3 ms·
Swimming seems a special case because that's a clearly foreign substance attached to the body. More interesting are cases where the lifestyle causes smellable
by lonelappde 7y ago
Swimming seems a special case because that's a clearly foreign substance attached to the body.
More interesting are cases where the lifestyle causes smellable long-term changes to body chemistry that can't be cleaned off.
- dredmorbius 7y agoTrue, though the odor persists for days. Technically, althlete odors generally are foreign substances / interactions, at least in part.
- avip 7y agoRemove modern chemicals (detergents, perfumes) from the equation, and lots/most of what we call “body smell” would be VOCs, the composition of which depends on nutrition and microbiome among other things. So I find the concept of age/culture/lifestyle related smell very plausible. But these things are not easy to research as reliable VOC detection requires lab setup (GC-MS)
- Andrex 7y agoImmersing yourself in chlorine for large stretches of time probably messes with your skin's biome, though I agree probably not to the extent that the change alone would produce a discernible smell.
- coldtea 7y ago>though I agree probably not to the extent that the change alone would produce a discernible smell. If you do it often (e.g. swim professionally), why not?
- dredmorbius 7y agoThat's a plausible component. The chlorine also dries out the dermis, which may change its scent.