Teenagers rejoice! Wearing jeans for three months without washing them doesn't make them smell worse

For those who dread the weekly trip to the laundrette, researchers have some good news - wearing a pair of jeans for months without washing them won't result in you being shunned by scent-sensitive friends.

A team of 30 volunteers in Australia agreed to wear a pair of denims five days a week for three months without going anywhere near a washing machine.

And when the well-worn garments were put to the smell test, researchers came up with a sweet-smelling discovery - the jeans didn't actually smell that bad.

Common scents: Melbourne researcher Tullia Jack believes jeans don't need to be washed regularly

Melbourne University student Tullia Jack, who devised the experiment for her Masters thesis, concluded: 'You really don't need to wash clothes as often as you think. Stains come and go, they just wear off.

Miss Jack acknowledged that some of the garments did show evidence of spills, from motor oil to tuna, but did not smell 'socially challenging'.

'They just smell like people,' she told Australian website news.com.au.

The jeans were donated by a local label and the volunteers - equally split between men and women - ranged in age from 18 to 56. They were regularly interviewed during the three-month test.

Miss Jack also discovered that men appeared more conscious of their own odor and went to extra lengths to make sure undergarments were clean - which perhaps explains why their jeans were no more pungent than female volunteers.

Don't overdo it: The experiment found that unwashed jeans did not smell - even after being worn for months (Posed by model)

And while many longed to throw their jeans in the wash at some point, by the end of the experiment half were content to continue wearing their garments without a visit to the laundrette.

Miss Jack believes her experiment could have an impact on the environment. She believes the volunteers saved thousands of litres of water and electricity and detergent consumption by not washing their jeans.