What's with hippies and patchouli?

Sarah posted a thread earlier (in chate) from another message board. In it, a young lady was complaining that her boss had taken her aside and told her that she smells foul. She admits that she has a "natural body smell", I imagine because she does not shower everyday. She also eschews deoderant and all scents except for patchouli.

Now, how the hell did patchouli become the official scent of these people? It's frankly a poor choice - it smells bad and it's strong, and does not mingle well with the scent of body odor, unwashed clothes and stale weed smoke. Yet somehow, it's an olfactory icon of the hippie subculture. Does anyone know why?

Disclaimer: My parents were original recipe hippies, as in they actually were part of the group of young people that moved from the Midwest to California in the late 60s / early 70s to listen to music, live 20 to a house, do drugs and live off welfare while raging against The Man. Whether the patchouli thing was common then or a product of the various neo-hippies that have come after, I don't know. I could ask them but their memories about those days aren't so clear due to: they were hippies.

If there was a hippie role-playing game, patchouli's stats would look like this:

• It's popularly used in East Asian incense (Oriental Scent, Increase Hippie Lore).
• It allegedly has insect repellent properties (Body Funk, +1 Resist Insect Attack).
• It's used for a variety of folk medicine purposes (Alternative Medicine, Hit Point Recovery Boost).

It covers up the smell of pot (allegedly), so people won't realize how recently you've smoked up (allegedly).

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Originally posted by Orual

It covers up the smell of pot (allegedly), so people won't realize how recently you've smoked up (allegedly).

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Basically this. Weed and patchouli aren't that different of a smell, so if you smell like weed all the time nobody knows if you're high or just a dirty shitbag hippie.

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Originally posted by Orual

It covers up the smell of pot (allegedly), so people won't realize how recently you've smoked up (allegedly).

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Originally posted by Cluricaun

Basically this. Weed and patchouli aren't that different of a smell, so if you smell like weed all the time nobody knows if you're high or just a dirty shitbag hippie.

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But how does that explain all the New Age-y patchouli lovers who don't smoke pot? I can't speak for all of the hippies out there, but I know my mother and sister for a fact don't smoke and they adore the stuff.

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Originally posted by Orual

It covers up the smell of pot (allegedly), so people won't realize how recently you've smoked up (allegedly).

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Originally posted by Cluricaun

Basically this. Weed and patchouli aren't that different of a smell, so if you smell like weed all the time nobody knows if you're high or just a dirty shitbag hippie.

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Yeah, but to me it's so closely associated with pot-smoking hippies that it might as well be the same smell. "Patchouli smell" is right up there with "laser Floyd at the planetarium" on the list of things that aren't a 100% guarantee of pot consumption, but are pretty damn close.

Hey, I never smoked pot at a Floyd Laser show. OK, I did a little acid, but never pot (at a show).

Patchouli seems to be more recent. My sister's crowd with the patched up jeans and hanging out and smoking in the early 70s never used the stuff that I know of. But Cherry Incense and the like were extremely popular. It too was suppose to mask the smell of pot. To the point where many older people (my parents generation) thought pot smelled like incense.

I think Patchouli came from the Dead Heads though rather than Hippies in general. I have no real basis for this belief though, just knowing where I first encountered the unpleasant odor. This was back in the mid-80s.

I've never smoked pot, but I have been to a Floyd laser show.

I'm not sure what that proves...

I have smoked pot and frequent laser Floyd shows.... and am told on a regular basis that i'm a hippie and I HATE the smell of patchouli!

I have this feeling I should be glad I have no idea what patchouli smells of.

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Originally posted by CatInASuit

I have this feeling I should be glad I have no idea what patchouli smells of.

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Yeah, I've heard of it, but don't think I've ever smelled it. Or if I did, I didn't know what it was. Probably just as well.

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Originally posted by hippie

I have smoked pot and frequent laser Floyd shows.... and am told on a regular basis that i'm a hippie and I HATE the smell of patchouli!

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Can you define the smell? I would go with rancid chemical smell. But that is a terrible description.

I'd say it's more of a musty, woodsy sort of smell. I don't actually hate it in small doses

Yeah I haven't a notion either what it is. In fact I don't know if I've ever met an actual hippie.