Girl in my class smells

Hogzy

Tere is a girl in my college lectures that smells! dunno if its a lack of showering or what.
She lives on a farm and everyday there is a foul stench of BO and a kinda damp smeel. the kind of smell you would get if you left your dirty gym gear and wet towel in a bag over night then smelt it the next day. Anyways seeing as the classroom is quite small that i have the lecture in its fairly hard to avoid the smell! I have talked it over with other students and they agree the smell is unbareable! The last thing i want to do is confront the girl myself and embarrass her.

What should i do???

MagicMarker

Suck it up?

*edit* Not literally of course.

Sherifu

Spray some Febreze on her.

FX Meister

Send her a text from someone elses phone.

dudara

Helpful posts only please. Take the time to read the charter with regard to posting in this forum.

dudara

Curvy Vixen

If you don't want to do it yourself could you have a word with the lecturer maybe? Or does she have a particular friend that you cold speak to?

I think that the most important thing here is that it's done tactfully ~ you have no idea of her home circumstances re: her body/clothes washing situation.

tbh

had to do this myself - I was the class rep in College, and one of the lads in the class had the same problem. So I had to approach him and let him know. conversation went a little bit like this:

me: "howareya George, listen there's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to come out and say it. There's a bit of a problem with a musty smell, and it seems to be coming from you. Can you have a look at your washing machine, because I don't think it's rinsing the clothes properly? It happened to me before, and the problem was a blocked drainage pipe."

him: "what? erm, oh yeah, sure I'll check it out".

The guy was obviously embarrassed into washing/changing more frequently and the smell went away. I made sure to say it a week or so later - "got it sorted I see?" "yeah".

von Neumann

Hi OP,

It would be best going from a friend.

Treat it seriously because she may be completely unaware of it.
Some unfortunate sods have a condition called Hyper Hydrosis.
She might be one of them and she may be delighted to find there are treatments available.
Be as sensitive as you can, so you don't know her self esteem / confidence too much.

Of course she might just be a dirty person!

LegacyUser

i think shed rather you say it to her than people discuss it around her, Just ask her for a quiet word and talk to her about or else ask the tutor mabey to do hygiene class so that every one will benift from it and one person will not be singled out

jessbeth

There was a girl like these in my friends dorm at Boarding school and we got one of the counsellors to have a word with her. Is there anybody like that?

Toots

Unregistered wrote: »

i think shed rather you say it to her than people discuss it around her, Just ask her for a quiet word and talk to her about or else ask the tutor mabey to do hygiene class so that every one will benift from it and one person will not be singled out

I'd agree that saying it to her rather than discussing it with everyone else is the best thing to do, however if you don't know her that well, I would strongly recommend that you get someone who does know her well to do it. This is the sort of thing that is best done by someone who knows her and will know how to broach it to her tactfully and cause as little offense as possible. Some randomer from her class going up to her and going 'Hi XYZ, we've all been discussing it and we think you smell.' is probably going to do nothing for her self esteem. Do ye have a guidance counsellor or someone like that who could talk to her?

WindSock

I don't know how many hygiene classes that have spontaneously appeared when I join a clas....oh wait

Yeah there is never an easy way to approach someone who smells bad, in many senses of the word. Tbhs seems like a good approach. Or maybe get someone to address it and be non specific but mention about the clothes not being washed rather than bad body odour and hopefully she will get the message.

Marksie

Aidric: post deleted, read the charter on unhelpful posting.
Also note Dudara's comment earlier in thread.

Aidric

I don't see why my post was deleted. I gave an example of something that happened at my work place and how the situation was resolved. Does that constitute unhelpful now?

Nevyn

Aidric if you have an issue re a mod action you pm the mods or start a thread in helpdesk or feedback.
You do not comment in thread about it as it is off topic and will get you banned from this forum.
This is your only warning.

Firetrap

Ok, it's inevitable that somebody's going to have to take this girl aside for a little chat. If somebody practices poor hygiene, no amount of subtle hints (or not so subtle ones) will make her change her ways. It is going to hurt her feelings and embarrass her but it's for her own good.

If you don't want to approach her and have the chat, is there anyone else who can? A teacher? Someone else in authority who has a nice way about them? Another student in the class who can get their point across clearly but not in a hurtful way? As an aside, I've a friend who works in a teaching job where she's had to have this particular conversation with some of her students. It's not as uncommon as you think, unfortunately.

Beerlao

there's a guy in my work who stinks. you can smell him from far away. you can walk into an empty lift and you can tell that he was in there before you. he's absolutely disgusting. i believe the manager has never said anything to him about it. he's more senior than i am so i don't feel that i can. but christ i nearly gagged when i was speaking to him once!

RPGGAMER

i think the best solution is like the guy said earlier who was class rep.

do it in a roundabout fashion. so as not to offend. a guy might be alright but a girl would be waaaaay more sensitive if she was BOish or somesuch. The washing machine idea was great. or ask if she works out a lot.

" oh you've got some killa triceps babe!" you must work out a lot what with the smell too and all. OH she'll say and then come in smelling of roses the next day. who knows people might even even find she is lovely now that the miasma of dhoom doesnt hang around her.

having said that you have to respect a hard working farm girl. they are usually hot in a sort of austrian milk maid way..but i dont remember the fantasy smelling of horsedung and manure

RPGGAMER

Beerlao wrote: »

there's a guy in my work who stinks. you can smell him from far away. you can walk into an empty lift and you can tell that he was in there before you. he's absolutely disgusting. i believe the manager has never said anything to him about it. he's more senior than i am so i don't feel that i can. but christ i nearly gagged when i was speaking to him once!

holy stinkbomb batman

RPGGAMER

Firetrap wrote: »

Ok, it's inevitable that somebody's going to have to take this girl aside for a little chat. If somebody practices poor hygiene, no amount of subtle hints (or not so subtle ones) will make her change her ways. It is going to hurt her feelings and embarrass her but it's for her own good.

If you don't want to approach her and have the chat, is there anyone else who can? A teacher? Someone else in authority who has a nice way about them? Another student in the class who can get their point across clearly but not in a hurtful way? As an aside, I've a friend who works in a teaching job where she's had to have this particular conversation with some of her students. It's not as uncommon as you think, unfortunately.

a hazMat team perhaps?

Nevyn

Unhelpful and off-topic posting will get you banned from this forum.
Do take time to read the charter which contains the rules and abide by them.
Have a nice day.
Thaedydal

Karmaa

I think you should really speak to your tutor about this and let him/her handle this....it is a very delicate subject. Some people suffer with bad body odour not from a poor hygiene aspect but from a medical condition, so don't look on this person as a dirty person they could be having certain issues with their health.
As a manager many years ago I had to confront one of my team on this topic and it was very embarrassing for both parties, me having to approach him about it and him having to hear me say it to him...

LegacyUser

Imagine being in a class filled with them but its not just the students who stink its also the demonstrators.

Though I am studying Computer Science so its kinda a given.

But its horrible its gone a way I wont ask for help in a lab because I wont be able to stand the smell off the demonstrator.

But I don't really hang around with the people in my class who smell like last week I was heading home with one of my mates and we didn't answer our phones and hind in the train station so we didn't have to injure the smell off your man on the train.

Garthicus

Hi,

I've encountered this a few times, a couple of suggestions... 1) find out their e-mail address and send a very *tactfully* sentenced e-mail regarding the situation. 2) (We did this in a pub I worked in) left a lynx gift pack in their cubby hole and 3) get a manager (lecturer) to speak with them.

Don't do it yourselves, as peers it will only serve to alienate and embarrass the person. Put yourself in their shoes, who would you rather be told by?

rainbow kirby

CompSciStu wrote: »

Though I am studying Computer Science so its kinda a given.

Not a fair generalisation to make - we don't all smell!