When I was a child, my mother told me that underarm stick deodorant did not work unless your armpits were clean. Deodorants prevented odor, they did not eliminate odor that already existed. I.e. if you took a shower in the morning and then applied deodorant immediately, it would help prevent body odor. If you didn’t take a shower in the morning and just applied deodorant, it would have no effect.
Is this actually true in any meaningful way? My guess based on common sense would be that applying deodorant when you have been sweating and stinking for some time would have some effect in reducing odor or at least preventing the odor from getting even worse, but perhaps not to the extent that it would completely and immediately end offensive odors to the level of someone who had applied deodorant right after stepping out of the shower.
What’s the straight dope on this? Does it depend on the person? The type of deodorant used? I’m aware that there is a difference between deodorants per se and combination deodorants and antiperspirants - is the answer different depending on which you actually use?
To me, deodorant is strong smelling. I dislike wearing it because, even with normal insensible persperation, it tends to foul up my clothes with this smell that reminds me of public bathrooms, gyms, and such.
So, yeah, it kind of masks your average daily accumulation of BO.
But there’s a really bright line. If your crotch and pits outright stink, deodorant is not the thing for you – soap and water or a pond would be good.
In addition, deodorant slapped on top of deodorant etc. until it’s deodorant all the way down – not good, and it takes longer to truly get all that crap off to get to the skin it’s hiding.
ETA is this really GQ? Wait, I’ve seen the “scientists” on the TV pouring blue water on white laundry, so maybe there are some similar “studies” re deodorant. I shall attend the results.
I’m not sure about really sweaty. But I have used it on dry pits on the rare cases when I have forgotten to use after a shower - and it seems to work. As far as I can tell it works pretty well, but by the time I have noticed it - it may have already infected my clothing.
The white solid kind seems to work much better for me than the clear kind (even the same brand). I wouldn’t trust the clear kind on anything but a totally clean body - and even then I am hesitant.
Yeah, I’ve done it, and even worse. Hey, I was in my early 20s.
How does it “work”? Well, first you find the crotch. Then you get the deodorant. Then you get the women! I was a good looking bastard in my early 20s, though, so, cum grano salis (hey, the Jesuits taught me something after all!).
Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, say, 10 years ago or so, I occasionally “had to” splurge on a bottle of Old Spice and splash it everywhere “bad” when it became apparent my appearance was OK, but my odor was not.
With age comes wisdom, grasshopper. Hear my words and rejoice in knowing the better path. If I had it all to do over again – soap. Water. Goddamned if I weren’t pretty fucking cool, though.
We need to set something straight here. There are two main products that people often refer to as “deodorant.”
The first is deodorant, which is really just a glorified perfume. It doesn’t do anything to stop sweating… it just has some chemicals that mask the bad smells of sweat.
Then there is anti-perspirant, which is just like deodorant except it has an extra chemical or two that actually (supposedly) prevents you from sweating as much as you normally would. This sweat-blocking quality will actually prevent you from stinking as bad in the first place, because sweat itself stinks and it also feeds the bacteria which produce stinky stuff.
So, slapping anti-perspirant on top of an already sweaty armpit isn’t probably going to do much good as far as odor is concerned, but even anti-perspirants have some perfumes in them to make them smell nice so it might do some good.
Deodorants on the other hand are probably going to do “just as good” slapped onto a sweaty pit as it will on a clean pit, in the sense that a sweaty pit + freshly slapped on deodorant is probably going to smell about as good as a pit that had deodorant slapped on earlier on in the day and then got sweaty later on.
Also, it’s quite common and polite to put some deodorant/anti-perspirant on your crotch area, in between the anus and scrotum. Spray deodorant is the best for this purpose.
Deodorant is more than just perfume, contrary to what I said earlier. It actually does contain some chemicals that will kill or inhibit bacterial growth. So putting it on earlier in the day may actually reduce odor more than slapping it on after you have already let a lot of bacteria grow.
LOL, yeah I didn’t phrase that right. What I meant was where does one actually apply the deodorant-specifically-when using it on one’s crotch region? For men would it be under the balls?
My goodness, “polite”? I’ve always just made sure to keep the area fucking clean and well groomed. I’ve never had an odor problem in my crotch.
ETA: Besides, tongues and deodorant don’t mix well.
Anyway, I’ve had deodorant help when applied after already getting a smell. I still would recommend a shower before going out anyplace where people are, but just for sitting around at home it certainly made things go from peeeeyeeeew to barely noticeable.
I just use stuff labelled as deodorant. Things labelled anti-perspirant tend to make my pits itch something fierce.
I am the opposite on preference. I am a female, and only use the clear stick, deodorant only type stuff. My favorite is Old Spice high endurance. It is the only type which seems to work for me and since I switched to deodorant only (i.e. non-antiperspirant) I actually have less underarm sweat and odor. Keeping the pits shaved also cuts down on odor. I keep a stick in my purse for mid-day refresh of the deodorant as well, if I need it. So for me, it does work on already stinky pits. I even use it before bedtime so I don’t wake up stinky.
Feminine Hygiene Spray. Find a wide variety of brands in the Scared Of Your Icky Lady Parts section of your drugstore. Can cause contact dermatitis, vulvovaginitis, paralysis, coma, death (okay not the last three).
Not that I’d ever want to use anyone else’s deodorant/AP, but remind me to never accidentally borrow yours! (unless it’s spray, I guess…)
I believe the only “active” ingredient in most all (ordinary) deodorants is alcohol of one form or another. So, application will kill lots of bacteria on contact, and by so doing, there will be less bacteria later. But I don’t think there’s otherwise much lasting effect besides the perfume, since the alcohol will tend to evaporate pretty quickly.