I spent yesterday scavenging the streets for deodorant. It’s no where to be found in the convenience stores of Seoul. Next to the soaps, toothpaste, hair supplies and other various toiletry paraphernalia is a peculiar black hole: not one single tube of deodorant. In the thick of summer, 90 degrees weather and sultry humidity, apparently Koreans have no need for deodorant. I’m impressed. 

Shelma and I went to Itaewon, the international neighborhood near the US army base, and looked for black market / import stores. I found some Old Spice in an Ethopian schlock shop, hidden in the winding back alley hillside near the one and only huge Mosque in Seoul, but didn’t buy it; Old Spice doesn’t jive with my pores. This store was adjacent to “Reggae Hair”, a barbershop specializing in haircuts styles for those of African heritage. Everything in Seoul related to black people has the word reggae somewhere in its title. 

I’ve yet to even smell someone who needed deodorant. Perhaps a steady diet of garlic rich kimchi flushes the armpits clean. Perhaps Koreans genetically don’t need it. Adri tells me this isn’t the case for all Asians: Chinese people use deodorant. Should I go to China to buy a stockpile? Maybe everyone showers more often than I do here. Still, the lack of smelly people is certainly made up for by the occasional rank torrent of sewage waste, or the street vendors who fry strange sea animals and even silkworm larvae in huge vats of spices. Yes, silkworm larvae, a delicacy. Shelma will report soon.

I’ve learned that the cosmetic company Nivea has recently launched an advertisement campaign to indoctrinate Koreans, primarily women, with the desire to use deodorant. As you may notice from the above commercial, it seems that the product leans towards the sprays. Unfortunately, I’m not interested in reverting back to my seventh grade gymn locker sanitary practices. I imagine I need something stronger anyway. I don’t know where they sell this Nivea.