Clean Shirt but Smelly Underarms?

July 19, 2009 10:49 AM

I'm a clean guy by nature, I take showers daily, and use deoderant. The problem is when I do any kind of physical work that's not too strenuous (aka dancing, carrying bags) my armpits sweat a bit, but not a lot, but the smell is strong! The result of this that I'm forced to throw a perfectly clean t-shirt into the laundry bag just because the underarm areas smell. Is there any way to kill this smell, I feel like I'm wasting money on cleaning clean shirts :\ Any and all advice is welcome!
posted by wildrain2008 to Health & Fitness (26 answers total)

I have been told in the past that strong smelling sweat is closely linked to diet / vitamins and what kind of liquids you drink.

Hopefully someone else will be able to confirm if this is correct?
posted by errspy at 10:54 AM on July 19, 2009

Drink a lot more water. See if that helps.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 10:58 AM on July 19, 2009

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I wouldn't characterize a smelly shirt as clean. Admittedly, it might not look dirty, but the smell is usually the result of bacteria growth, and in my country, pungent colonies of critters are to be avoided.

That said, if you are only using a deodorant, switching to an antiperspirant may help the problem. The bacteria usually grow because of sweat, even if you're not sweating a whole lot, and antiperspirants help to inhibit underarm sweat. It's also worth keeping in mind that different brands may react with your skin's particular pH level in different ways, so maybe you could get a few different little travel-sized antiperspirants to try and see how they work out for you.
posted by Diagonalize at 11:01 AM on July 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

One option would be to shave your armpits. Just a trimmer, really, is all that is required. If that is not successful, you can get some rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab, then wipe down your armpits before you put on the deodorant. That would knock the bacteria for a loop for at least a few hours.
posted by adipocere at 11:01 AM on July 19, 2009

Best answer: While it may be slightly radical, a change in diet and/or exercise might be considered. You don't mention if you work out: fit, active bodies simply smell different (i.e. better). Similarly, changing your diet (less red meat and milk, more vegetables and water) may improve your odor.

You also don't mention what style of shirts you wear — if they are too form-fitting, or made of polys, bacterial buildup, coupled with inadequate ventilation, may contribute to the problem. Changing to looser T-shirts in natural fibers like cotton, bamboo or hemp might help.

If none of these solutions work, the problem may be strictly medical. If hyperhidrosis was the cause, it is treatable.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 11:03 AM on July 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

I thought everybody had to wash their shirts daily to keep them smelling fresh. I think this is normal.
posted by debbie_ann at 11:07 AM on July 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

Are you sure it's you and not the shirts?

I have a cotton/polly blend shirt that I can't even wear for an entire day without it stinking. I don't have that problem with cotton shirts.
posted by 517 at 11:19 AM on July 19, 2009

try a thai stone deodorant. kills the bacteria that causes the funk. can cause irritation in some. not me, though. made a big difference in my laundry stench
posted by Redhush at 11:23 AM on July 19, 2009

I do quite a bit of strenuous activity for work and switched to a clinical strength anti-perspirant/deoderant to keep from sweating on my shirts so much; it's worked very well for me. You say your problem is not with the wetness but with the odor, but presumably less sweat = less smell.

And yeah, shirts need to be washed after you've worn them for a day, unless you were really not doing anything at all. And even then sometimes.
posted by frobozz at 11:41 AM on July 19, 2009

If you are not wearing undershirts, that might help to cut down on the funk for your primary shirt.
posted by MrZero at 12:19 PM on July 19, 2009

Before you put them on, spray the pits of the clean shirts with liquid crystal deodorant (let it dry if you're not crazy about the look of damp spots) It doesn't stain and helps keep your shirt smelling reasonably clean. Also, shirts only have a limited life as shirts. After awhile the smell is really hard to get out and it's time to retire them to the world of rags.
posted by corey flood at 12:28 PM on July 19, 2009

Definitely look at diet.

* Water - as an experiment, look at the color next time you pee. If it's dark yellow, try drinking water for a few days until its clear or very light yellow. Does the smell thing still happen with your shirts?

* Food - do you eat a lot of meat (like every day or multiple times a day)? Try backing that off for a week or two and eating meat only a couple of times a week and see if that helps. Also examine your diet for heavily processed foods and use your common sense. What you eat can definitely affect how you smell!
posted by gribbly at 1:03 PM on July 19, 2009

It is normal to wear t-shirts and undershirts for only one day before washing them. It's not clear in your post whether you are changing shirts more than once a day, or less.

If you are trying to wear these shirts 2 days in a row, switch to 1 day, wash them, and know this is normal.

If you have to change shirts more than once a day to keep them from smelling, then try antiperspirant. Deodorants, in my experience, attempt to mask the smell rather than actually stop it, while antiperspirants prevent it by denying bacteria their source of nummies.

I would also recommend using soap and a washcloth to clean your pits in the bath or shower. The washcloth is a bit abrasive and does a better job cleaning than soap alone.

In my experience, trimming/shaving pits doesn't make a big difference, and neither does becoming vegetarian nor drinking more water, but these work for others, so give them a try.
posted by zippy at 2:01 PM on July 19, 2009

Here's another vote for looking at your diet. In addition to cutting back on meat and drinking more water, I've noticed onions and garlic tend to result in smellier sweat.
posted by aGee at 2:05 PM on July 19, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks for the advice guys,

Shape: not overweight but not exactly fit.
Change shirt once a day [I don't sweat all over just he armpits]
Diet: lots of chicken noodle soup and salad..

I'll try some of the suggestions!
posted by wildrain2008 at 3:19 PM on July 19, 2009

I think wildrain wears a clean shirt every day, but it is the bummer of having to wear more than one when the sweat sets in that is troubling. Deodorant really is not powerful stuff. It is just a mild antibacterial agent intended to keep the smelly bacteria growth to a minimum. An antiperspirant is much better because it will have something to fight the sweat and something to fight the bacteria. If you perspire a lot there are some extra strong antiperspirants now generally available. Some people have sworn by them here on AskMe. Someone mentioned poly shirts. They stink, and stink big, at the just the hint of sweat. For the athlete there are now much better wicking fabrics which stink less. If you are wearing polyester shirts there is no good solution if you in fact happen to perspire. The funk in these shirts doesn't even wash out that well.
posted by caddis at 3:24 PM on July 19, 2009

OK, at least I know I was right about something.

*remember to use preview in future.
posted by caddis at 3:25 PM on July 19, 2009

Funk bacteria gets into clothing. An antibacterial rinse will kill it. Not having insta-funk just waiting there in your clothes makes such an unbelievable difference. I cannot emphasise that enough.

Or look at it this way. There is cat pee on the carpet. Is a squeaky clean cat in scented diapers going to fix that? No. It will still be nasty.
It kind of becomes like the stink that broke the camels back.
Because brand new shirts don't start out that way, right?

(I like the one made by Canastene. They all kill funk but it has this clean, light, nothingness kind of smell.)
posted by mu~ha~ha~ha~har at 4:43 PM on July 19, 2009

The deodorant crystal is great for this. It makes your armpits super poisonous to bacteria (it's salt), and so you sweat but you don't smell. If you buy in the rock form, you have to wet it and then rub it on quite a lot, not just a couple of swipes, to get the salt well distributed. But, properly applied it will prevent all bacteria-related smells.
posted by carmen at 4:56 PM on July 19, 2009 [2 favorites]

Both Mr. Lexica (aka Mr. Big Stinky Guy) and I get excellent results from Lavilin underarm deodorant, which we've been using for a couple of years now. It really does live up to their claims of being long-lasting — he gets three to four days of being odor-free from one application; I get five to seven, depending on the weather and how much exertion I'm doing and factors like that.

And while finding links to Lavilin I just discovered that they make a foot deodorant cream too. OMG MUST ORDER for Mr. Big Stinky Guy, whose shoes should be declared a biohazard area.
posted by Lexica at 7:06 PM on July 19, 2009

I'm going to jump in just to ditto the previously-mentioned armpit trimming - I regularly trim my armpit hair (with clippers as mentioned, not shaved) and my pits don't get smelly nearly as quickly as with full-on hair. It's far less surface area for bacteria to grow on, and though more surface area theoretically should let sweat dry faster, it doesn't work that way when it's all bunched up in a dark corner like that. Also deodorant and/or anti-perspirant can be applied directly to your skin, rather than mostly to your hair. (And double ditto what's been said about diet and drinking plenty of water.)
posted by attercoppe at 7:38 PM on July 19, 2009

Have you tried changing brands of deodorant? Mitchum and Arm & Hammer Essentials work pretty well for me, but very few others can reliably keep me non-stanky for a whole day.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 7:58 PM on July 19, 2009

Seconding Mitchum, aka Armpit Glue. It's sticky, but it works better than anything else I've ever tried. Best of luck!
posted by BusyBusyBusy at 3:04 AM on July 20, 2009

Consider stopping the use of deoderant. My armpits stink so much more at the end of the day if I wear deoderant than if I simply wash my armpits and use nothing. I've discussed this with many other people who don't wear deoderant and they have the same reaction. And I'm a big sweaty guy.
posted by OmieWise at 5:16 AM on July 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

I thought about this more. Try putting a splash of white vinegar in the laundry. Sometimes I find it's an old smell 'reigniting' after incomplete wash and vinegar gets all the sweaty man smell out of clothes.

Also, I know this is weird, but try putting hand sanitizer in your armpits before sweaty activity. I did this one day when I got to work and realized I had forgotten to put on deodorant. It actually kept me fresher smelling. I still sweated but the odor-causing bacteria was dead.
posted by debbie_ann at 6:19 AM on July 20, 2009

Put your antiperspirant on at night in addition to in the morning. This gives the ingredients enough time to work their magic in plugging up your sweat glands. If you look at a bottle of "Degree Clinical Protection," for example, the only major difference from regular Degree deoderant is the "at night" instruction and a slightly higher percentage of active ingredient. It's a really simple thing that makes a huge difference!
posted by Kasuvandi at 10:09 PM on July 20, 2009