B.O. aka what is that smell?

Let’s talk about body odor. The smell that everyone who has gone through puberty knows well. Something you’ve caught a whiff of and internally prayed that it was coming from the person next to you and not your own armpits. But what is it really, and why are we cursed to smear, spray, wipe, and reapply to try to fight it? Bear with us, because it gets kind of gross.

Under our armpits, we have eccrine glands, also known as sweat glands that produce…you guessed it, sweat! Sweat, as I’m sure you are all familiar with, is liquid released through the skin due to high temperatures, stress, exercise, and a host of other causes. But it is not sweat alone that causes that unpleasant smell. The moisture caused by sweating, particularly under the armpits, mixes with bacteria and together they create that malodorous smell known as B.O.

Why, if B.O. is a product of sweat, something that happens to everyone, is it particularly prevalent during puberty? That is because hormones can be responsible for activating the aforementioned sweat glands. The increased hormonal activity in your body during puberty can lead to more active sweat glands, more sweating, and unfortunately, more B.O. And although it mainly begins during puberty, body odor is something that people have to deal with throughout their lives.

If reading this article has made you start sweating just from thinking about how to handle B.O., learn about recurrent‘s deodorant and why it can help here.