According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK, 2% of women carry a specific gene that causes them NOT to produce body odor. (Probably because their sweat doesn’t produce the fatty acids that odor-producing bacteria thrive on.) The researchers also found that 76% of these women still wear deodorant even though they don’t need it. (Probably out of habit/social norms.)
But most interesting of all was the discovery that ear wax consistency is an indicator of whether or not you have the “stink” gene. If you have dry ear wax you’re probably odorless whereas moist ear wax means you’ll have stinky pits. So, before you potentially waste more money on an antiperspirant or deodorant, dig around in your ear and check out your wax.
Reference: CosmeticsDesign
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Two things that stand out to me about this: a) just because you don’t “stink” it doesn’t mean you don’t need to wear anti-perspirant, and b) dry and moist are such subjective descriptors! Personally, I find sticky wet armpits much more annoying than the smell (of my own or others’ sweat), so whether I smelt when I sweated wouldn’t make a difference to my deodorant using habits. Also, I’d judge my earwax as dry at some times and moist at others. It’s difficult to tell when that’s affected by environmental factors like showering!
@Rachel: I certainly agree with your point about the subjectiveness of assessing ear wax dryness. Perhaps the International Council on Ear Wax will publish some guidelines.
Ahem, excuse me while I go buy more deodorant.
Anyway this is def. true. My mother has dry earwax. Which means it comes out in pieces and is white and well dry. She barely sweats and definitely no odor. So annoying since I’m the complete opposite.
I heard that dry wax is related to how much you sweat too? I read something about Asians, that they sweat less because their sweat glands are less developed and that it was related to the fact that they had dry wax. So maybe those with dry wax don’t really sweat much so they don’t really would need antiperspirant and since sweating is kinda correlated to odor…
ewww this grossed me out
Ha ha! Dry earwax for me!
Actually I have long maintained that my sweat doesn’t really smell. I sweat quite easily but it doesn’t seem to get that sweaty odour. I’ve even tricked friends into sniffing a 3 day old sweaty gym top from the laundry basket as a test and they could only smell the washing powder used to wash it before.
I really do think I have minimal body odour!
No just make it a pill…
now*