Poaching each other’s fragrances:

A whiff of scenti-mentality

Gaston De ROSAYRO

I have often been likened to the denizens of the deep. Not precisely branded as a shark or barracuda but as a sort of merman because of my hydrophilic or water-loving nature. In short, I have an obsession for showering sometimes as many as four times a day. I prefer soap and water as a survival mechanism and not perfumes that certain hydrophobic acquaintances douse themselves in to cover up their rank odour.

When I was a young shaver of 17 of thereabouts I had a problem with razor blades. A shortage of foreign exchange at the time led to stringent austerity measures, with clothing, sugar and milk powder being rationed. Imports of certain essential items at the time such as disposable safety blades were banned. One had little choice except to make do with either a cut-throat razor or locally-manufactured double-edged blades.

Neither of these was considered the cutting edge of technology. The poor quality of the local blades resulted in my developing a condition known as ‘razor burn’, an irritation of the skin which appeared as a mild rash a few minutes after shaving. A dermatologist at the time recommended two options – cultivate a fuzzy fungus feature in the form of a beard or use an unobtainable English astringent aftershave.

Obtaining it at a price was no problem, if you had the right connections. That is because any type of prohibition creates a burgeoning black market for taboo merchandise. The underground market sucked a phenomenal amount of wealth out of the economy and into the pockets of ‘illegal importers.’

They thrived on an illicit activity bought and sold outside the sight of law enforcement. To me it seemed as something innocent and innocuous and not as serious as smuggling guns or narcotics. In any event I regarded the law as an ass and prohibition law a more asinine ass-bone than the Biblical Samson’s asses’ jawbone. So the moral argument aside, it gave me an early lesson in practical economics that prohibition simply does not work.

Needless to say it was my first close after-shave with the law. But I had no qualms about it. Besides the expensive lotion was not what one would have sensed as common or garden scents. This stuff was heaven-scent and it was decidedly not scent. I appreciate that when people got a whiff of my new aftershave, they said it smelled relatively pleasant in an ethanol, methylated spirit, petrol station forecourt kind-of-way. I was relieved that no one could associate it with women’s perfume which smelled like flowers and angels and clouds and sunshine.

Males are taught from an early age that, left to our own devices, we smell bad. And, well, we sort of do unless you bathe as frequently as I do or bathe yourself with fragrances. Against Sri Lanka’s pervasively astringent, odourless backdrop - the clean room where hygiene meets mass consumerism - most human scent has the faint reek of criminality.

There used to be a time when one could take genuine macho pleasure in the smell of a woman, fairly safe in the knowledge that the wearer of any scent, other than a male aftershave, was female. And the more subtle the smell the more stylish the female, one could be sure. But these days one just doesn’t know. I blame television advertising, showing beautiful young women manhandling beautiful young men just because they smell like beautiful young women. What young man could resist that? Then there’s the psychology of cologne ads, which portray fragrances as something like aromatic Mickey Finns, elixirs that render both males females excited and stupid. In the Darwinistic dance of gender competition, they will take any advantage they can get even if it means flagrantly poaching each other’s fragrances.

One little-known secret among many people is that some women like to wear men’s perfume, and some men like to...Exactly! For some it may even suit them. It all depends on the body chemistry of the person.

They surely must be having a scents of humour thinking that they reek of the sweet smell of success. But I am a firm believer that it is all a lot of non-scents. On the other hand, ask any woman what are the manly smells they like. Do they go L for leather because it is supposedly a masculine fragrance.

And it is curious because a lot of the people who love those and buy them are women. No they are certainly not looking for an expression of femininity and bewitchment. Exactly! And these are perfectly normal women who love that smell for various reasons and go for them because that has never been a part of what the traditional fragrance industry offers them. It is just not there. Now they may well be a very small percentage. I can’t say that every woman I have known longs for the scent of leather or the smell of pipe tobacco.

Still, smells and fragrances can convey a message. They are perhaps the most easily socially acceptable form of make-up there is and it is an emotional form of cosmetic. If you smell a certain smell for both sexes it might remind you of someone in your past - your father or mother, your grandfather or grandmother, perhaps a former girl or boyfriend? Sure, come to think of it whatever the fragrance we are all very scent-imental!