Healthy Antiperspirant Deodorant

I had given up on finding a healthy deodorant a long time ago. My experiments with them were heartbreaking: For the first 2-3 days they worked famously. Sure, I'd sweat a little more, but no smell and no major problems. Then on the third day, just a couple of hours into the workday, I'd notice something. I would detect an unexpected smell, mildly at first and almost unconsciously, until it became more pronounced. At first, I would think it was the person working next to me or food someone brought in. It wasn't long before I realized that it was me! The natural deodorant totally failed, and I'm trapped at work with hours to go.

Others have reported similar episodes. My theory is that the body has a residue of the previous antiperspirants you've used. They really are "so effective you can skip a day." It takes time for that to work its way out of your system. Then bam! Its just you, your sweat glands, and nothing but a thin layer of herbs standing in the way. Others claim the body's bacteria may just need a moment to develop a defense for this new substance. In any case, they just didn't work.

Forget all that: Here's introducing Trader Joe's Unscented Deodorant! I've been using it solidly for about 3 weeks in 90-degree stress, and it has worked like a charm. I'm dry as a bone yard and smelling great! It claims to accomplish its antiperspirant goals through wetness-absorbing cotton fibers. How in the world this works is unclear to me--wouldn't the cotton fibers absorb wetness but still cling to you? That's certainly what happens with cotton T-shirts!

Strangely enough, I am not sweating much at all. Is it possible that antiperspirants messed up my body's natural cooling mechanism making me actually sweat more all these years?

The Lay of the Land

Remember that deodorants and antiperspirants are not the same thing. The former works to make you smell good. The latter works to subvert your natural cooling system to prevent you from sweating.

Deodorants and antiperspirants contain many harmful toxins. At the top of the list is aluminum. These are found in antiperspirants only, so you can avoid them by just employing a regular deodorant. Aluminum is linked to Alzheimer's Disease. In the 1980s, this link was discovered and in response kitchens all across the land discarded their aluminum pots and pans. But we still are potentially getting a strong exposure through antiperspirants.

Parabens are preservatives that have also been suspected for leading to breast cancer, but it has not been proven. I do feel that rubbing chemicals on your skin on a regular basis is probably not the smartest thing to do (see the post on the Precautionary Principle below).

People who shave their armpits are considered more at risk due to continuous nicks, cuts, scrapes and general rawness, which makes an easier pathway for the toxins to get into your bloodstream directly.

To be clear, Trader Joe's Unscented Deodorant never claims to be "organic" or even "natural". It states that it does what it does without aluminum and parabens (two of the worst toxins found in most antiperspirant deodorants). In addition, it contains "conditioning herbal extracts to help smooth skin." I am not sure why skin in the armpits would need smoothing, unless it were irritated by the deodorant. It still contains glycol, which is another suspicious substance, and other questionable chemicals.

If you are committed to find a safer deodorant, don't give up. Judging from this list, many people have bad luck with certain brands only to be helped by another. We all have different chemistry, activity levels and diet, so we all respond to different formulas. The most basic is just to apply plain ole baking soda to your armpits and skip everything else.

Options

Even if you never find one perfect natural alternative, there are ways of minimizing your exposure to toxins, even by using conventional products in some cases. Here are some tips:

1. Many conventional products really are "so effective you can skip a day" so I'd suggest taking them up on that offer! Use a natural alternative (or nothing at all) on the in-between days. You can reduce your exposure by 50% just with this one change.

2. Switch to deodorants and discard the antiperspirants. Nothing can stop me from sweating when I really want to anyway, although antiperspirants do help minimize this. Even conventional deodorants don't have aluminum, so you can eliminate the #1 problem just by doing this. Preventing yourself from sweating may be a very unhealthy thing to do, because that is a mechanism the body uses to purge itself of all sorts of toxins.

3. Try different brands! Don't give up without trying a wide variety of natural products.

4. Minimize how much you use. You don't need a heavy coating, just a small amount in the center of your armpit.

5. Most of the world's ills can be cured with baking soda and vinegar, and sweating is no exception. Just dab on baking soda with a damp washcloth onto clean armpits, and that may be all the deodorant you need! A spray with vinegar also works to kill odor-causing bacteria (and doesn't leave a smell on you, from what I hear).

6. Change your approach to deodorant. I know, most of us want to apply something in the morning and not have to think about it the rest of the day. We want to use the same product every day. Finding healthier deodorants may involve mixing it up: You may want to wash and re-apply baking soda halfway through the day.

If you are unwilling to take the plunge and go 100% healthy, then keep the nasty stuff around for stressful days and experiment with natural products on the weekends until you're comfortable with how they work. The good news is that once you find a system that works for you, you can go back to not thinking about it--just follow the routine.

7. Just go without! Many people catch themselves smelling bad as a teenager and vow never to allow that again. However, you may not need much of a deodorant at all now. As you grow older, your body changes. Perhaps a light dusting of baking soda will be all you need, even if it didn't work years ago.

Our modern American culture is so extreme that we have virtually no tolerance for natural human smells. The human race has been around for about 100,000 years, modern deodorants just for a generation or two. This isn't to say that people didn't try to improve their smell in ancient times--they did, but in general, natural human smells were just part of life. Its part of our shame-based culture, but that's a post for another day.

For now, I'm using my Trader Joe's brand. It seems to be holding up. Its not perfect by any means, because it still contains questionable chemicals, but I'm glad to be stepping away from aluminum-driven antiperspirants and parabens to boot. I'm going to dabble with baking soda and vinegar, and see if the results match the claims!

ADDED: Here's an excellent link for using baking soda as a deodorant.

UPDATE: This is the first of a series of posts on finding a healthy deodorant. Later posts explore baking soda, which is a significant improvement but still has a mild toxic risk. Vinegar has the lowest toxic risk factor, see this post for details.