Have you ever been overwhelmed by someone's odor?
By The Horse
@TheHorse (220747)
Walnut Creek, California
January 17, 2016 1:38pm CST
A year or so ago, I was on a BART train heading from San Francisco to my home in Pleasant Hill. I took a window seat, as I always do when seats are available. A homeless-looking woman entered the train. She sat next to me. We chatted a bit. Within a minute, I noticed that she smelled horrible. It was a mixture of armpit BO, rotting teeth, and unwashed nether regions. My stop was at least 15 minutes away. When she turned to talk to me, I was bathed in her stench. Other people moved away, but I was trapped in my window seat. When I got home, I could still smell her. I took a shower and did my laundry that night.
Anther time, I was driving with a friend to a bluegrass jam party in Bakersfield. It was a four hour drive. My friend had slathered on Rain, an oil whose scent I usually like. But she had overdone it. Within a half an hour, I was overwhelmed. Within an hour, I had a headache. I cracked my drivers side window but that only drew more of the scent across my nostrils. By the time we got to Bakersfield, my head was throbbing. I played music but I couldn't get near alcohol that night, though the beer, wine and Scotch were flowing.
I'll attach a picture of what I wear, always in very small quantities. I shower every morning. I never want to be "that guy." Have you ever been overwhelmed by someone's odor?
16 people like this
19 responses
@garymarsh6 (23412)
• United Kingdom
17 Jan 16
OH yes definitely. I had to work with a woman who absolutely stank to high heaven. We were due to work 7 nights together and on the first night she arrived at work stinking like a porcupine with BO. What to do? I just walked into the room and told her that she hummed and to go and take a shower! She didn't smell for the rest of the week and as far as I can remember she never smelt again when she worked with me although I believe she did when working with others.
It is a difficult thing to have to tell someone they smell. Sometimes it is best to come out with it rather than beat around the bush.
6 people like this
@Mike197602 (15513)
• United Kingdom
18 Jan 16
@TheHorse yeah like say you really stink then add on the ubiquitous.....lol
1 person likes this
@Mike197602 (15513)
• United Kingdom
17 Jan 16
To be honest I just don't have the guts to be that upfront...one of my many character flaws.
I'd have probably left her an anonymous note in her locker
3 people like this
@yukimori (10149)
• United States
17 Jan 16
At the last store I worked at, we had a customer who seemed to be homeless. He always wore the same shabby clothes, which were so encrusted with dirt they were the same uniform brown shade, and his body odor was so severe that it could be smelled throughout the entire store for hours after he left. It wasn't a small store, either...
The strangest part about his regular visits to the store were that he would spend hundreds of dollars on adult DVD's whenever he came in. I have no idea what his circumstances happened to be, but he was definitely one of the more memorable characters I dealt with while working there.
4 people like this
@GardenGerty (161166)
• United States
17 Jan 16
Your post brings a couple of situations to my mind. First I will say we do not wear fragrance at our house, because it bothers me. I do not use fragranced products etc. So, there was a tiny short lady that lived in our town. She made lots of crafts and appeared to spend a lot of time in her van. I do not know if she was homeless. She smelled so badly that in the store you did not even want to walk down the aisle she had just been in. The other situation was when I worked receiving at Wal Mart. There was an older gentleman and the situation was really bad in the winter. He smoked a pipe, he wore wool flannel shirts which apparently were never washed. He also did not smell like he ever bathed, but he put on cologne. Both of these people were "older" like I am now, and the situation only improved when they deteriorated to the point of being put into long term care.
3 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
18 Jan 16
i think putting perfume or cologne makes it worse because everything else is smelly and dirty
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (220747)
• Walnut Creek, California
18 Jan 16
@hereandthere Even a well-bathed person can cause me distress if they overdo it with perfume, cologne, or an oil.
1 person likes this
@Lolaze (5093)
• St. Louis, Missouri
17 Jan 16
I taught high school for 5 years and had some students (both boys and girls) who had some major odor issues. Some things were as simple as not taking showers or washing their hair. Others were more complicated like not having a way to wash clothing so they'd wear the same things over and over for months.
3 people like this
@Lolaze (5093)
• St. Louis, Missouri
17 Jan 16
@TheHorse Saint Louis, MO. And yes, the school served a secotion of town that had some very poor families. The sad thing was that we made the locker room showers available for these kids before and after school...but none would take the opportunity to clean up :(
3 people like this
@FourWalls (69457)
• United States
18 Jan 16
It's rather common at the VA hospital, sad to say, for the homeless veterans to smell. I think they should put a couple of showers in there (the way truck stops have) so those vets can at least feel clean for a few hours.
As for perfume, I have lost jobs over it. There was an instructor who wore so much perfume I ended up in the ER one night. I complained about it, and a supervisor said, "We can't tell anyone what they can and can't wear here when it comes to scents." I replied, "You mean to tell me if I don't take a bath for two weeks you won't send me home and tell me not to come back until I've showered?" She said, "Yes, of course we will." I said, "But you just said you couldn't. Furthermore, you have a dress code that clearly states if my clothes are dirty or smelly you'll send me home, without pay, to change." A couple of hours later they came down and told me that would be my last day on the job. Sooner or later something must be done about the overdoses of perfume or cologne. When someone steps in an elevator ten minutes after you've left and can still smell your perfume, you're wearing too dang much. These people need to stop walking around with that Pepe LePew-like cloud over their tail. 
3 people like this
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
18 Jan 16
people who overdose on perfume and cologne seem to assume everyone they encounter will appreciate it or be impressed. it's actually just as bad as all the unpleasant bodily, laundry, etc smells mentioned here.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (220747)
• Walnut Creek, California
18 Jan 16
@hereandthere I like a subtle laundry smell. But I think subtle is the operative word.
1 person likes this
@Mike197602 (15513)
• United Kingdom
17 Jan 16
Yes I have and it embarrassed me
There is one guy in our local Tesco Express and he always smells bad.
He's behind the till normally and I avoid him like the plague as once he smelled so bad and I was in line to pay and I'm sure people behind thought it was me.
I even thought of sending an email to the shop to tell them but didn't in the end.
There is one guy in our local Tesco Express and he always smells bad.
He's behind the till normally and I avoid him like the plague as once he smelled so bad and I was in line to pay and I'm sure people behind thought it was me.
I even thought of sending an email to the shop to tell them but didn't in the end.3 people like this
@Mike197602 (15513)
• United Kingdom
17 Jan 16
@yukimori I'm shocked too as it really is that bad.
he's still there now and I go there most days and he still smells but not as bad as it was in the summer.
He doesn't look dirty or anything and actually looks well groomed.
2 people like this
@Marcyaz (35316)
• United States
17 Jan 16
Yes, once at work we had an engineer whose scent was so overpowering that no one would work with him. We went to upper management and complained. As I understand it he was told to go home and take a shower or bath and not to return until he smelled better. Another time a co-worker had no car and he walked to work in the summer in 90 and 100 degree weather and his scent was overpowering. Needless to say he wasn't working there very long so I am assuming he could not find a ride.
2 people like this
@celticeagle (168852)
• Boise, Idaho
17 Jan 16
Yes, I have. I worked for a non-profit for awhile. Some of my co-workers were disabled in some way. One woman was obese and she stank something awful. I had been friendly to her on her first day and so she would inevitably come and set by me. I felt badly for her in any pursuit she might try to make in cleaning herself. I am sure it must have been quite an undertaking.
3 people like this
@celticeagle (168852)
• Boise, Idaho
18 Jan 16
@TheHorse ...Anything would have been a help.
1 person likes this
@infatuatedbby (94914)
• United States
17 Jan 16
Oh yes! There was a certain lady who smelt badly and everyone was clueless what to do! Many wanted to gift her perfume, but we didn't want her to think wrong. Ultimately, someone told her everyones thoughts as her friend but she didn't change her lifestyle either.
2 people like this
@infatuatedbby (94914)
• United States
17 Jan 16
@TheHorse Yes! Props to the lady she had guts as no one else did.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (472258)
• Switzerland
18 Jan 16
Yes, unfortunately this happened more than once, when I used to go to the office using public transportation in Italy. I have to say that even too much perfume makes me sick. My mother in law overused Chanel Nº 5, I came to hate that smell, I cannot stand it anymore.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45494)
• United States
17 Jan 16
I hate to say it but yes...we had a neighbor a few homes back he worked in a state officed and dressed nice, but at home in his raggy look clothes he smelled awful and had huge pit stains on his shirts. We saw him a year or so ago still wearing the same shirt.
2 people like this
@AbbyGreenhill (45494)
• United States
17 Jan 16
@TheHorse It sure is, is he was my husband those shirt would have been in the trash long ago.
2 people like this
@TheHorse (220747)
• Walnut Creek, California
17 Jan 16
@AbbyGreenhill If it were mine, it would putting oil on speakers.
1 person likes this
@paigea (36315)
• Canada
17 Jan 16
Once I walked into the classroom while all the students were at recess. They had just had P.E before recess and the room reeked of their shoes! Students bring a pair of shoes to school in the fall and wear them everyday inside. I guess they should go home for a cleaning once in a while.
3 people like this
@GardenGerty (161166)
• United States
18 Jan 16
@TheHorse I have had people mention the stinkiness of boys dorm rooms, not from dirt but from their own peculiar ripening bodies.
@LeaPea2417 (37401)
• Toccoa, Georgia
18 Jan 16
Luckily, I have never been near a person with really bad odors , but I have been around people who put on too much cologne that is so overpowering that it gives me a headache.
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (83186)
• United States
18 Jan 16
I used to work with someone who wore the worst perfume. We used to say she must have bathed in it but I luckily it wasn't body odor
1 person likes this
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
18 Jan 16
There was a gal I worked with @TheHorse that you could smell 20 feet away. It was just the perfume she wore, but geez! Yeah, instant headache.
1 person likes this
@CrossingBorders (249)
• Hidden Valley Lake, California
18 Jan 16
I used to get stuck with that only when I would take public transportation.
1 person likes this
@CrossingBorders (249)
• Hidden Valley Lake, California
19 Jan 16
@TheHorse It's a great place to have conversations if your commute is going to be long as well, lol
