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Deodorant - What Happens Without it?
Jul. 6th, 2020 10:18 pmSome people's skin just can't take industrial-strength products.
(Me.)
Like most women in my culture I shaved my underarms and applied antiperspirant or deodorant. My skin irritates easily so I had tried all the hippie-shop alternatives (still irritating) and suffered along.
Then one morning nine years ago I looked at the skin under my arms and it looked like a dead, bloated fish.
Done.
I stopped shaving or using antiperspirant and deodorant. The first two days nothing happened. Then the wickedest. smell. ever. came out, along with an odd yellow substance. I kept washing with a mild soap and after about five days the purge was done and normal perspiration began.
My priority was healing the skin, so I didn't use product or shave for about a month while I studied the causes of underarm odor. Sweat itself has little odor when coming from a healthy body. It's the bacteria that live on the underarm hair that produce the more noticeable odor as they go through their life cycle.
I had to remove the hair to control the bacteria, so I learned to wax my own underarms by attending a beauty therapist who showed me how to do it. If possible, waxing (you or someone else) is the best way to control underarm odor because the bacteria cannot colonise effectively.
Then I became a mommy and time for self-care narrowed to a window just large enough for brushing teeth.
Nine years later I have found the best way to manage underarm odor to be the following:
1) Wash daily with a handmade soap and warm water.
2) If you shave, use a fresh razor by changing the blades often. I have a re-usable handle and disposable blades. This will minimise skin irritation and get as much of the hair as possible.
3) There are two deodorants that I have found that both control smell and are non-irritating. And I have tried many, many, many. Both are Australian (where I live), but one has websites in many countries.
The first, and best, is a handmade paste I purchase from the herbalist up the road. The other, still very good, is made by a commercial natural product company. Because this dreamwidth account is not for selling products I'm not naming them here, but if you email me at jarviecATgmailDOTcom I will reply with the names and contact info.
I cannot recommend an anti-perspirant as someone would need to pay me good money to intentionally prevent my body from removing waste products exiting near major lymphatic nodes.
Thank you for reading and please share your experiences.
PS. I would rather be in a room full of clean people who smell like people than a room full of product-covered people who smell like a chemical factory. It's ok to smell like a human!
(Me.)
Like most women in my culture I shaved my underarms and applied antiperspirant or deodorant. My skin irritates easily so I had tried all the hippie-shop alternatives (still irritating) and suffered along.
Then one morning nine years ago I looked at the skin under my arms and it looked like a dead, bloated fish.
Done.
I stopped shaving or using antiperspirant and deodorant. The first two days nothing happened. Then the wickedest. smell. ever. came out, along with an odd yellow substance. I kept washing with a mild soap and after about five days the purge was done and normal perspiration began.
My priority was healing the skin, so I didn't use product or shave for about a month while I studied the causes of underarm odor. Sweat itself has little odor when coming from a healthy body. It's the bacteria that live on the underarm hair that produce the more noticeable odor as they go through their life cycle.
I had to remove the hair to control the bacteria, so I learned to wax my own underarms by attending a beauty therapist who showed me how to do it. If possible, waxing (you or someone else) is the best way to control underarm odor because the bacteria cannot colonise effectively.
Then I became a mommy and time for self-care narrowed to a window just large enough for brushing teeth.
Nine years later I have found the best way to manage underarm odor to be the following:
1) Wash daily with a handmade soap and warm water.
2) If you shave, use a fresh razor by changing the blades often. I have a re-usable handle and disposable blades. This will minimise skin irritation and get as much of the hair as possible.
3) There are two deodorants that I have found that both control smell and are non-irritating. And I have tried many, many, many. Both are Australian (where I live), but one has websites in many countries.
The first, and best, is a handmade paste I purchase from the herbalist up the road. The other, still very good, is made by a commercial natural product company. Because this dreamwidth account is not for selling products I'm not naming them here, but if you email me at jarviecATgmailDOTcom I will reply with the names and contact info.
I cannot recommend an anti-perspirant as someone would need to pay me good money to intentionally prevent my body from removing waste products exiting near major lymphatic nodes.
Thank you for reading and please share your experiences.
PS. I would rather be in a room full of clean people who smell like people than a room full of product-covered people who smell like a chemical factory. It's ok to smell like a human!
