How do you go outside... and not smell like outside?

[Anonymous]

I know the smell. I can smell it in my kids’ hair when they come in. I like it. It reminds me of ozone a bit?

[Anonymous]

Everyone is describing different scents. I know the outdoor smell referred to here. My hair catches it in the minute I check my mail. It's metallic and will fade but if it's bothersome, a wet wipe helps.

It is not the smell of sweat after a run on the trail, that is more dusty/ sweaty and does not make me gag. It is not the smell of good fresh soil or plants of blooms. I love how I smell like the garden after messing with my plants. It is not the fresh pre/post rain (the most pleasant smell) or the hot musty dirty post rain on the asphalt or where dogs pee, which both will stick to my hair and skin.

It's just a metallic bitter fragrance that will magnet onto the whole body when you are out briefly in the city. Country scents are different and being out in nature layers better scents in. Kids post playground scent has it a bit but it's more of an undertone to the sand and their sweat so it's less overwhelming.

Obviously this seems to be upsetting people who can't smell much beyond crushed rosemary in their face but please understand some people smell better. I cannot hear very well but I don't get mad when someone says certain sounds bother them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This one comes up year after year and it still makes absolutely no sense to me.1

Where are you people going "outside" that you come in smelling bad? Are you hiking over landfills?

It's not bad exactly. I smelled it on DH for years when he would come home from a run in the summer. Just a mild metallic smell. I thought it was perspiration, like active evaporation, not BO, and I thought nothing of it. But then one day I noticed the exact same thing in my cat's fur after she'd been out in the yard for just fifteen minutes. I'll go with air pollution of some sort, it's more chemical than organic. Probably car exhaust, we were pretty close to the beltway. We're now in another part of the country and I never smell it. Air quality is better, no hot-humid-hazy bad air quality days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This one comes up year after year and it still makes absolutely no sense to me.1

Where are you people going "outside" that you come in smelling bad? Are you hiking over landfills?

It's not bad exactly. I smelled it on DH for years when he would come home from a run in the summer. Just a mild metallic smell. I thought it was perspiration, like active evaporation, not BO, and I thought nothing of it. But then one day I noticed the exact same thing in my cat's fur after she'd been out in the yard for just fifteen minutes. I'll go with air pollution of some sort, it's more chemical than organic. Probably car exhaust, we were pretty close to the beltway. We're now in another part of the country and I never smell it. Air quality is better, no hot-humid-hazy bad air quality days.

I think you're on to something with the car exhaust, that is a bitter gagging smell and it's not like it dissipates to nothing, it's just spreading out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is describing different scents. I know the outdoor smell referred to here. My hair catches it in the minute I check my mail. It's metallic and will fade but if it's bothersome, a wet wipe helps.

It is not the smell of sweat after a run on the trail, that is more dusty/ sweaty and does not make me gag. It is not the smell of good fresh soil or plants of blooms. I love how I smell like the garden after messing with my plants. It is not the fresh pre/post rain (the most pleasant smell) or the hot musty dirty post rain on the asphalt or where dogs pee, which both will stick to my hair and skin.

It's just a metallic bitter fragrance that will magnet onto the whole body when you are out briefly in the city. Country scents are different and being out in nature layers better scents in. Kids post playground scent has it a bit but it's more of an undertone to the sand and their sweat so it's less overwhelming.

Obviously this seems to be upsetting people who can't smell much beyond crushed rosemary in their face but please understand some people smell better. I cannot hear very well but I don't get mad when someone says certain sounds bother them.

I just read something the other day (a snippet from Bill Bryson’s amazing book about the body) that said humans have around 300 or 400 different kinds of scent receptors but only half of them are shared across all people. We assume that we all experience the same smells in the same way, but that’s not true biologically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is describing different scents. I know the outdoor smell referred to here. My hair catches it in the minute I check my mail. It's metallic and will fade but if it's bothersome, a wet wipe helps.

It is not the smell of sweat after a run on the trail, that is more dusty/ sweaty and does not make me gag. It is not the smell of good fresh soil or plants of blooms. I love how I smell like the garden after messing with my plants. It is not the fresh pre/post rain (the most pleasant smell) or the hot musty dirty post rain on the asphalt or where dogs pee, which both will stick to my hair and skin.

It's just a metallic bitter fragrance that will magnet onto the whole body when you are out briefly in the city. Country scents are different and being out in nature layers better scents in. Kids post playground scent has it a bit but it's more of an undertone to the sand and their sweat so it's less overwhelming.

Obviously this seems to be upsetting people who can't smell much beyond crushed rosemary in their face but please understand some people smell better. I cannot hear very well but I don't get mad when someone says certain sounds bother them.

I just read something the other day (a snippet from Bill Bryson’s amazing book about the body) that said humans have around 300 or 400 different kinds of scent receptors but only half of them are shared across all people. We assume that we all experience the same smells in the same way, but that’s not true biologically.

I think smell, like other senses, can fade or be blocked by mucus, inflammation, or nasal cavity shape. Desensitization is a problem too, I can't handle phthalate smells or whatever they spray on some clothing and upholstery but others don't notice them and I suspect they are more used to it, not that they lack the receptor for it but are able to pick up other scents that I cannot distinguish (maybe I misunderstood though, I need to read that book, sounds interesting)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just read something the other day (a snippet from Bill Bryson’s amazing book about the body) that said humans have around 300 or 400 different kinds of scent receptors but only half of them are shared across all people. We assume that we all experience the same smells in the same way, but that’s not true biologically.

I can buy that. My husband and I certainly smell things differently. He perceives a very strong unpleasant scent from watermelon; I don't smell it at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s lotion. Test this out. When you go outside with skin cream it seems to add to the sweat/outside smell. When you don’t, it is not there.

Nope, I can confirm that it's not lotion for me. The outside smell attached to my hair in minutes. I do not lotion my hair.

The same chemicals in lotion are in conditioner, do you use conditioner?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s lotion. Test this out. When you go outside with skin cream it seems to add to the sweat/outside smell. When you don’t, it is not there.

Nope, I can confirm that it's not lotion for me. The outside smell attached to my hair in minutes. I do not lotion my hair.

The same chemicals in lotion are in conditioner, do you use conditioner?

Glycerin, in conditioner and many styling products. Absorbs moisture (and smell) from the air around you.

[Anonymous]

All the DIRTY people have no idea because they are NOSE BLIND to that terrible odor!!! I was just googling this question because when my kids come inside after playing for a while outside they come in smelling like PUPPIES!!! No matter WHERE you go there is a VERY DISTINCTIVE smell that (usually I notice in kids) clings to your clothes....smells like puppies to me!!! Anyone know how to avoid it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the DIRTY people have no idea because they are NOSE BLIND to that terrible odor!!! I was just googling this question because when my kids come inside after playing for a while outside they come in smelling like PUPPIES!!! No matter WHERE you go there is a VERY DISTINCTIVE smell that (usually I notice in kids) clings to your clothes....smells like puppies to me!!! Anyone know how to avoid it?

Don't have pups.

[Anonymous]

I'm black so I know exactly what you mean by "smelling like all outside"
I would suggest scented body lotions (or at least one with a light fragrance) and maybe using Gain for your laundry. Once back inside the outside smell will eventually subside.

[Anonymous]

How odd. I don't smell this myself, but there is too much consistency on this thread alone not to believe it.
I'm one of those people who has a strong reaction to cilantro, it's more than not liking the flavor. Scientists suggest some people are genetically more sensitive to the aldehydes in it. Maybe this is a similar case for the "outside smell."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How odd. I don't smell this myself, but there is too much consistency on this thread alone not to believe it.
I'm one of those people who has a strong reaction to cilantro, it's more than not liking the flavor. Scientists suggest some people are genetically more sensitive to the aldehydes in it. Maybe this is a similar case for the "outside smell."

Same on all fronts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is describing different scents. I know the outdoor smell referred to here. My hair catches it in the minute I check my mail. It's metallic and will fade but if it's bothersome, a wet wipe helps.

It is not the smell of sweat after a run on the trail, that is more dusty/ sweaty and does not make me gag. It is not the smell of good fresh soil or plants of blooms. I love how I smell like the garden after messing with my plants. It is not the fresh pre/post rain (the most pleasant smell) or the hot musty dirty post rain on the asphalt or where dogs pee, which both will stick to my hair and skin.

It's just a metallic bitter fragrance that will magnet onto the whole body when you are out briefly in the city. Country scents are different and being out in nature layers better scents in. Kids post playground scent has it a bit but it's more of an undertone to the sand and their sweat so it's less overwhelming.

Obviously this seems to be upsetting people who can't smell much beyond crushed rosemary in their face but please understand some people smell better. I cannot hear very well but I don't get mad when someone says certain sounds bother them.

Good description.