How to get rid of body odour
It’s a fact: everybody sweats. Perspiration is your body’s way of keeping cool, and sweating is an important sign that your body is working as it should. But while sweat in itself isn’t generally a problem, it can lead to body odour.
Sweat is mostly just salt and water, so it doesn’t really produce its own smell. The smell associated with perspiration comes from bacteria that live on the skin breaking down the sweat - this process creates the unpleasant odour of BO.
So as sweat-eating bacteria cause body odour, the best way to reduce BO is by reducing the amount of sweat and the amount of bacteria on your skin. These tips will help you do just that, making sure you stay clean, cool and smelling fresh as a daisy.
- Shower every day. This will remove sweat that is on your skin as well as the amount of bacteria that live there. If you are someone who sweats a lot, or if the weather is particularly hot or muggy, you may need to wash more frequently. Wash with soap, paying particular attention to the areas that sweat the most - your armpits and feet.
- Wash your clothes well and regularly, and put on fresh clothing every day. Yesterday’s clothes can retain sweat and bacteria which will smell bad regardless of how clean your body is.
- Wear natural fibres like wool and cotton. This will allow your skin to breathe, meaning that the sweat on your skin will evaporate more quickly. Synthetic fibres, on the other hand, will keep sweat close to your skin and give the bacteria more time to break it down.
- Some foods may make your sweat smell, so watch out for spicy foods like curry or garlic as well as alcohol and caffeine, nicotine and red meats. A healthy balanced diet free from high levels of artificial colourings and sugar will help too.
- Shaved underarms will allow sweat to evaporate more quickly and give bacteria less of an opportunity to break down perspiration, so removing underarm hair can help to reduce the chance of experiencing BO.
- Use deodorant after washing to reduce the amount of bacteria on your skin. Trust anti-odorant reduces the effect of bacteria for between 3 and 6 days, eliminating BO so that you can get on with your normal routine without worrying about unpleasant odours. And because it is effective for so long, you only need to use it once every few days instead of daily.
There are a number of reasons why some people are more susceptible to BO than others, but these tips should help to reduce or even eliminate body odour entirely.