Bismillah,

Body odor (BO) is something any human being has to deal with. Some deal with it better than others. As a result they smell pleasant compared to those who struggle with it or don’t even care about their unpleasant odors. Having been in so many places in life, I must say that a great number of covered Muslim women let themselves go. That and the hadith about a woman that wears perfume outside where other men can smell it cause many women to walk around with unacceptable BO.

When I visited Turkey, I was appalled by the number of covered Muslim women who walked around with rotten teeth and strong BO. Mind you, many of these women dressed very nicely and carried around expensive designer accessories (scarves, bags, shoes, etc.) To not generalize all these women, I asked around about people in my birth country since I have not been there for a while and answers varied.

One person said the great majority of people that she has seen don’t wear deodorants. Another one said, it depends of certain areas. Some mid-income places to high income places usually have people with decent personal hygiene. Testimonials also confirmed that some poor people didn’t always smell bad like we would expect.

This confirms what my father always said. He used to say even if you’re poor, the minimum you could do is to be a clean and neat person with a clean home. He could say that because he had been both very poor and financially stable in his life.

To continue, in Turkey, while many covered women didn’t smell pleasant, I came across a small number of covered Muslim women who actually smelled very nice. I also noticed that secular women (Muslim women who don’t cover) took better care of themselves compared to covered Muslim women in general. They were also a few exceptions about the secular women; some didn’t smell nice at all.

So if you struggle with BO, what can you do to smell pleasant in and outside your home?

1. Take long showers

If you rush to take showers, you will notice that in less than twelve hours, your body odor will start to reveal itself. So, when it’s shower time, relax and enjoy this simple act of pampering. Scrub yourself really good. I mean really, really, really good especially under the armpits with lots of soap and a solid shower sponge.

Another area you should scrub well is your genitalia. Armpits and genitalia are the two main parts of the human body that release strong body odors. Back in College, my Anatomy and Physiology teacher used to say that humans wear so much perfume and deodorants that sometimes their body odors is not noticeable. That’s why dogs often smell crotches because they can distinguish people that way.

On a funny note, if you have been around children long enough, you will notice that they do that too. I’m not sure if they do that because they want to distinguish us or because they are just imitating us when we try to smell them to determine if they did number 1 or number 2. Go figure…

To end here, if you scrub your armpits and genitalia really good daily, you will notice that between showers, you still smell great!

2. Use a mixture of deodorants

What do we know about pharmaceutical – cosmetics companies and the like? They all give you reduced dosages of what is supposed to cure you or work for you. Why? So that you keep buying their stuff while you’re getting nowhere.

Personally, I use an organic lavender deodorant plus an another affordable powder scent anti-perspirant as soon as I get out of the shower. I do it right away because the deodorants go in my clean skin and coat the area for 24 hours or more before I get the chance to sweat. After that, I’m positive that the treated area (which is shaved) is on lock down.

3. Wear breathable material

Polyester and sweat is a mixture of smell that should be punishable by law because it’s aggressive to the senses! So please stick with cotton.

4. Scented Lotion

Occasionally, use a pea size amount of great scenting body lotion to cream your body. Please don’t use the cheap stuff at these known bra shops or chain candle stores at the mall. They smell horrible after a couple hours. If you need some recommendations, leave a comment. There are a few exceptions to these stores I like *wink* .

I hope this article is beneficial to you or to a person that you know. Sharing is caring! #conquerBO

Check out also our Muslim Cosmetics here.

Thank you for reading,

Papatya*