World’s smelliest man has gone 38 years without bathing

Kailash Singh, 66, says he won't bathe or cut his hair until he has a son

Kailash Singh works all day tending cattle in heat that sometimes reaches 47 C, but at the end of the day he doesn't shower to cool down or get the sweat off. In fact, he hasn't showered in 38 years and is considered by many to be the world's smelliest man although Guinness won't give out an award in the category.

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The 66-year-old farmer, who lives near the holy city of Varanasi in the northwest part of India, stopped showering and cutting his hair in 1974 shortly after he got married on advice from a priest. The holy man guaranteed him a son if he stopped showering, according to the Daily Mail. Now 38 years later, Singh has six-foot long dreadlocks from his head, a beard, seven daughters but no son. Even though it's unlikely he and his 60-year-old wife will be able to have their first son now, he's still holding out hope and won't shower.

Yes, he still has a wife, but she doesn't like his hygiene choices and neither do his daughters. His wife has threatened to stop sleeping in the same bed as him if he didn't bathe. She and the daughters once tried to force him into a stream, but he fought them off. When they try to force him into a shower he puts up a huge fuss.

"He says he'd rather die than take a bath and only a son could change his mind," said his wife, Kalavati Devi, in the Daily Mail article. "It has been so many years now I've got used to it."

It isn't just his family that is bothered. Neighbours make fun of him and village children tease him, but he says they don't understand his decision.

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He does use water to wash his face and hands and every evening takes what he calls a "fire bath" that apparently involves smoking marijuana, praying to the Hindu Lord Shiva and dancing around a bonfire. We're not sure if he manages to do this without breaking a sweat, but he said the "fire bath" is enough to get rid of the smell.

"I have no son, so I will never wash again," he said to the Daily Mail. "Maybe when I am born again I will wash."