How to Remove Deodorant Stains

We've all binned a white shirt we actually liked. Nothing wrong with it, really. Collar fine, buttons all there. Just that yellow tide mark under each arm that went stiff and wouldn't budge whatever you washed it on.

So yes, we've got opinions on how to remove deodorant stains. Most of them learned the hard way.

There are two jobs here. Getting the marks out of what's already in your wardrobe, and then not having the same fight next month with a brand new shirt. We'll start with getting them out, since we're guessing that's why you clicked.

White marks and yellow stains are different problems

Figure out which one you've got before you start, because they don't come from the same place and they don't come out the same way either.

The white ones are annoying. Fine. It's the yellow nobody can stand.

How to get deodorant marks off clothes

Black T-shirt, white streak, out the door in five minutes. We've all been there. Rub the fabric against itself, a clean bit of the same top over the mark, and most of it just comes off. Sounds daft. Works. A damp cloth does the same if you've got one handy.

Once a mark's been washed in a few times it gets cheekier. Turn the top inside out, dab a drop of washing up liquid and some cold water on it and leave it ten minutes before it goes in the machine. Washing anything dark inside out as standard helps too. Less rubbing on the side people actually look at.

How to get yellow sweat stains out of white shirts

Right. The main event.

Look at the care label before anything else. Silk, wool, dry clean only? That's the dry cleaner's problem, and definitely not a job for a bowl of vinegar.

1. Cold water soak on the armpits. Has to be cold. Sweat's got protein in it and heat can lock protein stains in.
2. Old stain? A glug of white vinegar into that soak, half an hour.
3. Bicarbonate of soda and a splash of water, mixed to about toothpaste thickness. Old toothbrush, work it in properly, then leave it an hour or thereabouts.
4. Into the wash with a biological detergent. Whites get an oxygen-based stain remover too, dosed how the pack says.
5. Hang it up and have a proper look in daylight once it's dry. Any yellow left, do it all again. Not the dryer.

We know chlorine bleach looks like the answer when it's a white shirt. It isn't. On sweat stains it tends to push the yellow darker.

Really old ones, the cardboard-stiff ones, can take two or three goes and some never fully come back. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do is let it retire as a decorating shirt.

Things that make pit stains worse

Most of us are guilty of at least one of these.

Ironing over the armpit before the stain's fully out is a big one, because the heat sets it, same as a hot wash or the tumble dryer would. Fabric conditioner's another. It can leave a coating on the fibres that sweat and residue cling to, so we'd leave it out for anything you sweat in, gym tops especially. Wearing a shirt a second day because it seems fine lets the sweat sit and bed in. And then there's simply using loads of antiperspirant, which just gives the reaction more to work with.

Why do yellow stains keep coming back?

Your sweat isn't really yellow. On its own it's close to colourless. What turns it is the aluminium in most antiperspirants, the stuff that's there to block sweat. Sweat reacts with it, the residue soaks into the fibres and every wash leaves a little more behind. Whites go first, obviously. Even antiperspirant brands admit this on their own websites, which tells you something.

That's why you can get one shirt back to white and watch the next one start going within a week. You're cleaning up after the problem, not stopping it.

How to stop pit stains for good

Let your deodorant dry before the shirt goes on. Thirty seconds, a minute, however long it takes to brush your teeth. Two swipes, not six. Wash after one wear.

If you live in white shirts for work, an undershirt helps a lot. A thin cotton layer takes the sweat before your good shirt does, and a cheap vest is far easier to replace. Bit old-fashioned. Does the job.

The proper fix though is getting rid of aluminium. Nothing for sweat to react with, nothing building up. Pit Stop adult deodorants are aluminium free and 98% naturally derived, with no alcohol, parabens or SLS in them either. Switching isn't always instant and your pits can take a little while to settle, so have a read of our guide to switching to natural deodorant, which is honest about those first couple of weeks. If your real gripe is a deodorant that gives up before lunch, that's a different thing entirely and how to make deodorant last all day sorts it.

One thing to be clear on. Switching won't clean shirts that are already yellow. The residue's in there. You'll still need the soak for those, you just shouldn't have to keep doing it.

Does natural deodorant stain clothes?

Less. Not never.

Going aluminium free takes out the main reason shirts turn yellow, but it won't stop you sweating. That's an antiperspirant thing, not what a deodorant is for. So on a warm day a grey T-shirt will still show damp patches. They dry. They wash out. Any roll-on can leave a mark if you're dressed before it's dry too, ours included. Ours dries quickly, which helps, but we'd still give it a second. There's more on the ingredient side in why aluminium-free is worth the switch.

Which Pit Stop scent should you go for?

There are three in the adult range. Ocean Breeze is the fresh one and Floral Blossom's softer. After all this talk of laundry it'd be rude of us not to point you at Cotton Fresh, but honestly, pick whichever you like the smell of.

Deodorant stain FAQs