Dating Someone Who Doesn’t Have Good Personal Hygiene
There are some basic things that most of us require in the people that we date and spend time with, and for the majority of us one requirement is cleanliness. Perhaps cleanliness should be accompanied by good grooming skills, as one can be clean without being well groomed. It can be embarrassing not only for us personally when we are dating someone who is not well groomed and clean, but also for the people around us. Grooming standards have relaxed with the last couple generations and some people just don’t see a need for it. The result is that you may end up dating someone who does not groom themselves well.
Many people don’t know that the person that they are dating is not exactly…presentable until they get to know them a little bit better. Issues that you might not notice right away are a lack of deodorant, women who don’t shave their underarms or legs, or men who do not wash their hair or shave their face often enough. These are things that we may not notice right away when we meet someone, but if we spend enough time with someone we can’t help but notice and we know that other people will notice, too!
If you are dating someone who doesn’t have good personal hygiene and grooming skills you should talk to them about how you feel. This could be a very delicate discussion, but it is something that you should do if you are uncomfortable with the way that the person you are dating grooms themselves. You should let them know that you really enjoy spending time with them, but you have some concerns about these specific things. You need to be prepared for them to be hurt or angry, and that is why you need to be as gentle as you can when discussing your concerns.
The talk can go three different ways. Either they will compromise with you and change things a little bit or at least cover up things that you don’t like when you go out, they’ll agree that they need to change and make all of the changes that you have requested, or they will tell you that they are who they are and you need to get used to it. You need to be prepared to respond to any and all of these responses, which can be difficult.
If the person agrees you are in luck, so you should definitely compliment them on the changes that they make and let them know how great they look. If they agree to compromise and sort of meet you in the middle, you should appreciate this and take what you can get. Who knows, in the future it could get better. If they have the “take me as I am” attitude you need to decide what you are going to do. Can you stay in the relationship or is their lack of hygiene or grooming too much to endure? You need to decide for yourself, as this really is a personal decision.