Mildly Interesting

I guess they're not as popular now, as trucks have become smarter and more electrified so they don't have to idle as much while still being able to power increasingly efficient devices, plus I guess people just abused the everliving fuck out of them, but it's such an interesting solution to a problem "normal" people wouldn't think about, and one with very visible infrastructure.

Smoking in public also became rare, and generally people started smelling better without the need for fragrances.

This has got to be a big part of it in two different ways: smokers wanting to cover their own stink, but also smokers having reduced sense of smell!

It feels mostly regional to me. The vibe I get is that Americans especially don’t really care for fragrances while here in the Middle East it’s a goddamn stereotype of us Lebanese men that we wear too much cologne.

(Or as I have grown up to understand it, just about enough cologne)

I can't remember the last time I used cologne or smelled it on another person.

God, I wish that was me. For whatever reason a bunch of people here (but especially people 50 and up as you noted) wear heavy perfume/cologne. I’ll admit to being moderately smell-sensitive, but sometimes even walking 15 or 20 feet behind them will leave me STILL smelling it!

I find it's very regional inside of the US. It depends on a few factors, but age, prominance, and locality to a "night-life" tends to be the primary ones I find. I live very rural in Southern US, and it's hit or miss if I ever smell a guy with cologne, but when I do it's the guy I know goes out a lot and lives in-town or much older.

I got a pretty bad fragrance allergy a few years ago and would break out in a big rash if I got them near my face. I think things are improving these days, but I was shocked at how much more sharp my sense of smell is now that almost nothing has artificial fragrances (save for deodorant, and some body soap that is like, made from ground up herbs). It's like someone whose senses are enhanced by losing one or more of them.

One of my siblings brought clothes laundered at his university, and the detergent was so cloying that I could taste it in the air, lol. Five years ago, I would barely have noticed it, because there was so much "noise" from the ~18 different scented products we all used on our bodies, clothes, air fresheners and bedding.

Even with fragrance-free stuff, everything still smells good. Just like cloth though, instead of artificial lemon or that blue-flavored dish soap. On the latter one, I've begun to taste it on dishes. I've since switched to fragrance-free dish soap because of that, lol.

I wonder what thay would smell like.

Like, ikr

It's just so elegant, putting your fingertip at the opening, turning it upside down to catch a little on the tip, then tapping your key areas. Looks classy af. Dapper mf, let's get dapper up in here now boys. 🤵‍♂️

Oh, I know. I’m talking about the gross few who don’t use them.