hotboyproblems
i want a restraining order on everyone who doesn’t wear deodorant
has-claws
Deodorant is nasty. What do y'all think people smelled like up until 70 years ago??
darkmagepoppers
Bad.
marzipanandminutiae
1. Perfume.
2. Soap. Yeah, they had soap from a pretty early point. Sometimes it was scented and sometimes it just smelled like lye, but there you go. Ditto scented powders, lotions, hair products, cosmetics, etc.
3. Whatever their clothes smelled like. Not always body odor. Linen was worn next to the skin with masculine and feminine clothing alike for a LOT of western history, to wick up sweat. I’ve worn a linen chemise under a long-sleeved Edwardian summer dress in Manhattan in August, and even after like six hours, my dress smelled faintly of the lavender it was stored with. My chemise reeked when I got undressed later, but none of the smell had escaped. No joke. Shit really works.
4. Occupational smells. A baker might smell of bread and faintly of sweat, a blacksmith of sweat and iron, a medieval priest of incense, a Victorian teacher of chalk, etc.
5. Yes, sometimes bad. But not everyone by a long shot, and not all the time.
Also they definitely didn’t want to smell bad, and used all resources available to them to avoid it. So, barring any allergies, use some damn deodorant.
