"I love armpit stains" - nobody said EVER!
Yellow underarm stains are ugly, unsightly and downright disgusting. They have caused unfathomable number of white shirts relegated behind sweaters. So, the question is - what causes yellow underarm stains and how can we avoid/treat them?
What causes underarm sweat stain?
Sweating is a normal function of human body, and is actually useful to maintain your body temperature. A common misconception is that sweat causes the underarm sweat stains. However, strictly speaking, that is not he full truth.
Sweat is usually colorless, unless you are suffering from one of rare medical conditions that may cause the sweat to turn yellow or even black. Leaving that possibility aside, most of the ugly sweat stains can be blamed to the interaction between your sweat and the chemicals present on your body or on your clothes.
The most common category of such chemicals is, ironically, deodorants and antiperspirants. When sweat reacts with these chemicals, the resultant liquid is yellowish in color and binds easily to the fabric causing yellow stains. However, this is not the only chemical - in some cases, other chemicals (such as perfume, jewellery or even the chemical within the fabric of cloths you are wearing) may be the culprit for turing colorless sweat to something much nastier!
How can I avoid/remove underarm sweat stains?
Its good to know the reason, however, most of us would not want to be caught off without a deodorant or antiperspirant. So, its not practical to entirely avoid sweat stains by not wearing the offending chemicals.
Rejoice - you have a few options to treat underarm sweat stains once they are already on. Note that most of these options are somewhat iffy and none of them work in all the cases. But still worth a try.
- Baking soda - mix baking sod with water to form a paste and then apply liberally to the affected area. Let is sit for 10-20 minutes, wait, pray and wash. It may (or may not) go away.
- Vinegar - dip the affected areas in vinegar for about 15 minutes. Take out and then do the baking soda treatment described above.
- Salt - replace the baking soda with salt in the first treatment. Does not really work as far as we know, but people have reported success
- Special products (you cans search on internet)
Better still, you can avoid sweat stains altogether by including a sweatproof barrier between your underarms and the clothing layer. Sweat pads are a popular, though somewhat inconvenient option. The most reliable way to eliminate sweat stains from underarm region entirely, reliably and easily is a ItsDri SweatProof Undershirt that has 3 layer construction to contain the sweat and prevent it from going to the outer clothing entirely.