“I Don’t Smell” Meet the people who have stopped washing
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Hello Nan. Sorry I couldn’t finish reading it. For all the air freshener in the world can’t take the stench off that idea. We have real serious problems to deal with and these people think all the advances we have made in hygiene are a lie? History has show us the need for hygiene, Heck go to countries where they don’t have access to items for hygiene and you can see how harmful it is. Plus a person gets use to smells they are always exposed to, but that does not mean others don’t notice their odors. GGrrrrrrr. Hugs
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Interesting idea. I did read the entire article, and essentially they are trying to establish a microbial environment on the skin that neutralizes the odors, so that washing with water only is sufficient. Their claim is that our modern habits of frequent bathing with soaps and detergents wipe out the helpful odor-killing bacteria that humans used to have. Apparently, hand washing with soap is still recommended by these researchers, though.
I’m unclear what they are doing about shampoo. The photos don’t show anybody with greasy oily hair, so they are washing their hair with something, but they didn’t say what.
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I think similar things apply to hair though. Supposedly your hair’s reaction to washing hair daily is to produces oils faster to compensate. So if you went a washing hair with shampoo every 2 weeks, after awhile your scalp would produce less oil. We don’t wash our kids hair that often and they don’t get very oily…that could be an age thing, but I also saw this work on my own hair when I prepared to go to burning man. Knowing that showers would not be available I incrementally went doesn in hair washing frequency before I went and I did notice a difference in how long it would take for my hair to feel greasy.
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I have a young adult daughter that resists washing her hair, and on her it doesn’t work at all. We might be able to get a washing every two weeks, if we really push her. Her hair gets extremely oily, and no amount of not washing it has changed that. (I wish it would!)
I would agree that a daily hair washing is generally more than most people need. I can’t wash my hair that much, it would dry it right out.
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To each their own. I can’t say they are necessarily wrong, but I do think that they might be simply benefiting from the fact that we live in a much more sanitary society in general. And while they may avoid some problems, they may gain others…but I guess time will tell. It a world where water conservancy is going to be an increasing issue we may all be bathing less!
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I do what birds do to clean up and cool off: roll around in the dirt! So far, it’s just made me dirtier, but I’m determined to keep trying!
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Hello Jeff, I was worried you were going to say you splash around in small pools of water in the front yard while naked. 😅😆😃😀 Hugs
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Hadda stop doing that. Got arrested too many times. 🙂
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I am quite happy with a bit of soap and water and a nicely scrubbed and glowing wife …. well…. yummy!
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Fascinating! And to read there are possible links to high blood pressure makes this something worth keeping an eye out for in the future. Thanks for sharing it, Nan!
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G.K. Chesterton said, “The classes that wash most are those that work least”….which may explain why I only wash once a year, whether I need to or not.
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Meet the people who have stopped washing
Meet them? I’ve already met plenty on the job. You can always smell — I mean tell — that certain people don’t wash, or not nearly often enough. They don’t realize they stink because when any odor is present continuously, the sense of smell adjusts and you stop being aware of it. That doesn’t mean everybody around them is unaware of it. I’ve noticed that serious body odor is getting more and more common.
The practice of regular bathing dates back thousands of years, in (as far as I know) every urbanized culture. It’s one of the basics of public health in an environment where people are densely packed together. It’s not something new. In some periods in medieval Europe, bathing was rare (it was said of Queen Elizabeth I that she was very clean because she took a bath every three months “whether she needed it or not”) and sometimes discouraged due to bizarre religious logic, but that’s probably why Europe was hit so much harder by epidemics than the Middle East or China in the same era, which were much more urbanized but maintained higher standards of hygiene.
Some people in the modern world go overboard with weird specialized soaps, chemicals, etc. which may well be a bad idea or are at least unnecessary, but that’s not a reason to abandon washing entirely. The arguments cited in that article strike me as lazy excuses for avoiding a boring but necessary task.
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Some people in the modern world go overboard with … not only soaps, but several other things as well. Religion immediately comes to mind, but also diets, clothes, hairstyles, music, exercise … pretty much any and all things that are part of our lives. There are always those who seem to have a need to live outside the norm.
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Most animals don’t wash, or not much. And most animals stink when you get close to them, or at least that’s been my experience. Maybe these people have forgotten we’re animals too?
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The biggest danger with too much “cleanliness” is losing the beneficial bacteria that keep most bad bacteria away from your skin. People seem to be terrified that a germ might invade them, so they use that dreadful anti-bacterial soap for everything, and the minute they stop using it, in come the infections.
I ran into that just once, and it was a struggle to let the skin ‘heal”. The stuff is a self-fulfilling prophecy, because once you stop using it, it takes the body a few days to weeks to get back that nice layer of protective bacteria.
There’s nothing wrong with soap and water, it’s the frequency, and the kind of soap…
Plus we waste incredible amounts of water showering twice a day, washing our hair daily, using special lotions to kill germs…
Nan, you hit it exactly. For some people if one is good, two is better and 56 is ideal.
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If people are going to make a virtue out of not washing, I guess this is the next logical step.
With the benefit of millennia of advances in hygiene, idiots choose to literally wallow in filth.
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The idiocy (and gullibility) of some people never fails to amaze.
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