[VLM]

You have a natural gut flora; you have a natural skin flora. Screwing around with your gut flora is uncontroversially seen as a bad thing. Screwing around with your skin flora strikes me as a similar argument.

I would be interested to know of any summary of dermatology studies on anti-bacterial soaps. I would theorize that much as screwing around with your gut flora leads to all manner of uncomfortable stinkiness, so should screwing around with your skin flora. So people who use overly aggressive decontamination solutions on their bodies should be stinkier and have more and weirder rashes than people using normal stuff.

[blacksmith_tb]

Well, where "screwing around" == killing. Screwing around by taking probiotic supplements, eating fermented foods, etc. is generally considered to be good, or at least harmless.

The stinky hypothesis is interesting, I would think it would require an experiment designed around the use of deodorant soaps (which often contain anti-microbials). We know of course that people who wash very rarely often do have a distinct odor, though there's at least some implication that diet plays a part in exactly how stinky it is.

[sten]

As an anecdote I gave up antiperspirant and deodorants after suffering rashes and pain in my under arms. I sweat more, but I was surprised to find I actually smell better. Or rather I'm told I smell better. Additionally I discovered that the stains in the underarms of my clothing went away, apparently it's caused by the deodorants. Diet may indeed play a factor, I am vegan. YMMV.