Mühle Rasurkultur

It smelled like forest, cost 27 euros, and didn’t promise to conquer the world. Just to keep you fresh. This column explores why deodorant remains one of the last safe spaces for men’s grooming – and how our scent choices reflect more than just body odor.

Masculinity’s motor oil

Lately I held a new deodorant in my hands once more and sniffed insecurely. Oftentimes I have been maundering between the shelves of the drugstore over the past few years. I looked at blue, black and silver cans that promised “energy” and “24-hour-high-performance” while looking like motor oil for race cars. But I’m not a race car. I’m not looking for functions, I want a discreet fragrance. Such a very fragrance lured me into the dark quiet shop of a major Australian organic cosmetics manufacturer. Everything is very discreet around here, the surroundings as well as the fragrances. The aluminium-free deodorant I chose smelt of earth and the woods, of roots, zinc salt and coriander seeds; that’s what I read. I deemed myself at the end of a quest that I’d started when I was 12, 13, I paid roundabout 30 EUR and was happy.

In contrast to perfume deodorant is one of the few care products for men that does not lead to a masculinity-crisis not even during puberty. In contrast to perfume deodorant does not scream “date” or
 “job interview”! It’s one and only task is quite simply: no smell. Apart from that it just exists.

That’s exactly why deodorant is an emblem of puberty amongst teenagers, like the beard or pubic hair. One who needs deodorant is no longer a child. That’s why we applied the stuff to our bodies as if they were bug infested plants.

That’s how it goes with insecure boys: When in doubt, one overdoes it until self-deception turns into self-persuasion or until one’s simply high on deodorant. That, I thought, was one of the problems of a 13-year-old. I was wrong. The little bottle appealed to me in such a way that I finished it over a long a weekend: Under my arms, as a substitute for perfume. Just like being high. When I threw the bottle away I sighed again. A deodorant could indeed be too good. And too expensive. So the quest goes on.

Daniel Erk works as an editor and reporter for Tagesspiegel and hosts the podcast Frisch an die Arbeit by ZEIT Online.

This text was first published in the printed version of 30 Grad in autumn 2018.