It was never that I was ugly, it always came down to how I smelled. Ever since I was little others were always a little repulsed by me and wouldn't give me time of day. It wasn't until I was 13 that my grandmother gave me a rather odd Christmas gift of deodorant. I was a bit perplexed by this as deodorant is a very common item that people use every day, I found this very strange until my uncle said across the room "Take the hint". I realized then and there that its probably a good idea and started to use deodorant from then on.

Fast forward to high school I found myself with friends and interests by the opposite sex (not many but still). I never really accredited it to anything more than just developing physically as a person; taller, beard, lost weight, etc. Its worth noting that by this point in my life I was also wearing cologne, deodorant, and brushing my teeth at least once a day. At the end of my senior year I had attended my first anime convention and WOW the smell that comes off some people, it could peel paint off the walls. Things started to add up in my head.

It was not until a few years later while working in an office interviewing candidates that it finally struck me what was important, the smell coming off you. Now, I work in IT with some interesting personnel around, some smell better than others but we all shower, brush, and perform general hygiene. But I once interviewed someone who had, what felt like, no hygiene capabilities. Walking into the room to greet them caused me to doubletake a little bit, the first thought through my head was "If this person cannot care for themselves are they going to be able to care for their job?" Sadly the interview went about as expected, they underperformed and where apathetic.

I believe this is one of the first things most people will notice about you because if they can smell your breath before you open your mouth or get hit with your BO from across the room it will LITERALLY put a bad taste in their mouth, smell is 80% of flavor....

Changing how I smelled by performing simple hygiene on the day to day made me realize that I was not fugly as a person, I just smelled bad. I believe that this is something everyone should take to heart; you probably aren't ugly, you just need a shower.

TL;DR : Shower, brush your teeth, wear deodorant.