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Did we smell?

rowan

rowan

Born a Brummie
Talking with a friend about our childhoods the question came up "When did you first use a deoderant?"

Made me think........Did we smell of body odour in those days?

I can clearly recall the first deoderant I used was a MUM Rollette.

So...... did we smell and nobody noticed or were we all walking around with a peg on our noses :eek:))
 
No Rowan Mom saw to that in my day.

My lads Bath everyday now and I can't stand the deodorants they use and make them put it on in the porch or garage.
 
Like Norma i used deodorant in my teens - that's the way it was and is on this side of the water - However, not now so much, but in that day Europeans were slower to use it. . .
 
Sorry.......I did mean as a teenager not as a child.

I was about 15, if I recall, when the first deoderant was advertised at the cinema or in a magazine.
When you think that children of 10 or 11 are now using deoderants every day, showering daily and using perfume.........I had a bath once a week (strip washed every day) never used talc until I was married.

When did the first deoderant become available?
 
Young people are devloping must faster these days - Dating at 13
 
The only Odour that I really recall from travelling across City to School was the homeward journey when one guy in particular would get on the bus smelling strongly of Suds Oil - pwhoar in a bad way.
 
Not sure that is true in all cases Maggs - I worked with a guy who was fastidiously clean but stank to high heaven by midday. A word from a reluctant manager and he was forever after as sweet smelling as could be. Some people just have something in their make up that produces smelly sweat.
 
Yes, I suppose so. People still smell these days, even though one can tell that they are washed and wearing clean clothes.

I worked in an office fairly recently where a young girl smelled so bad, that when I went into the office I cringed. She was certainly clean though.

Regards

Maggs.
 
well I worked in the fish market and could always guarantee a seat to myself on the bus going home and that was after a wash and brush up before leaving work LOL and when I got home before anything else I had a bath and still removed fish scales later LOL
 
I can remember the terrible smell that I started to emit in my school days. At that time I had never even heard of the word 'puberty' let alone what it meant or could cause. It was always at its worst when I had to take part in school sports and I often wondered if others could smell it too or was it just me. Fortunately that period in my life didn't last too long but looking back I can still remember that awful smell.

Graham.
 
Well another thing I don't like to see is when women need to shave under their arms and don't - Find it gross. . .
 
Pears is a good soap. It takes a while to lather in hard water (not a prob in Brum) but if you itch after a shower it realy helps stop this. I did not think that you could smell your own odor. Weird subject this is. Bathing in brum used to be an ordeal with no bathrooms...only a tin tub and a kettle on the floor in front of the coal fire. Once a week used to have to suffice. The walk to the public baths was a miserable experience if it was cold and raining. The ordeals of the great unwashed. I bet Alf only changed his underware once a week. The people in the middle ages never used to bathe at all. That's why they were always covered in talk and wigs. They kept Pugs on the bed to attract the fleas at night. Hope Rupi does'nt read this.
 
Yes that lovely Brum soft water. I wish I had never taken it for granted. Where I live now we have the hardest water in England. However, I still prefer soap in spite of the scum in makes. All these fancy shower gels dry the skin dreadfully. When we visit Brum about twice a year washing ones hands is an absolute treat the softness of the skin is amazing.

Maggs.
 
There you go Maggs...'A Taste Of Bottled Brum'...a new industry. With a Victorian 'Art neuveu' (excuse the spelling) lable...right out of the tap. Bet someone has beat us to it.
 
Thanks Rupert.

We are very short of water here (as a rule). When there was talk of bringing water from the midlands to this area, I was hoping so much it was going to be Brum water. No more has been mentioned on the subject, especially as Britain has had two wet summers on the run.

Regards,

Maggs.
 
Beryl M.

I agree, but did anyone shave under their arms and shave their legs in the 1940/50's? I know I didn't....I don't think it was done in those days...........was it?

I can faintly recall my Mother mixing sugar and hot water and putting that on her legs and peeling it off!!

I think everyone smelled the same so we didn't notice the body smell.

When DID we start using deoderants??
 
Hello Beryl,

I don't remember underarm shaving, but I certainly used to de-fuzz my legs. I used to go to Woolies where one could buy a sort of emery mit which cost 4d, no other shop sold them. They worked a treat.

Maggs.
 
Yes Pete, of course it was Welsh water. We learned that at school, how silly of me to call it Brum water. Well, it is still beautiful stuff. I must admit to disapproving of Fluoride being added though. We don't have that in the water here. I hope we never do.

Regards,
Maggs.
 
I don't know really if we did smell, but I know we only had a bath once a week on Friday night and most people did the same. The rest of the week it was an all over wash. That was early 50's. The thought fills me with horror now and we bathe every day, but thats just the way it was. No fancy bath stuff either. Luxury was a bath cube, does anyone remember them? I first used deodrant when I was about 15 and that was mum. Don't think you could get anything else. I did shave under my arms and my legs, but my mom thought it was dreadful. How times have changed.

Rustie
 
I started cycle racing in 1961 at the age of 17 and it was 'done' thing then, as it still is today, among racing cyclists to shave our legs. This was done in the galvanized tin tub on Saturday bath night with a Gillette razor. Our bath water was heated in a coal fired cast iron wash tub situated in one corner of our little back house kitchen. I would always add some bath salts as this helped to relax my muscles, I think it was called 'Radex' or something like that, this in combination with the Brum water was shear heaven. But when I started to shave my legs the water in the tin bath soon turned into a blood bath!
​

Graham.
 
Rowan the 1940's - Is one thing for the age I was at never needed to use a razer to shave my arm pits and still don't need to do it now - It was when I first came to Canada after the war so many Europeans needed to shave and didn't use deodorant either is what shocked me. . . At the time emigrants to Canada then were all put in one basket and called D.P's which I was not. . .
 
Never noticed B.O.as a child we must have all been the same.
However,dirty bodies seems the norm in Pubs, since the smoking ban,the smoke must have disguised it.
Dating young is nothing new,the greatest love story ever told Romeo & Juliette,he was 14 and she was 13.
 
Did we smell, we still do!

I am a smoker but give up occasionally and am repeatedly amazed how much and how differently people smell. Suppose and hope it wouldn't be so apparent if I gave up for longer!
 
rustie said:
I don't know really if we did smell, but I know we only had a bath once a week on Friday night and most people did the same. The rest of the week it was an all over wash. That was early 50's. The thought fills me with horror now and we bathe every day, but thats just the way it was. No fancy bath stuff either. Luxury was a bath cube, does anyone remember them? I first used deodrant when I was about 15 and that was mum. Don't think you could get anything else. I did shave under my arms and my legs, but my mom thought it was dreadful. How times have changed.

Rustie
Click to expand...
Hello Rustie,

I hope I am getting back to you, I am a learner,so I'm making a few mistakes. During the early 50's, I was small enough to get into the Belfast sink for a weekly bath, but as I grew it was a case of wash downs every day. As we didn't know any better, it was bearable I suppose. We used to go up to Monument Rd baths on occasion for a bath, it was awful, like being in prison with the warder turning on the tap with a spanner so that we couldn't help ourselves. How things have changed, but looking around these days I often wonder if some people are not as clean as we were then. We had a house so tiny in Brum that we couldn't accommodate a tin bath. It was back to back houses and pretty grim really.

I shower every day and bath once a week now, which is still wonderful. I shall always appreciate it. I stay in the water far too long and am shrivelling by the week.

Don't remember shaving underarms, but I think we were more covered up than people are today, so perhaps it wasn't so noticeable. We had to be very smart in the office I worked. No vest tops, or strappy's in those days. It was blouses and jumpers only.

Hope you agree with my ramblings.

Regards,

Maggs.
 
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