About two to three weeks ago, I actually partook in the no-product day challenge. Rather than purposefully participating in this activity, this actually started for a few days coincidentally. However, after realizing I did not really need to use my deodorant, I decided to carry on with it to make it roughly a week. Because I identify as a man, the only product I use for body hygiene is my deodorant.Obviously, I wear deodorant so then I would not smell like body odor when around others.

As mentioned earlier, I used no product for about six to seven days, and I was rather surprised by myself. One thing that surprised me was how un-smelly I was with my deodorant. Furthermore, I realized that my deodorant would cause me to smell like body odor more frequently than whenever I did not use it. I also think that swimming helped me cleanse my body odor from the chlorine water that would rinse my body. Even though I use aluminum-free deodorant, its effectiveness of blocking the body odor smell is next to nothing, and makes my armpits sweat more as a result of applying the product.

For quite some time, I have noticed that I have had a body odor problem. After doing this challenge, I realized that the problem was not my natural process, but rather what I do to my body. Applying deodorant temporarily fixed the problem, but would worsen it long term. This challenge made me realize that it is best for your body to do its natural process. The functions of the human body should not be seen as “disgusting” or “uncivilized” – rather, we should all accept what our body does naturally and be proud of it. Products like deodorant are not designed to solve a problem with our bodies, but rather create one when we rely on them.