Vabbing: What it is and how it works
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Created with Nataliia Yermolovych, MD, Obstetrician-Gynecologist
Vabbing, or vagina dabbing, is the art of applying a few dabs of your vaginal secretions to pulse points around your body to act as a natural perfume. Doing so supposedly makes you more attractive to potential suitors who get a whiff of your vaginal fluid.
The trend went viral on social media as users tried vabbing to attract potential partners. According to TikTok, vabbing before a workout is a great way to get your workout buddies lusting after you. The trend has caused a stir as some social media users became cynical about the viral claims.
When it comes to TikTok made me do it crazes, vabbing is one of the more controversial topics. Vabbing, meaning vagina dabbing, relies on your natural vag perfume to attract potential lovers, enticing their senses with a flurry of what’s to come. Vabbing brings your sexual aroma forward, offering strangers a sneaky sniff at your sexual parts in the hopes of attracting a date.
While some users claim vabbing helped them attract dates and attention, others think the practice is unhygienic and unlikely to work. There is little science to back up the practice, but there’s no harm in giving vabbing a go as long as you practice good hygiene.
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What is vabbing?
Vabbing uses vaginal secretions as a natural perfume in hopes of attracting a partner.
To do this, all you need to do is dab a few drops of your vaginal fluid on your wrists and neck, mimicking how you wear perfume. The idea is that the alluring scent of your vaginal fluids will be released slowly over time, captivating the interests of those around you.
Though vabbing has just recently struck social media, it has existed on the fringes of society for decades. Vabbing first made its way into pop culture in Tom Robbin’s 1976 book Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. It has since experienced a pop culture renaissance on TikTok.
Your vaginal secretions offer lubrication and help keep the area clean. Vabbing provides another opportunity for your vaginal discharge to show off. Just as eco-conscious cleaners will tell you white vinegar works for everything, apparently so do vaginal secretions.
Does vabbing work?
Vabbing enthusiasts claim the practice works by sharing one’s natural pheromones to attract a mate. Pheromones are a natural chemical found in animals that send signals to others of the same species.
We know pheromones play an important role in mating and hierarchy in the animal world, but their place within human society is less understood. A 2012 research review published in the Journal of Advanced Research found that only weak, uncontrolled studies concluded that human pheromones impacted human reproduction and arousal.
A 2015 article published in Proceedings Of The Royal Society B concluded that we don’t even know if humans have pheromones. With scientists struggling to agree, it’s unclear whether there’s much point in using vaginal discharge as a natural perfume.
One reason people think vabbing works is that so many videos on social media tell them it does. Consider, however, that if a person thinks vabbing hasn’t worked, they’re less likely to make a video about it. As a result, the internet is full of positive anecdotes about vabbing.
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Vabbing benefits
While a quick search on social media will throw up many videos of people claiming to have successfully used vabbing to secure a date, this isn’t exactly scientific. Anecdotal stories are great, but they don’t mean vabbing works. However, there are numerous benefits to vabbing, including:
1. It’s an all-natural, chemical-free perfume
According to scores of social media users, vabbing helped them attract love interests and secure dates. Relying on your natural vagina perfume has the benefit of reducing your reliance on manmade perfumes, not to mention your carbon footprint.
You might be interested to know that a review published in the Journal of Environmental Health Science & Engineering found that pollutants commonly found in synthetic perfumes are associated with asthma, cardiovascular disease, reproductive problems, and certain cancers. Reducing your use of synthetic perfumes can only be a good thing; plus, it’ll save you money.
2. It’ll boost your body confidence
For too long, women have been told they should be embarrassed about their bodies. Companies told women they needed to use vaginal douches and synthetic perfumes specifically designed to hide their natural smell. All of this adds to the shame that capitalism has encouraged women to feel about their natural bodies.
Vabbing might seem left-field, but it’s great to see women celebrating their natural bodies.
3. It might boost your sexual confidence
If I gave you a pill and told you it would make you irresistible to potential lovers, you might feel more confident after taking it. Sometimes, you need to believe your own hype. While there might not be much science to back up vabbing, it’s possible that the increased confidence from vabbing makes a person more attractive to others.
How do you vab: Safety and hygiene considerations
Vabbing involves bodily fluids, so it’s crucial to follow good hygiene practices when taking part in this social media trend. Here’s how to vab:
- Find a private place. If you’re vabbing before a gym visit, you’ll need a lockable changing room to guarantee your privacy.
- Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. Placing unwashed hands in or near the vagina has the potential to introduce harmful bacteria, which could lead to infection.
- Using your index finger, collect some vaginal fluid. Depending on your anatomy, the amount of discharge you produce, and where you are in your menstrual cycle, you’ll either need to wipe near your vaginal opening or inset a clean finger to gather some fluid.
- Dab the fluid on pulse points around your body. You may want to start with your wrists and neck, though some women also like to place perfume behind their ears.
- Wash your hands thoroughly again.
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Is there anyone who shouldn’t try it
Vabbing could be considered a great equalizer as it’s suitable for anyone with a vagina, and has the potential to benefit everyone who comes near. However, you might want to pass on vabbing if you notice smelly discharge and other signs of infection. It’s worth getting checked out by your healthcare provider if you have symptoms of a sexually transmitted infection or irritation down there.
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common infection associated with smelly discharge. You should be treated for BV before vabbing. Symptoms of BV include:
- A change to the color and consistency of your vaginal discharge (it may appear thinner, watery, and grey-white, for example).
- Fishy-smelling vaginal discharge.
The good news is that BV is usually treated easily with prescription medication. If you think you might have a BV infection, make an appointment to see your doctor.
Vabbing at the gym
TikTok users applauded the benefits of vabbing at the gym, meaning they applied vaginal fluid as a perfume before a workout to appeal to their fellow gym-goers. One supposed advantage of doing this before a workout is that a gym is a buffet of bodily scents, so you can get away with it. Arguably, that might mean it’s harder for other gym bunnies to pick out your scent amongst the overpowering swathes of sweaty feet.
Is there anything else you can try for a similar effect
Yes, existing pheromone products claim to help attract potential dates. However, as we’ve already seen, science is still out on whether human pheromones even exist, let alone their role in human attraction.
So, while you could part with your hard-earned cash for pheromone products, including sprays, pills, and creams, there are no guaranteed results. Fans of vabbing would argue it’s better to save your money and use your natural vagina perfume instead.
Vagina perfume: The concept of scent and attraction
The idea of using pheromones for human attraction is nothing new. People have been looking for ways to use these signaling chemicals in their dating lives since the discovery of pheromones. We know that pheromones play an important role in animal reproduction, but scientists have been unable to prove a similar link for humans.
While it is a neat theory, little evidence supports the idea that pheromones influence human attraction. That’s no reason not to try vabbing if you want to, but know that the real impact is likely to be a confidence boost rather than animal magnetism.
Question from the Femia community
Is vabbing safe?
Yes, vabbing is perfectly safe. The only risk comes when you gather the vaginal fluid, so make sure to wash your hands thoroughly both before and after touching your vagina.
Your hands come into contact with some pretty gross germs throughout the day. Germs are invisible, of course, so you can’t see them, but they’re not the kind of thing you'd want to introduce to your vagina. Introducing the wrong types of bacteria to your vagina could cause irritation and infection, so don’t skip the vital hand-washing stages of vabbing.
Can vabbing be practiced discreetly?
Yes, of course! As long as you don’t fall into the common trap of making a TikTok about your experiences, nobody will know you’ve tried vabbing. Vabbing aims to give a hint of your natural scent, not to soak yourself in vaginal fluid, so it shouldn’t be an overpowering smell. A little goes a long way when it comes to vaginal perfume.
Are there any scientific studies on vabbing's effectiveness?
Do you count TikTok user anecdotes as hard science? If not, then no; sadly, there are no scientific studies to back up the claims of die-hard vabbers. The lack of science will rightly make you skeptical of the trend. After all, it’s a risk to douse yourself in vaginal fluid without a safety net of peer reviewers telling you it’s ok.
The only way around it is to conduct your own definitely-not-peer-reviewed study yourself. Try vabbing and see if it makes a difference in your life. As long as you practice vabbing hygienically, there’s no risk to vabbing, so you’ll be able to safely see for yourself whether vabbing increases attraction.
The bottom line
While vabbing may have won the hearts of social media users, it has yet to convince the scientific community. Is that a reason to eschew this viral trend? No! You can have a stab at vabbing if you like; just don’t expect guaranteed results.
As long as you ensure proper hygiene, there are unlikely to be negative consequences to your vabbing. Let your natural scent flourish and save yourself a few bucks.
References
- Taymour Mostafa, Ghada El Khouly, Ashraf Hassan, Pheromones in sex and reproduction: Do they have a role in humans? Journal of Advanced Research, Volume 3, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 1-9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jare.2011.03.003.
- Wyatt, Trimstam D (2015) The search for human pheromones: the lost decades and the necessity of returning to first principlesProc. R. Soc. B.28220142994 http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2994.
- Kazemi, Zahra et al. “Evaluation of pollutants in perfumes, colognes and health effects on the consumer: a systematic review.” Journal of Environmental Health Science & Engineering vol. 20,1 589-598. 3 Feb. 2022, doi:10.1007/s40201-021-00783-x https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9163252/.
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