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I got my first stick of deodorant as a preteen. It was Teen Spirit and made me smell like baby powder and berries. From the first swipe I loved it – it called me TEEN – and have continued to love this special product that keeps me so fresh and so clean. I wouldn’t call it an obsession – I reserve that for my books and shoes – but these days I keep at least a dozen different kinds of deodorant and antiperspirants on hand. Unfortunately, not everyone shares my love of smelling good. On many occasions throughout history, things have gotten downright funky.
Being stinky and human evolution
When we lived in caves and had just figured out the whole standing upright thing, we were less concerned about body odor. Put simply, humans stunk. Anthropologists now believe that our funky selves helped keep us from being some predator’s dinner. Our scent was so rank that the animal about to eat us would actually recoil in horror at the smell and would move on to eat something less repulsive. Now that’s a defense mechanism.
Ancient Egyptians
When they weren’t building pyramids, the ancient Egyptians were working hard at masking their own stench. They invented the perfumed bath and would follow it up by applying a liberal amount of perfume to their underarms. Egyptians also tried using carob, incense, and even porridge as deodorant. Women would place globs of scented wax on their heads that would slowly melt throughout the day, spreading the pleasing scent as well as masking the not so pleasant. Messy, but effective.
Ancient Romans and Greeks
The ancient Greeks took a page from the Egyptians, constantly bathing and dousing themselves in perfume. Greek poet Homer once said that good hosts offered their guests baths and aromatic oils. Romans were so fanatical about smelling good that they not only took baths in perfume, they soaked their clothes in it, doused their horses in it, and even perfumed their household pets.
The Middle Ages
Things took a turn for the stank during the Middle Ages, when the church decided that being naked was bad. Even in the bath. So people all but stopped cleaning themselves. Those with the money for it tried to cover the stink by using perfume, a practice that continued well into the 19th century. Those without money just remained fragrant.
Mums the word
The first trademarked deodorant – Mum – came out in 1888. Created by an unknown Philadelphia inventor, Mum was a paste applied to the underarms. It was soon followed by Everdry, the first effective antiperspirant. Everdry was an aluminum chloride solution that was dabbed on with a cotton swab to less than desirable results. Everdry took forever to dry, was messy, and had a nasty habit of stinging the user and eating through clothes. But hey, at least you weren’t sweating. In the mid 1950s, inspired by the ball point pen, the first roll on (Ban) was released. Ten years later, the first aerosol (Right Guard) launched a multi-billion dollar industry.
[1971 Right Guard ad courtesy of my Rear in Sears.]
Today, about 95% of Americans use deodorant. Whether you wear roll on, use a crystal, take an internal deodorant pill (does that really work?) or even make your own home concoction, just know that the rest of us truly appreciate it.
Stefanie Fontanez is an occasional contributor to mentalfloss.com. Her last story was about the plague.
Comments (30)
Comment
So what happened in between Mum and the first ban? How did we keep from stinking? The masses want to know! ;-)
posted by beth on 2-21-2008 at 9:10 am
i am proud to say that i am in the 5% of americans who dont use the good old deodorant. dont you know it gives you cancer? HA
posted by meta on 2-21-2008 at 9:30 am
Everything gives you cancer. The question is whether you want to simultaneously have cancer AND smell bad.
posted by Ira on 2-21-2008 at 9:44 am
“I wouldn’t call it an obsession – I reserve that for my books and shoes – but these days I keep at least a dozen different kinds of deodorant and antiperspirants on hand”
at least a dozen?! I’d definitely call that an obsession - a good smelling obsession, but an obsession no less :D
posted by Clotho on 2-21-2008 at 10:13 am
your right. i do love to smell like old chicken noodle soup.
posted by meta on 2-21-2008 at 11:10 am
There is the whole cloves/oranges thing in the renaissance. People carried them and when a particularly pungeant aroma assaulted their nostrils, they would take a large inhale of the orange.
posted by KJ on 2-21-2008 at 11:16 am
I must say i never realized Mathew McConaughey and the homeless made up 5% of America impressive. I prefer to just keep the wax on my head like the egyptians makes me feel very cleopatra
posted by Melody on 2-21-2008 at 12:38 pm
those 5% are vocal and olfactory. what do they say about sweats…there are 3 kinds? workout sweat, fear sweat and sex sweat. i think i am getting it.
posted by skot on 2-21-2008 at 12:46 pm
“Our scent was so rank that the animal about to eat us would actually recoil in horror…”
I am recoiling in horror just thinking about how bad that smell could be.
posted by Mel on 2-21-2008 at 1:03 pm
If only those in the past had heard of Patchouli, apparently it covers odors, but really, wouldn’t the odors be better to smell than that stuff?
posted by Tashabob on 2-21-2008 at 1:15 pm
I can relate because I have at least a dozen sticks at a time. Variety is the spice of life!!!
posted by Krista on 2-21-2008 at 1:20 pm
i must say that i enjoy my stank and sometimes think of it as an aphrodisiac where temptation is present among all who smell my amorous stench.
posted by angela on 2-21-2008 at 1:28 pm
The 5% are all the taxi drivers in NYC.
posted by Kevin on 2-21-2008 at 2:03 pm
Funky, chunky pitts = x.x
But I like to use the crystal deodorants or the zinc ones. I stay away from any main brand stuff with aluminum. That’s the dangerous stuff that’s been linked to Alzheimer’s. The crystal work perfectly, especially if you eat a relatively healthy, fruit and vegetable-based vegan diet like meh-self.
But, I must say, when it comes to arousal, a little smell isn’t such a bad thing, especially if they have just worked out or that smell guys get when they get turned on … especially if they are relatively healthy (cause I mean some people’s b.o. is very rank that it’s a turn off; but others is such a turn on) :P
posted by ObsidianPunk on 2-21-2008 at 3:08 pm
I had heard that the body odor was a natural aphrodisiac in prehistoric times.
Natures way of making sure humans got down.
Look into that.
posted by JBSack on 2-21-2008 at 3:11 pm
To the hole aphrodisiac question: I heard a radio program a while back that said body odor is a natural aphrodisiac to some and to others it’s just disgusting. I don’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure it varied a lot among people.
posted by Eileen on 2-21-2008 at 4:29 pm
I’ve always been curious about diet and stench. There’s the obvious garlic and such, but how about a full on study. I once had a lady I was dating keep me on a steady diet of cinnamon and spices while cutting out milk and cheeses, but that was for taste.
posted by Hoopsbme on 2-21-2008 at 4:38 pm
Call me odd, but I do like a little stink on my man. Just a little, especially when there is a scent of cologne, too.
Aluminum is bad for you, but I use it cuz i don’t think my co-workers would appreciate it if I didn’t use it.
Also, I have a friend who rarely bathes (once a month or so)and never uses deodorant of any sort and he bikes everywhere. This guy never stinks! There must be something to the whole diet thing.
posted by Heather A on 2-21-2008 at 6:32 pm
Heather A said: “Also, I have a friend who rarely bathes (once a month or so)and never uses deodorant of any sort and he bikes everywhere. This guy never stinks! There must be something to the whole diet thing.”
I don’t know if it’s diet. Maybe it’s something about a person’s individual chemistry and how their body reacts to skin bacteria. I once had a male room-mate who never bathed. His girlfriend said he didn’t even wash, but swear to God, he never smelled. (Thinking that maybe we were just “used to it” and didn’t notice his stench, I introduced him to my mother, who confirmed that he had no odor whatsoever.) He ate the same stuff that his girlfriend and I ate, and we girls still needed to bathe and wear deodorant.
posted by bibli0phile on 2-21-2008 at 9:05 pm
I think Heather A has it right. The diet is important. I shower basically daily but when i go backpacking my personal hygene goes out the window. Long story short when I come home my girlfriend tells me I smell like cologne as doesn’t mind if I don’t shower for another day. All I’m eating on my trip is dried meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts and whatever I can forage for.
Besides that, our body odor still serves some purpose in natural selection. Our sweat still retains pheremones and our scent memory is still the most powerfull of all our senses.
posted by Jared ProbsT on 2-21-2008 at 9:11 pm
to me, cologne is a turn on. however, being bathed in perfume or cologne is almost as horrid as b.o.
posted by kat on 2-22-2008 at 12:25 am
FYI:
There is a big difference between deodorants and anti-perspirants. Deoderants mask scent like a time-release perfume (which sometimes includes an anti-bacterial agent to cut down on smelly bacteria).
It is anti-perspirants which are a cancer risk; the aluminium that promotes cancer is included to literally plug up the pores from which sweat is released (starving those same stinky bacteria).
People tend to dismiss those crystal rock deodorants; but the key ingredient in those is salt which dehydrates the bacteria, leaving nothing but the smell of actual sweat.
posted by Brammi on 2-22-2008 at 3:26 am
I tried one of those internal deodorant pills. It didn’t work. And it was green. And it made my poop green. That wasn’t very nice. Haha.
I personally like being very clean. I usually take a shower twice a day. Well, I live in Hawaii and the humidity is insane. I don’t have a deodorant obsession, though. I just like relatively mild ones because really strong fruitiness mixed with b.o. makes me nauseous.
As for deodorant history…I think I remember hearing something on one of those wedding shows on TLC or something that bouquets were originally used to mask the smell of the bride. I don’t know how true that is but ew.
posted by Leah on 2-22-2008 at 4:14 am
[qoute]Today, about 95% of Americans use deodorant.[/quote]
I wonder what is the percentage among the French??? If the fame that precedes them is true, I would aim for single digit values….
posted by Fign on 2-22-2008 at 5:44 am
Stay away from that anti-pers - it really is dangerous stuff packed with a poison that we call aluminum. Now that I have said that, I will use anti-pers on occasion because it has been so ingrained into our society. Sad that corporations are allowed to slowly poison us, and that we pay them to do so. I don’t want to smell anymore then the next person but there must be a better alternative!
posted by Karen on 2-22-2008 at 10:13 am
Other than the mass email I get from time to time I hadn’t heard what the connection between Alzheimers or cancer and deodorant. If it were true, wouldn’t the brands without the aluminum zinc be promoting the fact that they don’t cause cancer? Wouldn’t the brands with the aluminum be yanking their product off the shelves because someone could sue?
posted by Andie on 2-22-2008 at 1:52 pm
i stink right now … sexy!
posted by adam on 2-24-2008 at 8:02 pm
Great artical,I loved it. I have heard that deoterant is good, but antipersperents are bad, our bodys are ment to sweet and get rid of toxens, whats real bad is the people who get bowtox injected to their armpits to stop sweet all together.
posted by Rebecca on 2-25-2008 at 9:36 pm
Wow! I had no idea that there was so much history to be had when it came to being fresh or in many cases funky. Great Piece!
posted by Shelliro on 2-26-2008 at 10:10 am
Deodorant has only been around/popular since the ’60s? Whoa.
posted by Katie on 3-11-2008 at 11:34 am