This article was published on February 16th, 2019

A recent survey by Gay and Fabulous asked gay men an interesting question: do you prefer men who are freshly showered—so fresh and so clean—or are you more into the natural scent of a man? Believe it or not, the results were split pretty evenly. Male body odor is the subject of much discussion, these days. Like every color of the rainbow, it seems queens are into every aspect of a man’s smell.

For those that love that recently showered scent on your man, you aren’t alone, but there are surprisingly less of you than you’d imagine. Fortunately for the 2019 gay /metrosexual man, there are a myriad of devices including a plethora of colognes, perfumes, body washes, body sprays, and after shaves for the modern man.

You want you and your man to smell clean and fresh? Stock up on plenty of soaps, lotions, and the above listed scent applicators. Just try to stick masculine, earthy scents that are more in line with what we imagine to be scents made for men. Finding the right scent can take time. Everyone’s body chemistry is different and not all men’s colognes will work the same on different body types and chemistries.

However, some men prefer to just be natural—which doesn’t translate to unbathed and without deodorant. Many men just prefer to go without additional parfumes or scents added to their natural, clean scent. It’s the German and the French who are still working out the difference between lightly applying a deodorant or underarm treatment, versus gagging out the whole club with the dirty stench of unwashed pits and body.

Yet, some men like that, too. It turns out there are a significant amount of people who do like that au de Deutsche toilette…So, if you’re someone who hates deodorant and prefers their own animalistic, natural scent, there are those out there who do appreciate you and your funk. Just do the rest of us a favor and keep at armpits-length in social scenes. And take note that smelling “bad” (as perceived by a majority of society), doesn’t bode well in the work place.

Others love a man that smells washed, pressed, hung out to dry, and then perfectly coifed with a bit of heaven sprits about him like a walking, talking, physical manifestation of the Peanuts character Linus…but in an amazing smelling way. Some prefer a cloud of you to waft in the elevator after you’ve left it five minutes prior. Sensitive noses be damned: some folks just prefer the metrosexual scent of a well-kept gentleman.

Scent is our most sensitive of all the senses. Is it pheromones or biology that has granted the ability to gay men to be able to sniff one another out…also known as gaydar. Psychology Today seems to think gaydar is simply a scent-driven mechanism in our brains that can signal to us whether a person is homosexual or not. 

A good scent of a man can make other gay guys swoon or send them running to the hills. Sometimes, a fellow without additional smells is more your bag. Sometimes even still, some of you naturalists out there prefer the real scent of a man: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Whatever your flavor, just be considerate of the people around you: keep your scents to yourself and those you’re getting intimate with. You’ll win over everyone by a nose with your consideration of properly utilizing scents and smells to your advantage.