@ajtaughtyou's hygiene tips sound basic, but are they right?

What did @ajtaughtyou actually say?

The creator laid out 10 hygiene tips aimed at men who want to smell better. The core argument is that deodorant and cologne alone won't fix body odor if you're ignoring the bacterial and moisture sources underneath. Specific claims included "double cleaning" in the shower to break down bacteria, rotating deodorants to prevent bacterial resistance, oil pulling for fresher breath, and applying baby powder to the groin. Some of these are reasonable hygiene advice. Others are based on a misunderstanding of how bacteria and deodorant actually work.

The video is framed around a legitimate premise: body odor is primarily caused by bacteria metabolizing sweat, not sweat itself. That part is correct. But several of the specific mechanisms the creator offers to explain their tips range from oversimplified to outright wrong.

Does the science back this up?

Partially. The connection between bacteria and body odor is well-established. Research by Callewaert et al. (2014, Journal of Investigative Dermatology) confirmed that axillary odor is driven by microbial communities, particularly Corynebacterium and Staphylococcus species. Targeting those bacteria through hygiene is a legitimate strategy. However, the specific mechanisms the creator describes for several tips do not reflect how the science actually works.

On oral hygiene, brushing in a circular motion does have some support. The Bass technique, a circular or vibratory brushing method, is recommended by the American Dental Association for plaque removal near the gumline. Tongue scraping also has real evidence behind it. Quirynen et al. (2004, Journal of Clinical Periodontology) found tongue cleaning significantly reduced volatile sulfur compounds, the primary driver of bad breath. So the oral hygiene section is largely solid.

Oil pulling, on the other hand, is a different story. The evidence is thin and the proposed mechanism is not well-supported in peer-reviewed literature, which we will get into below.

What did they get wrong (or right)?

Let's start with the biggest problem: the deodorant resistance claim. The creator says "your body adapts to deodorants over time" and that rotating prevents "bacteria from becoming resistant." This is a meaningful misuse of the word resistance. Antibiotic resistance is a specific genetic and evolutionary process. Deodorants are not antibiotics, and bacteria do not develop resistance to aluminum salts or fragrance compounds the way they do to antimicrobial drugs. What actually happens is that your skin microbiome shifts with consistent deodorant use. Callewaert et al. (2017, Archives of Dermatological Research) showed that antiperspirant use alters microbial diversity, but this is not resistance. The tip to rotate may not hurt, but the explanation given is wrong.

Oil pulling also does not hold up well. A Cochrane-adjacent review by Gbinigie et al. (2016, Journal of Evidence-Based Dentistry) found insufficient evidence to support oil pulling for oral hygiene. The studies that do exist tend to be small and poorly controlled. Recommending 10 minutes every morning as a meaningful odor-reduction strategy is overstating what the data supports.

What did he get right? The exfoliation and body hair trimming tips are reasonable. Dead skin buildup does feed bacteria. Hair does trap sweat. Moisturizing before cologne application actually works, because fragrance molecules bind better to hydrated skin. These are practical, low-risk tips with plausible mechanisms even if large clinical trials on them specifically are limited.

What should you actually know?

Body odor is a microbiome issue more than a hygiene frequency issue. Simply showering more does not automatically fix the problem if you are not disrupting the bacterial communities that produce odorous compounds. Callewaert's transplant research even showed that transferring armpit bacteria from a non-smelly person to a smelly one reduced odor, which tells you the microbial composition matters more than the smell itself.

For men on testosterone replacement therapy specifically, this matters more than average. Testosterone increases sebaceous and apocrine gland activity, which means more substrate for odor-producing bacteria. Men on TRT may notice increased body odor as a side effect, and standard hygiene routines may need to be more consistent. There is no published protocol specifically for odor management in TRT patients, but the underlying biology makes the bacterial-targeting tips in this video more relevant for that population, not less.

Baby powder in the groin area is generally fine for moisture control, though talc-based powders have faced scrutiny in other contexts. Cornstarch-based alternatives are a lower-controversy option if you want to avoid any ongoing talc debate. Either way, the principle of keeping high-moisture areas dry to reduce bacterial growth is biologically sound.