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?

  • @shalafi@lemmy.world
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    71 year ago

    I had a really weird thing years back, never since then.

    Middle-aged white women wearing something, no idea what, would gag me out. I don’t mean it was merely offensive, I mean I’d hold my breath near them. Made me low key nauseous.

    Had that problem for a couple of years, haven’t smelled that for maybe 10 years. Anyone have a clue what I mean or what it might have been?

    LOL, and you would hate my wife. She’s Asian, so I’m not sure she’s capable of body odor, but she’s so paranoid about it she bathes twice a day and hoses herself in perfume, hair too. I love it up close, but I don’t think you would pick it up from 5’.

    • squiblet
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      51 year ago

      I’ve become familiar with several different classes of horrible fragrances that people use. There’s the one that smells like salty roses, one that smells like ‘old ladies’ (this gross light flower-lavender scent?), one that’s like a bunch of synthetic grapes and other fruit, the ‘cotton candy’ kind of dryer sheet scent, some that smell like flowers mixed with burning plastic… not sure which one you might have encountered. I find if I take antihistamines it’s more ‘huh, I smell that’ vs. a toxic emergency, but I prefer to just avoid it. I do hold my breath in some circumstances, like if I have to walk down the laundry detergent aisle in the grocery store.

      I actually can smell many people’s scents from 5 feet away and still smell their fragrances after they exit an area. I’m probably more sensitive because I don’t wear clothes coated in this stuff and sleep in sheets soaked in it.