Body odor is caused by a mix of bacteria and sweat on your skin. Your body odor can change due to hormones, the food you eat, infection, medications or underlying conditions like diabetes. Prescription-strength antiperspirants or medications may help.
In addition to bacteria, oftentimes there is deodorant residue and other impurities that are trapped in the underarm pores and within the hair if you have armpit hair.
Shower at least once a day, and you'll wash away sweat and get rid of some of the bacteria on your skin. Sweat by itself is basically odorless. But when the bacteria that live on your skin mix with sweat, they multiply quickly and raise quite a stink.
It would be amazing if you could sniff yourself and immediately pick up on any emanating odors, but alas, life isn't so simple. According to Lifehacker, it can be quite difficult to detect your own body odors because the receptors in your nose shut down after smelling the same scent for too long.
If sweating is excessive, it can cause smelly armpits even if a person washes regularly and uses deodorant or antiperspirant. The first thing that a doctor will recommend is usually a prescription strength antiperspirant. Sometimes, these might burn or irritate the skin.
By the end of the study, researchers concluded that men who removed their armpit hair by waxing it off or shaving it with a razor had the least body odor. Those who simply trimmed their armpit hair had the next smelliest, with the strongest armpit odors coming from those who left their pit hair untamed.
Pubic hair holds on to residual urine, vaginal discharge, blood and semen. Bacteria line up all along the hair shaft just lunching it up and creating odor. (Very appetizing, I know.) Trimming your pubic hair reduces that surface area for bacteria, thus reducing odor.
Try this: sniff coffee or charcoal for a full minute. Then go back and take a whiff of your underarm or other potentially offending area. In a pinch, you could even smell the crook of your elbow, which contains few sweat glands.
Body odor might vary according to a change in hormones. In women, hormone levels change throughout the menstrual cycle, throughout pregnancy, during postpartum, or as a result of using medication with hormonal side effects.
For most kids, body odor is part of growing up. Kids start to have body odor around the time puberty starts and hormones change. Usually, this happens when females are 8–13 years old, and males are 9–14.
It's completely natural and there are things you can do to help. Body odor typically starts in the tween years, between 8-12 years old, and can linger through the teen years.
