Anyone who has been crammed in a train carriage or in a packed elevator knows the smell all too well. It’s eye-watering, nostril-burning stuff that you are terrified will transfer on to you. Worse still, as you stand there gasping for air while trying not to breathe through your nose, you desperately hope that no one thinks its radiating from you.Which got me thinking. Does the person who stinks know they stink and is it acceptable to point it out to them?A friend told of running late for his four-hour flight back to Sydney to the point he was the last to board with just minutes to take off.It was only after he disembarked and was met at the airport by his parents and brother — and his brother pulled out of a hug shouting the words “eww bro you stink” that he wondered why the woman next to him on the plane did not even acknowledge him.In high school after sports classes all the girls used to spray themselves with Impulse in a bid to mask the musk — but that’s when you got that vomit-inducing mix of sweat and sweet.While most people think their sh*t doesn’t stink, I’d like to think that if mine did someone would tell me. I even carry a spare roll of deodorant in my handbag just in case.
Lillian Saleh is day editor for The Sunday Telegraph