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This stinks to high heaven.
As put-upon New Yorkers suffer through yet another summer heatwave, a new, noxious smell is seeping out into already pungent streets and filling overstuffed subway cars — everyone else’s sweat.
Did somebody shoplift all the deodorant from Duane Reade? No — the unwelcome underarm scent creeping into the already questionable fragrance bouquet of a Big Apple summer comes courtesy of grungy Gothamites who, in the name of environmental friendliness or their personal health, have opted to put the kibosh on pit protection.
Kate Caretta is among the many proudly going au naturel in this year’s hotter-than-Hades weather — the 36-year-old hairstylist and carpenter from Bushwick makes no apologies for her personal choice to not cover up, calling antiperspirants “a stupid thing to waste money on.”
“I just don’t see it as something that’s necessary — like, if I smell, I’ll just wash myself,” Caretta, who works as a hairstylist/carpenter and doesn’t consider herself a “very smelly” person, told The Post. “I also don’t shave my armpits, so I feel like there’s a bit of a natural deodorant quality to that, because your armpit hair wicks moisture away from your skin.”
“You already have soap and water in your house … your natural biome works better when you disrupt it less with more product,” said Carretta, insisting she’s not a “woo-woo” person, or anything like that. “I also just don’t think it makes sense to mask a natural smell with another smell. I feel like it tends to just make it worse.”
But while those ditching the deo may have their own reasons, there’s no escaping the reality that the shared air out there is becoming increasingly unctuous. As the scorching season rages on, cranky commuters are spouting their frustrations online — imploring their fellow citizens to reconsider their hygiene habits.
“It is going to be one hundred effing degrees out in New York tomorrow — now is not the time to whip out your all-natural, all-organic deodorant,” content creator Zach Olson told followers in a July 1 Instagram reel that reached 6,000 likes. “I’m not trying to smell manure when I’m walking down the sidewalk. Stick to the chemicals. That’s going to keep you from smelling like utter trash and B.O.”
“It’s hot as hell in New York City right now, this is not that natural deodorant kind of weather,” creator Chris Vargas echoed in a similar TikTok that received 13.6K likes. “We need you to put on the deodorant with aluminum. I’m not playing with y’all. I don’t need y’all to be out here with these Bushwick pits.”
Brooklynite Thomas McGuigan is unfazed by the angry crowd — the 28-year-old film editor/associate producer, a self-described wellness fanatic, doesn’t use traditional deodorant or anti-perspirant, but instead opts for a botanical body spray from his local mom-and-pop health store to mask the musk when the heat turns up.
McGuigan first decided to forgo drugstore underarm products after attending a talk on the dangers of toxins and chemical additives in mainstream personal care products, back in his college days.
Loved ones pleaded with him to take another whiff — even calling him “crazy.”
McGuigan first decided to forgo drugstore underarm products after attending a talk on the dangers of toxins and chemical additives in mainstream personal care products, back in his college days.
“(My parents) disagreed at first, but then they were just like, ‘Fine, do whatever you want — we can’t stop you,” recalled McGuigan. “A lot of people were kind of annoyed.”
Despite the pit pushback, he couldn’t shake what he’d learned.
“It reminded me of when I watched the ‘Super Size Me’ documentary for the first time,” McGuigan told The Post, referring to the 2004 film where documentarian Morgan Spurlock chronicled his health decline while eating only at McDonald’s. “I was just like, ‘OK, I don’t want these metals and toxins inside me anymore.”
Since then, the eager enviro guy has been vetting his personal toiletries using databases provided by consumer safety organizations like the nonprofit EWG, or Environmental Working Group. These days, he likes the “After Pool Spray,” a rose and cucumber solution from Naturally Connected Life, a small, North Carolina company.
“Your body needs to perspire and sweat stuff out,” McGuigan explained, emphasizing that he showers once a day or every other day (depending on how, he says, his body is feeling) to keep clean. “When you use that chemical stuff on your armpits, it’s like you’re basically clogging up those pores…I’m just like, ‘Wow, if only science would look at the unhealthy toxins and chemicals that are in these products.”
He knows most people won’t understand, but he’s fine with the decision he made for his health, which he described as “everything to me.”
“I think it’s really about understanding the kind of person you are and what you value in terms of what your sense of great hygiene is,” he said. “Really just owning who you uniquely are, despite pushback, and helping people understand that health is not just one fixed definition. It’s different for everybody.”