Question:
I actually like the smell of my SO's armpits. He thinks I'm weird.
Then again he's not a smelly fellow so it's more of a natural musk than an eye-watering stink. Bad BO is very unpleasant, I think we can all agree.

Answer:
My DH smell is a heaven. I am sure it means that we were meant to be. His natural clean smell is a fetish to me, inhalating I seem to be under drug´s influence. It is evolutionary sign of attractiveness and the sign that we belong each to other and match well from reproductive point of view, despite of not having any children, since we are already over the top :-)

Answer:
Personally speaking - and I live with three men (hubbie and two adult sons)
I like my men to smell clean and sweat-free.
Hubbie is training for the London Marathon at the moment and does not
smell that good after a 10k run, believe me!!
After his shower is another story...

Answer:
I accidentally walked into the men's locker room (after hours, nobody was there, I swear) and I thought it smelled...
This is embarassing...
I thought it smelled, GREAT.
Lots of sweat and Axe, I think.
Bathrooms--not good. Just the locker area.
One time, I was dancing with this guy on a hot summer night, and he had a big, big, case of B.O. as in peppery, cuminy, strong, dirty sweat.
O.K. I fell in love with him.

Answer:
my mom married my father even though his BO was SOOO bad that after he put his arm around her, she could smell the BO in her own hair. GROSS. I guess smell isn't that important.

Answer:
Originally Posted by Clare I knew a guy who didn't wear any fragrance and you could often smell his sweat. And he smelled GREAT. It was weird, because he wasn't that attractive in other ways...but his natural smell was amazing. That sounds pretty gross, I know, but I couldn't help it. Must be a hormonal thing.
My own boyfriend also has a great natural smell. Although I do like him to be clean, I prefer his sweat to his deodorant any day. No need to be embarrassed... I think there's something to that scientifically!
There are many factors that attract people to each other, and I think that "smell compatibility" is an important one, although it may not be conscious to many people. More conscious to us BN'ers, of course.
In GMan's case, there must have been enough other attractions and compatibilities to override the smell problem.
I'd like to add that I'll bet everyone here has BO that smells excellent!

Answer:
Originally Posted by G Man my mom married my father even though his BO was SOOO bad that after he put his arm around her, she could smell the BO in her own hair. GROSS. I guess smell isn't that important. Eeagad!
One thing about my SO is he suffered a severe burn when younger and was in ICU for three months for skin grafts to both arms and left leg. Now he never uses soap--he either has some gentle body wash or uses shampoo so his skin is never 'stripped' of natural oils. Certainly nothing so harsh as a deodorant soap has touched him in ten years! Maybe that has something to do with it.

Answer:
As far as myself goes, my body chemistry has changed as I've gotten older, when I was younger, I never needed deodorant, now I do. I tend to have a musky scent, which to others may be good, but not to me. I do not feel right until I wear fragrance. As far as men go, most smell good right out of a shower, but for the most part, I like a fragrance on a man. Not into natural body odors, unless they are the exception to the rule.

Answer:
Nasty body odors, ones that most people do not like, seem to come from gasses and other waste products of bacteria acting on our sweat etc., such as the unmistakable 3-methyl-2-hexenoic acid ("Wow! That's BO!") and not directly from the natural secretions we all create.
Nature intended some of these to be sexual attractants. Of course certain idiosyncratic odors and odors related to food or drink we have taken in, that we seem to exude on occasion, will be rather offensive to some and yet surprisingly alluring to others. Go figure..

Answer:
That's why Mother Nature left us with hair in some places, whilst removing it from mostly everywhere else! (To trap the pheromones, that is...but I think you got that).
Interestingly, the good old English passtime of Morris dancing has its roots in a fertility rite. One part of the dance involves sticking a handkerchief under your arm and then waving it around. This, in fact, was originally to disperse the manly musk and thus attract a lady!