#25423605)
In my grad program there were a few foreign exchange students that obviously didn't bathe very often and the smell was quite overpowering. Maybe diet contributes to it and we have more availability of spices and other pungent things.
But I got assigned an office with one of the students and decided to hold office hours elsewhere.
I believe hiding smells has been a thing for a long time so I can't imagine it just goes away.
I read about a guy who studied this. He said that after some time (a month or two IIRC), his body's bacteria adjusted to have a lot more of the ones that ate ammonia, and his scent went from terrible to quite neutral, and not strong at all.
I would link it but it's been ages since I read it.
Re:What Did the Past Smell Like?
by NegativeLatency on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @01:26AM
(#25427604)
I seem to recall him using water but no sodium lauryl sulfate shampoos.
Going to have to look for that article now
Found it, at least the one I seem to recall reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/magazine/my-no-soap-no-sh...
I'm sure you're right. Plus, it's not like people in the "olden days" didn't bathe at all, even if it was to just take a dip in a lake.