this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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So I tend to go on long trips, and I end up going 3-4 weeks without a shower if I'm off sailing or camping in the deep woods or whatever. Edit: of course I do make sure to get naked and air out regularly, if I'm not able to wash.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that I get pretty funky, but I've never gotten jock itch or anything. No skin conditions.
I think a lot of modern "hygiene" standards have less to do with hygiene and more to do with selling people more crap. Actually, the only time I remember having skin issues was the three months in 8th grade equivalent that I used deodorant. Once I stopped that, all the irritation went away.
I occasionally ask people around me if I smell, or if it's obvious I usually only shower 3-4 times per week, and most people are surprised to find out I shower 3-4 times per week and don't wear deodorant.
Edit2: diet also plays a huge part. I tend to eat almost exclusively rice, beans, and veggies. I recently let a friend who had some shit going down live in my basement for six months, and his primarily junk food diet definitely did a number on both odor and my toilets. I didn't even know that level of mess was possible in six months.
Being exposed to the elements and, I'm assuming in decent shape based off what you said, is pretty different from being indoors sitting all day on a likely less ideal diet.
Also how much you smell depends on how hairy you are too.
I've gone camping and without long showers too due to lack of water out in the wilderness, even going nearly barefoot, but between the dirt dust and nature's VOCs sticking on you, it's hard to smell too bad unless you're sweating like crazy as you do some kind of manual labor. And even then, the sun is a good deodorant.
Same with sailing - I think the salt spray inhibits things.
The other thing I don't wear underwear when out camping. So there's much more air down there too. Not the case if using underwear and sitting in a chair all day.
Yeah, I think we're in full agreement.
I guess the part that kinda annoys me is that the common advice is "use deodorant" and not "try going for a walk and eating a carrot". This ties into the many issues I see in industrialized society being caused by shortcuts. Yeah, smearing yourself in deodorant fixes the problem for today, but the underlying issue will be worse tomorrow. I guess there's no profit in worrying about tomorrow.