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Get a Whiff of This: Man Hasn't Showered in 12 Years

posted by takyon on Sunday November 08 2015, @07:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the p-u dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

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.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by FatPhil on Sunday November 08 2015, @07:47PM

    by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Sunday November 08 2015, @07:47PM (#260466) Homepage
    I think I gave up using deoderant, and perfumed soaps, about 20 years ago. I smell lightly of my own male pheremones, a smell which my girlfriend quite likes. She likewise uses nothing perfumed, and smells of her own female pheremones, which I quite like.

    I'd not ever go as far as this guy though. I find that I do sweat flavours from foodstuffs I eat and drink, and so I need the shower (or preferably a good long sauna) for a thorough purge.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @09:19PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @09:19PM (#260515)

    Good thing you used the word pheromones or the later use of purge would have branded you a crazy hippie! I joke, but some people see any "strange" idea as an alien concept and generally some xenophobia goes along with it.

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday November 08 2015, @11:23PM

      by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Sunday November 08 2015, @11:23PM (#260559) Homepage
      I hadn't connected my use of "purge" with the wacko undefined concept of "purging toxins" (mostly because the actual toxins are never defined, probably some loonsusing that phrase could be persuaded to include dihydrogen monoxide in the list of toxins). However, currently my sauna thermostat is set to 110C (230F), and over the space of 2 hours I'll have 4 or 5 long sessions - I can guarantee that my poor sweatglands are squeezing out every last drop that they can get hold of - "purge" is a very fitting word. I guess I shouldn't mention that I end with a nice big pot of crystanthemum tea (hand-picked by monks in Taiwan) with locally-sourced natural honey (non-commercial, a friend of a friend's bees), or you'll start thinking I'm that hippy weirdo again.
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      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @11:40PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @11:40PM (#260567)

        Can you try eating a bulb of garlic, then report back the sauna results? Even submit it as a story. I'm interested in how strong the odor would be.

        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday November 09 2015, @12:59PM

          by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Monday November 09 2015, @12:59PM (#260740) Homepage
          I definitely sweat garlic if I've had a lot of it. Never had a whole bulb, but a bowl of meaty soup can happily accept about 2 or 3 cloves per person, and I always like to throw most of it on last, so it's only cooked for a couple of minutes. So I'll be humming of garlic in the sauna. However, I won't smell it, as I'll have been humming of garlic for hours and will have become desensitised.

          Other foodstuffs which seem to prefer being secreted rather than excreted include curry spices, hops, and salmiakki (you don't want to know how much I used to eat, I was actually addicted to the stuff).
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