A recent Atlantic article shows a rare consensus… the vast majority of experts say anti-perspirants work far better, some 50% better, if applied at bedtime, even if you shower in the morning, with no need for morning reapplication.
I know no one who does this. I might start in the spirit of experimentation, but no one wants me to start sweatin’ to the oldies when I lift weights at the gym.
Do you actually apply anti-perspirant at night?
Would you give it a try?
Did @kenobi_65 know this, with his Degrees?
If the companies know this is true, why the silence? In years of Interwebz use I don’t think I have seen “armpit secrets they don’t wantcha to know”…
The article says the benefit is precisely because most people haven’t showered at that time, so if you still shower then schtick you might not get the bonus. And that the companies don’t worry about it since most people get adequate results even if it is 50% less effective.
As I typically shower or bathe at night rather than morning that’s been my long-standing practice. I apply after I wash, regardless of the time of day.
I use deodrant, not anti-perspirant, so I can’t be helpful in this regard. I also have the intention of not putting chemicals on my body when they’re not necessary, so even if it were more effective, I wouldn’t do it in order to avoid an extra 9 hours of excess chemicals soaking into my skin. As a person who’s had axillary lymph nodes removed, I’m very alert to any potential physical stress to the armpits.
I put on anti-perspirant when I get out of the tub/shower, regardless of what the clock says on the subject. Just makes sense to me.
On a side note, why is it that one is asked to not wear anti-perspirant when getting a mammogram? One would think that would get rather unpleasant for the tech, especially later in the day. (I hit the shower right before my appointment, to make her life a little less disgusting.)
I have heard it said aluminum salts (or other things) in antiperspirants can show up on X-ray and be misinterpreted as calcifications. Though I would think these often easy to differentiate (superficial versus breast tissue), on some views (planes) it might be trickier. You don’t want them to repeat things to make sure. Why take the risk of significant repeated radiation from a thing easy to avoid? I can see it being an issue if they decide to do ultrasound after a questionable nodule too.
I was just looking at the label on my Speed Stick deodorant, and it lists its active ingredient as an anti-perspirant. And just in general, I’d assumed that for about the past forever, commercial deodorants are anti-perspirant deodorants.
Anyway, now that I know for sure that I use an anti-perspirant, I’ll go ahead and say I apply it every time I change clothes, including when I change into PJs. So morning and evening, and sometimes in between.
This, and I’m surprised others haven’t mentioned it. I dislike anti-perspirants and find them unnecessary compared to deodorant sticks. I think of them as chemical concoctions that are the equivalent of silicone sealant. Deodorant works just fine, and no, never at night. But then, I don’t think I’m particularly stinky. At least, no one has ever passed out in my presence!
Does it actually say “anti-perspirant”, or did you infer that from some ingredient?
I tend to rotate through different brands and scents. I currently have a Speed Stick deodorant that says nothing about “anti-perspirant”, and my current fave, Axe “sage and cedarwood”, which likewise says nothing like that, but does tout “48-hour high-definition scent”.
On the back, there’s a label with the header “Drug Facts.”
It’s got an “Active Ingredient” column and a “Purpose” column.
The sole active ingredient is listed as “Aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly 15.8%” and its purpose is listed as “Antiperspirant.”
Wow, that’s pretty much false labeling for those who want to avoid antiperspirants (which I now see is a word that isn’t supposed to be hyphenated). I checked my Speed Stick and it contains no such ingredient, although the Canadian formulation may be different. The only thing even remotely suspicious is tetrasodium EDTA, and that’s definitely not an antiperspirant but a product stabilizer.
The Axe deodorant, which I prefer anyway, has nothing suspicious in it at all AFAICT. I do love the scent of its “Apollo sage and cedarwood” variety.
At least in the U.S., any product which is marketed as an antiperspirant will have some manner of aluminum salts as an ingredient; antiperspirants are classified as an OTC drug by the FDA, and aluminum salts are the only active ingredients which the FDA permits to make an antiperspirancy claim.
That said, many consumers casually call the entire category “deodorants,” although many of products are actually antiperspirants (though they are also deodorants). In other words, all antiperspirants are also deodorants, but not all deodorants are also antiperspirant – if you see a product that says something like “aluminum-free,” it’s undoubtedly only a deodorant (at least in the U.S.).
In the U.S., a product that has those salts must have the word “antiperspirant” on the front of its package. I suspect that, if @RTFirefly were to look at the front label of that Speed Stick, it would, indeed, say “antiperspirant.”
In answer to @Dr_Paprika : I was not aware of that research, though I haven’t worked in the category for almost 30 years, so I’m probably not up-to-date on the latest science. I, too, am a morning-shower person, and if I exert myself enough during the day, I often find the need to reapply my antiperspirant, as I can become noticeably pungent.
