Did people stink more back in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s?

The answer is yes in some European countries in the 80s, but not the US.

It was this assholes, Procter and Gamble who invented Ivory soap and started telling everybody that you should bathe/shower daily. It was a marketing ploy back then to sell more soap.

No. People smelled of Chanel No. 5, Youth Dew, Aramis, and smoke. It was intoxicating.

There was such a stink of cigarette smoke everywhere that you could go a year without a shower and nobody would notice.

I don't think they had the oppressive humidity and heat we do now.

[quote]With more companies invested in anti-sweat technology, the decades between 1940 and 1970 saw the development of new delivery systems, such as sticks, roll-ons (based on the ball-point pen), sprays and aerosols, as well as a bounty of newer, sometimes safer, formulations.

And more people smoked in those days, which didn’t help either.

I don’t think so. People stink More now than they did in the 2010s even. I take transit for work and I’ve definitely noticed this. And these are ordinary people not hobos or the mentally ill. Nobody ever seems to shame them either and if you say anything you’re the asshole

There's a different between deodorant and anti-perspirant. The latter didn't become common until the '70s. Deodorant just covers up the smell, but anti-perspirant helps to curtail the amount of sweating as well.

I think fragrance was more commonly used, and it was made powerful enough compete with the cigarette stench.

Of course not. There was Tussy

I remember when I was little in the late 60s and 70s, going into stores with my mother and all the women out shopping stunk of cigarette smoke and hairspray. Unlike today, that is when they would be 'dressed up' to look their best when they went to the grocery store, department store, or ran errands. Thankfully, my mom never used hairspray or smoked.

Back then, we had Jean Naté and a nice new blouse.

When they bathed once a week, wore suits and ties everyday and air conditioning was rarity?

I don’t buy the argument that soap companies “brainwashed” us into showering more in order to sell more product. I don’t need to be convinced that showering is relaxing and refreshing and that’s why I shower twice a day.

Born in the early 60s so my answer is...yes and no.

There were older folk, especially men, who refused to use deodorant because it was too "sissy". But, also more men used cologne back then.

And, it was a lot smokier back then since you could smoke pretty much everywhere.

But, it seems like more people used perfume/cologne. I remember many women smelling strongly of scent...it was just something ladies did, especially ones of a certain generation. If you got on a crowded elevator, there'd always be some lady who had bathed in some strong scent.

Now, there's a lot of younger people who are quite lazy about bathing, using deodorant and washing their clothes.

My grandmother said there used to be this hilarious radio ad for Lifebuoy deodorant soap that would come on and blast the expression, "B" .. "O" making the two letters sound like a fog horn. I think that was in the 30s.

[quote]When they bathed once a week, wore suits and ties everyday and air conditioning was rarity?

People may not have taken a bath or a shower every day, but that doesn't mean they didn't wash daily. Basin, water, soap, washcloth.

People bathed once a week a VERY long time ago. Once indoor plumbing became the norm early in the 20th century, most people would bathe several times a week if not daily.

The once a week bath was mostly because you had to lug all the water to your tub.

As a kid in the 1960s, I bathed everyday and used spray deodorant. I distinctly remember that.

Mother smelled of Bal à Versailles, while father smelled of Eau Sauvage.

I was told that in the '50s and '60s that my great-grandfather from Ireland (emigrated to the States in the early 20th century) would bathe once a week (Saturday).

Christian families would bathe Saturday nights so that they smelled fresh and clean for Sunday services the next morning.

R19 I must have melted a few glaciers with the aerosols. I started using Right Guard when Gillette introduced it. I think Eisenhower was President.

The old formula RG cured cold sores, too. Probably some people have cancer now as a result, but hey: you wanted ‘em gone.

[quote]There's a different between deodorant and anti-perspirant. The latter didn't become common until the '70s. Deodorant just covers up the smell, but anti-perspirant helps to curtail the amount of sweating as well.

I don't use anti-perspirant. I use a deodorant (Tom's) and I'm fine.

Growing up in the 1960s I especially remember Ban Roll-On deodorant. It was very popular. And we sure did take showers and baths.

I do not remember people smelling any worse than they do today.

Here's Ban. 1956:

R24 Exactly. There's morons on here who think it was like Little House on the Prairie.

In the days before air conditioning and casual wear, when men would wear suits everywhere, people probably sweated a lot more (even if they had good hygiene)

Air conditioning has existed for many decades.

If you worked in a white collar job in a major city in a newer building, you probably had a/c.

Many homes started have window a/c units starting in the early 70s though there was definitely a generational gap on their use. Younger people tended to actually USE their a/c (until dad got the electric bill then it would get turned down for a few days...) Older people tended to be frugal and used it less; my Mom would get annoyed when visiting HER mom in the summer and Grandma was stingy about turning on the a/c. My mom just turned it on.

I think fast food, processed food, and synthetic fibers add to modern day stinkiness.

R26 I lived most of my adult life in Italy. AC is just not popular there. It is seen as unhealthy. I've always lived without air-conditioning.

Back in the US, people can't believe that even with this heatwave, I don't use AC.

My body adapts to the heat and I think people in the US did back before the popularity of AC. Of course I sweat but I'm not the sweaty mess others seem to be in this heat.

And I'm convinced what R28 wrote is true too.

[quote]Of course not. There was Tussy

I only use Tussy on my mussy.

I remember reading some play that was written a few centuries back where there were people selling oranges and flowers for people to smell when their surroundings became especially stinky. Like in a crowded theater.

A nosegay.

“Many homes started have window a/c units starting in the early 70s.”

Utter nonsense^

Depends on where you lived. Phoenix, yes, if you didn’t have central air. . Bar Harbor? Probably not.

If anything we smelled far nicer. We were raised with standards back in those days. Standards, I'm sad to say, that have gone wanting in the modern world.

People would go to the movies when it was hot.

R33 I lived in a rinky dink small town in the Midwest. As a kid, I knew several people with a/c in the 1970s.

BTW...fuck off.

R37 I lived in a rinky dink small town on the east coast. As a kid, everyone I knew had a/c in the late 50s

FIFY

P.S. Go fuck yourself.

People had air conditioning and used deodorant. and bathed and showered. People smoked more so some did stink of cigarette smoke. Ditto for heavy perfume and hair spray for some women. Those particular smells I don’t miss at all.

I don't understand why the bidet isn't a thing in America. Especially because Americans are more obsessed with hygiene than anywhere else. They even have electric ones now.

[quote]Especially because Americans are more obsessed with hygiene than anywhere else.

That is so untrue.

Don't know about the stinking, but I'm pretty sure they did think more.

In 1965 I moved into a home with central A/C. Before that we had window A/Cs.

Europeans had a reputation for BO in the second half of the 20th century. I think there was some truth to it. I worked with a German woman who smelled very bad. Gross smelly body odor is more from the clothes than the body, isn’t it? Fresh sweat doesn’t smell terrible. So it can be mitigated even without A/C or antiperspirant. If you have the ability to wash your clothes and more than one shirt, it shouldn’t be too bad. Women used to wear dress shields to avoid pit stains, but also to protect clothes that were more difficult to launder. Plus, as already pointed out, smoking and heavier fragrances.

People are fatter now. With that comes smell.

Comedies in the 1920s would make fun of people who only bathed once a week, with untidy characters making remarks like, "Take a bath? Why, it isn't even Saturday!", so a certain acceptable level of hygiene had been established by then.

[quote]I don't understand why the bidet isn't a thing in America.

Ant new build residential bathroom in Italy must have bidet. It is the law.

We lived in suburban Cincinnati when I grew up. We used fans until the early-70s when my parents could finally afford an air conditioning system for the whole house. We were the first in our neighborhood to have A/C, so all the kids on the block came to our house on hot summer days.

I remember more men used cologne in those days. I was fond of Pierre Cardin, and later Joop. Both of those scents drove me wild. One of my roommates would shower and then coat his body with Joop. He even put it in his bush while I watched. He would never let me give him a blow job; but I was attracted to him like flies on rice. He enjoyed the attention, though.

The people who say that people didn't stink back then are old people who still stink.

Did people have electricity in the 1950s?

"attracted to him like flies on rice"

I believe you're mixing up "like white on rice" and "like flies on shit". Unless you eat shitty rice, of course.

Global warming, poverty, doom-scrolling-snacking in bed, drug use and vintage clothing make GenZ smell

Yes, I agree with 28. As well, many more people are on meds now and eat processed food.

They stunk to high heaven much like they still stink in France. It was the norm so people didn’t think about it as much. Men didn’t wear deodorant until the 70s. It was deemed women’s stuff.

They must have because Lifebuoy and Zest made a killing

We had central air in our first house, then moved to a house that had been built in 1919, so we got window units. No one smelled bad, but my mother was a chain smoker, and our house mostly smelled like that unless someone was cooking, which happened every night.

I never wore deodorant, but like someone upthread’s father, I did spray myself with Eau Sauvage every morning after my shower. I always wore clean clothing, and I never wore artificial fibers.

Anyone who commented on the way I smelled complimented me.

Not every season was an 'Irish Spring.'

I know for a fact oral hygiene was abysmal at best. No one brushed twice a day with Sonicare toothbrushes and flossing properly once a day was unheard of.

Everyone had partials or false teeth by the time they were 45.

I was born in the late '50s. The only window AC I remember seeing as a boy was in my doctor's office. We had no window ACs where I lived. We didn't even call it AC. We used the full term, air conditioner. I don't think it was as hot, back then. We slept on the screen porch if it was too hot. We had an above-ground pool. Went to the beach. Ran our wrists under a cold faucet.

If anyone had smelled, I'd have remembered. There was one kid who did, because his family owned greenhouses. He smelled like flowers.

Today, there are a lot of people who smell of pot. It doesn't smell like it did back in the 70s. It really stinks.

I took baths as a child maybe 3 times a week (didn't have a shower at that time, just a bathtub). We washed up well in front of the sink. It was called a "sponge bath."

"Everyone had partials or false teeth by the time they were 45."

Don't worry - they will again after Trump and RFK. remove fluoride from our drinking water.

Those deep basement rec-rooms were another remedy.

Our family, kids at least, spent the summer in the country by a lake, often sleeping in a screened porch. We spent the hottest days in the lake, hours at a time. We'd bring soap and shampoo when we went for a swim.

[quote]I know for a fact oral hygiene was abysmal at best.

I don't even want to THINK about anal hygiene!

Bloodsuckers.

The deoderant or antiperspirant was really heavy-duty in those days. Secret. Ban. Arrid. Right Guard. Sure. ("Raise your hand if you're sure.")

[quote] Did people stink more back in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s? I wasn’t born until 1990 so please enlighten me.

You're kind of insulting, btw.

That’s why people carried Sen-Sen around with them all the time.

R66 my father carried it so he could drink and drive.

I'm just old enough to remember when indoor smoking was still allowed in public places and good god it was awful, everywhere stank of smoke. It's crazy to think about that now, that smoking was allowed in public places for so many years. Unimaginable today.

I remember several of my teachers in elementary and middle school having horrendous coffee breath in the seventies.

Ride a crowded elevator and you'll find that still exists.

We have more Indians now and many of them stink like BO.

When Indian workers travel to the U.S., they're advised that the standards for cleanliness and body odor are higher in America than in India.

That was my experience in the late 90s and 2000s, r69. I think they were tired and truly didn't give a fuck what the kids thought of them.

All those uncut men, sweating profusely...

We haven’t smelled good since Stopette went out of business.

Everyone born before 1997 reeks of ointment and decay.

Arthur Miller wrote an essay in Esquire in the late 80s about life in NYC in the 40s - he said very plainly that it was brutally hot in summer and some of his office co-workers did indeed stink.

R15, that overscented lady was my mom! Hairspray, chain-smoking, and she finished it all off with lashes of Emeraude.