Deodorant Build-up Stains

Deodorant Stains on shirts.

I have been working on putting products into a website that a couple of my neighbors and I have started. Overstuffedcloset.com I have taking the photos to add some of the clothes to the line. Some of the shirts are name brands and in very good condition. When I was resizing the pictures, we noticed that our teenagers love to use deodorant! To the naked eye you cannot see the mounds of caked-on deodorant on the shirts. The camera does not lie!

I started my Internet search on the best way to remove the caked-on deodorant from these shirts. I came across several sites that describe how to do this. This article will describe what I did to remove the stains.

My research:

I started reading an article on Mrs. Clean USA because it was the first page to turn up in my Google search. The article was very informative but I was not impressed with the layout of the site and my eyes drifted away from the reading. So I returned to Google for another site. I am not trying to be shallow about the look and feel of a website but if I cannot maneuver or stay focused on the article, it seems it loses its credibility.

Finally at the bottom of the search page, I found About.com. I normally do not even click on the About.com website because of all the popup ads that they place on every page but I found the article supplied some great information. The stains are caused by the mixture of chemicals in the deodorant and the salt in the sweat from the body.  This was a huge help for me. I know that good old elbow grease will do the trick but I also know that this can damage the fabrics. On cotton t-shirts scrubbing will sometimes lead to balling of the fabric. This is a very unattractive result to the shirts that I want to sell. I did take the advice of several people and I decided to try the white distilled vinegar soak. This is the process that I did.

The Steps:

1. I placed the shirts in the washing machine on a small load using hot water.
2. I added 1 cup of white distilled vinegar into the water and allowed the shirts to soak for one hour.
3. Throughout the soaking time I grabbed the shirts and gently rubbed the underarm area.
4. I drained the vinegar and water solution.
5. I started the wash cycle with warm water and soap as normal.
6. After I let the wash run half way through the wash cycle, I stopped the load and let it soak for 30 minutes.
7. I then allowed the washing machine to continue its wash.
8. I checked the shirts before putting them in the dryer.
9. Repeat the process before you put it in the dryer if you think you did not get the desired effect.

Conclusion

I was impressed with the outcome of the shirts but I did repeat the process to see if I got a better result on one of the shirts. The orange shirt did get most of the deodorant off. The blue shirt was not as successful. It does look better but I wanted a better result so I repeated the process.

I also think that educating our teens not to use so much deodorant would help. I read that if you completely let your deodorant dry before putting your clothes on it will also help to prevent this from occurring in the first place.

I did come across a site that explained scientifically how this reaction happens. But since I am not a chemist I will leave it to the experts. If you are interested, visit Vision Learning.