The unclean.

Published on October 7, 2004 By dharmagrl In Misc

I'm inspired to recount this tale by Myrrander's article about people smelling.....

I read this in a British magazine's 'Agony Aunt' column a few years ago, but it has stuck with me ever since - you'll see why.

As some of you may know, the British have a reputation for having horrible personal hygeine and bad teeth. The following will only reinforce that reputation.

'Dear Deirdre,

I am a 42 year old man who has had a lady-friend for the last year and a half. Things were going rather well until about 6 months ago, when she stopped wanting to have anything to do with me in bed. She won't even let me kiss her anymore. At first I thought that perhaps had stopped loving me. She said that wasn't it. I asked her what in the world it could be, and she said it was beause I smell. I don't understand how this can be. I have a bath and brush my teeth once a week (whether I need it or not), and I wash my hands and face every morning and every night. I don't do a manual job, so I don't see how I could smell. I really think that there's more to it than what she's telling me. How can I find out the real reason behind her lack of interest?

Thanks a lot for your help....'

All I can say is......yukky!!! YUKKY!!!!!

Comments (Page 1)

BlueDev

on Oct 07, 2004

That definately earns one of those!

dharmagrl

on Oct 07, 2004

Isn't it gross, Dev?! The thing that gets me is the guy's complete naivetey about personal hygiene. I can't stand to go for more than 24 hours without a shower, let alone a whole week!

It makes my skin crawl just thinking about how masty he must be!

dharmagrl

on Oct 07, 2004

Heh, my Hubby is a Brit as you know, and He's very clean about His person, just a slob around the house

Ya know, I've met some Americans who are just as gross as they guy who wrote the letter....I was standing next to some lady in Wal-Mart in Indiana this past August - she raised her arm to reach something from the top shelf and I was accosted not only by the stench but the matted mass of pit hair she had cultivated. I swear I thought I was going to puke.

BlueDev

on Oct 07, 2004

I just cannot imagine not taking a shower more often than that. I will admit, I have skipped a shower in the morning (some days when I had to be in to pre-round on my patients before 5 am I just couldn't get myself to do it), but I will still take one in the evening.

And yet people can still be so completely, blissfully ignorant of their poor personal hygiene. It boggles the mind.

Silver_and_Jade_Tears

on Oct 07, 2004

Anyone that only takes a shower once a week seriously needs to go back to elementary school. Perhaps that man was never taught that girls don't want "cooties." What else can that guy have.

Eww eww eww

chiprj

on Oct 07, 2004

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHA!!! Very nice... some people just don't get it.

On the topic of unique smells... I've found that Koreans think that Americans smell of cheese and sour milk. They say they can smell it in our sweat. Our diets are so heavy on dairy products that we can't help it, even if we don't realize it. They for many generations didn't have a diet so full of dairy, so it stands out to them.

On the flip side, Koreans very often smell of garlic. Their diet includes heavy amounts of garlic in a lot of their foods. I can often tell which teachers in my school went to the Korean restaurant at lunch even after they've brushed and rinsed their teeth.

on Oct 07, 2004

I can't stand to go for more than 24 hours without a shower

Unfortunately I always forget to bathe. I can't smell so "smell" is not part of my life, normally. So on the average, I remember to bathe about 2 or 3 times a week.

dharmagrl

on Oct 07, 2004

remember to bathe about 2 or 3 times a week.

Well, that's better than once a week, whether you need it or not!

KarmaGirl

on Oct 07, 2004

I had a time in my life that my skin was so dry that my Dr. told me to only bathe every other day because I needed the oil from my skin. (My skin was literally cracking and bleeding, and he was afraid I was going to get infections). That was a really difficult time in my life, because I typically shower at least once a day. I also wasn't allowed to shave my legs because my skin was so bad that it would shave off with the hair (that was nasty). However, I did wash my hair, face, and hands every day, and I couldn't even imagine not brushing my teeth a few times a day.

It's not like taking a shower takes that long, and I can't imagine how nasty you would feel if you went a week without bathing.

However, I did have a suite mate in college who was from Denmark, and another from the Bronx. The one from Denmark only showered every three days, and her hair always looked greasy. The one from the Bronx would shower every other day and when she showered she'd shower with her under clothes on then hang them to dry in the bathroom. They thought I was odd.

dharmagrl

on Oct 07, 2004

When we lived in South Dakota I had the kids take showers every other day. The air up there was so dry that if they showered every day they'd get terrible, dry, flaky, itchy skin and would scratch themselves almost raw. Showering every other day helped out a lot.

Why would someone shower with their underclothes on? That's just plain weird!

crimson

on Oct 07, 2004

The one from the Bronx would shower every other day and when she showered she'd shower with her under clothes on then hang them to dry in the bathroom.

Wow. I hate doing laundry as next as the next person.... but that's something.

SSG Geezer

on Oct 07, 2004

We had a young Marine on board ship who had a problem with hygiene. It was corrected a number of times by assigning him to clean the NCO head (latrine or bathroom to you civvies) and when he walked near the showers, he would be tackled, sprayed down with water, sprinkled liberally with scouring powder, and wire brushed vigorously. Kind of hard on his skin but it did get the message across. Other than that he was a nice guy.

chiprj

on Oct 07, 2004

My first roommate when I was a student at DLI had a terrible hygeine problem. He never showered. He rarely did laundry. I bought deodorent and laundry soap for him and left them on his desk. They disappeared never to be used. When he opened his wall locker, the dirty clothes were piled so high, they'd just tumble out. He'd pick something to wear from the top of the pile. It was so bad, we would draw lots before we went to PT formation to see who would have to stand next to him!

I got in trouble (along with him, too) for how bad our room smelled. From outside in the hallway. With the door closed. From 10 feet away. I got back to the barracks first and there was a not for us both to report to the floor SGT. Not the student floor SGT. The real floor SGT. Before my roommate got back, I asked a friend if he would help me locate what exactly smelled so bad, so I could point it out when we got our chance to stand in front of the floor SGT's desk. I wasn't about to take a hit for this stinky guy. Well, we looked (and sniffed) all over the room in an attempt to figure out exactly what was smelling so bad. We literally thought maybe something had died in the room. Turns out it was his matress. Don't know exactly what all combined to make such a bad smell, but there was definetely BO and urine in there.

The end result? We both got in trouble. Him for stinking and me for letting him! We both had to turn in our bedding and matresses to supply to be burned!

A week later, a class graduated and I begged my platoon sergeant to let me move. I told him I'd take any roommate over this guy!

dharmagrl

on Oct 07, 2004

Geezer...that sounds like a Marine Corps soluton!

Chip: Eeeeew! I'm sorry!!!! I've never had to share a room with someone that stinky - the closest I get is Dave after PT, and he just smells like freash sweat and deodorant!

I just can't understand people not washing themselves. I know I'd be mortified if someone told me I had BO or I smelled so bad they couldn't stand to be around me.

And why is it that it always seems to be financially disadvantaged people who stink? Is it the cost of deodorant and soap that oputs them off, or is it the cost of the water bill? You don't even have to take a full bath or shower every day, you can have a 'bird bath' in the sink and take care of the important bits...I just don't get it.

I'm feeling a bit icky myself now, all this talk of stinky dirty people has got to me. I think I'll go luxuriate in a nice warm bath with some lovely lavender-scented bubbles....

on Oct 07, 2004

Oh man! I hope I never gets a roommate like that! I can't smell, but I don't want my stuff to smell bad either!

My room do smell fairly bad sometimes. Usually, someone finds out and helps me find the source.

Be happy that you CAN smell!

As amazing as it is; if I had someone that has magical ability, I would ask that person to fix my smelling ability! I don't care that I am deaf. I lived with it all my life, but inability to smell is very,very annoying even if I lived with it all my life too.

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