Dealing with armpit sweat stains is never fun. They can ruin your favorite shirts, make you spend way too much money on clothing, and destroy your self-confidence. So what do you do if sweat stains just keep showing up in the underarms - or even other parts - of your clothing?
In this article, we’ll offer a step-by-step guide to how to prevent sweat stains, including how to prevent armpit sweat on shirts.
Option 1: Stop Sweat from Damaging Clothes
If you’ve always tended to sweat more throughout life, you might be ok with that, but your primary concern is to protect your clothing. You might already struggle to remove sweat smells from your clothing and have tried to remove sweat stains from your shirts. Your best defense against sweat stains is to prevent contact between your sweat and your clothing. There are multiple ways you can do this.
1. Shave Your Armpits
It’s a simple solution, but it works. When you have a lot of underarm hair, sweat can get trapped in it, allowing it to make more contact with your clothes. By shaving your underarm, you can reduce this.
2. Wear Sweat Pads
There are a number of products out there that you can use as a physical barrier between your armpit and your clothing to absorb excess sweat before it can touch and stain your clothes. These include a variety of products, including:
- Garment shields that fasten to the torso or arm
- Underarm pads that adhere to the skin
- Sweat pads that stick to the inside of your clothing
- Shields that are attached to the clothing with snaps, tape, pins, or thread
- Armpit shields that attach to garments such as bras
3. Wear Sweat-Proof Clothing
Armpit shields and sweat pads can work well, but they can be quite fussy, uncomfortable, and sometimes more visible than we’d like them to be. If you want a solution that solves all of these problems, we recommend trying out sweat-proof clothing.
Looking for clothing that helps reduce your sweat problem rather than make it worse? Try Social Citizen’s sweat-proof clothing.
Option 2: Reduce Your Sweat Output
The amount you sweat has a big impact on how damaged your clothing becomes. You can also try to reduce the amount you sweat. Thankfully, there are multiple things you can try to achieve this, including the following:
1. Wear Antiperspirant
If you’re not already using it, antiperspirant is an absolute must for people who struggle with sweat stains. This product is made with the active ingredient aluminum, which works by blocking your sweat glands so they can’t secrete sweat.
If you’re already using antiperspirant and it isn’t working as well as you’d like, we recommend following these tips to get the most out of your product:
- Apply antiperspirant to clean, dry skin three times a day: immediately after showering, in the morning and at night.
- Let your antiperspirant dry before getting dressed.
- Consider applying antiperspirant multiple days in a row before seeing full results. Don't give up if it doesn’t work after the first day!
- Use stronger antiperspirant, like clinical-strength antiperspirant, which has more aluminum in it.
- If clinical strength antiperspirant isn’t doing the trick, talk to your doctor about prescription-strength antiperspirant.
2. Avoid Things That Make You Sweat More
Even if you already wear antiperspirant, there are certain things that you might be doing that make you sweat even more. By stopping these habits, you can reduce the amount that you sweat.
- Consuming certain foods and drinks that are known to increase sweat production, such as spicy foods, alcohol, caffeine, high-fat milk, and excess salt
- Experiencing high levels of nervousness and stress. Work to reduce stressors in your life and learning stress-reduction strategies can make a big difference.
- Not drinking enough water.
- Wearing tight clothing in clingy fabrics that don’t breathe well.
- Smoking cigarettes.
3. Speak to a Doctor
If none of the above strategies work to help you reduce sweat, it might be a good idea to speak to a doctor. You may be suffering from hyperhidrosis, a condition characterized by excessive sweat.
While hyperhidrosis does not always have an obvious reason or a single treatment, a medical professional can help you figure out if there’s something in your life that is causing your hyperhidrosis. Certain hyperhidrosis causes, like obesity, medication side effects, and low blood sugar, can be addressed and treated.
Even if your doctor can’t help you find a way to completely eliminate your hyperhidrosis, they may be able to suggest certain medical procedures to treat it, such as:
- Iontophoresis - A treatment in which you sit with your hands and feet in a tray of shallow water while a low electrical current travels through the water.
- Botulinum Toxin - Also called Botox, this FDA-approved treatment prevents the release of the chemical that activates the sweat glands
- Anticholinergic Drugs - These drugs stop the activation of the sweat glands.
- Surgery - Usually saved for hyperhidrosis that doesn’t respond to any other treatment, these are surgical procedures in which doctors cut, scrape, or suction out the sweat glands.
- Endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy (ETS) - In this procedure, a doctor makes small incisions, cutting the nerves in your armpit that usually activate the sweat glands.
- The MiraDry System - MiraDry uses a handheld device to destroy the sweat glands by delivering electromagnetic energy underneath the underarm skin.
4. Try Natural Solutions
Not everybody wants medical intervention for their excessive sweating. Instead, you might choose to try one of the natural remedies that some people swear by, including:
- Tomato Juice - This can shrink your pores and reduce chronic sweat
- Baking Soda - This naturally absorbs moisture and counteracts the acids in sweat that bacteria interact with to make body odor
- Tea Tree Oil - This acts as a natural astringent to help kill bacteria while closing up your pores
- Lemon - This naturally reduces excess sweating with its natural acidity
How to Prevent Sweat Stains with Social Citizen
Social Citizen clothes come with a hidden underarm pad that absorbs your sweat while keeping you cool and comfortable all day. You don’t have to worry about how you’ll attach an armpit shield to your clothes and, best of all, it looks like a totally normal stylish shirt from the outside.
Check out Social Citizen’s sweat-proof clothing today in different styles, including v-necks and polos, and colors for the most convenient solution for preventing sweat stains.
