A Simple Cup Of Coffee Can Help You Figure Out If You Smell Bad, So Drink Up
We've all been that stinky person.
Whether it's on a packed-AF subway, or in the middle of a crowd at a concert or even in a more intimate gathering at a friend's house, we've all had to deal with our own seriously rancid B.O.
The real problem lies in the fact that, for the most part, we as human beings literally cannot smell ourselves.
Patrick Allan explained this weird phenomenon in an article for Lifehacker:
The receptors in your nose that would normally respond to your own particular brand of smells practically shut down after being bombarded with the same scents for so long.
So, basically, you probably had the ability to smell your own scent once upon a time. But now that you're older, and you come into contact with loads of other scents every single day, your nose has moved on from your own boring (but still maybe smelly) aroma in search of others.
Unfortunately, that means you might find yourself stuck as the perpetually smelly friend in your social circle.
And while everyone loves to be known for something, B.O. likely does not fall under any such category.
Thankfully, it's super simple to train your nose to smell yourself again.
All you need is a beverage you probably consume on a daily basis already:
A hot cup of brew helps you reset your sense of smell. And anyone who's ever been to the perfume section of a department store knows this concept all too well, as the employees there will often leave out coffee beans for you to sniff in between your samples of different scents.
As Allan explains in his article, coffee is "a strong, single-scent component that gives the receptors in your nose a quick break from what it's been smelling all day (you)."
Plus, even if you're not as addicted to caffeine as the rest of us are, it's extremely cheap to get a hold of, and you can probably snag some from the break room of your office at work, too.
If your coworkers get mad at you for hoarding all the coffee, just threaten them with you rank-ass B.O. by sticking your armpit in their face until they let you just do you, FFS.
Citations: Dear Science: Why can't I smell my own body odor? (The Washington Post), How to Tell If You Smell (Lifehacker), Use This Trick to Figure Out If You Smell (NYMag)
