Who’s got the funk? Better sniff closer – it might be you!
As you’ve gotten older, you might have noticed a few changes going on with your body. But one of these only your nose knows – it’s your personal scent. You smell differently these days than you did a few years ago, and sometimes you can be downright rank, right? What’s to blame for all this smelliness? It’s your old pal, sweat.
Teenage sweat is different from kid sweat. For starters, there’s much more of it. During puberty, hormones that are busy changing you into an adult also up the output of your sweat glands. You sweat more all over, but the places affected most are under your arms and around your genitals.
Teen sweat is also made up of different stuff than kid sweat. Humans have two types of sweat glands – eccrine glands, which release a salty liquid good for cooling the body, and apocrine glands, which put out a milky substance that regulates sweating. Eccrine glands are all over your body, but apocrine glands are found mostly – you guessed it – under your arms and around your genitals. When you go through puberty, your apocrine glands become a lot more active than they used to be.
How do these glands affect your smell? The answer literally lies within your pores. Bacteria that hide out in your skin love apocrine sweat. When they combine with it, they grow and multiply, and they produce lots of waste products. It’s that waste that changes your scent to more like ‘eau de garbage-dump’ than ‘eau de pretty-flower’.
Good news, though – there are measures you can take to stop the funk before it starts. If your smell or sweat bothers you, consider trying these tips to keep you smelling your best:
* Wash daily with an antibacterial soap, like Dial® or Lever 2000®. These soaps reduce the number of bacteria that live on your skin, so there’s not as much of their stinky waste products.
* Wash your clothes regularly. The same bacteria from your skin can also live on sweaty clothes and keep the smell alive.
* Use a deodorant or anti-perspirant. Deodorants cover up bad smells with good ones, and anti-perspirants temporarily block bacteria from getting into the sweat glands so you don’t sweat as much.
* Dust with talcum powder or cornstarch after bathing. These products absorb sweat to keep you drier and prevent bacteria from growing.
* Cut your caffeine intake. Cola, coffee, tea, chocolate, and other foods and drinks with caffeine make apocrine sweat glands more active.
* Eat a balanced diet and drink lots of water. What you eat can actually affect how you smell! You’ll be less stinky if you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. And drinking lots of water (eight glasses a day) keeps eccrine glands active to dilute the scent.
Freak.
The Smooth Story on Body Hair – How to handle this ever growing problem
Whether it’s long, short, straight, or curly, your body hair is important. It protects skin from dirt and germs, provides cushioning for your sensitive parts, lessens the friction between skin and clothes, and holds in heat to keep you warm when you need it, which leads to more revealing clothes. Body hair even helps provide a subtle dating service by retaining your unique personal scent – conveyed by chemicals called pheromones – which helps a potential mate become attracted to you.
Sometime after puberty, your body starts sprouting hair in places that were probably baby smooth just a few short months before: around your genitals, under your arms, on your legs, and (for guys) on your face and neck. Many guys find it exciting to start growing body and facial hair. It’s a sign that they’re changing from boys to men. Some people choose to keep their new hair – they like how it looks, their partner prefers it, or they leave it for religious reasons, among others. But other people prefer to bleach, trim, or completely remove hair from some parts of their bodies.
No matter what you decide, you’ve got plenty of options for dealing with your own body hair. We’ve compiled a list with pros and cons for each choice. If you know the facts making this personal decision won’t be so hairy!
* Leave it. This is the easiest option of all – just sit back, and let it grow! You get all the benefits of having the hair, and you don’t have to spend time or money trying to get rid of it. However, some people find that armpit hair can encourage the growth of bacteria there, leading to body odor (read up on body odor).
* Bleach or dissolve it. Chemical bleaches lighten hair so it’s hard to see. Depilatories dissolve hair so it washes away. Both are good for places not only where you’d rather not have hair, but also where hair removal is difficult (for example, the upper lip or lower back). Both are easy to apply but can irritate sensitive skin. They’re available at any drugstore, but they aren’t cheap – they run anywhere from $8 on up.
* Shave it. Shaving hair is inexpensive and easy – a pack of three disposable razors costs around $1.50, and shaving cream costs around $4. The downside is that you’re scraping a very sharp blade across delicate skin – be careful, or you could be in for some serious cuts.
* Pluck or wax it. Pulling hair out by the roots leaves you smoother longer – it can take weeks for hair to grow back. However, it can also be painful, and some hairs can come back ingrown (growing beneath the skin). Tweezing yourself at home is free, but waxing at a salon will cost you – starting at around $10 for an upper lip and $25 for a bikini area.
* Shock it. Electrolysis removes hair by killing its roots with an electrical current. It’s permanent – once the hair is killed, it never grows back. However, electrolysis can be painful, and sometimes leads to scarring. It can also be expensive – about $75 an hour. Because each hair has to be shocked individually, some areas of the body can take several hours to treat!
* Zap it. Laser hair removal is also permanent. Because whole parts of the body can be treated at once, it’s much quicker than electrolysis. Pain is minimal, and skin heals quickly. However, according to dermatologist Christine Min-Wei Lee of the University of California, San Francisco, not all lasers can be used on everyone. “Only seven lasers have been approved for use on ethnic (non-white) skin,” she said. Treatments are costly – anywhere from $500 on up per session. Most people need two-to-six sessions to completely remove hair.