You're not tricking anyone. Other people can smell your stink long before you can smell it yourself.

You're a dude. Dude showers are like five minutes. No excuse.

No, no no no no. Stop it.

If you have time to goof around on Paleohacks, you have two minutes to go take a Whore's bath.

Cold shower. Takes MUCH less time than a hot shower. Very efficient and invigorating.

This is mostly just opinion and personal experience, so...

Not bathing regularly is something you can get away with, but there is an adjustment period where your body is still producing oils as if you're showering regularly. For a short term period of time away from a shower, I've heard baby powder in the hair can help prevent greasiness. Other than that, I really don't know. As others have said, you may as well jump in and out of the shower and be done with it. But if you want to shower less frequently on a long term basis, expect to feel gross for a few weeks as your body adjusts.

My roommate, a female, probably only showers once every couple of weeks, and I honestly don't notice any smell. And she's a big girl, possibly 250-300lbs. I think she's been doing it for so long that her body just doesn't produce the excess oils that mine does when I go for a similar period of time without showering. After just two days, my hair is a greasy mess. Of course, we're both females. In high school, I did have a male friend that trained himself to only shower once a week. I absolutely did not notice a bad smell on him. His natural body smell was much stronger, but it wasn't a foul odor. It became a sort of game for him, to see how long he could go without a bath. No harm done, as far as I can tell.

Maybe the "armpit stench" you're smelling isn't as bad as you think it is? Maybe it is your natural body smell. If it really is a bad stench, maybe try another deodorant or anti-perspirant to see if that helps. Also, find someone around you that will give you an honest opinion about the smell. There's a big difference between body smell and body odor. Body odor gives me a headache, but body smell can be quite pleasant on the opposite sex.

This is a bizarre question. How is it that you are too busy for a shower? You can be in and out, dried, and dressed in 5 minutes or less.

Sounds like you'd just like folks around you to know that you're working really hard at school. There are easier ways to do that than building up body odor and oil. Your academic performance will also probably be better if you take care of yourself a little.

For oily hair, baby powder applied to it and massaged throughout will soak up the oil. As far as the smell and deodorant isn't working... what about just washing your armpits?

Try a deodorant stone for the pits. Mine are stench free.

Wet pits, wipe the stone around (wax on, wax off...), gently blot the pits dry.

Magnesium oil. I started using it transdermally (on the skin), and forgot to wear deodorant yesterday, and had no body odor. (I even made my fiancee smell my underarms!)

But, take a couple of minutes every few days to get in the shower. It will make you feel better, and the study break will help as well.

For girls, a little oil on a q-tip can clear out crotch funk (i.e. "smegma" between the labia folds). For men and armpits, I'd think powder of some sort would absorb excess moisture and could provide a little pleasant odor. I use Burt's Bees baby oil and powder and it has a gentle, sweet smell. There are also no-rinse cleaning products that astronauts and hikers use, or truncated baths/splashes where you just do pits and bits w/o immersing your whole body (my mom calls them "whore's baths" - sorry if anyone finds that vulgar, but I think it's kind of cute). Or just wash/rinse your hair under the faucet - thirty seconds (depending on how much hair you have) and you're done.

I'm really surprised at all the "ew" responses to this question. I've typically found this community to be really open-minded about alternative ways to conduct our lives. Is a woman's choosing not to shave gross and icky too?

Frequent bathing - and this verdant repulsion to natural body odor - strike me as manufactured, marketed, very "Westernized" views on humanity. American women were, not very long ago, told via advertisement to douche with Lysol to "regain their husband's lost affection" due to their disgusting, awful, natural body stink. Honestly, there's a difference between healthy hygiene and American standards on bathing.

You need to master the two minute shower. During the winter, I hate showers though and will do a sponge bath and oil my skin down and save my good showers for my moon time. During the summer, I take cold showers and all the rest. I'm a female and for men it may be different and more smelly. I understand about being busy though. It's so tempting to let personal hygiene fall by the wayside.

Take a fucking bath. This is disgusting and I see no point in it unless you no longer want to have friends or you have some issues where you want to stink. I honestly thought this was a joke at first. WTF?

for me the shower is so much more than just getting clean. it's so relaxing and invigorating at the same time. i can't see why you would not just take 5 mins and enjoy a hot steamy shower ended with a couple minutes of icy coldness. probably one of my favorite parts of the day.

I have never been too busy to carve out 15 minutes to take a shower (my hair is long, thick, and hard to rinse, though) each day or two. As others have pointed out, it's really inconsiderate to everyone around you when you refuse to bathe every few days. In Western culture, anyway :)

Having said that, unscented baby wipes are great for a sponge bath after my workouts when I'm sweaty and can't take a shower. Not the most "paleo," but it works for me.

Showering every day is CERTAINLY an Anglo-sphere thing, and a modern one at that. My grandpa used to say to my Dad, "Bath once a week whether you're dirty or not!" And then his 7 brothers and sisters would all use the washtub outside their house with water they heated up from the lake. The person who used the tub last got the dirtiest water. This was out in rural Canada.

I spoke to a gentleman who was a retired naval vet about this and he said it was the exact same way in Missouri when he grew up. "One bath per week, even if you're not dirty."

http://freetheanimal.com/2009/12/paleo-i-dont-care-i-like-no-soap-no-shampoo.html

Very interesting article on non-bathing :) I am thinking of trying it.

If you have BO, something is wrong...

Do you eat a lot of spicy / pungent foods?

I have a physical job, and at the end of the day I can have a bit of an "honest day's work" armpit whiff - but if I've been eating grains, too much coffee, certain spices then it's a lot stronger and more unpleasant.

What are your clothes made from? Artificial fibres keep sweat on the skin and feed the stinky bacteria; natural fibres let the skin breathe. Same idea with tight vs loose clothing.

What soaps / deos have you used? Again, I find the more artificial, chemically, scented super-duper ones actually wear off fastest and provoke a stronger response, than e.g. the "salt stick" deo. Dr Bronners or african black soap is my preferred.

(For the record, I shower each day with occasional exceptions)

EDIT - "no poo" seems to work well in soft water areas but not in hard water. What's your water like?

The less liquids in you, the less liquids come out of you, in every form, including sweat and oils.

Needless to say, this is something most people would not recommend for obvious reasons. However, for this particular question, it apply's. Simply consume less sodium and avoid pure water. Drink fruit juices, soda and other liquids that wash right through the body. NOT sports drinks or high sodium content (like soup broth etc.)

Of course avoid any strenuous activity such as sports and other physically demanding labor. If you don't do a lot, you don't need a lot, and you of course won't sweat a lot.

But again... in the end, if there's not a lot of liquid in your body, it will keep all that it has locked inside... or at least, it will keep much more locked in.

This is also speaking from experience. I have never been one to drink the recommended amounts of liquid/water daily and as a result, I am often mildly dehydrated--- however, it just results in less sweating and NATURAL oil reserves/build up where people tend to lose it most (hair and skin).

I rarely ever sweat, and I never need moisturizers. My hair and skin are naturally "normal". I am 28 years old now and have had less than 10 pimples in my LIFE, have only gotten sun burn once in my LIFE, and have been VERY fortunate to have never gotten any skin rashes and dandruff only shows if I don't wash my hair for 3+ days, and after one wash, it's gone.

This is just MY theory, but I honestly think the reason for my "luck" is common sense. Sweat is the nasty stuff your body pushes OUT, for a reason. It's not meant to stay inside, and the whole reason we bath in the first place, is to wash off dirty sweat and other bodily oils the body pushes out when in access (along with other things we just come in contact with through out our daily lives). In the end... I think it makes more sense to just cut out the middle man. Be less physically active so that you don't NEED to keep overly hydrated... Do less - Drink Less - Sweat Less, viola! If you sweat less, you stink less. And nasty smells are a natural sign that something is nasty. Getting sweaty is like rubbing nasty liquids on your body... why not just stop sweat before it starts? Take it out of the equation for a few weeks and see what happens.

Obviously... you can only do this if you don't have a physically active life style. But if you ever have a "Home" vacation, you should give it a try.