Do you avoid hugging people because of your strong body odour? Believe it or not, this makes us feel absurd and trapped.
More importantly, we often end up losing our confidence. After all, it feels like having low standards.
But no worries, I’ve also been there and I fixed this on my own. And while experimenting with multiple things, I came across these 13 effective ways to smell good.
1. Lack of Knowledge & Awareness
Before we start knowing how we can smell good, we need to understand what doesn’t. As far as I know, here are a few things that you need to keep a check on to prevent smelling bad:
- Excessive Sweating with Poor Hygiene
- Intense Smoking
- Certain Medications (consult with your doctor if you take something consistently)
- Menstruation
- Gum Disease
- Poor Diet
If you believe you fit in one of the above criteria, you should pay attention and tweak your lifestyle a bit to smell good.
2. Make Sure to Shower Daily
Your body builds sweat and oil throughout the day, so you must take regular showers or baths to get rid of this buildup.
When showering, avoid using harsh soaps or shampoos that have a lot of chemicals. These will dry out your skin and hair, leaving you with no natural oils to protect you from bacteria.
You can use coconut or olive oil to moisturize your body after taking a bath or shower.
3. Wear Natural Materials
Wearing clothes made of natural fibres can help you get rid of body odour better than synthetic materials or blended fabrics like cotton, linen, silk, etc.
These fabrics allow air to circulate to your body more freely, allowing your body to pass sweat and moisture quickly.
4. Avoid Processed Foods
Processed foods often contain many chemicals. It includes preservatives, artificial sweeteners, flavour enhancers, and various other things. And guess what? All of this resides in your body.
Sweat often contains traces of the preservatives, sweeteners, and chemicals that we consume. So if you want to avoid smelling bad, reduce your intake of processed foods and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables instead.
5. Drink Plenty of Water
Whenever we eat a protein-rich diet, our body breaks it down into amino acids. And then, this amino acid turns into ammonia.
When your body has enough water, hydration helps in passing this ammonia through sweat and urine. If this remains unreleased, the sweat of your body starts smelling like ammonia.
6. Don’t Smoke Cigarettes
It has been said that cigarettes are one of the main causes of body odour. Not only does smoking affect your lungs, but it also affects your skin.
When you smoke, the chemical ingredients in the cigarette enter your body through the bloodstream. These are then discharged from your body as sweat, causing an odour.
7. Eliminate Gum Disease
If you have gum disease, never underestimate its effect on how others perceive your body odour.
People who have gum disease tend to have a strong body odour. This is because bacteria from your mouth spreads through your body, causing you to smell bad.
8. Wash Your Clothes More Often
When you’re not wearing something, it’s best to put them into the laundry basket or hamper immediately after taking them off. This way, the bacteria can sit there isolated and you can wash it off when you’ve time.
Because when you sweat, the bacteria from your body collects in the fabric and slowly builds up over time. After that, even antibacterial essentials can’t make it vanish.
Oh and also make sure to dry your clothes properly, or else you’ll have that ‘damp washing’ smell which is also horrible.
9. Use Deodorant
This is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to smell good. Just spray it on your body after you towel off after shower.
And just in case you ever find yourself going somewhere right after workout, you can put on some deodorant to cover the bad odour immediately.
But yes, I’d recommend having a good-quality deodorant. Otherwise, a bad one will end up causing you respiratory issues.
10. Eat Balanced Diet
Research has found that lack of nutrients leads to odor, especially when there’s some deficiency of zinc.
Not only this, poor diet can also cause dental decay as well as bad breath.
To keep your diet well, make sure you eat fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meats, nuts, and whole grains.
11. Decrease Your Sugar Intake
Excess sugar intake can lead to smelly armpits. When your body is constantly in a state of a sugar rush, it doesn’t have the time or energy levels needed to break down that excess sugar into usable energy.
Excess sugar is then stored as fat and mixed with secretions from your sweat glands, making you smell bad.
So that’s how you can make a few changes to smell good.
