Why Do My Ears Smell of Cheese?

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I remember, when growing up, that on tv kid's mothers would often say 'make sure you wash behind your ears'. But my mother never did, and I kind of thought it was jsut one of those fussy unnecessary things that some mothers were convinced they had to do. So I never bothered washing behind my ears, and I never thought anything of it, until one day I happened to rub my finger behind my ear and then, for some reason, sniff it. And my finger smelt of nasty cheese. So after that I started washing behind my ears, during my morning shower, but at the end of every day I'd check, and the cheese smell would be back. Is this normal? Is this why kids were always told to wash behind their ears? If so, how come I never heard about it? The behind-ears cheese smell never got mentioned once among my classmates. Maybe it's just me who has ears that smell of cheese, but if that's the case, why would mothers chastise their children for not washing behind their ears?

― sdau, Sunday, 1 January 2006 00:20 (nineteen years ago)

lesson learned the hard way, cheddar

― gear (gear), Sunday, 1 January 2006 00:34 (nineteen years ago)

If so, how come I never heard about it?

but you did hear about it.

― cutty (mcutt), Sunday, 1 January 2006 00:35 (nineteen years ago)

maybe he's hard of hearing on account of his ears being all filled with feta

― gear (gear), Sunday, 1 January 2006 00:35 (nineteen years ago)

"but you did hear about it."

I heard that you should wash behind your ears, but I didn't hear that there was any specific reason to do so - the avoidance of cheese smell. Otherwise I would have done it.

― sdau, Sunday, 1 January 2006 00:39 (nineteen years ago)

GET DAT CHEDDA YO!

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Sunday, 1 January 2006 00:40 (nineteen years ago)

im sorry ive left my captain's wafers back there

― kephm (kephm), Sunday, 1 January 2006 00:41 (nineteen years ago)

i'd think washing one's hair would result in collateral cleaning of the area behind the ears.

― gear (gear), Sunday, 1 January 2006 00:43 (nineteen years ago)

christ, did you not wash your hair?

― gear (gear), Sunday, 1 January 2006 00:43 (nineteen years ago)

but I didn't hear that there was any specific reason to do so - the avoidance of cheese smell

why do you wash any part of your body? the avoidance of cheese smell.

― cutty (mcutt), Sunday, 1 January 2006 00:43 (nineteen years ago)

hey i smell like beans lets make a human burrito

― howell huser (chaki), Sunday, 1 January 2006 00:49 (nineteen years ago)

Ewww.

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Sunday, 1 January 2006 09:26 (nineteen years ago)

All these stupid answers how old are these people? I am very extreme when it comes to keeping ones self clean and I have always had the same thing.

― Val, Friday, 13 January 2006 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

How extreme?

― C J (C J), Friday, 13 January 2006 13:43 (nineteen years ago)

This thread is gross.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 13 January 2006 13:46 (nineteen years ago)

the answer to the original question might be that it's a low-level yeast infection.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 13 January 2006 13:46 (nineteen years ago)

So it could be Marmite, rather than cheese?

― C J (C J), Friday, 13 January 2006 13:47 (nineteen years ago)

Ditto what teeny said. I get sore crusties back there if I'm not scrupulous, and sometimes even when I am. It clears up with antifungal cream. It's a humid spot if you have long hair, I suppose that's the explanation. Or it's externalizing brain-rot.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Friday, 13 January 2006 23:14 (nineteen years ago)

"All these stupid answers how old are these people?"

― Confounded (Confounded), Saturday, 14 January 2006 00:06 (nineteen years ago)

That WAS rather harsh, somewhat like her scrubbing ritual.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 14 January 2006 00:54 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

look up the word 'ear cheese' in google. go to the urban dictionary.
it states that the white stuff that is produced in large ear holes (from ear rings) is partly created by shampoo residue.
try, when you wash your hair, reallllly taking care of rinsing behind your ears
i know its talking about earrings, but what've you go to lose?
try it out

― the guy with the info, Monday, 1 May 2006 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

Are you saying I don't rinse well enough? I WILL FIGHT YOU!!!!!!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 01:11 (nineteen years ago)

There is an awful cheese smell just like you'd get behind your ears in your bellybutton too if you don't wash it religiously. Yeech. It's nasty. I wash both parts well everyday; well...I wash all parts daily really. I asked a doctor about it and its something about sebaceous secretions or other equally horrid thing.

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 01:22 (nineteen years ago)

ear-cheese-away
ear-cheese-away http://brightlight.youngteam.co.uk/eng/index.php ear-cheese-away

― erving, Tuesday, 2 May 2006 08:00 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

Wow! This heat and humidity provoke a huge ear-eczema explosion, quelled with two days' of antifungal cream application. Just so you know

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 5 August 2006 13:38 (nineteen years ago)

four years pass...

I have the same problem, I tried almost everything to soap the back of my ears yet at the end of the day it still smells cheese, then I used this feminine hygiene wash which has a ph level of 3.5 and voila the smell is gone. You should try it too. Thanks!

― me4u1962, Friday, 6 August 2010 01:01 (fifteen years ago)

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