We sweat for a reason. And yet, we spend $18 billion a year trying to
stop or at least mask the smell of our sweat. Yep, that's $18 billion a year
spent on deodorant and antiperspirants. But even though you use it every day,
we doubt you know all of these surprising facts about your swipe sticks.
Being anti-body odor is NOT a
modern phenomenon.
According to the New York Times, ancient Egyptians "invented the
art of scented bathing" and took to applying perfume to their pits.
The first trademarked deodorant -- in 1888! -- was called Mum, and the
first antiperspirant, Everdry, followed 15 years later, the Times reported.
Deodorant kills bacteria.
Sweat isn't inherently stinky. In fact, it's nearly odorless. The
stench comes from bacteria that break down one of two types of sweat on your
skin. Deodorant contains some antibacterial power to stop the stink before it
starts, while antiperspirants deal with sweat directly.
Antiperspirants don't actually
stop the sweating process.
The aluminum compounds in antiperspirants effectively stop up the
eccrine sweat glands.
But the FDA only requires that a brand cut back on sweat by 20 percent
to boast "all day protection" on its label, the Wall Street Journal
reported. An antiperspirant claiming "extra strength" only has to cut
down on wetness by 30 percent.
You really can become
"immune" to your antiperspirant.
It seems that our bodies do adapt to the sweat-thwarting ways of
antiperspirants, but no one really knows why, HuffPost Style reported. The body
may adapt and find a way to unplug the glands, or simply produce more sweat in
the body's other glands.
"It's a good idea to switch up your deodorant brand every six
months to prevent resistance," Dr. Han Lee, assistant professor of
dermatology at the University of Southern California, told Men's Health.
Your deodorant doesn't care if
you're male or female.
Fun fact: While women have more sweat glands than men, men's sweat
glands produce more sweat.
But deodorant for men or for women is most likely little more than a
marketing ploy. In at least one brand, the same active ingredient is present in
the same amounts in the sticks for men and women, Discovery Health reported.
It's only packaging and fragrance that differs.
We're still falling for it, though: As of 2006, unisex deodorants make
up just 10 percent of the sweat-fighting market, USA Today reported.
Not everyone needs deodorant --
and it's possible to tell if you do by your earwax.
Deodorant advertisers have done a pretty good job of convincing us that
we're disgustingly smelly animals who need to be refined by their products.
But, most people don't smell as bad as they think they do, Esquire
reported, and some, who come from a particularly lucky gene pool, don't even
smell at all.
Short of forgoing all deodorant long enough to discover your true scent
-- which this brave soul did for 10 days -- you can get an idea about your own
personal smell factor by examining your earwax. (Hey, no one said this wouldn't
be gross!) White, flaky ear gunk most likely means you could toss the deodorant
stick. Dark and sticky wax... not so fast! Dry earwax producers are missing a
chemical in their pits that the odor-causing bacteria feed on, according to
LiveScience.
No one -- not even deodorant
makers -- truly understands where those yellow stains come from.
The dominant theory is that the aluminum-based ingredients in
antiperspirants somehow react with sweat or
You can make your own.
A number of plant oils and extracts contain their very own
antibacterial powers, so in theory you can make your own stench-fighting
deodorant relatively easily. However, people seem to find all-natural,
store-bought products to have varying degrees of efficacy -- not to mention you
won't find an all-natural antiperspirant, just odor blockers.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/deodorant-facts_n_4032353.html?view=print&comm_ref=false
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