Old Man Smell

[Ad Astra]

Arh yes, I see!

I have never heard of anyone actually using this product - but some must do, I guess

It had some cinema commercials in the 50'es with big Danish movie stars stating that it could be used for almost everything. From freshening up, to rubbing on the neck to prevent white shirts being dirty, or airfreshener

Pretty cool product - but I have never tried it myself.

Hey, they sell it at the corner drugstore, some people must buy it!

My travel gear at the time...

AA

 

[Ad Astra]

I even got a soap:

But there's no thread veer - it's firmly believed this great product might, ah, might be associated with, ah, nevermind. Seniors. Like me...

AA

 

[Jens]

Smells are processed differently than other senses. Smells are routed directly to areas of the brain that control memory and emotion. This direct route to the limibic system bypasses reason and calculation.

I came late to this thread, but really enjoy reading it. The topic absolutely fascinates me, as does smells/fragrances.
I was born in 1963. The only distinctly "old-man" smell I can think of from my childhood, is the smell of body-odor .. (my grandparents). I first recall encountering aftershaves in the 1970s. The first I recall was Old Spice, but the interesting thing in the context of this thread is that it was teenagers a few years older than myself who used it -- not old men. Hence, I associate the smell of Old Spice with teenage boys exploring "adult paraphernalia". Next 1970s aftershave smell I distinctly recall is Aqua Velva -- my paternal uncle. He had emmigrated to the USA from Denmark, and when he came to visit, he would wear a suit and bolo tie, chain smoke cigarettes and drink whiskey, AND, smell like Aqua Velva ... . In my perception then, very "American".
When I began using Aqua Velva myself around 2015, I initially thought of it as a "vintage" thing, and used it a bit like a prank ... but it gradually grew on me, and now I use it regularly as one of my favourite "traditional Blue" aftershaves.

 

[Jens]

Smells are processed differently than other senses. Smells are routed directly to areas of the brain that control memory and emotion. This direct route to the limibic system bypasses reason and calculation.

Let me share an anecdote that nicely ties in with this theory, though not concerned with aftershave
On a moose hunting trip in Northern British Columbia (Canada), I once stopped in an outfitter store on the way to get some ammo, and grabbed some "scent" too. "Scent" in this context of hunting means olfactory bait, and the scent in question was ostensibly that of "moose cow in heat".
Next scene in the anecdote is 4 am way out in the bush, me and a buddy each climb a pile of left over logging trash to spot bull moose. On the way out, I lit a stick of "scent" (like an incense stick), left it a few hundred yards down the trail, and forgot all about it.
Hunting this way involves a lot of just sitting around in the dark waiting and listening, where you are left to your own thoughts. As I was sitting there, I started getting strong recollections of ABBA tunes from my youth ... Yes, that Swedish band famous in the 1970s, who made up hits like "Waterloo", "Money, Money, Money", "Dancing Queen", etc, etc. I started thinking, this was ridiculous, sitting way out in the bush, in the dark, and then be preoccupied with -- ABBA..!
After a while in this predicament, it struck me that I could vaguely sense a smell of ...
Green Apple Shampoo...! EXACTLY the way the 13-year old girls I chased smelled in the mid 1970s (who were all fans of ABBA). Then it dawned on me -- the stick of "scent" I had lit...!
And so, apparently a moose cow in heat, smells very much like a favourite teenage girl shampoo from the 1970s (or vice versa) ...

 

[Jens]

New bottle these days:

Hårsprit / Duft Fougere i 600 ml. fra Esprit de Valdemar

På Proshave kan du købe den traditionelle Fougère fra Esprit de Valdemar. Klassisk hårsprit og duft til hele kroppen!

www.proshave.dk

And it's decent. I have used it since!

I used this "Hårsprit" (hair lotion) in the early 1980s, to deal with dandruff. It was recommended to me for this purpose by an old barber, in an quintessential 1950s style barbershop in downtown Aarhus, Denmark (on the corner of Mejlgade and Sankt Olufsgade, if I recall correctly). He had had his heyday in this saloon in the 1950s, and I was introduced to him in the context of serving as an extra in the shooting of a movie supposed to take place in the 1950s (entitled "Kundskabens Træ" by Niels Malmros, for those familiar with Danish culture). This baber's 1950s skills came alive once again, as he had been hired by the movie production crew to cut the hair of some 200 extras several times in the course of shooting this movie. In the 1950s, the local soccer team AGF had its hayday too, and to him it was the local version of Real Madrid. While he was cutting hair 1950s style (and smoking cigarettes), he would go on one rant after the other about the glory of his soccer heros of the 1950s ...
This barber's saloon in Mejlgade was a fantastic cultural gem of Aarhus, a uniquely anachronistic time-pocket of 1950s barber shop culture ... Though I don't treat my scalp as harshly these days, I should get myself a bottle of "Esprit" once again ....just for the heritage collection...(and the old school smell ...)!