Well, for certain it can ruin mine if I have to be anywhere near to her (and these days, there are a fair number of guys wearing it too). For those of you who do not know what patchouli is, Wikipedia has this to say about it:

“Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth; also patchouly or pachouli) is a species from the genus Pogostemon and a bushy herb of the mint family, with erect stems, reaching two or three feet (about 0.75 metre) in height and bearing small, pale pink-white flowers. The plant is native to tropical regions of Asia, and is now extensively cultivated in China, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as West Africa.

The heavy and strong scent of patchouli has been used for centuries in perfumes, and more recently in incense, insect repellents, and alternative medicines.”

Frankly, I can’t imagine putting it in medicines because it has the power to send me straight to the hospital. It hasn’t yet. I’ve been careful and leave the vicinity of anyone wearing it as soon as I can, but you never know.

Quite some time ago (but I remember it well), I was doing my weekly shopping and was at my last stop before heading home when I turned down an aisle and smelled that familiar, and not at all pleasant to me, odor (I will not dignify it by calling it a fragrance). I immediately started looking around because when I found the source, I was going to go the other way. But I was alone in the aisle.

As I continued seeking out the items on my list, the odor became stronger and stronger and I deduced that I was following the same path as the offender. I finally “caught” up to her and I turned right around and went back the way I had come. A little later I revisited that aisle and got what I needed. That chemical lingers seemingly forever. On one occasion, the eye doctor Bernd was working with at the time did an exam on a woman wearing patchouli and her exam room smelled like that for days despite repeated and very thorough washings of the exam chair. It’s insidiously persistent.

When I have no choice but to inhale patchouli up close and personal, I start to cough immediately, my throat closes up, my eyes tear, the skin on my face and neck burn and the inside of my nose burns. I have come, on a couple of occasions, very close to being unable to continue to breathe.

The plant that produces patchouli oil does so in order to repel insects. A lot of plants produce chemicals that are intended to repel and even kill insects and in many cases, this is what makes the plant so tasty to us humans. But personally, I think I would be happy if no one ever again used patchouli for any purpose. If you just absolutely feel that you have to wear what is essentially an insect repellent, try citronella. That doesn’t give me half the trouble that patchouli does.

The Wikipedia article I looked at earlier also said that silk traders would pack their silk fabrics with patchouli leaves when they shipped them to keep moths from laying their eggs on them. So that when the silks reached the western world (chiefly Great Britain at that time), the silks smelled of patchouli and so the odor was associated with “opulence.” Dang.

I remember it was quite popular in the Sixties with the Hippies and then it died off for a while. What a relief that was. It made a resurgence some years ago and was the favored smell of individuals wanting to proclaim their inclusion in the counter culture of your choice. Unfortunately, recently it has started making its way into the mainstream. The woman that was wearing it that day was middle-aged and very normal in appearance, unlike the young Goth woman with the multiple facial piercings (well, excuse me, I guess she was normal for a Goth). As far as I could tell she wasn’t wearing any kind of fragrance at all. Good for her.

Bernd is working with a different eye doctor these days and her office manager has recently begun wearing a patchouli-based fragrance. Bernd has mentioned to her how badly it affects him (and unfortunately, he brings it home to me on his clothes and skin and in his hair). Her reply was that it was his problem. She is continuing to wear it. I’m not entirely sure what the end result of this will be.

I’m not one for restricting personal behavior and expression, but I honestly would cheer if someone made it illegal to wear patchouli in public. That will never happen because those of us so negatively affected by it are few. Still, its ‘a lovely thought.

And here is one other thought. If I knew that something I was doing was directly harming someone else, I would stop doing that thing. Or at the very least find an alternative that met the needs of everyone involved.

Courtesy of Brainy Quote