YSK there is a condition that makes your armpits smell worse called trichobacteriosis that is common and easy to treat
YSK there is a condition that makes your armpits smell worse called trichobacteriosis that is common and easy to treat
I was talking about hygiene with my partner who is a nurse and they were telling me that a lot of people remark that their armpits are smelling worse than normal and they are using more and more deodorant and people just think it is normal.
Trichobacteriosis looks like a yellowish coating on some of your armpit or groin hair and you need to shave and wash the area every day for 2 weeks. It is more common in men than women in the US only because it is more common for women to keep their armpits shaved. Most of the patients who are affected by it think that its actually residue from the increasing amounts of deodorant they end up using.
Yo that's funny. Maybe twice in my 20s I had a bout where I was like "damn my pits stank"
I basically unscientifically concluded that I had soaked my armpit hair in smelly armpit sweat, and every time e the armpit hair got sweaty it was releasing a stale stench. Like the hairs themselves were the problem, I figured.
So I trimmed my armpit hair.
Problem solved, both times.
Then in my 30s, a bandmate was like "yo my armpits stank" and I was like "homie it sounds odd but just trim your pits." Worked for him too.
So, my unscientific alternative, faster solution is to just shave your pits.
I recently read an actual scientific study that found a direct correlation between smell and the length of armpit hair. So your unscientific hypothesis is actually backed by science. I’m too lazy to look up the source though.
If I have a particular stinky few days, I will soap the heck out of my pits in the shower, then let it sit there while I do the rest of my body. That works for me (:
When I avoided bathing due to depression, my crotch smelled terrible. Dunno if it was this, but wow. Glad to feel better.
You don't need to shave, using the antiseptic they cover you in before surgery is enough in my experience, and won't cause itching and cuts like shaving does.
Thank you. I'm going to try this.
In a pinch, hand sanitizer or isopropyl alcohol will do wonders. They'll dry out your skin, so you might want to use some kind of moisturizer afterwards when you have the chance.
If I'm camping or traveling for a long time, hand sanitizer is clutch.
On me it barely works to use alcohol, I don't know how they make the stuff for surgeries but it is the right viscosity and concentration of iodine and other stuff to really remove anything alive without using a lot.
I have yet to find something that works as well for cotton with gunky deodorant residue, old t-shirts need a hot wash with a lot of soap and vinegar from time to time, sometimes two washes in a row.
Iodine?
Hm. I don’t have any yellowish coating that I can recognize, but my stank smells different than it used to; it’s a bread-like smell. Could this still be what you’re describing or something different?
You should look at yeast infections of skin.
Bready smells are typical of yeast, this post is talking about bacteria.
Ah, always shaved my armpits and crotch, explains why I never had that issue. Good to know though!
Anecdotal, but the few times I’ve had that I’ve wiped under my arms with alcohol and it cleaned it right up.
Yeah I don't doubt it, its just superficial bacteria that can be sticky. I think some people have it worse than others and that like the 2 week thing is the sure fire nuclear option that will basically always work. I actually posted this because I'm pretty sure I had this too in my 20s when I was going to the gym all the time but I started shaving and keeping it that way around then and talking about it was like a memory unlocked moment.
Hey thanks for posting this--both the original post and your own anecdote. I think personal hygiene is something that should be more comfortably chatted about. It's weird cause most people are like "ew TMI" and yeah it can wind up in that space, but at the same time, I think there's a lot of stuff people are lacking in knowledge in just cause it's kind of embarrassing to talk about!
Anyway I think I also had this in my early 20s; at least I hope so. I remember scrubbing harder and harder under my pits and one day seeing something slough off and until recently I've always assumed I killed a bunch of skin and it all came off. But given the symptoms I had been having at the time, I think this might have been it.
Aside from trimming, you can also wipe with an anti-bacterial wet wipe when you notice you stink worse than usual. It resets the biome on your skin by wiping out the bacteria. Don’t do this everyday though. Just whenever you feel the smell is getting worse.
It's crazy that we have so many good, symbiotic critters living in and on us.
a yellowish coating
people just think it is normal
no, man. what
That is what my partner is a nurse said about the patients that have it. They either don't notice it or don't think its a problem. It isn't that gross, if you google it you can see pictures of it, looks like deodorant coated pithairs