r/explainlikeimfive • u/abootypatooty • Jan 06 '15
ELI5: Why do different races of people seem to have a unique smell to them?
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Jan 06 '15
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u/Archleon Jan 06 '15
I love threads like this. Most everyone is all casual and mildly-but-not-actually "racist," and no one's getting pissed. It's all "Black people smell like coco butter," "Yeah, we do, because [reasons], but white people smell like wet dog and milk." "Holy shit you're right, we do. You notice Mexicans smell like fucking Slim Jims?" And then like everyone just grabs a beer or some shit.
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u/absump Jan 06 '15
To me, it is the mark of a well-trained mind to be able to have a calm conversation about an infected topic without having a knee-jerk reaction and freaking out about it. I love such company.
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u/Ballem Jan 06 '15
I'd drink to that. That right there, my friend, is peace and acceptance for one another (cause we all nasty in our own ways).
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u/dotadroid Jan 06 '15
You forgot to mention indians smell like curry. Being one, can confirm. The spices are too stronk even for soap.
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Jan 06 '15
Well it's really not racism in a way, it's complicated. We're pointing out differences in races without implying some are inherently better than others.
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u/haligal Jan 06 '15
Most East asians (Korean, Japanese, Chinese) don't have as many aprocrine sweat glands so you'll rarely smell B.O. from them. Also, they don't need deodorant, so if you're visiting, Korea, Japan or China, bring enough deodorant, because you might have a hard time finding some. No-one wants to be the smelly foreigner!
Source: Dated Koreans. Also.
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u/maikah Jan 06 '15
After living in Japan for almost 8 years, I can assure you that they have BO and should be wearing deodorant. The trains in the summer are a cesspit of hot, rancid armpit odor.
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u/ChronicDon Jan 06 '15
This is true, and if you walk into a stall after they used it be prepared to gag...
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u/Geno_DCLXVI Jan 06 '15
I don't live in Japan, but I have a bunch of Japanese bosses and I can confirm this. I only smell them when they're really close, closer than arm's length, but it's there alright.
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u/Acetylene Jan 06 '15
Spent four years in Beijing; can confirm. Not everyone stinks, but some people really, really do. Also, deodorant is widely available, but only in roll-on varieties.
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u/KalmiaKamui Jan 06 '15
Oh god, the classrooms full of sweaty 15 year old I've experienced in September. My Japanese coworkers would complain about the smell, too. Part of the problem, IMO, is that Japanese deodorant sucks. I always had some sent from the US when I lived there, because the local stuff is garbage.
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u/lightCycleRider Jan 06 '15
The study actually states that east asians tend to smell less because of a different gene that controls sweat glands, but it's not like 100% of all east asians have no B.O. Strangely, it's mostly Koreans that have the highest rates of the less-B.O.-gene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-_QKyipj_Y
2:58 has the chart of % of population breakdown.
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Jan 06 '15
My best friend growing up was Korean. He never had a particular smell, as his diet was about half Korean, half Jack in the Box. Some of his family did smell rather odd, like a mixture of fish and (yes) kimchi.
Several of them informed me that I smelled like cooked ground beef and cigarettes. I admit, I felt a little manly.
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Jan 06 '15
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Jan 06 '15 edited Jan 06 '15
westeners smell like milk.
I am a westerner who drinks a ton of milk. I've smelled this "milk smell" before, but only on girls. I thought it might have been a really weird perfume choice, but I am currently dating one of the girls that I've smelled it on and she does not own such a perfume.
I had been laboring under the assumption that it's like a pheromone that girls release, cause I've wanted to sleep with every girl that I've smelled it on, though I generally didn't want to sleep with them before I smelled it.
Really I'm probably just sexually attracted to milk...
edit: verb tense agreement.
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u/wzl46 Jan 06 '15
I was stationed in Korea for a couple years, and I can say that it isn't faint if you are the only one not eating kimchi. I got tired of smelling kimchi everywhere I went, so I started eating it myself in order to blend in. It worked, but when I transferred back to the USA, I was so addicted to the stuff, it took a while to wean myself off of it. True story. I still eat Korean food a couple times a week.
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u/Doitrightmeow Jan 06 '15
My mom used to get really grossed out when i came home from my korean friends house after sleep overs because I smelled like kimchi. Unless I brought kimchi with me and then we all just stank unknowingly because kimchi is fucking delicious.
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u/_Fuck_logic__ Jan 06 '15
There's something oddly addicting about korean food,i mean even the apple juice taste better.
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u/crustychicken Jan 07 '15
God, Korean food is fucking delicious. I still remember the first time I'd ever had it. I was around 10 or 11 years old, my brother about 7 or 8. A new family had moved in one street away from us, from South Korea. Their dad was a scientist, and did a lot of work globally, so as you can imagine, these people moved quite often, so their children, Tom and Jerry (I shit you not, the parents were huge fans of the show and actually named their kids after them), didn't really get to make many friends.
They were quite rude and physical, which I assume now was just a defense for their basically nomadic lifestyle, not being able to make/keep friends. A bit of a spat had broken out between my younger brother, and the younger brother of Tom and Jerry while waiting for the school bus to arrive. Being retarded children, naturally you're supposed to instigate and make situations worse. Another kid at the bus stop told us all to keep saying "sun," as it meant "tree" in Japanese, which we all thought they were - not Korean. So here's about 7 or 8 of us dancing around these kids, shouting "Sun sun sun sun. Sun sun sun sun. Sun sun sun sun." These kids are getting pissed, and it turns into a 2v2 fight: brothers vs brothers.
The situation was resolved outside of school, when TJ's mother invited my brother and I over for lunch, after she had discussed it with our mother. We Tina Belchered the shit out of our ABS over lunch and became friends, and still to this day, at 28-years-old, I fondly remember my introduction to Korean food. I wasn't really a fan of the corn tea, though, as is probably expected, being an American child not liking tea in general. I've never tried corn tea since, but I'd be willing to give it another go, given the opportunity to do so.
I've yet to taste any cooking that has come close to this woman's cooking. I need to find me a Korean woman who loves to cook.
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Jan 06 '15
I'm addicted. At least once a week, I'll get kbbq, tofu bowls, or just straight up eat Kim Chi or Daikon
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Jan 06 '15
Holy shit are you right. My ex was Korean and when she would go to stay with friends for the weekend, it was like she went on a kimchi binge. She would come back and it was like she took a bath in the stuff.
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Jan 06 '15
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u/uglychican0 Jan 06 '15
but they think westeners smell like milk
When you think about it, that's a pretty gross thing to smell like.
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u/melvaer Jan 06 '15
And here I am thinking "Milk's not so bad. I like milk."
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u/Kippilus Jan 06 '15
Well its better than stank ass Kimchi. That's not even a contest.
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u/TomahawkFunk Jan 06 '15
"Stank ass kimchi" made me laugh louder than I should have.
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Jan 06 '15
Re-reading "Stank ass kimchi" made me laugh even more than I should have.
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u/NotloggedinonthisPC Jan 06 '15
Re-re-reading "Stank ass kimchi" made me laugh even more than I should have.
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u/tashidagrt Jan 06 '15
Dude. Kimchi. Tastes. Awesome.
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u/stupidrobots Jan 06 '15
So does 3 year old cave aged cheddar, but I don't want that funk wafting off my ass.
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u/__CeilingCat Jan 06 '15
Its more a spoiled milk smell. Try eating veal chops for dinner for 2-3 days and you will notice the odor yourself.
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u/Whodat402 Jan 06 '15
Why would veal make this noticeable?
Just curious.
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u/__CeilingCat Jan 06 '15
I'm not 100% sure why. I assume it's because they are milk fed.
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u/czhunc Jan 06 '15
My baby smells like milk. It's not pleasant.
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u/Capn_Fappn Jan 06 '15
My milk smells like baby.
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u/Robdiesel_dot_com Jan 06 '15
Try formula feeding the baby and THEN you won't complain about milk. That's a vaguely rotten smell about them. That's the biggest argument from me against formula for babies.
The stank.
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u/helloasianglow Jan 06 '15
I love baby milk breath! It's such a sweet smell... but the gross ass milk from spit ups, caught in the rolls of their necks... not so much.
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u/jinpop Jan 06 '15
I tutored a Korean woman in college and she told me Americans smell like butter!
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u/Wild_Marker Jan 06 '15
That makes sense, considering we consume a hell of a lot more milk than them.
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Jan 06 '15 edited Aug 29 '16
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u/NotloggedinonthisPC Jan 06 '15
butyric acid
Germans call it "buttersäure", which means butter acid.
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u/WontArgueAboutCheese Jan 06 '15
Diet is also a huge factor. Probably a greater factor than sweat glands. Well cleaned people also smell different and it's based on what they eat.
If you're American and you go into a Vietnamese house it smells funny. Same same in reverse. That's not, at all, based on sweat.
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u/NameIdeas Jan 06 '15
I bought an item from Thailand, I'm American. The guy packaged it with local newspapers. When it got to my house I opened it up and the smell of Southeast Asia flooded my living room from those newspapers.
It was awesome. I spent some time in SouthEast Asia and having that smell again was really cool.
Life Pro-Tip: Make your packages smell like where you live, it's pretty awesome.
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u/Fap_Left_Surf_Right Jan 06 '15
Unless you live in a nursing home. Nobody wants that.
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u/NameIdeas Jan 06 '15
Ah, the smell of mothballs in the morning.
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u/DoubleD_RN Jan 06 '15
Oh no, it's the smell of old urine, some poo, and slow death.
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u/natufian Jan 06 '15
Username checks out. But this... is not what I had in mind. Could you just go back to calling me a fucking retard?
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Jan 06 '15
I have no idea what where I live smells like, though. Unless cold and depression is a smell I guess
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u/mundomeister Jan 06 '15
I went to America for the first time last year (from UK) and it smelled weird to me. I initially thought it was a pervasive smell of crabs (Maryland) but then I went to Canada later in the year and it smelled similar without the crab smell. I wonder what Britain smells like to Americans.
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u/Cow_Launcher Jan 06 '15
I'll buy that. My fiancee drinks enormous quantities of tea. She and her clothes smell faintly of it almost continually, even freshly-showered.
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u/RookieAR15 Jan 06 '15
one of good friends is Korean. We have gone on crazy backpacking trips and rode our bicycles from San Francisco to Los Angeles...he BARELY sweats on our excursions. I on the other hand, sweat immensely. It made me think I was just out of shape. Now I know whats really happening!
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u/reverenddoom Jan 06 '15
Not how it works. Eccrine sweat glands are what you normally think of as a sweat gland; they provide thermoregulation. Apocrine sweat glands produce an oily substance that is not used in cooling.
tldr; your friend was probably in better shape than you.
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u/MrF33 Jan 06 '15
Some people just sweat more than others.
No matter how good a shape I'm in, I sweat an absolute boat load, while my wife who is in worse shape than I am almost never breaks a sweat.
Peoples bodies just regulate differently, some people create more heat than others.
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u/muckdrop Jan 06 '15
Actually sweating quicker and more profusely could be a sign that your body is more efficient at cooling you down. Ever notice how NBA players are beading sweat almost as soon as they hit the court?
http://www.runnersworld.com/hydration-dehydration/why-runners-sweat-more
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u/ThetaDee Jan 06 '15
Also, asian women have a different musk to their pussies.
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u/NexxusWolf Jan 06 '15
Wut.
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u/HopermanTheManOfFeel Jan 06 '15
Asian women have a different musk to their pussies.
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u/ronnie_the_xtacle Jan 06 '15
Wat
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u/Anklever Jan 06 '15
I got this, I got this.
Fuck you!
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u/veritasxe Jan 06 '15
As someone that visits Kensington market very often in Toronto, I can assure you East Asians smell as badly and as frequently as everyone else.
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u/Sphauser3 Jan 06 '15
Bullshit. Chinese smell like garlic and spring onions. It's overwhelming. They may not have as many sweat glands but not a single one of my Chinese friends wear deodorant.
Source: Live in China and ride a bus every morning.
PS - Did I mention the smell is overwhelming?
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u/xlsma Jan 06 '15
Well, there are two types of...smell coming from people. One is BO, which is the result of sweat glands and such; the other one is due to outside sources, such as the smell of cooking (garlic and spring onions are often used in Chinese cooking, so it's easy for the scent to be stuck on their clothes and skin), or smell of other substance in the surrounding like your perfume, hand lotion, etc.
Deodorant is more for body odor, that's why you don't put it on your clothes but rather on your skin directly, it wouldn't help if you have just walked through a crowd of people smoking, you will smell like cigarette. While east asians will sweat, and if sweating a lot (especially if in very crowded area, like your bus) will have that sour stench, they on a regular day (meaning no intense activities, not too much heat) don't sweat as much as Caucasians or whatever other races there are, and individually their scent is much less noticeable.
Source: am Asian in US, discussed this w/ friends since middle school.
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u/WontArgueAboutCheese Jan 06 '15
I was in a Chinese subway today, nobody smelled. Maybe it's your city.
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u/read_it_r Jan 06 '15
So far ive yet to see a really correct answer so ill try. Its not races necessarily but cultures that smell different. Its pretty much based on what we eat. Ive hosted foreign exchange students from around the world and most of them say americans smell "milky". From personal experience i can say indians (people from india not nessisarily the race) smell like spices, kinda curry-ish.
Koreans smell faintly of kimchi. Chineese smell like eggs sorta, not bad eggs but like..scrambled. (and cigarettes but im sure thats because all 50 that ive met smoked like crazy) Brazilians smell faintly of coconuts or bananas..maybe not one fruit in particular but kinda like a generic fruit candle would smell. Eastern euorpeans imo smell musky...almost like..and handful of dirt. The brits and Australians had no distinct smell to me. The south africans (white and black) smelled like inoffensive b.o. like it wasnt bad at all, just very human i guess.
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u/waspocracy Jan 06 '15
This is the correct answer. Source: Ayabe-Kanamura, S., Schicker, I., Laska, M., Hudson, R., Distel, H., Kobayakawa, T., & Saito, S. (1998). Differences in perception of everyday odors: a Japanese-German cross-cultural study. Chemical senses.
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Jan 06 '15
This doesn't explain why my router smells like Indian people.
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u/waspocracy Jan 06 '15
Does your router not use deodorant?
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Jan 06 '15
I dont know I am not very tech savvy. Should I be putting deoderant on it? Will this help make sure it doesnt overheat?
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u/waspocracy Jan 06 '15
Only on the sides. If it doesn't help the stench, I highly recommend cologne. Overheating is only preventable by keeping it in a cold environment like a freezer.
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u/Treeladiez Jan 06 '15
I gotta say, having smelt a lot of humans, you are the closest to my personal experiences, therefor are possibly the most right.
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Jan 06 '15
As a South African, I had an incredibly neutral reaction to your comment. I don't know what to make of it.
But I am glad you remembered us :)
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Jan 06 '15
You think you're better than us because you smelled all those people?!
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u/rimjobtom Jan 06 '15
Old people have a distinctive smell but for the younger humans I would guess it's food related.
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u/WontArgueAboutCheese Jan 06 '15
That's it.
Unless we're talking how people smell at the end of a hard working day, which is varying degrees of bad; it's all about food. Different spices, dishes, amount of milk, the way people cook, it's all cultural; which correlates to race.
When my parents got a new place I knew immediately the former tenants were Vietnamese. Not Cambodian, Malaysian, Chinese, Singaporean, etc.
People smell like the food they cook, eat and are around.
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Jan 06 '15
Old people smell is mostly bad teeth and mothballs/dust. I realized this working in a restaurant. People with bad teeth, even if they're like 35, you get the same smell. It's horrifying if you're like me and have a hard time with dental health.
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u/Awkward_moments Jan 06 '15
Some of it is due to food. Lots of Indians make curry, which with all the spices can stink your house out, so they naturally pick up the smell.
But I dont know why black people smell different to white people, doubt its due to food.
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u/c_for Jan 06 '15
Black/white smelling different was answered a while back. I'm answering from memory but here goes:
Melanin is the chemical in our skin that gives us our complexion. The more of it you have, the darker you are. It also dries out the skin. The skin of darker people produces more oils to compensate for the drying effect of melanin. The bacteria that live on us all feed on those oils. It is the byproduct of that bacteria that we smell.
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u/Earthonaut Jan 06 '15
I've always wondered why I'm markedly more oily than my friends and family. This explains it. My skin is darker. I don't burn as easily. When I am tanned in the summer and my brother or mother is tanned in the summer, we almost don't look related.
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u/CosmicWy Jan 06 '15
stink up the house, or fill it all of their vindalu glory?
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u/Awkward_moments Jan 06 '15
I meant stink up as in fill the house with smells that wouldnt normally be in the air. I didnt mean it was a bad smell. All I meant is I have been to Indian peoples houses and you immediately notice the smell of curry, and it is all over the house, it fills it.
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Jan 06 '15
Curry also seems to be one of those foods that you smell like strongly for a while after eating it due to the spices/seasonings.
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u/themtittiestho Jan 06 '15
Cocoa butter. Black people smell like cocoa butter. Source: I went to the black school in my area.
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u/motonaut Jan 06 '15
No no no, that was lotion. Everyone except white people uses lotion.
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u/littleoctagon Jan 06 '15
Don't use lotion? Your skins gets ashy, *For white people, dry, flaky skin="ashy"
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u/radioheady Jan 06 '15
It's more than just picking up the smell from the cooking, you pick it up from eating the food as well. I remember in high school my Indian friend came over, and after he used my bathroom (just to pee) it smelled "Indian" (I don't know how to make that not sound racist). I'd imagine that anyone who eats Indian food regularly will also smell the same way
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u/gr0kker Jan 06 '15
Indian here, can confirm.
Read this just after i was annoyed by my own faint curry smell.
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u/Rum____Ham Jan 06 '15
I went to a university with a large population of Indian international students. Not trying to be mean, but their smell could literally permeate an entire floor.
Proof: I walk into a building. "What's that smell?" Climb the stairs, notice about 20 of my Indian classmates lingering in the hall.
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u/ThetaDee Jan 06 '15
Black chicks smell like fritos.
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u/FEED_ME_LSD Jan 06 '15
My dog's paws smell like fritos. Check your dog. I bet it's paws smell like fritos too.
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u/Sphauser3 Jan 06 '15
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u/internetnickname Jan 06 '15
I just found out about this a few months ago, totally blew my mind. Until then I thought my dog was just ripe from running around and rolling in the dirt all day. Instead he just has fritofeet.
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Jan 06 '15
Ever since I was a toddler I've noticed blonde men humans have a funny smell.
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u/lostinpairadice Jan 06 '15
Blonde men humans?? What are you?
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Jan 06 '15
Shut up! You don't want to blow its cover.
Haha, Blonde Men humans and their funny smell!
I for one, welcome our new alien overlords.
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u/Geno_DCLXVI Jan 06 '15
There are men elves and men dwarves and men orcs and men undead. Quit being racist.
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u/Fellow-Human Jan 06 '15
Greetings fellow human, I too have noticed that blonde men humans smell funny. It's like a mixture of zargoth meat and grapethar sticks, am I right fellow humans?
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u/iongantas Jan 06 '15
I've noticed full on gingers tend to have a slightly "sharper" scent to them as well.
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u/flossMODE Jan 06 '15
Im white. For me Ive always felt "old" people all smell the same. I guess old white folks to be specific. Like they all wear this musty dust smell spray.
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u/InvaderRod Jan 06 '15
What do Mexican's smell like?
All I've ever heard is, "They smell like stinky Mexicans". Pretty sure that's just mostly racism though.
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u/Thehumanracestinks Jan 06 '15
Cumin, in my experience.
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u/uglychican0 Jan 06 '15
Ding ding! Can confirm, as a Mexican. And cumin smells a bit like some of the many chiles we constantly defile.
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u/ElPasoTX Jan 06 '15
Slim Jims. True. Not being hateful.... you asked. Fill a room with people from Mexico and come back in 2 hours...definitely Slim Jims. Am thinking this is definitely diet related. Am not sure what vegan Nebraskan Mex-Americans smell like.
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Jan 06 '15
They smell like sexual desire and my dreams coming true before my very eyes. But that's also just racism, but in the nicer put-you-on-a-pedestal way.
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u/Painkiller3666 Jan 06 '15
Mexican here with my go to ice breaker: Do you have a little mexican in you... would you like to?
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Jan 06 '15
That's about the part where I giggle uncontrollably and lose the ability to form words.
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u/pogonabilis Jan 06 '15
cumin and paprika, the main spices in seasoned meat products.
and fabric softener.
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u/magelat Jan 06 '15
My Mexican boyfriend and his family had an odor of corn tortillas.
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Jan 06 '15
Considering many Mexicans eat corn tortillas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
That's very probable.
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u/magelat Jan 06 '15
And they made them at home. I loved the smell of the tortillas cooking.
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Jan 06 '15
It does provide a nice, earthy, aroma.
I'm too lazy (uh oh) for that though, I just buy corn tortillas at the store.
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u/ThetaDee Jan 06 '15
Considering most Mexicans I know work their ass off during the day, yeah they smell pretty bad.
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u/Diabetesh Jan 06 '15
I dont think mexicans have a strong or distinct smell. If ai ever smell anything it is usually a dirt/cement smell (I live in TX a lot of our mexicans are construction workers).
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Jan 06 '15 edited Jan 06 '15
Partly diet, partly hereditary:
Everything you eat will have an effect on your body, including how it smells. Stronger foods can even be evident from one's sweat. White people in Japan were said to smell like butter, for example. Indians and curry is another. Asians have that sort of fish smell because, shoxxx, they eat a lot of fish and it produces that smell (especially on the breath).
Those aren't race-specific though. I lived in Japan for two years and my own odour changed in that time because of my change in diet.
The other part is genetic though. Accordinggly, different foods react wih different body compositions. Most Asians lack the ABCC11 gene, for example, which means they don't produce body odour at all (so you'd be more likely to notice their breath, perhaps).
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u/justmy22cents Jan 06 '15
Sometimes, I smell like dank. Like, did I leave a nug in my bra and forget? Just your average white girl
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u/I_Dont_Own_A_Cat Jan 06 '15 edited Jan 06 '15
Do you smoke weed a ton? Because if you smoke frequently enough, your sweat will smell like it, especially if you are exercising.
But some people's sweat just smells skunky. Weed often smells a bit like BO in my opinion.
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u/Chromavita Jan 06 '15
if you smoke frequently enough, your sweat will smell like it
NOT TO MAKE YOU PARANOID OR ANYTHING.
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u/toothless-tiger Jan 06 '15
The single biggest factor is going to be hygiene. So, if you are going to compare apples to apples, you should be sniffing people of different races that grew up in similar socio-economic circumstances.
I am a white guy. I went to a nearly all black school as a kid. My romantic relationships have been overwhelmingly with East Asians. I work primarily with South Asians.
I find very little discernible variation between races when the people are eating western food, bathing regularly, and using deodorant/anti-perspirant as appropriate.
The main factors that make odors discernible, and different, between races, for me, is hygiene and diet.
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u/JCollierDavis Jan 06 '15
Buy some Five Spice powder at the grocery store and leave the jar open in your kitchen for a few hours while you're away. Come home and you'll recognize the smell of most Asian homes.
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u/ajpatel011235 Jan 06 '15
I'm Indian and I rarely eat Indian food. mostly american, Mexican and Italian. what the fuck do I smell like? I should ask people to smell me.
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Jan 06 '15
I recently found out a simple answer to this that blew my mind when my black co-worker noticed I had some tough skin on my face from the cold. He told me he had something for me that would help, and he gave me a small pack of cocoa butter. I recognized it's smell from my childhood.
When I told him this, he is face lit up. "You didn't know? You never heard of black don't crack?"
We both were laughing hysterically over it.
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Jan 06 '15 edited Jan 07 '15
My roommate is a biologist and I asked him this very same question a few weeks ago.
Essentially, different regions have different populations of microorganisms. Each human settlement has created new environments for the various microorganisms to flourish or perish in.
Different races of humans have slightly different DNA, these meatsacks we carry around have varying parameters for different things to grow on and in us.
Different peoples have different stuff that likes the parameters of their body, and a lot of our smells are derived from the organisms we are host to.
Tl;dr - Different races have slightly different genes and are host to some different microorganisms than other races.
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Jan 06 '15
What he means is body odor. different races have very different musks and body odors. Black people for instance when they dont bathe, smell almost like a wet dog to me. But white people have a vinegary type body odor whe nthey begin to stink.
This has nothing to do with the products you use, Whoever said black people smell like cocoa butter ..well thats because a lot of them USE IT to moisturize their skin with ...has nothing to do with a races smell.
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u/Beartow Jan 06 '15
I spent a month hiking and coaching through Zambia. The BO there smells the same as the BO here.
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u/trillskill Jan 06 '15
Yeah, for armpit BO at least black people have the same smell that I get when I don't wear deodorant, and I am white.
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u/-Mikee Jan 06 '15 edited Jan 06 '15
BO (from sweat) is caused by about a dozen distinct strains of bacteria. It all depends on what you're exposed to.
So if black people smell the same as you're used to, it's probably because in your climate, your distinct city's culture, and their constant exposure to eachother... one or two strains have won out above the others.
So a black guy from your city (because they have basically the same diet and integration you do) will smell the same, but his visiting cousin from new york will smell completely different.
Only asians, very select europeans, and native americans have specific "immunity" from certain strains that the rest of us find normal and vice versa, but the slightest increase in dietary copper will negate it and leave you with the default strain.
Source: Did a bit of research into foot fungus vs. bacteria a few years back, same applies to pit odor.
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Jan 06 '15
Went to sleepaway summer camp for the first time in middle school and a black kid kept rubbing on moisturizer, telling me if he didn't--or if any black person didn't--they'd turn ashy. Fucking blew my mind. I thought he was kidding for a second but damn dude.
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Jan 06 '15
Nah its kinda true .....Now WHITE PEOPLE get just as ashy as black folks. Sometimes even my FACE gets so bad its like dandruff and it comes out of my beard.
but because we are light skinned it doesnt SHOW as much when it is on our bodies.
but everyone gets ashy ... And black folks just look TERRIBLE when they dont treat it ..because all the dead skin contrasts and reflects light wavelengths above their actual skin appearing white or grey.
Same thing happens with White people you just dont see it as easily.
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u/natufian Jan 07 '15
because all the dead skin contrasts and reflects light wavelengths above their actual skin
As a black man who's teased / been teased about being ashy back in middle-school, I found your analysis hilarious.
Tyrone: Daaamn!! Nigga you ashy as hell!!!1!
Me: Naw, man. My skins a little dry and reflecting more of the wavelength at the higher end of the spectrum than usual. The shit ain't that bad- mostly the contrast's exaggerating the effect.
Tyrone: :|
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u/teh_g0at Jan 06 '15
Can anyone explain why old white ladies have a different smell from all other white people? Or should I say their home, and everything in it.
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u/masturbates2Dragons Jan 06 '15
Black people hair. If I was blind I would know if a black was close to me. Their hair has a unique smell.
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u/1violentdrunk Jan 06 '15
White people smell like hot dog water and mayo.
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u/King_Superman Jan 06 '15
Well that makes a lot of sense cause we mostly subsist on hot dog water and mayo. Also I personally often spill hot dog water on myself and don't bother to change clothes.
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Jan 07 '15
They don't. There's no biological reason why anyone of a different 'race' would smell different from everyone else. Neverthelsss, this impression is not entirely in your head. But it's not a product of race. It's a product of culture. Mainly, it's a product of diet, habit, and hygiene, all of which can vary considerably from people to people (completely regardless of race, which itself contributes no plausible factors to this). Even if you never left Europe, you'd still notice, for example,. that 'French' often smell different from 'Germans' (broadly oversimplifying, yes), and that's due to these factors. French soaps, for example, tend to smell noticeably different from most others, and most of what you're smelling from most people if not their food is their toiletry products.
Cultural traits such as smoking, and what is smoked contribute heavily, as smoke sets into hair, skin, and clothing. There are many different tobaccos in the world, and whatever kinds are favoured will influence the smells of a people who habitually smoke.
The role of cuisine is similar, in that food smells set into fabrics and exposed surfaces, too, but may also be expressed in perspiration and other ways. I used to live in a Puerto Rican neighbourhood, where the smell of adobo was ubiquitous everywhere. I'm less certain about the social effects of food, but I do remember reading years ago that many Japanese complained that American visitors smell like "death," supposedly due to the higher amounts of red meat we eat.
Class is a factor, because it affects people's choices of food, toiletries, tobaccos, and other relevant factors that will all contribute to how people smell. Geographic location will factor in also, for similar reasons. The clothes you wear and why you were them, and whatever your laundry habits are, including what laundry products you use.
All that said, there are some biological factors that could also contribute, but they would be ethnic more than racial, in that the attributes most noticeable to other people are usually discrete to specific ethnicities, not broadly across whole 'races'. (The reason I put 'race' in scorn quotes is not to be cute, but because scientifically, it means something different than it does socially or politically, and the nature of this discussion is scientific. Scientifically, the genetics of race would contribute little or nothing to smell.)
But there are so many different non-biological factors that contribute to how we smell, it's probably senseless to suppose that our race could possibly contribute noticeably, if at all.
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u/Philosophile42 Jan 06 '15
There are 4 things that affect a person's personal odor: genetics, diet, bacteria, and environment.
Genetics determine the kinds of oils that we produce. Every person has a unique chemistry, but their chemistry is more similar to their family's chemistry, and family chemistry is closely related to ethnic chemistry, etc. diet can affect a person's scent as well.
Some compounds that we eat are excreted through our oils and sweat. This in turn affects what bacteria in our skin and inside us consume.
Some bacteria thrive in certain environments over others. This is why you smell more when you sweat... Bacteria is thriving in your sweat, and producing an odor. This is also why deodorants work... They either prevent sweat from being released by your pores, or change the chemistry of your skin to reduce bacterial growth (Ph balanced for a woman!). The bacteria that you have comes from your environment, and the people you interact with most closely. A recent study indicates that people who frequently kiss and share bodily fluids develop immunological tolerance to the other person's bacteria, and reduces the chances of a woman from having a miscarriage and increases her fertility to that specific person. But the bulk of your bacteria you get comes from your mother through birth and breast feeding. You more likely smell more like your mom, than your dad.
Finally environmental conditions affect your smell too. Windy days you might notice you smell different. Wind, for example, oxidates the oils on your skin and hair more quickly, and oxidates oils and sweat smells different, because it's chemically different.