Sweating is an inevitable part of human existence and we all constantly battle to find ways to avoid body odour.
Our deodorants and antiperspirants are meant to prevent excessive sweating but there are a few things you need to know about your everyday roll-on sticks and sprays.
HuffPo highlights facts about your deodorant that you probably didn’t know before:
1. Finding ways to beat body odour is an ancient phenomenon:
The art of scented bathing and applying perfume to armpits was invented by the ancient Egyptians. The first deodorant was trademarked in 1888 and was called Mum and the first antiperspirant, Everdry, was introduced 15 years later, reports The New York Times.
2. Deodorants kill bacteria:
Your sweat isn’t supposed to be inherently stinky. But in other cases, the foul smell is the result of bacteria that is released onto your skin from one of the two types of sweat glands which are usually in areas with lots of hair, like armpits, scalp, etc.
Deodorant has antibacterial properties that prevent the stink before it starts developing while antiperspirants deal with sweat directly.
3. But antiperspirants don’t stop you from sweating:
An antiperspirant contains aluminium compounds that effectively control the eccrine sweat glands, but not all of them are as effective.
Before you go for a brand that claims “all day protection” know this: “The Food & Drug Administration requires that antiperspirants provide at least 20% sweat reduction to carry labels such as “lasts all day” and “24-hour protection,” reports the Wall Street Journal. And the one that claims to give “extra strength” cuts down on sweat by only 30 per cent.
4. You can become immune to your antiperspirant:
Our bodies have the ability to adapt to sweat prevention properties of antiperspirants but no one knows the exact science behind it, HuffPost Style reports.
“It’s a good idea to switch up your deodorant brand every six months to prevent resistance,” Dr Han Lee, assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Southern California, told Men’s Health.
5. There is no deodorant for men and women:
It’s an interesting fact that despite having more sweat glands than men, women produce less sweat.
And what’s even more interesting is that all of us have been victims of marketing gimmicks for men and women deodorants throughout our lives. Discovery Health found that a similar active ingredient is present in same amounts in both men and women products, in at least one brand. There is only a difference of packaging and smell.
6. You can figure out your body odour by simply examining your earwax:
Most of us don’t smell as bad as advertisements convince us we do, Esquire claims. While some of us don’t smell at all, thanks to lucky genes.
You can simply discover your personal smell by examining your earwax. According to LiveScience, a chemical component, that the odour producing bacteria feed on, is missing from the pits of people with dry earwax.
7. There is no way to get rid of those yellow stains:
It’s not just you, some expert deodorant makers have failed to understand why deodorants leave a yellow stain on your clothes.
One of the theories suggest that the aluminum-based components in antiperspirants apparently react with either sweat, skin, clothes, laundry detergent or may be all of them to produce the unwanted stain, Wall Street Journal reports. The only way to get rid of them is to avoid aluminum-based antiperspirants.
8. Go organic, make your own deodorant:
Thanks to nature for giving us plenty of plant oils and extracts that have antibacterial properties. You can always make your all-natural deodorant but bear in mind it may not be as effective in preventing odour as the chemical product.
