Better Lifestyle for Men: How to Smell Clean and Fresh All Day Long

Men who smell bad often have no idea a foul cloud is shadowing them. The reason: they’re habituated to the stench. It’s the rest of us who suffer. Like bad breath, body odor is the last thing people will tell you about. They’ll tell everybody else in the office that you’re as ripe as a rotting fish, but nobody will know quite how to break the bad news to you.

If you have even the slightest suspicion that your body is emitting an offensive odor, do something about it. The solution may be as easy as taking a shower every day and washing your clothes.

You have to understand where to concentrate your scrubbing efforts. Secretions from your sweat glands are actually odorless. What makes you smell is the bacteria that multiplies in the sweat. The strongest odor comes from the armpits and the genitals, where the apocrine glands are located. Unlike the rest of the body’s sweat glands, which exude a sort of salt water that is inhospitable to the growth of bacteria, the apocrine glands secrete a milky fluid. This is filled with the kinds of proteins and fats that bacteria thrive on.

The longer you allow the sweat to sit and stew, the more pungent your body will become. That’s why the number one rule of smelling fresh is to take a shower or bath every day. If your lifestyle or the climate makes you sweat a lot, shower more often.

Daily bathing with a deodorant soap is adequate for the typical man. However, you should avoid using a deodorant soap on your face. These soaps can leave a residue and dry out your skin, Try not to scrub too hard either, since skin irritation also encourages the growth of bacteria. If you’re overweight, make sure you wash inside the folds of fat, places where bacteria can thrive.

Obesity and eating the wrong foods can aggravate sweating and body odor. Certain foods will cause proteins and oils to sweat out of your pores and onto your skin, providing the bacteria with the food that they need to grow big and strong. The foods to watch out for include anything spicy or fishy, including onions and garlic.

Have you been sweating over the question of how a deodorant differs from an antiperspirant? Deodorants mask odor with a mild perfume and contain chemicals that slow the growth of bacteria. They don’t reduce the amount of sweat.

Antiperspirants reduce sweat secretions by up to 40%. Their active ingredient is usually aluminum chloride, which reacts with proteins in your sweat to form a gel that partially blocks sweat pores.

Because deodorants and antiperspirants might cause your skin to break out, make sure you stop using them at the first sign of any redness. Change brands until you find one that is compatible with your skin. And remember, never apply either an antiperspirant or a deodorant to broken skin.

If all deodorants antiperspirants tend to irritate your skin, try using one of the over the counter antibacterial creams to kill the bacteria. For a more natural approach, you can use sodium bicarbonate or baking soda. Not only does baking soda kill the odor-causing bacteria, it absorbs sweat as well. Apply it directly to your armpits or mix it with talcum powder first. As a last resort you might try shaving your armpits, since the hair gives the bacteria a breeding ground.

The feet have more sweat glands than the underarms. Combine the moisture they exude with the dark warmth of your shoes and you’ve created a playground for trillions of bacteria that break down into compounds that stink. Co-conspirators with these bacterial culprits are your shoes, which give the little evildoers sanctuary to breed. Here’s how to put your best foot forward:

• If you’ve got a chronic foot odor problem, be sure to wash your feet daily with an antibacterial soap to help kill the bacteria.
• Dry your feet thoroughly, especially between your toes. Then put on socks and shoes.
• Consider using foot powder and antiperspirant sprays and deodorants to mask the odor.
• Wear cotton or other natural fiber socks and deodorant shoe insets.
• Let your shoe air out after each time you wear them, preferably for 24 hours or more.

Note: The moist warmth of socks and shoes makes feet targets for fungal infections.

As animals, our scent defines us. The cosmetic industry knows this well and has zeroed in on the crucial link between smell and sex by launching hundreds of aftershave and colognes. In prehistoric times, cavemen relied on their unique aromatic musk, a combination of sweat, dead animal skins, and decaying food that somehow attracted mates. Today, that same combination of odors would ensure the death of your gene pool. So how should you go about choosing the right fragrance for you?

Look for one that fits your lifestyle and your environment. Musk, for example, conveys sensual and sexy, perhaps an inappropriate memorandum to send to co-workers. For the office, try something light such as a citrus smell, and save the heavier message for dates and parties. Other good scent types that seem to have a wide appeal include the woody, spicy and fruity fragrance.

Your body’s natural scent will mix with the cologne or aftershave to give you your own unique smell. That’s why it’s important to try a few scents before choosing one. Trying a scent is as easy as finding your way to the nearest department store’s cosmetic section and asking an assistant for help. The assistant will spritz your arm; give it a few seconds to dry, then smell. Make sure you try a few brands before you make a decision.

Remember: A good aftershave has a scent that suits your lifestyle and surroundings.

If you take a shower every day and you still smell bad, you may have a clothes-washing or changing problem. Bacterial reside in clothes too. Those bacteria then invade the glands and the cycle of growth and decay begins again, only this time your clothes will be rancid too. That’s the reason why your mother told you to change your underwear and socks every day. You could change your shirt and trousers while you are at it.

And don’t neglect proper washing. Follow loading instruction on your washing machine. The more clothes you try to shove in the machine, the less likely they'll come out fresh-smelling, clean and bacteria-free.

Did you ever meet someone and feel a certain chemistry between the two of you? Pheromones may be the reason. In nature, these chemical attractants are routinely used by animals to meet and mate.

Does the same thing apply to us? Science does not yet fully understand human sexual chemistry, but there is evidence to suggest that pheromone play some part in sexual attraction. Researchers have found that these odors are important enough to have a sense organ in the nose dedicated to detecting them.

Pheromones are secreted by the apocrine gland, located under the armpits and in the genital area. Their effect may be greatly diminished by bathing daily to eliminate body odor - also caused in part by the apocrine glands. But think carefully before you enhance you natural odor by not washing for a while – there’s a thing line between smelling ruggedly sexy and smelling downright awful.