Submitted 3 weeks ago by FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world to [deleted]
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.
Well shit, time to get out of shape then. 😉
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.
Old spice is The Best.
Old spice has given me chemical burns so YMMV
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.
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 stink. 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 out stains since.
Wear an undershirt. It will protect your nice clothes from stains. Get cotton ones as it will absorb and breath 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
My advise is to wear undershirts. Even the tank top ones will make a big difference in keeping your shirts clean.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Vinegar and sodium bicarbonate, scrub a little and throw it in the washing machine. Let it rest for about 15 minutes before start washing.
OMG no, no NO!
Baking soda and vinegar mixed together do fucking NOTHING to clean anything! It never has and it never will! You make carbon dioxide gas and sodium acetate. Neither of which do dick for cleaning.
Stop fucking telling people to do this, it is 100% worthless!
If you want to do anything, buy some sodium percarbonate powder and add that to your laundry. It’s the active ingredient of so-called “oxygen bleach”. Sodium percarbonate is good at removing stains and yellowing from white clothes and helping to take the stink out of smelly laundry.
Either that or just spend a little more money on quality laundry detergent. Plain old Tide works quite well for most people. If you have a top load washer, set it so that it fills the tub to the max. Front loaders and super eco-friendly washers are fine for most people, but for those that work outside or do dirty things for a living, you need more water and soap to get your stuff clean.
But the foam makes it seem like something is happening!
ahahhahaha. all you did was a volcano experiment ahahaha
I don’t know but im now going to read to see if anyone has good tips.
The trick is not to wait until the end of the week to do it all during laundry day.
If your nice dress shirt got sweat on it during the day, best to wash it immediately when you get home.
Quit all that working out nonsense
HA.
Probably should, but there’s something magical about being 45, posting up on bench next to the broccoli heads, and putting them to shame. It’s addicting.
*addictive. It’s an adjective not a verb. Roid head
I rub a bit of detergent in trouble spots when I take my clothes off. Works really well with blood too.
I also switched to a deodorant that doesn’t leave marks on my clothes.
The Hyper Fixed podcast has an episode about this called “The Pits.”
TL;DL (iirc) don’t let stains set by letting dirty laundry sit for a long time is probably the most important. Don’t use a dryer. Try different solutions to pre-treat (vinegar/baking soda+water/dish soap).
I’ll give that a try. Thank you!
How does your washing machine work? A standard cycle with mine takes 3 1/2 hours, and after so much soaking at 30C, even my workout t-shirts smell fine.
They’re pretty basic. I live in a condo building so I use the little laundromat.
Sometimes when I use a faster cycle, my t shirts are still smelly; so the smaller machine could be the issue.
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.
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.
Citric acid is dirt cheap and does wonders for some cleaning jobs. Many recommend vinegar for these things, but citric acid doesn’t leave a smell and works for a lot of the same things. I guess anything acidic would do.
I could solve this issue for myself by dampening the shirts pre wash and massaging in hard soap (That’s what wikipedia claims “Kernseife” is called in English. I hope it’s righ lol) Then you let your clothes sit for 20 minutes or so, before putting them in the washing machine. I don’t think I rinse it out. The mashine will do it anyways.
Once I started making my own deodorant, which is surprisingly easy, my shirts stopped getting pitted out. There are a bunch of recipes on YouTube and you can buy empty deodorant twist up containers. Bit of a pain but it works.
Im so glad I grew up and can work shirtless remotely… high school was hell for me.
Sorry that doesn’t directly answer – but I found that aluminum antiperspirants didn’t help the clothing pits situation.
Also, wear 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: 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.
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)
Saw a solution on the web somewhere that worked for me for colors (not whites, you will see why).
If you have stains already, I use a 50/50 of water and Tide Free and Clear in a spray bottle and I spray drench the stained area. Throw that in the washer and let it wait for wash day. Hours or days to let the Borax in it do its thing. Works great for oil stains too.
For straight up stank, like the mildew in the shoulder seams that will come out when you sweat, I use oxi in the tub with detergent, then cleaning strength vinegar (30%) in the fabric softener compartment (but not with whites and chlorine bleach, DON’T GENERATE CHLORINE GAS). Just like 2 or 3 tablespoons. You will smell it when YOU move the load to the dryer, but it mostly fades while it tumbles. The stank fades away every wash and is usually gone after 3. And it helps sanitize your washer between bleaches.
I work out in sleeveless tops.
Had a friend who swore by ammonia for armpit stains on shirts, maybe try that?
Ammonia smells like cat piss. That can’t be right.
I don’t wear antiperspirant, just deodorant, so haven’t tried it. But my guess is that it’s the only thing that dissolves the waxy stuff that is holding the stains on the pits without dissolving the fabric. If acids don’t work, sometimes a base will.
I wash my workout clothes on the roughest setting. Probably shortens the life of the clothes but gets the drink out.
Just a heads up that laundry stripping will not remove antiperspirant stains. I’m going through this with my white undershirts and after doing a stripping treatment the shirts came out pristine except for the waxy buildup on the pits.
Wash stinky, sweaty, greasy clothes in hot, it helps dissolve those things. Add at least 1/2 cup baking soda to the drum (front or top loading), this cuts grease and smells. It also helps boost the detergent and does not ruin clothes.
Wash super dirty clothes on a heavy cycle.
If they still stink after that, you need to replace those clothes. Plastic clothes will eventually get nasty.
scytale@piefed.zip 3 weeks ago
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.
SharkWeek@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
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
AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
A little white vinegar works well too.
Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Isopropyl ? Really ? I have a big bottle of it for cleaning electronics but I had never thought of using it on clothes
hazard_iguana@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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.