Over the course of the past few years my sense has been that the number of public buildings that claim to be "scent free" seems to be on the rise. Of course, whether or not these buildings are actually scent free is another matter.
Assuming my intuition is correct, and we are seeing an increase in "scent free" public spaces, shouldn't it follow that we would see an increase in the number of unscented personal hygiene products for people to wear in these odorless locales?
Much to my surprise, such an increase does not seem to have taken place. Scented products are still readily available. Actually, I am starting to think that scented products may comprise a larger portion of some personal hygiene product categories than has historically been the case.
In particular, I think we may be seeing a decline in the number of unscented antiperspirant that are easily accessible. When I went shopping for such a product in my local grocery store a few days ago I found only two products that matched my criteria (both of which were made by the same expensive, but effective, brand). Historically when searching for such products I have always had a few more options. Furthermore, some of the brands that I know that I have used in the past did have unscented options available. Given the limited selection my recent shopping experience was much less pleasant than I expected it to be.
Body wash, seemingly a newly popular replacement for soup, seems to be a type of product that almost never comes in a scent-free format (at least as far as I can tell). And as body wash seems to be replacing shower soaps, many of which were scent free, the popularity onslaught (at least if shelf-space in stores is an indicator of popularity) of this product may actually be increasing the number of people using scented products on a daily basis.
Of course, the newfound, or increasing, interest in using scented deodorants/antiperspirants and body washes may just be a way getting around the "scent free" rule if this rule is interpreted to mean only that perfumes and colognes are prohibited. Whatever the case may be, people like myself, who try to use unscented products, are likely having a harder time finding such products and grumbling about what we hope isn't a "new normal."
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3 comments:
I've always taken scent free to be mean perfume and cologne exclusively. Ultimately, while buildings may be designated scent-free, humans might not entirely be able to be scent free. If we didn't make ourselves smell like chemical flowers and fruit, we'd smell like ourselves, which is less allergenic, but just as distracting. I'm not sure of the science of how companies can make a scent free product to mask our natural "scent" (smellyness) without simply masking it with another scent. It seems like it would be very difficult to make something scent free.
On a related note, I don't know if the Killam is scent free, but I was in there a few days ago studying, and some guy sat down nearby with his own area code of cologne fog. While I'm not allergic to stuff like that, it was pretty repulsive, and I had to find another spot to study. I am all for fewer of these scents, but don't know if I'm ready to trade that up for smelling BO everywhere.
While many people have issues with the chemicals required to make some antiperspirants work, preventing odor causing mechanisms is one way to reduce BO scentlessly (and is one approach that I like), though it is not the only approach.
I think that regular old soap and proper hygiene are other functional approaches. If one cleans regularly and effectively they can reduce the onset of BO. Instead of masking the BO we should try to eliminate it. Thus, I don't know if trading scented bodywash and antiperspirant really means that we have to have more BO as if these people are using these products effectively they shouldn't be producing much BO and if they aren't using the products effectively they are likely producing all kinds of BO anyway.
And to be clear, I would rather have someone wear stanky deodorant than stanky cologne. My main problem with stanky deodorants/antiperspirants is that I find them too stanky when they are on my own body. Some of them are strong enough to make me feel ill.
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