Don’t forget the soap and water!

These words keep coming back to me in these days of strong rain and body odours, especially if you are travelling in a vehicle with all the windows up!

I was walking out of the pharmacy with a friend when a man walked past. Simultaneously, we looked back to see who the man was. She summed up what we both were thinking, “looking at him you’d never think there would be such a scent about him.” He was dressed casually in shorts and T-shirt, but he did not seem socially displaced. However, one never knows these days the odour that surrounds some people.

My friend wondered if he was living with anyone and, if so why they could not tell him about his odour before he stepped outside the house.

Everybody sweats. It is our body’s way of making sure we do not over heat. While the person working inside an air-conditioned space may not sweat like the outdoor worker, the body will perspire. The negative side is that perspiration and dirt produce an odour which is not pleasant so we use deodorant and perfume/cologne. Before using these products though, it is wise to wash the skin.

A friend of mine said one rainy morning last week she got into a maxi taxi and found herself seated in the back seat with a young man. There was a bad smell and she realised it was coming from the young, greasy-faced youth. She said, “It was early in the day. How could he be smelling like that. Had he left home without taking a shower? Was he wearing dirty clothes?”

Being trapped inside an air-conditioned vehicle with a repugnant odour can feel stifling. My friend’s problem got worse, as if the smell on the right was not enough. A man carrying a saw got into the maxi and sat in front of her. “He wasn’t smelling too righteous either but I figured he was coming from doing some hard work. But I had to hold my breath for a minute because I thought I would choke.”

While my friend chose to endure, not everyone can. I heard about a woman who when she found herself trapped in an air-conditioned Diego taxi with a man whose perspiration odour was overbearing could only bawl out “Oh Jesus Christ!” The other passengers were amused but the man was totally unperturbed. I suppose a stoic facade is a good front when you realise your fellow passengers want to flee because of your body odour. But do people really know that their body’s odour is bad?

What about the bad breath? Ill health and not eating on time can lead to bad breath. I suspect the latter may be the reason why some folks who obviously have access to tooth paste, tooth brush, mouth wash, power mints and breath strips, still suffer from the dreaded halitosis.

It is quite difficult to broach the subject with these people because it is embarrassing so we try and keep some distance, yet they must have friends and family? I heard about an official who was always well dressed but when you stood close to them “the mouth ranking.”

One day a man who was travelling with his wife and another friend decided to pick up an acquaintance awaiting transport in the rain. He immediately regretted this act of generosity when the man’s bad breath became evident. According to one of the passengers, “the man breath started to infiltrate the ac system. His continuous babbling, amplified his halistosis. When he start to talk other people stopped talking.”

As one who has had bad hair and sloppy dressing days, I say people are free to dress how they feel but the trend is getting ridiculous. More and more people are looking unkempt and they just don’t care. I saw a man walking along the Western Main Road wearing a polo shirt which had a big slit in the back. Had he not noticed it before he put it on? Someone ought to tell him the shirt needs to be thrown out!

I saw another young man walking the street bare-backed in boxer shorts — his underwear! It is not uncommon to see men wearing vests, and 3/4 pants with sneakers and no socks or men and women who dressed well then you look down and notice the cracked, dirty heels.

All kinds of open toe sandals and slippers are en vogue and you would think the wearers would at least have clean looking feet? Dirty fingernails show little attention to keeping the hands clean although the hands are a major route for the transmission of germs. There are people who look like they don’t have combs and others smell like they do not wash their hair properly or regularly.

At a culinary function, the sister of a chef came dressed to the nines with a curly shoulder length weave in her hair. One of the chef’s colleagues said, “everybody in the kitchen was talking about that weave. I could handle a vampy and musty smell but sour and wet. That was killing.”

Water problems aside, people should not neglect their hygiene, their appearance or washing their hands. It is quite ironic in this day of a million soaps, shower gels, deodorants and perfumes that people should behave as though we are back in the days when there was no indoor plumbing.

Even if someone could not afford the expensive stuff there are other cheaper brands or they can resort to blue soap and lime for their armpits.