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It's a staple of the modern morning routine: Wake up, hop in the shower, lather with soap.
But is that morning scrub-a-dub really necessary?
One man claims not. David Whitlock, a chemical engineer in Boston, has not showered for 12 years.
Whitlock isn't running an experiment in extreme water conservation. Rather, he believes that humans don't need to shower to be healthy, and that a daily soap scrub may actually remove a beneficial type of bacteria that keeps the bacteria that contribute to B.O. in check.
To boost the presence of odor-eating bacteria, Whitlock has designed a bacterial spray called AO+ Mist, which is now sold by the company AoBiome under the brand Mother Dirt. The company hopes this bacterial spritz could reduce the need for products such as soaps and deodorants and potentially even reduce or eliminate the need for showering for those so inclined.
His theory is that your skin will control odor-producing bacteria if left to its own devices, and that soap kills off good bacteria your skin needs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @07:13PM
The showering, odor issue is mostly due to living/working indoors. That is not natural in the first place. Many other unnatural behaviours are to compensate for that one. Most do not want to give it up.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Francis on Sunday November 08 2015, @08:58PM
Yes, humans don't naturally smell bad, even when not showering or bathing regularly. Most of those really obnoxious odors aren't the result of bad hygiene practices, they're because the balance of bacteria has changed or you're eating things that cause the problem. Either we've killed the wrong bacteria or we've eaten things that cause the bacteria to emit smelly byproducts.
I used to spend many weeks in the back country where the only bathing available is the local lake and where soaps are strongly discouraged. Peak stench seems to come at about 4-5 days. After that people don't seem to smell any worse. And that's in the middle of summer doing hard work.
(Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Sunday November 08 2015, @09:29PM
The question is whether you emit less smell, or your nose gets less sensitive to the smell.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Sunday November 08 2015, @11:47PM
The answer may lie in the fact that "pomanders" were commonly worn in the days before washing was commonplace. And that disease was thought to be spread by "miasmas".
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 1) by Francis on Monday November 09 2015, @12:03AM
There's probably an element of that. However, also keep in mind that the human body is finite. After a few days the entire surface area of your body is going to run out of space to hold more bacteria and for more excretions to stick. No matter how long you go without a bath, you won't wind up with several inches of bacteria and salt sticking to you.
5 days is probably longer than it takes to fill all that area out.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @12:49AM
The latter. I've been around people who haven't bathed in weeks - the parent post is true that one loses the rank body odor we're all familiar with, but as the natural bacteria/oil/sweat combination returns to natural equilibrium, people end up instead smelling like animals. Not the familiar BO but still not anything I want in my nostrils.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @07:14PM
I don't know about you, but I don't exactly find the smell of onions and dirty socks appealing.