INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Your first line of defense against troublesome body odor is a keen sense of smell. Take a whiff of potential problem areas, including your underarms, feet and genitals. While your own body odor is typically tough to distinguish, you may be able to pick up on it if it’s strong enough.  See if you can detect any salty, musty or pungent notes. The best time to do this is after the effects of bathing have worn off, since this is when odors will be most pronounced. Breathe out sharply through your mouth and into your cupped palm so that the gust is redirected to your nose. Smell your breath as it bounces back toward you. This can usually help clue you in as to whether your oral hygiene might be a source of unwanted body odor.  Perform routine breath checks between meals so that you can rule out a particular type of food as the cause.  Keep a pack of sugar-free chewing gum or mints handy to freshen bad breath. At the end of the day, dig through your discarded garments and put them through a smell test. As your body secretes sweat, dirt and natural oils, they can become absorbed into clothing fibers, causing them to stink. In this way, your clothing may be responsible for trapping body odor and making it worse.  Focus your attention on the underarms of your shirts and the crotch region of pants and underwear. Make sure the articles of clothing you check are work or casual items. Workout apparel is much more likely to smell already because of how much you sweat in it. The bulk of body odor is caused by perspiration, and the way your sweat smells can tell you a lot about what’s going on in your body. It’s not uncommon for body odor to seem worse in the summer months or after strenuous exercise. If you find that your sweat smells unusually strange or intense, however, it could be the result of some lifestyle change you’ve recently made.  You can get a better sense of how your perspiration smells by sniffing yourself in a place with poor ventilation, such as a closed shower stall or inside the neck of your shirt. New medications, natural hormonal changes, chronic stress and conditions like diabetes are all potential causes of stubborn body odor.

SUMMARY: Smell yourself. Check your breath. Give your clothes a sniff. Assess your sweat.


INPUT ARTICLE: Article: A particular time of danger is when gardeners go out to plant in the spring. You will be eager to go out and work, but immediately after rain, the soil is too wet. Working with soil when it is too wet causes it to lose structure and collapse in on itself. Instead, wait until the soil is dry and crumbly. To test for soil ready to be worked, form a ball of soil in your hand. The soil should break apart when worked and when dropped. Aerating is beneficial for soil, but tilling it too often keeps the soil from settling. Good soil forms small clumps after being tilled once. These clumps are the pockets that give the soil the structure that permits air and water to penetrate it. It can be tempting to till the soil again and again, but this collapses the soil. Till the soil only before planting and during occasional aeration. Even consider trying no-till gardening or farming. Some studies have shown no-till farming reduces compaction and increases soil productivity as compared to tilling. While you aerate the soil, add compost or mulch. Yard waste, wood chips, or even food scraps are a cheap option that can be added to lawns, gardens, and even around trees to refresh the soil. Make compost or buy it at a lawn and garden store. The organics are broken down by organisms such as earthworms that aerate the soil.  For badly compacted soil, add a 50% compost blend to regular soil and 25% in sandier soils.  Avoid amending soil with inorganic material such as sand if possible. Too little sand worsens the compaction. Pressure against the soil is a common way to compress it. Avoid riding lawn mowers and use vehicles with wider tires, adjusted air pressure in tires, and less weight on axles. During construction, limit vehicles to areas where the soil will be covered such as by paths or patios. Also, covering the soil with mulch and ¾-inch thick plywood or synthetic substitutes help reduce the pressure on the soil when traffic cannot be avoided.

SUMMARY: Let soil dry before use. Avoid overworking the soil. Work in organic material. Limit traffic pressure.


INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Use several soft upward strokes with a sharp razor instead of only a few firm ones. This way you’re less likely to cut yourself and you’ll be sure to get all of the little hairs.  While it may seem easy to use body wash or soap since you’re using it on the rest of your body, these items will dry your skin. It’s best to use a product such as shaving cream or gel that is specifically formulated for the purpose of shaving your legs. This will help you get the smooth, glowing skin you’re after. Pay careful attention to how your hair grows. You should be shaving against the grain, and may need to shave up or down in certain areas depending on the direction of the follicles, in order to best remove the hair. Cheap blades won’t get you a close shave. If your hair is fine and thin, you should do fine with a 3- or 4-blade razor, but coarse, thicker hair demands one with 5 blades. It’s also a good idea to use a razor with a built-in lubricant strip if your skin is sensitive  Replace your razor frequently, anytime you notice a dull or corroded blade or that you’re not getting a good shave anymore. This will also help you to avoid cuts and unsanitary conditions.. Every three shaves is a good rule of thumb for replacing your razor. Waxing removes the root of the hair at the shaft, ensuring super smooth soft skin that lasts a lot longer than a shave does. You can wax at home with a kit from the drug store or you can get your legs waxed by a professional.  Waxing does hurt when it’s being done (though the pain is brief), so it’s not necessarily the best choice for those with very sensitive skin or who are averse to unnecessary pain. Depilatory creams, lotions, and sprays are chemical products that dissolve the hair on the surface of your skin. You can use these pain-free items in the shower or the bathtub, and they are formulated to remain in place on your skin until you wipe them away with a washcloth.  Depilatory creams have traditionally been known for their strong odor, but newer versions aren’t nearly as offensive as their old-school counterparts. Some even have a tropical smell! Because you’re not pulling the hair out at the root, you’ll need to use depilatory creams, etc., more frequently than you would if you were waxing. A more permanent solution for removing your leg hair is to get several (usually 3–5) laser treatments. These remove the hair from your legs by directing highly concentrated beams of light into the hair follicles. Laser hair removal is an expensive option, costing an average of $235 per session. Since it will take several sessions to see permanent results, it’s important to consider the overall cost when deciding on this route.

SUMMARY:
Shave your legs gently. Choose the right blade. Wax your hair. Use depilatory products. Get laser treatments.