How to Reduce and Deal With Sweating Underarms

If you have excessive sweating like myself, then you will understand how inconvenient, how embarrassing and how annoying it is. Imagine you’re in a nice dress shirt, on your way to a lunch date. 5 minutes of walking to the restaurant, both your underarms are already soaking in sweat – big sweat patch under your armpits, plus the smell too. If that’s not a major turn-off, I would love to move to your city/planet. But, we’re not here to talk about the emotional consequences of excessive sweating, because i am sure you already know them.

Over the past few years, I have tried many techniques and products to reduce the sweating. Bear in mind, there’s no way you can completely stop your body sweating, without undergoing surgery to remove the sweat glands, or you don’t move at all. I will talk more on the surgery in the latter part. Let’s talk about what techniques and ways I have personally tried to reduce my underarms sweating and the resulting outcomes.

Causes of Sweating Underarms

Before I move on to the ways I’ve tried to reduce sweating, let’s briefly talk about the causes of my sweating underarms. It is established that I cannot completely stop my excessive sweating. However, I can reduce the actions that cause my excessive armpit sweating, which is what I’ve exactly done. I have read somewhere that the 5 main causes of sweat are humidity, heat, stress, emotions and movements. I am sure there are more but these are definitely my main causes. I will get into the details of the causes of excessive underarms next time.

The Effectiveness of Deodorant

There are two types of deodorant: the ones with antiperspirant and the ones without. I have tried both types, many of both types in fact.

Let’s start with the normal deodorant without antiperspirant. I always wear them, everywhere I go, before I leave the house, before work, before and after sports, after shower, basically anytime when I know I will have to socialise with another human being. Do I wear deodorant to stop excessive sweating? Not really. I wear it so that when I sweat, I won’t smell like a rotten fish afterwards. I have found that the deodorant does not stop sweating underarms or excessive sweating. The only reason I wear deodorant is so that I don’t produce body odour when/after I sweat. Simple as that, and you should too.

How about antiperspirant deodorants that promise to stop excessive sweating? I have tried a few, and i haven’t seen any significant results. I definitely did not sweat any lesser. But it could be that I haven’t bought the right one. One thing I found annoying when using antiperspirant deodorant is the sweat stain! My dress shirts armpit parts have yellow stains since after I started using antiperspirant deodorants. Antiperspirant deodorant contains aluminium – the main ingredient to reduce excessive sweating, and also the main culprit for the stain on my shirts. I will talk more on the health concerns of antiperspirant deodorants in the future. But for now, I can’t say it’s working for my sweating underarms.

Tip: To maximise the benefits of deodorants, shave your armpits. Yes, clear those wild bushes away. Why? Deodorants are often trapped in-between your armpit hairs (especially if you are as hairy as me – just makes us more ‘man’) and only a portion ever reaches the surface of your armpit skin. I keep my armpit hairs short, by using an electric shaver. Feel free to wax em off if you are more adventurous. Since keeping them short (almost stubble-like), I’ve felt cleaner and more “airy”. Something you should try.

Quick Tips on Combating Sweating Underarms

• Take many quick & cold showers in a day. The daily bath is essential for odor control. You may need to shower more in the morning, afternoon and evening, and especially after any strenuous activities.
• Shave or remove those armpit/chest hair once a week. Body hair is the perfect enabling environment for bacteria which causes those sweaty body odour.
• Clean your underarms with soap and towel. It is more effective than just using hands to clean it.
• Wear loose clothing. This allows your perspiration to evaporate before it gets in contact with your clothing. If not, change your clothing regularly throughout the day.
• Don’t take in too much onions, garlic, spices and beer. Diet can affect the smell of sweat. Avoid pungent food if you can.
• Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. It has been said to neutralize those odour-producing food.

Home Remedies To Combat Sweating Underarms

• Drinking a cup of sage tea daily helps to reduce sweat gland activity.
• Apply a handful of fresh sage leaves blended with tomato juice on your underarms can be as effective as commercial deodorants (if not more).
• Wet armpits with a mixture of willow bark tea and borax.
• Powder dry and clean your armpits with cornstarch or rice powder.
• Mix 1 tablespoon of baking soda and lemon juice. Wash your armpits every day with this mixture.

Do have any useful tips to fight sweating underarms? Share with us in the comment section below!