Wear an undershirt. It will protect your nice clothes from stains. Get cotton ones as it will absorb and breathe better.
If you’re a guy it will also make you look more solid. Kinda like a push up bra for dudes.
working out in cotton is hell
If you’re using antiperspirant that boasts that it lasts all day, it works by encasing the aluminium salts that make it antiperspirant in microscopic wax beads that are supposed to break open over the day as you move around. This leaves waxy stains behind that are a pain to wash out as the aluminium salts and wax protect each other from detergent and water.
What works is something acidic that will react with the aluminium salts and ideally the wax, too. I’ve had great success soaking t-shirts in water with some sulfamic acid (also available as coffee machine descaler) for a day or two. Vinegar might work, but it’ll be less effective and so take longer and need more, so will be smelly and more expensive.
They make non aluminum antiperspirants (least according to the package, I’m using Dove ones currently) that boast all day protection. Since I switched my shirts don’t get stained in the arm pits anymore.
Also found trimming armpit hair helped too.
Is the issue the stains, or smell? If it’s the former, it’s likely your antiperspirant. Switching to non-aluminum deodorant avoids stains, but won’t prevent you from sweating. There are also “non-staining” antiperspirants, but I don’t know how effective they are.
If it’s lingering smells, probably try changing laundry detergents. You can maybe also try dabbing a little baking soda on the pits of your shirts before throwing them in the wash.
Also, I’d OP lives in a hard water area they might need to use more detergent.
They can also try chucking in isopropyl alcohol, that really works well
Isopropyl ? Really ? I have a big bottle of it for cleaning electronics but I had never thought of using it on clothes
As long as it’s unscented, yes.
At work we have 99% isopropyl, but it’s intentionally smelly so we don’t accidentally cause a fire risk or whatever. At home I get 95% that isn’t smelly, and that works really well on clothes.
My Argentinian neighbour uses only alcohol and no detergent, and she doesn’t smell bad, lol.
As per the other comment, white vinegar has the same effect :-)
A little white vinegar works well too.
* white vinegar!
It’s this, aluminum based anti-perspirant creates a waxy substance on your clothes and you’ll never get it out. I use arm and hammer deodorants, it doesn’t stop the sweat but arguable you could be just causing health issues with those others anyway.
From my experience, it’s from the deodorant, not sweat itself. Not sure the fix, but I know people have had varying success with their methods.
I’ll second this. I smelled worse wearing antiperspirant than deodorant. I switched because antiperspirant gives me a rash, but it turns out i smell better with deodorant too.
Same. I kept trying stronger antiperspirant, thinking the sweat was the stink but it turned out it was the combination of antiperspirant and sweat that smelled bad. Deodorant without antiperspirant works so much better for me.
Yeah, Id always heard the yellow was sebum, but I switched to deodorant years ago and haven’t gotten pit stains since.
wear black :p
but also, do “spa day” with oxiclean and very hot water. I think some people also use ammonia? Oxiclean by itself has worked fine for me tho.
:: cries in white cat owner::
Seriously though, darker colors and modeled is better than flat black.
A couple of other people have commented on this, but no one’s fully explained the mechanism, so:
Fabric that’s petroleum-derived like polyester and most other synthetics traps odors and resists washing in ways that natural fibers don’t. Some people think this is because synthetics are less breathable than natural fibers, and while this is often the case, that’s not actually the main cause. Rather, this is because being oil-derived makes the fibers water-resistant, which keeps them from being thoroughly cleaned, and also traps body oils, resulting in food for odor-causing bacteria.
Here’s a good video explaining this in more detail, for the curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJVYTnFjiFg
Honestly, I don’t think there’s much to do about that one beyond making sure to get 100% natural fiber clothes. As a bonus, it’s often less irritating to the skin and helps reduce a major source of micro plastics.
Some antiperspirants are further much tougher to wash off and will tend to resist washing, but I don’t know the mechanism behind this one, so I can’t really advise on it, apart from saying that I’ve not encountered the issue with natural deodorants.
I also, despite being in good shape, sweat a ton. I honestly hate it, but there are much worse things to live with.
Anyways, I had the same pit stain problem as you. I found that it was my antiperspirant causing the problem. I switched away from an antiperspirant (which honestly wasn’t really helping me sweat any less anyway) to a straight deodorant (Old Spice) and the problem went away.
Getting in shape, all things being equal, makes you sweat more, not less, since you are training your body to sweat more in response to the greater thermic effect of more intense exertion.
Adding to this, It raises your metabolism so you burn hotter just generally during the day whilst doing nothing too
Well shit, time to get out of shape then. 😉
Being fat retains heat and causes sweating too so you have to be out of shape but thin.
But it isn’t cooling (eccrine) sweat that causes pit stains. It’s apocrine sweat that’s released under stress. I don’t think that increases when you get in good shape. Probably decreases with your cortisol.
I’m a big fat guy who sweats a lot. I’ve never cared about the sweat though only the smell. So my whole life I’ve used nothing but deodorant, NEVER antiperspirant.
I’ve never had problems with either pit stains, nor lingering odor. I’m pretty convinced that antiperspirant leads to more smell; I’m not saying I’m fresh as a daisy at all times, but even at my worst, my odor isn’t that bad, while drier people often stink to high heaven.
despite being in good shape, sweat a ton. I honestly hate it, but there are much worse things to live with.
I used to be this way, using a sauna daily massively reduced how much I sweat.
Really? I sweat so much quicker since going to a sauna regularly. Though it’s nowhere near daily
Interesting! how often do you go?
I do daily, 85c for 20 minutes. The after about 2 months i noticeably sweat less out in the heat.
Old spice is The Best.
Old spice has given me chemical burns so YMMV
Something I learned recently that I anecdotally believe based on my own experience is that synthetics get smellier faster, trap body odor and enable some types of odor producing bacteria to grow better than most natural fibers which I found interesting as all the exercise materials that are marketed as breathing better are synthetic or blends. I am not certain if there is a specific way to clean these materials to to avoid that but I have always found that if anything starts to smell ensuring that I hang it outside and let the UV go to work always helps but I am in Australia so our UV punches above many other parts of the world from what I have been told.
I just wear my synthetic workout clothes into the shower every day, hang them up, and I get several uses out of them before they start to smell and need to get properly laundered. Synthetic dries quickly, there’s no reason not to just give it a rinse every time you use it. Other than starting to smell faster, it’s vastly superior in performance to hydrophilic fibers like cotton. Only thing better is wool, but that requires cruelty, violence, and other abuses of vulnerable individuals.
A human buying antiperspirant is like Superman buying kryptonite. Sweating is one of our biggest super powers. Learn to love it. Shower before you work out, and you won’t stink.
Sorry, this is more about some of the comments than OP, who never mentioned stinking.
Mix oxyclean with washing soda and soak your shirts in it for a few hours before putting them in the washing machine with Gain detergent.
I’m going to second the undershirts. They also prevent the wet spots on your good shirt.
Also, Old Spice, the blue gel stick not the powdery stuff, has been the only thing that actually keeps the sweating down.
I enjoyed the OS scent, used the white bars and got stains. Tried their blue gel and my arms break out in nasty rashes. Real bummer.
Sometimes I get the rash too. But at least they’re dry rashes.
Better detergent. If you are not sure which, just try a few out until you find one that works. For me it was ariel powder that really made a difference (also easy to store and lasts a while)
My top tips:
Wash or at least rinse the garments as soon after getting them sweaty as you can.
Wash them with actually dirty clothes if possible. The dirt particles will absorb smell and act as an abrasive on the stains. If your clothes are generally too clean for this, use an oxy powder additive which will achieve the same effect.
Also: consider going without deodorant and antiperspirant and just use some isopropyl alcohol or similar to kill the bacteria in your armpits as needed; this results in less smell and less junk in your sweat to clean out of your shirts.
Lastly: wearing a technical shirt when working out will mean less sweat actually adhering to the fabric, making cleaning easier.
My “wicking” shirts are the ones that smell the worst, even after washing.
I bought a specific detergent for removing odors from sports clothes, but i can’t say if it works…
I have never heard about this technique before. Is it better for the skin/health or worse? We use it on our hands all the time, so I guess it would be fine.
Does it damage the clothes or keep them in tip-top shape?
Have you been doing it for a long time?
I presume you’re talking about the isopropyl? Doesn’t seem to damage the clothes at all; dries out the skin a bit, which isn’t generally an issue for armpits. I’ve been doing it for around 20 years.
Interesting, thanks!
Quick question about isopropyl alcohol : how do you apply it uniformly to your armpit ? With a cloth ? Does it need to be drenched ? Or just scoop it with your hand ? Or with a water spray ? And how long does it last before you need to reapply ?
I use a spray bottle, but have also applied with a cloth with a tablespoon or so poured onto it. Spray works better as it gets past armpit hair.
First few times, you’ll need to reapply a few times per day; eventually the bacteria that smells will be gone, at which point once a day will likely be enough.
Oh wow I had no idea about the persisting bacteria (and the need to spray more frequently at first), I naively thought that soap completely cleanses the area and that new bacteria would come from inside the pores or something. Have you noticed any side effects of using the alcohol ? Like drier skin or something (I know strange question regarding an area that’s constantly wet lol)
In any case thanks for the advice, have a wonderful day !
Yeah; the skin is a bit drier, but as you say, that’s generally not an issue for armpits.
Soap binds to oil and water, so it’s great for stripping oil any anything on/in the oil from your skin. But there’s lots of bacteria and fungi on your skin/in your pores that soap won’t get rid of. A lot of them are beneficial, so we don’t want to disturb them, but armpits generally get over-colonized by smelly varieties.
What are your current laundry methods, i.e., what sort of detergents do you use? Do you wash on warm or cold? Do you know the hardness of your water?
Most of the time when it comes to odor sticking on clothing related to exercise it’s strongly related to the fibers of those cloths. The geometry of polyester fibers often used in athletic wear is known to hold on to oils and other body junk.
Generally, there are three factors that go into successfully washing clothing experiencing these problems.
- Adequate detergents. You want something with good surfactants to capture and lift away soils, and enzymes of the right types that will help break down difficult soils into smaller molecules that the surfactants can better manage.
- Temperature. Just as cold water will have a hard time washing away butter and oils from your dishes, cold water in your laundry is gonna have a more difficult time to wash away oils in your clothing. It’s a common misconception that warm in your laundry is bad for clothes. In reality, in the US anyway, most warm settings on washing machines are only around 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot settings are usually barely reaching the 100 degree mark, so both of these are in line with your own body temperature as you’re wearing the things. If the care tags on your garments say they can handle warm or hot washes, definitely do so. Things that may say cold can probably tolerate warm, too, given the temperature is really not that hot at all.
- Time. Surfactants and enzymes need time to work. If your wash time is brief, or you’re using a speed wash setting on your washer, you may not be giving enough time to let the chemicals do their work.
In regards to detergents, in the US, probably the best thing you can get is powdered Tide or Gain. These products includes a good surfactant system, a complete enzyme package, and oxygen bleach all in one. You don’t really need anything more than that.
If you’re using liquids, there are more options but also limitations. Again, Tide is probably the best as far as surfactants go but all liquids are going to be missing the other components. Certain enzymes don’t like to live in a solution with water so they are missing from almost all formulations. Oxygen bleach is activated by water so by definition it can’t be in a liquid product. In these cases you can use a booster product. OxiClean is a common one for just the oxygen bleach but it lacks enzymes. There’s another product called Biz that you can find at Walmart and Meijer stores for very cheap. It’s like seven bucks and has all of the oxygen bleach and enzymes you need.
TL;DR: wash in warm water for a longer time, and add Biz booster powder to your liquid detergent.
