How to prevent sweat stains

by Jen (January 6, 2008)

If you do a web search for preventing sweat stains, you’ll get a lot of results telling you how to reduce your sweating. This is not the right solution unless your sweating is actually a health issue. Despite the stigma, sweating’s really good for you, and not sweating enough can be a sign of a health problem. But there are ways to keep sweat from wrecking your wardrobe.

The first step in preventing sweat stains on shirts is to make sure you’re using antiperspirants the right way:

The best way to prevent antiperspirants from transferring onto clothes and from potential staining, according to Thomas, is to apply just a thin layer of antiperspirant to your underarms and to allow it to dry thoroughly before donning clothing. It’s especially important to allow roll-on and gel formulas time to dry before dressing. Although many of us are tempted to spread our antiperspirants on thickly (thinking that more equals better and, in this case, drier), Thomas advises against that: “A stick shouldn’t work much better if the coverage is thick, it’ll just lead to more product getting on your clothes. Complete, uniform coverage of the underarm is what’s important.

I’ve tested this, and I believe he’s right. I’ve also noticed that as my antiperspirant stick gets toward the bottom, it tends to get less effective. Fortunately I use Suave so I can afford to throw it out and get a new one. But if that alone doesn’t prevent stains:

“Just rinse the affected area of the garment with cold water before you wash it,” says Thomas. “It’s the acidity of antiperspirants that causes staining. Instead of washing those stains out, warm or hot water can ‘set’ them by causing a chemical reaction that binds the stain to the fabric. Pretreating with a stain remover can make the situation worse. Keep it simple. Just rinse with cold water, then launder the garment in the warmest water recommended by the label. The one exception is dry-clean-only items. Let the dry cleaner take care of them. They usually know how.” Thomas also says that some of the stained stuff in your closet might be able to recover if you try the cold water rinse now.

From SweatSolutions.org.

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