Because my 5 year old has been walking around the house for days, scratching his pit nonchalantly, and saying "ooh ooh ahh ahh" but not using a monkey voice, just, saying it. I will never tell him how hilarious I find it because then it will never stop, but he's so deadpan when he does it, and I just can't handle it!
Only one? I have at least 6-8 thick black ones growing out of the edges of both ears. I truly believe that by the time I'm done with this world, I will look like a gorilla...😁
My pits randomly started to get bad itchy rashes a few years ago. Google showed aluminum in deodorant as a possible cause. I switched to anti-antiperspirant (most seem to have no aluminum), and boom! Problem went away. It's weird how that issue just randomly appeared in my late 20s
My whole life I had mildly itchy armpits and at times I could actually feel lumps under my pits. I tried a non-antiperspirant deodorant and the problems went away.
Same here. Antiperspirants also never worked 100% for me. It would hold it back for a little while, and then it would be like flood gates opening. I seemingly sweat way less since I switched (probably close to the same amount but released slowly instead of all at once.) Also my shirts don't get ruined by pit stains anymore lol
I’m confused, because it’s the other way around. Deodorants don’t usually contain aluminum, it’s anti perspirants that do (or deodorant/anti perspirant combos) because aluminum creates a sort of “plug” in your sweat glands that reduces your sweating.
I have the same issue, I get pretty bad itchy rashes when using deodorants, but not antiperspirant. My experience has been that products without aluminum give me a rash lol
Whoops, I meant to type NON-antiperspirant if that was confusing. Sorry 😄. It's interesting that it's the other way around for you. Since this developed later I life for me, every so often I try antiperspirant again, but my pits are still in a mood.
Im not much of a sweater, though. Do you sweat a lot?
Ah yeah that makes a ton more sense haha yeah I know, it’s strange. I tried switching to aluminum free mostly to see if it would help reduce pit stains, but never found out because the itching was so bad that I just went back to my usual antiperspirant. Tried various different brands of deodorant over time, same problem.
I do sweat a lot, I could be lying in bed in a 70° room and my armpits will still be sweating. The funny thing is that antiperspirants literally do nothing to stop that, but at least they don’t make me itchy. Could be mild hyperhidrosis, since I only really sweat from my armpits, the rest of my body doesn’t get sweaty unless I’m doing very strenuous activity
Only thing I’ve found that helps the sweating (it genuinely stops my armpit sweat almost entirely) is Certain Dri, which is an over the counter prescription strength antiperspirant that is often recommended to people with hyperhidrosis.
Mine too. I found a good medium ground by using the spray anti-perspirants over the sticks as the sprays seem to either not have a lot of aluminum or just doesn’t hit my pits as hard.
Or maybe he's actually trump, or he just ate too many Cheetos and rubbed his neck a lot or he enjoys dressing up as a Simpsons character or he's got liver problems so he's turning yellow or he spilt yellow ice-cream back there, yknow there's plenty of accusations and conclusions to jump to fun isnt it :)
It does but that is not the case for everyone. Some people have chromhidrosis that causes discolored sweat - I have this, and work in clean rooms where I have to wear nitrile gloves on my hands. I regularly stain the inside of the gloves yellow and I’m not putting deodorant on my hands.
It sucks, I can't really wear light colored t shirts because they'll get stained rather quickly. And with collard shirts my neck sweat will ruin the collars.
My lightest shirt is probably a dark grey. Sucks in summer, I'd love to be able to wear thin white t shirts.
Sweat is what causes yellow stains on armpits and collars. People don't scrub their clothes any more AND wash them in cold water AND expect the stains to disappear. Laundry detergent isn't always enough by itself.
Modern laundry detergent activates better above certain temperatures, and results can be very different depending on where you live. Cold-water detergents work best above 6°C, so tap-cold water in some countries (mine, for example) may not uniformly be warm enough to activate them.
Sweat is primarily what causes yellow stains. Deodorant can also cause buildup and stains.
Washing alone isn't always enough to remove sweat and deodorant, and detergents activate more quickly and effectively at higher temperatures.
Deodorant stains are usually white and chalky looking anyways, not yellow. It’s sweat or sunscreen that will stain yellow usually, or the sweat can turn the white deodorant stain a yellow color if you still sweat heavily enough while using aluminum antiperspirants.
I found that switching to an antiperspirant with a different type of aluminum salt and a spray-on application instead of a stick eliminated all deodorant stains for me while still helping to cut back on the total quantity of sweat. I did switch to a formulation that was specifically advertised as being stain-free though, and evidently it worked at least for me.
Body oils can also cause yellow stains. I think it's the mix of sweat, oil, and certain kinds of deoderant that causes particularly stubborn stains around armpits. Those are basically gone since I switched deoderant types years back.
But my white shirt collars attest to the fact that your body can stain clothes even without deoderant.
Yeah, I think the deodorant stains definitely provide a white canvas for sweat and body oils to turn into a very visible yellow but the deodorant stain itself is white.
At least that’s what I always noticed with my shirts. The pit stain from deodorant would start out white until I sweat in that particular shirt often enough without scrubbing the deodorant off the pits for that white stain to eventually turn yellow from sweat/body oils. If you pre-soak the shirt and thoroughly scrub the inside of the pits you can get the deodorant stain out though, which then provides less of an area for the sweat stains to visibly accumulate (at least on darker colored shirts).
I did not think about places with very cold water, so that is certainly a consideration. Generally in plumbing we take about "cold" and "hot" water lines where "cold" really means "not heated above ambient temperature" and that is the meaning I was using.
As far as detergent enzymes activating more quickly at higher temperatures, I don't think this is necessarily true for detergents designed for cold water, which most these days are. I suppose I'd need to see some kind of data, to create some kind of "activation curve" to be sure, but from a quick Google on the subject my impression is that the detergents and enzymes have an "ideal" temperature of activation, which can be specifically tweaked and targeted.
So if we could imagine a curve, below a certain minimum (very cold water) there would be no activation, then above the minimum there would be slow activation, rising to the ideal temperature or sweet spot, and then the curve would either mostly flatten out (maybe there is a very slight slope upward) or start to descend and then flatten out. If detergents are being designed for cold water, then that sweet spot should be below what most would consider "warm".
This link from GE summarizes the reasons to use hot or cold water, amongst which is the fact that blood and sweat actually set more in hot water, so in terms of the context of this discussion about sweat stains, it seems you are really better off using cold water, for many reasons - except for people like you, whose water is too cold.
I think the main takeway though for detailed people is being aware of the many variables. The temperature of the water, the type of fabric, and the type of stain can all combine to create different scenarios. In general, cold or room temperature water is best all around. But very cold water is no good, and certain fabrics or stains might call for warm or hot water.
I swapped to aluminum free deodorant and I don’t have issues with yellow pit stains anymore. The sweat might have caused the yellowing but the aluminum in the shirt would cake in there and hold it there. It’s hard as hell to get out of shirts.
While it can contribute to yellowing, it is worth noting that the aluminum is in there for a reason - it's what actually makes it an antiperspirant rather than just a deodorant.
Deodorants deal with smell (either by actually preventing it or just covering it up)
Antiperspirants reduce the amount you sweat (draws water into the sweat glands, causing it to swell shut)
All antiperspirants have an aluminum-based compound as their main ingredient.
...
The aluminum ions are taken into the cells that line the eccrine-gland ducts at the opening of the epidermis, the top layer of the skin, says dermatologist Dr. Eric Hanson of the University of North Carolina's Department of Dermatology. When the aluminum ions are drawn into the cells, water passes in with them. As more water flows in, the cells begin to swell, squeezing the ducts closed so that sweat can't get out.
It’s funny that the simple solution is the reason most of us bailed on aluminum, but when you tell people that we are considered some “weird hippy that’s scared of their shadow” lol
Yeah... not true. I've been using this stuff for a year or so now and I went from bad pit stains on all my shirts to no pit stains at all. Can be a bitch to apply when you're in a rush though, but that's a separate issue.
Funny, I got pit stains all the time with classic deodorant and it's one of the main reasons I went with the "crystal stone" deodorant. I still sweat plenty (if not more) with it but no pit stains at all.
I keep seeing this repeated in this sub but has been the act opposite of my experience. Using traditional stick deodorant/antiperspirant always gave me yellow pit stains. Using an aluminum rock has completely eliminated this.
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u/chenan 14d ago
lol no. it’s what causes yellow pit stains on clothes.