[cobrausn]

More information than I thought I would ever give on HN, but I rarely use antibacterial soap on my entire body (I do shower daily). My wife finds it completely perplexing that I exhibit no body odor at most times, even when sweating heavily.

[molsongolden]

This might be even more information than you want to give but do you have any Asian ancestry? I too have minimal BO, to the point of frustration to my SO, and wonder if it is due to partial EA ancestry.

"East Asians have fewer such glands than Europeans and people of Sub-Saharan African descent, which decreases their susceptibility to body odor.[28][30] Individuals of Sub-Saharan African ancestry have the largest and most active apocrine glands.[31] Racial differences also exist in the cerumen glands: apocrine sweat glands which produce earwax.[3] East Asians have predominantly dry earwax, as opposed to sticky; the gene encoding for this is strongly linked to reduced body odor, whereas those with wet, sticky earwax (Europeans and Africans) are prone to more body odor.[32]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocrine_sweat_gland

[cobrausn]

Negative - about as white as it gets (mostly German, some Netherlander / Irish ancestry, with a small touch of Native American). It undoubtedly has a genetic component, but I have to wonder how much of this is due to not regularly using antibacterial soaps everywhere like many people do.

[meric]

I've always wondered why earwax was called ear "wax". Certainly didn't seem like wax to me. This explains it.

Why would your SO be frustrated by minimal BO on your part?

[molsongolden]

"Why would your SO be frustrated by minimal BO on your part?"

Jealousy !

[NegativeK]

You don't need antibacterial soap to remove bacteria. Soap, as a surfactant, combined with mechanical rubbing against your skin will remove dead skin and bacteria.

Furthermore, to quote a microbiologist friend, an antibacterial soap that kill 99.9% of bacteria (assuming you take the percentage at face value) will just result in the remaining bacteria dividing until your skin has returned to stasis of the microorganisms living there in just a few hours.

Use a normal soap. Wash your hands. Don't freak out about it.

[Kluny]

I've never bothered soaping my whole body - since I was a kid and my parents made me start bathing myself, I didn't really see the point. For a long time, I felt sort of guilty and dirty about it, but it honestly never seemed to make a difference. And I never really understood why everyone else thinks it's necessary to soap all over.