# Fragrance Free Confusion

The situation in the contra dance world with "fragrance free" is a mess. Many dances have very strict policies, but they don't emphasize them. Which means they're not dances that work for people who need the strict policies, but at the same time are putting attentive and careful people through a lot of work in avoiding common scented products.

For example, if you look at the [Concord Thursday homepage](https://www.neffa.org/thursday-contras/) or [FB event](https://www.facebook.com/events/859207717052177/) there's no mention of a fragrance policy. At the end of their [Code of Conduct](https://www.neffa.org/thursday-night-contras-at-the-scout-house-code-of-conduct/), however, there's:

> Consider: We are a fragrance free event. Please do not wear scented products.

This isn't just asking people not to wear perfume or cologne: products not explicitly marketed as "fragrance free" generally have at least some scent. Trying to pick some very ordinary products that don't mention that they're scented on the front, when I read the ingredients they all list both "fragrance" and several scented ingredients (camphor, limonene, benzyl salicylate, etc):

[Classic Original ChapStick](https://www.amazon.com/Chapstick-305730701402-Balm-for-Lips/dp/B07GVVLSG3/) [![](https://www.jefftk.com/chapstic-original.jpg)](https://www.jefftk.com/chapstic-original-big.jpg)

[Amazon Basics Conditioner](https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Basics-Sleek-Conditioner-Damaged/dp/B09HHGVGQB/) [![](https://www.jefftk.com/amazon-basics-conditioner.jpg)](https://www.jefftk.com/amazon-basics-conditioner-big.jpg)

[Amazon Basics Liquid Hand Soap](https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Basics-Gentle-Liquid-Triclosan-Free/dp/B09HHDGQKD/) [![](https://www.jefftk.com/amazon-basics-hand-soap.jpg)](https://www.jefftk.com/amazon-basics-hand-soap-big.jpg)

I'm not trying to pick on this one dance; it's common to have a policy like this without being explicit that the dance is asking everyone who attends to go out and buy new shampoo. Take the JP dance, which has, on [their homepage](https://www.lcfd.org/jp.html):

> [These Dances are Fragrance Free](http://www.hatds.org/fragrance-free.php) \- please do not wear perfume, cologne, or other scented products, as some of our dancers are chemically sensitive, and experience discomfort when exposed to these materials.

This suggests that by "scented products" they mean "things you wear specifically to give you a scent, but clicking through it's clear that they don't allow mainstream soaps, shampoos, deodorants, etc.

Some others I just checked:

*   [Concord Monday](http://mondaycontras.com/): "please avoid the use of scented body or laundry products."
*   [Concord Challenging](https://challcontra.weebly.com/): "We are a fragrance free event."
*   [Amherst](http://amherstcontra.org/Amherst_Contradance/Home.html): "This is a fragrance-free and substance-free event. Please refrain from wearing scented products."
*   [Quiet Corner](https://www.hcdance.org/quiet-corner-contra/): "Our dances are smoke-, alcohol-, and fragrance-free."

One thing to keep in mind with these restrictions is that the impact is partially along racial lines. It's much easier to find fragrance-free products for white-typical hair; people with tightly curled or coiled hair are going to have a much harder time. Fragrance free products for these hair types do exist, but it's a significant investment to find them and figure out what works for your particular hair. There's also an interaction between race and culture, where in some communities, disproportionately black and hispanic ones, wearing scents is just a normal part of being clean. A lot of communities with these policies also worry about why their dance community is so much whiter than the area, and while I don't think this is a major contributor I also doubt it helps.

I've [raised this issue before](https://www.jefftk.com/p/beantown-stomp-low-fragrance), but it didn't seem to have an effect, so I'm going to try a different approach of suggesting a range of alternative approaches that I think would be much better:

*   Say "fragrance free" and mean it. Include it in all your publicity the same way you would "mask required". Spell out what this means in terms of how to find products. I don't know any dances taking this approach.
    
*   Say something like "no perfume or cologne: don't wear products intended to give you a scent". This is the approach [Beantown Stomp](https://www.beantownstomp.com/) has [taken](https://www.jefftk.com/p/beantown-stomp-low-fragrance).
    
*   Don't have a policy, accept that most people will show up having used scented products and a few will show up strongly scented. This is the approach [BIDA uses](https://www.bidadance.org/accessibility#fragrances).
    

I normally try pretty hard to follow rules, but this is one I dont' fully follow. My impression is that few attendees are taking the policy literally, and I don't think they actually mean that I shouldn't attend if I washed my hands after using the bathroom at a gas station on the drive over. I don't like this situation, however, and I think, as with [speed limits people are used to ignoring](https://www.jefftk.com/p/introduce-a-speed-maximum), this approach is corrosive to the important norms around respecting policies. If you currently have a simple "fragrance free" somewhere on your website, consider one of the alternatives I suggested above?

EDIT: there's some discussion around what fraction of the population needs this kind of policy, with someone linking a [CDSS document](https://cdss.org/wp-content/uploads/resources/ccs-toolkit/CCS-Toolkit-Part-7a.pdf) which says "chemical sensitivity is an invisible disability that affects around 30% of the population". I realized I have some relevant data on this: when I used to organize Beantown Stomp we had a "low fragrance" policy:

> Some dancers are sensitive to fragrances, so we'd like to keep this a low-fragrance environment. Please don't wear perfume, cologne, body spray, or other products intended to give you a scent. If your shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, or laundry detergent are mildly scented, however, that's ok.

On the registration form we asked dancers to choose one of:

1.  I can't come without this policy
2.  I don't need this personally, but I'm not going to wear scents
3.  I'm not sure what this means, or I don't think I can do this, please email me

In 2020, 3% of dancers chose (a), 97% chose (b), and no one chose (c). This isn't the same as polling on a true fragrance free policy, but I would expect to see an even *larger* discrepancy there, where most people who would benefit from a "fragrance free" policy are covered by policies prohibiting "products intended to give you a scent".

*Comment via: [facebook](https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/pfbid0BPcdW94EVV53sy8yFgWaayWkSRLDxBwHB6kzufiM8FSioGqDT7AsWBQKnM7Ctyfsl), [lesswrong](https://lesswrong.com/posts/WgnESZCsZ7eaQudMr), [mastodon](https://mastodon.mit.edu/@jefftk/115381542302439685), [bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/jefftk.com/post/3m3bqejpsc22a)*