I use non-antiperspirant deodorant. I got tired of the aluminum in antiperspirant staining my shirts and clumping up, then I learned that the aluminum works by being an irritant that causes an allergic swelling that blocks your sweat glands. That all sounds pretty gross to me. I might re-apply deodorant during the day if I’ve been sweating, or put on some fresh clothes or even take a light shower.

Neither. I just don’t smell. Confirmed by partners over the years. As it turns out, it’s genetic. One perk of being Korean I suppose.

The non-functional ABCC11 allele is predominant among East Asians (80–95%), but very low among European and African populations (0–3%).[6] Most of the world’s population has the gene that codes for the wet-type earwax and average body odor; however, East Asians are more likely to inherit the allele associated with the dry-type earwax and a reduction in body odor.[6][32][34] The reduction in body odor may be due to adaptation to colder climates by their ancient Northeast Asian ancestors.[32] Wiki: Body Odor (Genes affecting body odor section)

Regular deodorant works just as well as antiperspirant for stopping scent, and if you don’t sweat all that much, there is relatively little difference.

How do you know they all weren’t wearing it?

There are a lot of people who do wear it but continue to smell because of underlying medical conditions. For example, fruity smelling body odor can indicate diabetes. People with a rare genetic condition called Trimethylaminuria can smell strongly of fish. It all depends on what bacteria (which outnumber your own body cells by 10 to 1 even though they are only 2% of your body mass) and what balance of enzymes you may or may not have.

Reducing perspiration can and often does help, concealing the odor with different ones can help, but sometimes people’s bodies just aren’t right for whatever mass produced product they have bought. Sometimes that can be fixed with medication. Sometimes it can’t.

So here is what I’ve noticed.

The acceptance of sweat BO is partly a cultural thing. At my workplace we have people from all over the world, and there are certain parts of the world where it is clearly uncommon to wear deoderant. Both men and women, although I have noticed it far more with men. I guess if everyone had natural BO, it wouldn’t seem so unusual.

This is not to be confused with uncleanliness, I’m sure these people shower, the scent is purely one of sweat from hard physical labor. It is never better or worse, but always the same and in fact, you can identify people by their particular unique scent.

Antiperspirant made me stink more. I switched to non antiperspirant deodorant years ago and it seems to be the right product for me. I do run cooler than most and didn’t sweat at all till I was 22.

And yes any sweat will eventually smell so daily showers are part of this routine.

I couldn’t really get antiperspirant to work though, really. Always my underarms would smell at the end of the day, and my shirts as well. That doesn’t happen anymore.

ETA: I think you have some bias at play here - you don’t really know if the stinky people you meet are wearing antiperspirant, or if the good smelling people you meet aren’t.

Deodorant user here. I smell great because of it. I didn’t like antiperspirant because I also found I smelt worse because of it and it never really stopped the sweat very well anyways.

Something you may not factor in though is people expire at different rates. Also, some people smell worse than others regardless of expiration time and some perspire more.

Some people don’t sweat that much. For example, I have to use antiperspirant to avoid body odor but my wife don’t need to use one and I can’t smell odor.

This is probably related to this genetic trait. I have wet earwax and body odor, while my wife has dry earwax and no body odor.

Quote from the article:

In general people with the non-functioning ABCC11 variant don’t need to wear deodorant.

I’m allergic to aluminum-based antiperspirants, and I didn’t know there was another kind for a long time, so I’ve always just used deodorant. It has never been a problem for me.

As many others have said, the choice is not between antiperspirant and nothing. I use deodorant but no antiperspirant.

Often antiperspirants create a cycle of dependency. They kill off some of the benign bacteria and favour the ones that produce strong body odour, so if you stop using them you stink.

I grew up in a region where no-one used antiperspirant or deodorant. Nobody smelt bad. People have a smell, but its not strong.

When I moved to the city and smelt post-basketball teenage BO, it was so bad.

I dont use antipersperant. I have asked many people if I smell, all agree I dont.

I learned something about people when I was married to this certain guy for a while. his armpits never smelled. But his feet did.

I’ve always been the opposite. My feet never produce odor. But my armpits do.

conclusion. Not everybody needs deodorant on their armpits.

Deodorant /= Antiperspirant.

I sweat like a hog due to having a chunk of my work life being physical labor and being too poor to keep the house air conditioned at 45F when its 110F outside. So antiperspirant would just paralyze my armpit glands but nowhere else.

Also, I got tired of spending money on deodorant and having more plastic to throw away and just started making a 50/50 (ish) mix of coconut oil and baking soda and just smearing some on my sweaty parts and it does okay at covering my stink.

Whether I use deodorant or not… I notice that my smell changes when I’m around people (they tend to make me a touch anxious), some fabrics, and clothes that fit really tightly under my armpits. Also, I’ve noticed a HUGE difference in pit smell between full underarm bush and shaved.

My nose/sinus/throat is all very sensitive to perfumes and aerosols these days, and even if it’s not strong enough to close my throat up and choke me, it still tends to make me feel sick. I’ve not used any spray and rarely any smelly stuff for over a decade.

Most soaps and some shower gels are fine though, so there’s no problem with starting a day “clean”.

On the morning train, you can normally smell people who use deodorant instead of washing. It’s quite hard to describe - air freshener in a festival toilet? Artificial sweeteners on a stilton cheese? Anyway, if their perfume isn’t strong enough to physically harm me, I don’t care.

I used spray deodorants as a teenager, and unscented roll-ons for many years after - but after stopping using it, I found, like the couple you mentioned, that I didn’t sweat as much, and the sweat that was there didn’t smell as bad. Oddly enough, anecdotal evidence suggests my natural smell increased my attractiveness quite significantly. Of course, all of these may have just been coincidental factor of age/hormones/circumstances etc though.

I was a bit paranoid for some years, and always asked/checked with trusted people “do I smell?”. I found I can smell myself when I do.

My work is sometimes quite physically demanding, so during the ~two months a year when it’s potentially warm (Northern UK), you can get a bit sweaty - but so is everyone else. If you really feel the need, a quick armpit wash in a sink at lunchtime, or a “festival shower” with a wet-wipe would sort that out.

Anyway, so the rough answer is “There is less body odour. You get used to what’s there. Most of it smells quite pleasant, sometimes even to the extent of it being animalistically magnetically attractive”

Anti-perspirant makes the rest of my body sweat a lot more as suddenly I can’t just use my pits to cool my body.