Put Some STANK On It!!!

Several years back, I saw an Old Spice commercial where two women were chatting in a doorway at a party. This guy walks through on his way to the kitchen and has to squeeze past them. As this happens, the announcer states that smell is “the strongest sense tied to memory.” A few short seconds after the guy passes them, the ladies smile at each other, as if they are both thinking the same thing. One takes off to go find the guy, with the other only a split second behind her.

The more I marinated on the announcer’s statement, the more I realized just how true it was. Certain aromas, just as much as or even more than music, can take you back in time. The smell of fried chicken and collard greens takes me back to Sunday dinner at my grandmother’s house (forgive me for not being inconspicuous about my roots). The smell of beef on a grill takes me back to the downstairs lunchroom during my first two years of college at FAMU. Of course, nostalgic smells are even more powerful when they come from and remind you of people. Anytime I smell a particular bottle of Garnier on a woman passing by, it reminds me of my ex-girlfriend’s beautiful long, spiral-curled hair (I blame her for my attraction to big, long, curly/wild/messy hair lol). I can remember every woman I’ve ever smelled “Chanel No. 5” on. Needless to say, I have a weakness for good perfume -- Chanel, “Angel” and “Euphoria” to be exact. Wearing either of these is the equivalent to calling my name in a sexy voice. They have a similar effect as the guy in the aforementioned Old Spice commercial did on the two women he walked past. Funny how those addictive smells always catch you after the wearer is already about 5 ft past you. Fortunately for me (and my neck, can we say “whiplash?”), I have enough discipline to keep this effect from getting me into any kind of “trouble,” but I appreciate a good-smelling woman all the same.

As you can probably guess, I also pride myself on smelling good as well. Not just because of my appreciation for it on the opposite gender, but I feel like I have to live up to my name. You see, “Myron” is derived from the Greek word “Myrrh”, a fragrant sap that comes from a tree native to Somalia & Ethiopia. For those of you familiar with the account of Jesus, it was one of the gifts given to him as a baby. “Myron” has also been translated to mean “fragrant balm or oil.” In other words, it’s not so much of a stretch to say that my name means “cologne.” At one point in time, between getting a few bottles as gifts, hand-me-downs from my dad and buying my own, I had about nine different bottles of cologne. I’ve since downsized to a rotation of about three or four. My weapons of choice (I call them my "Stank-goods", as opposed to "Smell-goods") are normally "Burberry Brit", "Bvlgari BLV" and Jovan "N-R-G". Burberry is not currently in the rotation, as I didn’t have money to burn when I ran out and had to bring an inexpensive yet effective Cool Water off the bench as a temporary replacement. My unexpected fourth weapon came as a gift after doing a salsa lesson at a health-fair run by my mom’s sorority sisters (a big “OO-OOP” to any Deltas reading this). It was a bottle of Curve Connect (of course some Deltas would give me something packaged in one of my favorite colors). So I normally rotate which bottle I wear, never wearing the same one twice in a row to keep things new. Also, adding this to the fact that I don’t wear cologne every day (no use wearing it at work, my co-workers are mostly men) means I don’t run out of cologne very quickly.

So far, my rotation approach has worked pretty well. I get “Ooh… You smell good!” compliments on the regular. However, I’ve been giving it some thought after a good friend of mine mentioned that she likes to have a signature scent that is her “me” scent and likes the same on a guy. I then thought about how I’ve smelled my favorite scent on particular women and how my nose would look forward to seeing (smelling?) them. One of my co-workers when I worked at my last school (DeVry) would always wear Egyptian Musk. She wore a lot of it; not enough to make me sneeze when hugging her but enough to get stuck on my shirt. It was also enough to where I’d know she was at work without having seen her. (Unfortunately, my nose was heartbroken once I discovered that Egyptian Musk was unisex.) One of my salsa friends wears Angel, and I can always tell when she’s on the floor because I smell her before I see her. I began to wonder, would it be better to have a signature smell? A smell that says “yep, that’s Myron right there” when people smell it?

I decided to take a census on this. I even got fancy with it and decided to put a survey up online to see what people think. (LADIES ONLY: CLICK HERE) Should I continue to keep a rotation going, or should I just stick to one scent? Of course, if it turns out that I decide to stick to one smell, I’m most likely going to come back and add on another survey to this blog, as I’m going to have a hard time choosing which cologne I want to use to represent “Myron.” But we’ll spray that bottle if and when we come to it ;-)

***UPDATE***

It's been a little over a month since I posted my "cologne" survey. As of right now (9.27.11), the online results are dead even. 42.9% said that I should continue to rotate colognes. 42.9% also said that I should keep a signature scent. The "other" votes were, more or less, for me rotating, but being specific about the rotation. One person suggested different fragrances for different occasions. Another said she wears the same thing for 6 months straight, then changes it up.

I've decided to continue with my rotation, but designate each fragrance to a particular occasion or situation. Once I decide which colognes to rotate, I'll have one for church, one for dancing, and one for dates or going out. When that special someone arrives, whoever she is, I will allow her to choose her favorite, then dedicate that one to whenever we go out.