Effective Ways of Treating Underarm Odour

Isn’t it very embarrassing to move around with smelly underarms? Living in a hot and humid climate has its own set of challenges, and managing the underarm odour is one of them.

You can’t get rid of underarm odour completely by taking showers multiple times a day. You need to address the underlying root causes for effectively treating the problem.

There are many reasons for foul underarm odour, such as diet, hygiene habits, more caffeine intake, etc.

While sweating or perspiration is the body’s natural reaction to high temperatures, stress, or physical activities, it becomes troublesome when the sweat combines with the dead skin cells. This serves as a medium for bacterial growth and results in unpleasant body odour.

Healthy, Nutritious, and Balanced Diet

Ensure that your diet is rich in various fruits and vegetables. You should consume a balanced and nutritious diet that provides adequate quantities of whole grains, proteins, Vitamin-B complex, and zinc. Avoid garlic and onion in your food as it produces a bad odour.

It is recommended to drink at least 2-3 litres of water daily. Reduce your caffeine intake and replace it with herbal/green tea.

Deodorants and Talcum Powders 

Use deodorant for killing bad odour when you need to stay outdoors throughout the day for work, study, or play. However, deodorants don’t prevent sweat production, which helps in masking the body odour effectively.

Before applying deo to your underarms, use a small quantity of talcum powder. It ensures that the deo stays for a longer duration, keeps the skin dry, and avoids bad odour.

You should apply talcum powder to all your body folds after taking a shower. You can also use body spray to hide the bad odour.

Antiperspirant Lotions

If you sweat excessively, you should use antiperspirant lotions. It comprises aluminium chloride, and it can be applied to the underarms, palms, and soles during the night.

It reduces the amount of sweat in your underarms and helps in avoiding bad odour.

Maintain Higher Hygienic Standards

If you sweat excessively, you should shower at least twice a day. Always use soap or any other herbal body wash during the shower.

After high-intensity physical activities like gym workouts or playing sports, ensure that you take a shower. It helps in removing sweat and bacteria that cause bad odours. Also, observe higher standards of personal hygiene to keep your body clean and fresh always.

Wear Loose-Fitting Clothes

Ensure that you wear breathable and loose-fitting fabrics such as cotton, linen, and moisture-wicking blends. It helps in keeping your body cooler than tight-fitting clothes that are prepared from non-breathable fabrics.

Exfoliating the Underarm

Exfoliation refers to the procedure of getting rid of the dead skin cells. It helps in maintaining cleanliness in your underarm area and keeping the bad body odour under check.

You can exfoliate your skin gently using a loofah with your soap or shower gel and applying it to your underarms.

Botox Treatment

In case you are suffering from excessive perspiration in the underarm area, you can undergo a botox treatment. This procedure involves the injection of botox through a few tiny pricks in the areas with maximum sweat gland concentration.

The botox treatment helps in reducing perspiration for long periods up to 6-8 months. It can be repeated once its effectiveness is reduced.

Laser Hair Removal

Another effective way of maintaining clean underarms is to go for a laser hair removal service.

It restricts the hair growth in the underarms and helps in keeping the area clean. Thus, it avoids the collection of sweat in the hair follicles that cause bacteria build-up.

Although many opt for hair removal creams laser hair removal is more effective when it comes to underarm smell.

Shaving/Waxing the Armpits

You can also wax or shave your armpits for reducing the armpit odour significantly. It removes the hair follicles and avoids sweat and bacterial growth in the underarm area.

Practice Stress Management Techniques

As stress is one of the leading causes of sweat production in your body, you can practice stress management techniques for removing anxiety and reducing sweat production.

These techniques provide you peace of mind and help you modulate your stress reaction to reduce physiological sweat response.

Home Remedies

You can also try various home remedies for treating the foul underarm odour. These home remedies provide safe, effective, and natural ways of treating bad body odours.

For this purpose, you can use a wide range of commonly available products at home, such as apple cider vinegar, potato, aloe-vera, baking soda, tea tree oil, lemon juice, lavender oil, tomato, etc.

There are various ways of minimizing and preventing underarm odour. You can follow these ways regularly for avoiding any embarrassing situation due to foul underarm odour in your personal and professional life.

There is no alternative to maintaining excellent personal hygiene. Thus, in addition to various other treatment methods as discussed above for treating the underarm odour, you should regularly take showers and always keep your body clean.