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Personal hygiene on extended trips (The Deodorant Debate)

Personal hygiene on extended trips (The Deodorant Debate)

  • Soap is hugely over rated

    Votes: 16 43.2%

  • Never leave home without soap

    Votes: 15 40.5%

  • Organic toothpaste is a Russian plot to emasculate the Western male

    Votes: 8 21.6%

  • Organic toothpaste will save the environment

    Votes: 1 2.7%

  • Deodorant is for the weak

    Votes: 19 51.4%

  • Anyone with stinky pits is a barbarian

    Votes: 5 13.5%
  • Total voters
    37
Lol can't believe the hotness of this topic.

STANKY PITS...need I say more? Seems like something worth putting a TINY amount of maintenance into wherever you are.

I don't bathe or use body soaps on trips at all. If conditions permit, a dip as necessary to rinse off. I've gone three weeks without a shower or even a rinse of any kind.

But I always bring deodorant and apply it every couple of days to keep reasonably fresh.

And if you sasquatches out there aren't already WTFing this, I also shave my pits for comfort (less hot) and hygiene (WAY less smelly). I don't even have bad BO to begin with. But still, deodorant!

For some, it should be a legal requirement...I'm sure you've all been exposed to someone's nauseating stank on a bus before.
 
Its only nauseating if everyone else is unstanky. Three stanky people in a car coming from Armstrong to TB is not a smell issue. When two shower so they can get to the airport, suddenly the third is a pariah.
 
Um, to be fair Jonathan, "shaving armpits" shoulda been a separate rant thread.
Now that could be a gender bender hot topic : naked vs hairy. And then there's the whole body odour pheromone thing.
 
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You are a strange and eccentric fella Jono, on the one hand, hippy-like with your organic toothpaste and underarm sauce, but on the other hand, metrosexual with your shaved pits. It's like Toronto meets Salt Spring Island, BC. No worries though, you will be assimilated fully into Northern Ontario, and leave your man grooming and hygiene habits behind.
 
memaquay said:
You are a strange and eccentric fella Jono, on the one hand, hippy-like with your organic toothpaste and underarm sauce, but on the other hand, metrosexual with your shaved pits. It's like Toronto meets Salt Spring Island, BC. No worries though, you will be assimilated fully into Northern Ontario, and leave your man grooming and hygiene habits behind.
Click to expand...

I dunno.. I spent two weeks in Wabakimi on a portage crew where one Jon o insisted on shaving and bathing each day.. Or mostly each day. But I believe he was a Toronto Jon O.
 
Odyssey said:
If a tripper has body odour in the backcountry, and no one is around to smell it, do they make a stink?
Click to expand...

If they are sleeping in a separate tent, who cares. I can always wander off a ways upwind of them, or stand in the smoke downwind. Ahh, smells like birch and pine, with an after-note of armpit.

Sharing a tent with a stinker is another story. Or, maybe worse, with a snorer. When I snore the soothing sound is no doubt reminiscent of butterfly wings kissing dew dropped flowers. I do not remember the last group trip, or even single companion trip, with shared tents.

One of the funniest group campers ever was a big Raystown trip where individual gents had taken 20 lakeside sites in a row. Walking that 100 yard stretch as Last-man-standing, and hearing the distinctly different “SCHNORKKLLLES” and “BEZZZNUFKLES” emanating from each and every tent was too much. I was laughing the whole walk home.

Glad I don’t snore like that.
 
Kathleen sometimes snores, but I am happy to share my tent with her anyway. Usually I just have to nudge her a bit to restore quiet. She doesn’t even wake up.

McCrea, you should record your snoring that sounds like a butterfly wings kissing dew-dropped flowers. I would love to hear it.
 
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Those were the good old days, and how they've passed us by. Back then four months ago some of us were worried about body hygiene and some not so much. Nearly equal numbers either dismissed backcountry soap or never left home without it. And then there's the pit crew who represent a democratic majority in thinking deodorant for the weak. Although it seemed on the surface that many were uninterested in hygiene that's not the case at all, as many have suggested soapless splashes with water. I did however learn a lot from this airing of grievances. How prophetic that alcohol in wipes or squirt/pump/dribble bottle would be such a big deal. And we never even got the chance to debate toilet rolls, although we did almost step in it when pondering how to poo poo in the woods. Despite the disturbingly detailed ground we covered (Whose wondering if Gramps still has trouble in his junk drawer?) we never did arrive at any consensus. Is there nothing that we can all agree on? Except that men shaving armpits is just too weird a grooming habit for most males. The one lone pit shaver amongst us is clearly in another body awareness bracket I can't even begin to imagine. And I don't want to know where else that razor spends time. But I bet he smells nice. Here's a thought. Is there a scent humans find attractive but bears do not? And then there's the moss swiper wipers. Who woulda guessed there was such a thing? From personal experience I can recommend dock leaves. Natural elements seem so eco friendlier when you're caught short of a roll of single ply. I bet that's how bears do it. And then there's the going commando thing. One person here is a full timer. Hm. One less layer to be concerned about. Less commitment. Less stink. Less laundry. Fewer inhibitions? Kinda like wearing swim trunks year round? From swim suit to birthday suit in one easy step. And if you develop skin irritation we're advised to try something that sounds snake oilish to me, apparently derived from monkeys' nether regions. If you've ever watched chimpanzees in a zoo you'd know that can't be right.
Well that's way too much blab from me, sorry, but I hope we can all put our too close for comfort apprehensions into context now, seeing as sharing space whatever the smelly situation is just a happy memory for now. This social distancing will end someday and then we can all get back together. Smell ya later.
 
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I thought this thread was dead for sure but I guess not. Just more proof that old canoetripping threads never die, they just smell that way.

Alan
 
Micro-biome health. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...topped-washing

Just yesterday I was working in the yard and a familiar smell drifted across my senses. I recognized it instantly. It was my Dad. Although he's been gone from this world for too many years I knew his body scent. Standing amongst the bracken and ferns beside my old shed I was transported to a time when my Dad would return home from his shift work in the dirty old city, embracing me as I was standing bleary eyed in pyjamas at the front door. A fatherly whisker rub to tickle my cheeks he'd hug me and tousle my brush cut hair. And I could smell him. His sweat and soil from work and toil. His work clothes were permeated with machine oil and body odour, a musky scent of honest work and hourly labour. I don't remember how that smell ingrained itself into my memory of him, but it did. I can see and smell him now like it's yesterday sloping in from our country garden, hands of dirt and feet of clay. Eyes of sunlight. Tea and bread at the kitchen table before we'd be all at our chores again. The smells of grass and earth and sky...and family. I snapped out of my reverie in my yard long enough to realize that there's more to our inheritance than the colour of our eyes, the hairline above our brows, and the inflection in our laughter; there might be too what the dermatologists call our micro-biome.
I've been cautious with the application of deodorant, body sprays and scent this past year. I am experimenting with reducing/eliminating soaps, conditioners and body masking perfumes. However I do have a fond remembrance for my Dad's Old Spice aftershave. A small bottle sits on my bathroom shelf. When I want to time travel I splash a little on myself and take a walk around the yard. And remember.

All this blab just to say, whether backcountry or backyard I do not smell like Moroccan spice and camellia oils, pomegranate and coconut oil...I do smell like me.
Just me. And on some days my Dad. And that's fine with me. Although some days are better than others.
 
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Paddlers are blessed to be around water all the time. A solar shower works in almost any weather. Polypro underwear can really smell upon exertion like hunting or portaging. I wash once in awhile, at least once a week, sometimes more often. I have lived in the woods for a month at a time. We used to come out and find an RV park once a week to take a shower in colder weather. A sponge bath is always an option.
 
I guess I can chime in on this one ... I come from a slightly different angle ... I live in the woods and take hunting pretty seriously, with traditional archery gear - old timey longbow, wood arrows .. hunt on ground kinda thing. I learned to take a smoke bath - sounds kinda gross - but hard wood smoke smells natural and kills bacteria that make people stink. Maple or birch smoke (smudge) and step over/into for a few seconds, does make you smell smokey - but can really take the B.O. smell off you.

On trips over 2 weeks, I often wash my clothes in a 20 liter dry bag with some camp soap - water and soap, shake, add clothes, shake again- good and hard - let sit a spell ... shake, empty water, put in clean water, shake again, and line dry.

If on a trip with others, I take some deodorant ( in a odor proof bag as not to encourage vermin of the forest to ravage my packs ) - nothing too smelly, because not everyone wants to trip with a guy who smells like a smudge, or has terrible pitt odor.

Bob.
 
That was a nice story Brad. This part did make me chuckle though:

I've been cautious with the application of deodorant, body sprays and scent this past year. I am experimenting with reducing/eliminating soaps, conditioners and body masking perfumes.
Click to expand...

I did that one year. I had a hard time telling if I stunk or if I just didn't notice anymore but I was pretty sure it was a success. I picked up a friend of mine one summer evening and we were bombing down the highway on the way to fish the river with the windows down. Despite the ample airflow he said, "You're pretty ripe today." I hadn't noticed a thing.

So I started applying the deodorant more often. I wasn't really so much worried about offending my buddy's olfactory senses but as a single guy I sure didn't want to bump into Mrs. Right, struggling to free her luggage from the overhead compartment, and wonder if I dared reach up to help her or keep my arms safely clenched at my sides.

Good luck with your experiment. You're fortunate to have a loving live-in spouse who can warn you if you're straying too far off line. Presumably it will take more than a couple smelly embraces to scare her off.

Alan
 
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