Eldergays - do you smell "old" yet?

I’m in my 60s and terrified of smelling old or having my apartment smell like cat. I shower twice and day and do a lot of laundry. Oh, I also wash out my cats litterbox every 5 days.

I'm 32 and I look and smell even younger.

Is it from farting?

Maybe this belongs in the "Socially unacceptable reasons you've rejected guys" thread but yeah, old man smell was a reason why I rejected someone a (very slutty) gay co-worker tried to set me up with when I was in my 20s. I could not get past how he and his apartment had that lingering smell.

I've seen it stated here that pheromones aren't real, but I absolutely disagree with that.

[quote]Does the old stank only happen if you don't bathe

Yes. Most old people smell because they don't bathe every day, or don't do it very well. They don't care. Older woman when they were young used to go a week without washing their hair so they didn't have to mess up their "hairdo". Hence the invention of a shower cap. Older men used to use Grecian Formula to dye their hair which was one of the first hair dies for men but it stinks. Some woman think that woman cant smell so they never use deodorant. Some men don't know the difference between deodorant and antiperspirant so they just try to cover it up and skip a day or 3.

Now add lower body issues like being incontinent, loss of bladder control, a few days of not showering it all adds up so old man smell.

It must have been a while since this subject came up. If your parents or grandparents smelled old, you will smell old. Consider using this Japanese soap.

OP- Forget about smelling old. You should have asked the question-

Do you LOOK old yet?

Smelling old and smelling like a baby is pure psychological BS. Have you ever smelled baby poop? It could knock a buzzard off a shit wagon. And those little things take a dump like every 30 minutes in public or private.

This will end in tears.

It is better to smell old then to look old.

This is why I started using fragrance on a daily basis after I turned fifty.

I think some of you are confusing old man smell with homeless guy smell.

Not old but as I aged I noticed I can't skip showers anymore. As a kid I could.

You sweat the most when you hit your teens into you 30s. Young kids and old people dont sweat as much. But old people take that as a reason not to bother with a shower which is why they smell. Young kids are forced to shower as they have parent trying to train them with good hygiene.

I don't know so much about the smell issue. But at 65 when do I start talking old? When does my voice change. The walking issue is already started.

Technically, you have done all the growing you will ever do by the age of about 25. Like a flower that is in full bloom, after that begins the slow rotting until they fester and die. After the age of 30, you life is a slow process of rotting until there is nothing left that works and your appearance is unrecognizable.

Research has found that old people smell is a real thing that happens as you age and isn't merely because they 'don't wash'.

R9 That's the name of my shampoo!

[Quote] Does the old stank only happen if you don't bathe?

Yes. Shower daily. And change your clothes every day too. Never wear the same clothes like sweaters and sweats two days in a row.

It is the wet & dry urine in clothes.

I walked past a braying woman with denture odor the other day and it was putrid.

I think the OP is conflating two distinct things. BO from poor hygiene and "old man smell". Old man smell is something distinct which may not (entirely) be connected to hygiene. It's one of those... "you know it when you smell it" things.

Once I was in my 50s I was very concerned that I didn’t smell like an old person so I began to smear absorbine junior on my waist and it really did the trick.

I don't know about smelling old, but I sure smell a lot of stupid in this thread

If you shower daily, you won't smell old. And anyone who says "but I look younger" is delusional. That's something OTHERS could possibly say about you, but it's usually not true if you say it about yourself. Grow up, OP.

I too have this terrible fear because I had a friend that smelled bad. A lot of it had to do with he’d wear the same clothing several days in a row or not dry clean often enough. I sweat, and am very aware of it.

Buy clothing that can be easily washed, especially things like dress pants. I stopped wearing wool and buy pants from Uniqlo and turn them inside out and put them into the washing machine on cold, then let them air dry. This also helps avoid ingrown hairs, it has to do with sweat rubbing your legs.

I'm 47 and getting paranoid about this. I've always been a very clean person and I shower twice a day, but I am worried about impending 'old man smell'. I'm not convinced it's a hygiene issue to be honest.

the Japanese (who have elevated bathing to a high art form) have a product called "Mirai" which has persimmon extract in it...........it is world renown for removing this "old man smell"...............I use it every day and it seems to work...........

*^^^^^also, exfoliating EVERYDAY with a product called SALUX is a way to clean out rancid sebum from your pores and that goes a long long long way toward preventing this...........

R29 Not a skincare expert but exfoliating with a harsh scrub daily is not a good idea. I think the recommended amount is once every 2-4 weeks.

I have smelled old man smell before and its probably a combination of this oil discussed above plus lack of showering due to non-sweating, rewearing clothes, rewearing coats for years without oxycleaning them (or whatever you use to break down the gunk that detergent wont). Plus old people are more likely to sit in the same chairs, the same car seats, etc. Old peopel aren't great about frequently buying new furniture or cars.

Most dino-gays smell like either formaldehyde or moth balls. Totally gross.

I've stayed a lot at my parents over the years, and I'm now taking care of my mom who's way over 80, so yes, I've noticed the change in how their home smells. The old people smell is very real but at least with my parents it only started when they were well into their 70s, and I mean closer to 80.

Old people smell is a thing and we notice it because we don't want to get old. I agree with R32 - I noticed the same thing. Objectively though, teenagers are worse and most have to be reminded daily to shower, and if it is only for the love of the flies around them not dropping dead. We all have an olfactory blind spot for ourselves, too. I quit smoking two years ago and my clothes in the back of my wardrobe that cannot be regularly washed (like winter coats) still have this very faint but distinctive smell. I now wonder how I could ever not notice it.

Smoking kills your sense of smell. Smokers never know how bad they stink.

It's better to smell old then be dead!

My grandmother never had that old people smell. If you shower daily, put on some perfume or cologne, and keep your dentures or teeth clean, you won’t stink.

Nothing stinks worse than unwashed children.

Good one r22. Here's an except.

- Contrary to harmful stereotypes of older people, age-related changes in body odor likely have nothing to do with personal hygiene. Instead, experts think it’s the result of odor compounds and bacteria interacting on the skin. The major odor compound at play is called 2-nonenal.

- These results suggest that older people do have a very distinct smell, but it’s not necessarily unpleasant or intense.

- If you’re concerned about age-related changes in your body odor, you don’t need to purchase any products specially formulated to target 2-noneal. Any scented product you enjoy will help mask the smell.

The only old people I’ve known who smell old were in their late 80s and 90s.

On the other hand, my maternal grandparents are both in their early 90s and don’t smell at all. Could it be a personal hygiene issue?

You guys don't have to keep guessing about what old person smell is, r22 already linked to the answer for you.

More from r22.

- The study’s authors believe people tend to find the scent more unpleasant when they know it’s coming from an older person. This suggests there’s likely some age discrimination at play in how people perceive body odor.

My uncle (and his house) have the "old man smell". He's one if those people who believe mass produced soaps, shampoo, detergent, and deodorant all cause cancer. So he uses crystal deodorant or various natural crap to stay clean. It doesn't help with his body odor and he always looks greasy (we've told told him this) but he refuses to believe us. We're "fools" and "walking cancer factories" for not following in his footsteps.

His stinking, stinking footsteps.

R41, your uncle sounds like an old hippie. Still stinking up the planet.

my formerly fastidious mother is in her 90s, she used to brush her teeth and floss religiously and shower and scrub like a madwoman. Now she hardly does either.

[quote] I don't think I'll ever NOT want to shower or wash my hair.

OP you don't know what will happen to your mind. It's really really weird

If ONLY...

I don't wash under my foreskin on purpose to make sure the ripe cheese odor masks any old man smell.

Smelling old comes from men pissing a bit into their underwear and not even realizing it. That piss dries and smells awful.

I finally got my 85 year old dad to use Depends for Men. It was a game changer! No more smell

In older people, their general sense of smell is reduced so they don’t smell it themselves

You should bathe her.

If it keeps shallow judgmental age phobes away, I'm all for it.

My pussy smells

[quote] Smelling old comes from men pissing a bit into their underwear and not even realizing it.

Nope. That's the smell of piss, and that piss is normally a bit too strong since guys try to drink less so they'd have to piss less. Old person smell is something different.

There have been days during this pandemic when I have admittedly let myself go when it comes to hygiene, and I know that when I can smell my own rank self it would probably make someone else gag. I was always fastidious in my grooming but the past two years have been so fucked up I am cutting myself some slack. I would often shower twice a day but not wash my hair, wash behind my ears, feet, and just do a cursory soapy rinse of my ass and groin. Now that I am back to being fastidious (and having sex again), I scrub from head to toe in the morning. I scrub my ass crack and butthole with a washcloth, rinse, and follow with a handwashing using an unscented soap (right now, Dove unscented). If I smell anything on my hand, I go back in there a third time. Same with my groin.

I also think some people's houses have old person smell because they keep it set to 80 degrees and never open windows. My nana never smelled bad but she kept her heat as low as possible ("put a sweater on if you're cold'), slept with her window opened a crack even when it was frigid outside, and on days about 50 degrees always had windows open to let fresh air in.

But I do I do bitches I do look 10 years younger and smell just like creed aventus

I never leave the house without showering and I always use deodorant and brush my teeth . I am 56 and that helps eliminate a lot of odors . Wash your ass and feet too !

Unwashed hair can contribute to people's bad smell. I worked with a guy in his 60's who had a great head of hair but I think he used hairnets and shower caps and only washed it once a week and it stank.

[quote]Research has found that old people smell is a real thing

And that same research says that old people smell way less offensive that middle-aged or young people.

" Contrary to the popular notion that old person smell is disagreeable, volunteers in the new study rated the odors of the elderly as much less unpleasant and intense than those of the middle-aged and young"

[quote], I've noticed the change in how their home smells.

People who stay in the same home for 30 years will stink up the house regardless of age. Decades of body sweat and dead skin cells on top of rarely doing a deep cleaning, but food smells and oils in the walls will add up to a noticeable stench. People who move around a lot, say ever 5 years will never notice this because most houses are deep cleaned and freshly painted before they move in. If that house is constantly being resold ever 5 to 7 years it's not going to smell like grandmas house even if she lived there.

In the last year I’ve been living in with my mid-80s grandmother to help with her care, and I fear that not only have I become anosmic to the old person smell (it’s defo a thing, and my grandma while very hygienic does carry it), but that all my clothes and belongings now smell like that too.

So I’m really paranoid about it. I’m only in my late 20s, I walk and shower/change clothes daily (sometimes two showers a day!), and still I am convinced that I’ve taken on the stink into my skin. It’s making me really self-conscious.

Fwiw my grandmother has had the house (a retirement bungalow) since the 1990s, and hasn’t ever changed the carpets or the fixtures. The place has been repainted and partially redecorated a few times, though. And as I said, grandma is fastidious about health (into organic food, cleanses and such), and deep house-cleaning and polishing and disinfecting weekly if not daily. She herself still smells like decay, though, sort of like wet rotting leaves—not even entirely disgusting, more just morbid and sad. I guess it’s Nature’s reminder that we can’t outrun Death.

It's just your body dying.

THREAD CLOSED

I am 71 and I smell like sandalwood essential oil. Clary sage when I'm feeling frisky.

I just spritz a little Windex on several times a day...

Works like a charm

[quote]Eldergays - do you smell "old" yet?

No, no, I don't.

And weirdly, my farts don't smell either!

[quote]And weirdly, my farts don't smell either!

Men are attracted by the smell of my farts!

Havent any of you walked into old peoples home and it smelled like old peoples homes ? It not a "bad" smell, its just an old people smell.

[quote]Eldergays - do you smell "old" yet?

Not yet, but I'm trying desperately...it's going to be the Big Thing in 2022!

R58

Wiki says

[quote] Anosmia is the loss of the ability to detect one or more smells. Anosmia may be temporary or permanent. ... Some people may be anosmic for one particular odor, a condition known as "specific anosmia". The absence of the sense of smell from birth is known as congenital anosmia.

The best way of keeping bed linens and pillows from collecting smells is by always being as clean as possible when you go to bed. I shower twice a day, in the morning before I go to work and right before bed all year long. When I shower before bedtime I use one of those large bath puffs with a handle similar to this. I load it up with body wash and get every single inch of skin. I'm a guy who shaves his head so my pillow has two pillow protectors along with a pillow case to keep the pillow itself from picking up oils. When I get up in the morning I take the pillow and prop it up against the headboard so air circulates around it. I change my sheets once a week and launder the pillow linens every week too.

R15, unlike a flower, which may bloom for a few days, we live for decades, and unlike a rotting trunk, we can live like old trees. Of course the aging process happens, but a thousand-year-old tree is awesome and so is a master's runner or weight-lifter.

It's that forestry of hair that gathers at the taint where thighs and ass meet.

This bush may be visually clean, but it's been stewing over turds in the toilet at LEAST three times today.

Stop that nonsense

Three times ? ! ? !

Good hygiene. That includes oral hygiene. Some old people (like your dad) smell old bc they're not showering regularly. As you stated. Same goes for fatties.

I smell like a baby.

You are what you eat.

Clothes smell if they just sit. I’ve learned this during the pandemic. I sent everything wool and all outwear to dry cleaners this fall. Cost several hundred dollars but my closets all smell fresh now.

[quote]Eldergays - do you smell "old" yet?

Not unless "old" smells like SEX

[quote] In the last year I’ve been living in with my mid-80s grandmother to help with her care, and I fear that not only have I become anosmic to the old person smell (it’s defo a thing, and my grandma while very hygienic does carry it), but that all my clothes and belongings now smell like that too.

Unless you roll around in her clothes you're being paranoid. I live with and take care of my over 80 yo mom who has the old person smell. At the same time I work full time in food industry and have to change my clothes into a uniform at the workplace. When my shift ends I get back to the locker room and if my home clothes smelled of my mom I'd notice it when opening the locker. So I'd say you don't need to worry.

What does an eldergay ginger smell like? You know, down there.

No, I haven't developed the "old person" smell yet. (Nor has my mother, in her 80s, so there's hope.) I have noticed myself sometimes getting funky by the time of my daily shower though; possibly it's because working from home has given me the latitude to do that later in the day rather than first thing before work.

People should die in their 60’s

You can wash most kinds of pillows! Put two in the machine so it doesn't get unbalanced and wash on a lower agitation setting. When you dry, set the dryer to low and use those wool dryer balls.

Also, buy a big ol' stack o' pillowcases and change them out every other day even if you don't change your sheets. It really helps.

op, do you have a therapist? i suggest that you bring this topic up during your next session. it is really unrealistic that you have any sort of "old man smell" at 48 yrs old. it does though sound like a cognitive distortion.

I don’t know anyone who washes their jeans after one wearing, in fact some people never wash them. They bake them in the oven or freeze them. Same with sweaters, it’s outlandish to suggest dry cleaning a sweater after just one wearing. That’s why I don’t cook with my good clothes on, just old sweats and a t-shirt this way it can all go in the laundry and not smell like sautéed onions.

Old person smell comes from sebum mostly, the substance that makes hair greasy. Yet they say don’t wash your hair daily, so I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong. Black folks don’t wash their hair daily and they aren’t necessarily associated with old person smell.

R81 God figures they've suffered enough.

Not my kind R79. I use memory foam pillows.

*sticks armpit in OP's face*

[bold]I DUNNO SONNY BOY, YOU TELL ME.[/bold]

[quote]Same goes for fatties.

Exactly, I think fatties smell worse than old people. Really its the same issue, poor hygiene. Whereas old people dont seem to shower every day or don't touch their hair, fatties cant shower everyday, cant reach most places on their body and always miss the smelly shit in the cracks.

Does anyone thing Bruce Vilanch smelled good when he was young and still fat? Now he's old and fat. Double/Double.

[Quote] No, I haven't developed the "old person" smell yet. (Nor has my mother, in her 80s,

You can't tell yourself if you smell old or not. Your sense of smell is also impaired since you can not smell the old biddy either.

I smell old people!

Sometimes my gas....

The smell of unwashed scalp and hair is literally vomit inducing for me.

I have an older coworker that smells like BO in a basement. He uses the cheapest laundry detergent available and he sweats a lot.

Don’t skimp on your wash!

it is not the detergents, IMO, it is the infrequency of washing the clothing and too low temperature of the water used in the wash.

r89 racist or misogynist?

[quote]The smell of unwashed scalp and hair is literally vomit inducing for me.

Which is why dudes with dreads stink. All that oil and never washed, yuk.

A lot of old people or office Apsy shlubs for that matter dont wash their clothes that often. Older people just figure they can save money by re-wearing something several times before washing it. Then they forget. Office shlubs just dont care. One place I worked at became a running joke of how many days this one guy would wear the same sloppy clothes. We could tell form the stains on it that progressed during the week.

The old man smell says a kind of sand thing about our human biases.

I read of a study where scents were rated. Among them, the subjects were given an identical sample was named as two different things: something generic in the first instance, and labeled as an item of clothing from a 75 year old man in the second.

The first sample was reviewed favourably, the second was exponentially lower.

Humans don’t mind, and actually like the “old man smell”…. Yet it repulses us when he link it with old man.

My very pretty mother who always looked like Laura Petrie and later Mary Richards - always trim and tidy. At about 82 all of her hair suddenly fell out and she had this rotten putrid B.O. - after a lot of panic and Drs visits we found out she had become hypothyroid - really late in life. After working with a lot of fits and starts with her thyroid medication she responddd to tirosint and she has grown back a full head of hair (the Barbara Walters hair that blondish shade the older ladies like. The B.O. completely went away ….. Unfortunately she is hurdling into Alzheimer’s. On Christmas Eve she fell in the driveway and didn’t try to break her fall. She landed on her face and broke her nose, blackened her eyes and has a huge goose egg on her head. We spent Christmas Eve in the ER - but she smells great!

R93, I hate to think that’s true. People I know with dreads take good care of them with special oil, and sleep in a silk cap.

As a kid, I went to live with my grandad. On a visit to my mother she flipped out at the smell of my clothes. It turned out there were mothballs in my drawers and wardrobe but I never noticed they stank of napthalene and none of my friends had ,fortunately. I think we were glad of any non tobacco smells at the time.

I’m 72, but smell 25.

during quarantine I figured since I was home and not going anywhere I could skip a shower or two. I was disturbed to realize I was wrong when I got a whiff of rank body odor. I used a hippie paraban free deodorant that continually failed. I went back to using the quote toxic stuff unquote and typically only have to apply the stuff once daily without failure.

I like my stink.

I have a weird sense of smell. Dreadlocks on men (but not on women for some reason) smell like urine to me. And I'm not a scat troll, but most old people's excrement have a very distinct smell to me- I can always tell if an old person has been in the bathroom. I can't even describe the smell. My 78 year old mother is starting to get that old person's poop smell, but her body doesn't have it.

my mother had a terrible old person poop smell, turns out she had colon cancer.

[quote]I hate to think that’s true. People I know with dreads take good care of them with special oil, and sleep in a silk cap.

Well they still stink. So it's true.

R96 I felt terrible about laughing so hard - but I laugh I did! I read it to my BF who is going through this with his grandma and we both laughed. and then commented about how dark our vision of the world is.

I love onions and garlic but lately they make me stink. I had a lot of both yesterday and this morning my room smelled like skunk. It was me. I could smell them oozing out of my pores in the shower this morning and again tonight when I washed my face. This has never been a problem for me before.

You need to exercise R106. Sitting around eating that will slowly ooze out your skin. Still good for you though.

You can't avoid the old smell. It is part of an ageing body.

However, my father didn't have it. He merely smelled sweaty his whole life. Just naturally youthful.

There was some sort of hairline sewer crack in the lobby of our apartment building where a LOT of seniors lived, while waiting for the elevator you’d catch a whiff of old people poop. It’s more acrid and concentrated, just awful!

I thought a lot of "old people smell" was urine because many older people "leak" a little without realizing it. Or they wear full-on Depends

Throw in old man hair product too.

Daily showering may become a bigger deal and old people always seem to have very dry skin too.

As for diet, it 100% affects body odor. I usually eat a pretty bland diet but on days where I've eaten something with garlic or onion or similar the day beofre, my workout clothes are considerably more pungent.

Ha, r110, I got addicted to masala peanuts, and within 3 weeks I was stinking like the Paris Metro. Shame, because they're delicious.

I don’t think the older men who work out at my gym wash their exercise clothes much. One guy absolutely reeks. It’s a combination of mildew, onions and armpit. He is usually in a sea of empty machines with everyone bunched on the other side of the room. He must not notice how awful he stinks.

OP = Hunter Biden

[quote]I don’t know anyone who washes their jeans after one wearing,

I never wear the same thing twice without washing it. Every day I put on clean clothes, socks, underwear, pants, shirts.

The only thing is sweaters but I have sweaters that I can wash in the machine in cold water. But instead of sweaters I might wear a sweatshirt or hoody type thing. And those are always worn freshly washed.

And there you have it--the exception to the rule. ^^

Old ladies that wear perfume are the worst. It's a putrid mashup of dusty twat + Chanel 88 (named for their age).

R116 Eau de Raid

'OLD SMELL' is on people who bathe every two weeks. Take note.

It's only the single oldsters (or those with few or no friends) who smell.

Just checking into this thread to see if old people are still sniffing their crotches for odor.

I have a sour smell under my balls at the end of the day, even though I wash under there thoroughly every morning. I’ve started using a swipe of underarm antiperspirant under my nutsack now, it helps but I wonder where that smell comes from? I never shit during the daytime and always shit before the shower so I know it’s not that, and I wash my hole thoroughly. I always wear clean cotton undies. Could it be a skin infection?

R121 you could use a tiny bit of powder

r121, any new/newish medications or vitamin supplements?

R121 it’s sweat. You have schweddy balls.

yeah, i’ll try powder. That will probably help with the chafing in between my large ass cheeks too.