OK, maybe it’s too much to expect your date to shower you with compliments or gifts the first time the two of you get together. But what about showering, period, before that date? Isn’t that a natural expectation like wearing clothes and knowing your name? Well, maybe not with this whole “pheromone maxxing” dating thing that’s been trending on TikTok and is based on theories that are kind of unclean in more ways than one.
Pheromone Maxxing Has People Skipping Showers And Deodorant
Yep, there are folks on social media actually talking about skipping showers, avoiding deodorant usage, choosing to wear sweaty shirts and even, gasp, drinking one’s own urine before a date. The stated goal is to maximize the amount of so-called sex pheromones emitted from one’s body. This is yet another “maxxing” trend on social media like ballmaxxing, climaxxing and fibermaxxing.
But while some of these maxxing trends like fibermaxxing have been based on some real science, this whole “pheromone maxxing” thing is based largely on a belief. It’s a belief that humans are like ants, moths, mice and other animals known to secrete pheromones. As you’ll soon see, though, assuming that men and women are like mice in such a manner is not exactly a squeaky clean assumption.
Pheromone Maxxing Is Based On The Belief That Humans Emit Sex Pheromones
Pheromone is pronounced like “fair a moan.” Pheromones are chemicals that trigger particular social responses from others. Certain animals, plants and other organisms can secrete a variety of different pheromones that signal different things to those around them. For example, alarm pheromones might warn others about danger, and food trail pheromones might inform colleagues about where food is located.
Speaking of moan, there are also the sex pheromones. These can in theory attract mates and trigger mating behaviors, which can be a euphemism for sex. So, the thought with pheromone maxxing is to stay dirty in the hopes of maybe getting down and dirty with the other person. In other words, maximizing one’s so-called “natural musk”—the musk that is on one’s body and not on X, that is—could supposedly make one biologically irresistible.
But It’s Not Clear Whether Such Pheromones Exist In Humans
There is a biological problem, though, with this “musk” have belief. It’s not clear yet whether humans even secrete any type of pheromones. I detailed this issue when I covered in Forbes last year the whole “vabbing” trend that was circulating on Tiktok.
“Vabbing” is a portmanteau of the words “vagina” and “dabbing.” It entails getting secretions from your vagina and then dabbing them on so-called “pulse points” of your body like your wrists, neck and inner elbows. This practice was based on the belief that your vaginal fluid contains pheromones—because the “v” is where many men want to be, right?
And putting such pheromones on different parts of your body would in theory attract others and drive them wild, right? Well, as I detailed in the article, there is no clear scientific evidence that this vabbing practice works in any way except to make different parts of you smell more like a vagina. Scientific studies have not been able isolate such alleged sex pheronomes from any part of the human body.
Humans May Not Be Able To Detect Pheromones
Even if humans do secrete pheromones in some way from somewhere, they may not have the means to detect them. Sure, you do have a vomeronasal organ or VNO inside your nose. And other mammals do use their VNOs and other structures like the main olfactory epitheliums or MOEs to detect pheromones. But human VNOs are relatively smaller and potentially too underdeveloped to process pheromones in the same manner.
Don’t confuse sensing and liking different smells with detecting and being affected by pheromones either. Just because pumpkin spice smells nice and may even make you all hot and bothered doesn’t mean that it’s the same as reacting to pheromones. Associating particular smells with particular feelings works via different mechanisms than pheromones do—like more psychological ones.
Say, for example, you had enjoyed dating Pig Pen from the Peanuts in your younger years. Then maybe smelling someone stinky could help you recall such fond memories. But that would be more about association than stimulation.
Remaining Dirty Might Not Select For The Right Pheromones If They Actually Exist
Plus, when you don’t shower, it’s not as if you can select for what remains on your body and what doesn’t. It’s hard to selectively remain dirty. In theory, everything that your body has accumulated throughout the day and night like dirt and fruitcake crumbs will stay there until its washed off or shaken from your body in some way.
That could include the alarm pheromones and food trail pheromones if they do exist on humans. And “danger, danger” may not be what you want to be signaling to your date. Moreover, you probably don’t want your date to be expecting some tacos if the two of you make it to the bedroom.
Pheromones Or Not, Drinking Your Own Urine Is Not A Good Idea
Finally, if you are drinking your own urine in a pheromone maxxing effort, “urine” for a rude awakening. Back in 2022, I covered in Forbes the dangers of drinking your own urine when the founder of the so-called “Vaccine Police”—an anti-vaxx website—claimed that drinking urine can somehow serve as a COVID-19 antidote. Your urine can contain various waste products and harmful microbes that you don’t want going back into your own body. Yes, despite what Patches O’Houlihan may have said the movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, urine is not necessarily sterile.
All in all, pheromone maxxing is one dating trend that you may want to wash yourself of—unless, of course, you are really into being dirty in that way. It is important to do you. But if your goal simply is to get dirty with others in a sexual way, it may be a better bet to rely on something else like oh, maybe your personality.