Monday, July 6, 2009

manic monday - smelly armpits

i hope my rant this morning will humor all of you. but unfortunately, this is a little personal for me, and the fact i'm sharing it means i love you guys a lot. (or that maybe i'm despirate for help!) i have an armpit problem. and no, the problem isn't that it smells (i'll get to that later...). my problem is that since about february or march, my armpits itch really bad. i've not changed my deodorant in years. and when i say years, i mean never. i use secret, and i've always used secret. same scent too, well same scent since they came out with the pear scent, which has been years ago. so i'm not sure what this itching is all about. occasionally i'd not wear deodorant to test the theory that it was the secret that was irritating me, but it never seemed to make a difference. (and i'd never not wear it for more than one day.) there isn't a rash, no red bumps, no sign of any sort of parasite or infection or anything, just an insatiable itch that comes nightly, occasionally during the day too. so in comes GOOGLE... "armpit itch", "armpit irritation", you name it, i've searched it. and all i can find that doesn't include some sort of rash is just a simple allergic reaction (i.e. dermatitis) to deodorant. so it seemed to get worse this summer (seemingly when it is hotter, thus i am hotter...) - and finally i decided (last week) to stop wearing deodorant altogether... well i have to say that after two days, the itching completely stopped. even when i shave my pits (which i prefer to do daily, but i did try and NOT do it daily just in case that was part of the irritation too). so, i guess it is the deodorant that was causing me to itch. in the mean time, i'm having to shower twice a day. i'm not to thrilled on the way i smell after a nice hot day in the sun (or inside, wherever - i'm generally just hot altogether in the summer). so what to do? should i start spending $5 every trip to the market to try other brands? should i just try baking soda? i read that is the rave with all the hippies... who usually stink so i'm pretty sure that doesn't work either. so, any ideas? i've seen lots of things on the internet. anyone tried any of the "natural" deodorants? (i.e., nothing like dove or sure or secret, etc.)

1 comment:

  1. I've had similar problems with deodorants in the past. The most recent one I've tried and it has actually worked (no itching or smell)is "Lady Mitchum for Sensitive Skin". I was skeptical but gave it a try and have been pleased. I tried the OTC prescription strength deodorants that you use at night but the itching from it was unbearable. Worked great for odor but only if you could stand the itching. The natural ones may be your best bet if it's coming from a particular ingredient since it would be difficult to pin down which ingredient is causing the itch. But you could try the Lady Mitchum for sensitive skin since it's relatively inexpensive. Good luck. TS

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