How to Remove Yellow Armpit Stains | The Art of Manliness.pdf

8/12/2019 How to Remove Yellow Armpit Stains | The Art of Manliness.pdf

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7/10/13 1:44 AMHow to Remove Yellow Armpit Stains | The Art of Manliness

Page 1 of 13http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/04/03/how-to-remove-yellow-armpit-stains/

How to Remove and Prevent Yellow Armpit Stains

Its a sartorial problem that many men have, but few talk about. Yel-

low armpit stains.

You or someone you know has probably suffered the shame and em-

barrassment of wearing a dress shirt with dingy yellow stains radiat-

ing from the armpits. Instead of your office mates listening in awe as

you tell them about the fish you caught that was this big! theyre

staring at your eye-catching golden pits. When your gal asks to wear

your sport coat to keep warm while you walk on a cool night, you

balk, knowing that your yellow armpits of shame will be revealed.

Missing out on a chance to be chivalrousthats the pits.

It doesnt have to be this way. Are you ready to once again experience
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/12/29/man-sports-jacket/


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the joy and exhilaration of giving a confident, unabashed high-five in

a shirt and tie? Would you like to save money by restoring your shirts

to pristine whiteness instead of having to buy new ones?

Today were going to show you how you can easily remove yellowarmpit stains and what you can do to prevent them. High-five!

What Causes Yellow Armpit Stains?

Sorry Pitstains. It isn't a gland problem.

Contrary to popular belief, its not your sweat itself that causes yel-

low stains. Most experts agree that that culprit behind your yellow

pits is the aluminum used in antiperspirants combined with your

sweat. Can you believe that? The very substance that keeps your pits

nice and dry also wreaks havoc on your shirts. This presents a bit of a

Catch-22. While foregoing antiperspirants can eliminate the risk of

yellow stains later on, youll have to manage the wet semi-circles due

to excessive sweating in the short-term.


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How to Remove Yellow Armpit Stains

There are lots of Grandma Tricks out there on how to remove yel-

low armpit stains. I tried a few of them on a white dress shirt that had

over six years of pit stain build-up in the armpits. The only time Iwear this shirt is when Im wearing a suit coat, and I make sure to

leave the coat on even if its hotter than a football practice in the mid-

dle of the day during an Oklahoma heatwave in August. I dont know

why I held on to this shirt. Its pretty nasty. Maybe

my subconscious knew I was going to write a post about removing

pit stains one day.

Here are the results of my experiment:

Bleach

Dont even try.

I didnt try using bleach, but I thought I should mention this method

first. For some guys, the natural response to fighting yellow stains is

to just use lots of bleach. Dont do it. It will actually make your pit

stains even more yellow.

Ammonia+Dishwashing Soap


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Will this dynamic duo destroy my armpit stains?

Result: Fail

The University of Illinois Extension Stain Solutions Department (yes,theres really a university department dedicated to fighting stains)

recommends a pit stain removing regimen that consists of scraping

off any residue from the shirt with a dull butter knife and then soak-

ing the stained areas in a quart of lukewarm water, half a teaspoon of

dishwashing detergent, and one tablespoon ammonia for 15 minutes.

While its soaking, you gently rub the stain from the back to loosen itup and then soak for another 15 minutes. Rinse and launder.


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Yellow stain in ammonia and dishwasher detergent.


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After: This just made the yellow stain angry.

I had high hopes for this method, but alas, I was disappointed. The

yellow stain didnt diminish at all. In fact, it started to look even

worse than before. I dont recommend this method.

OxiClean


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Result: Success!

OxiClean, the miracle cleaner pitched by the best beard in infomercial

history (RIP Billy Mays), claims that it can remove the stubbornest of

yellow armpit stains. I put that claim to the test.

All you have to do is fill up a sink with warm water and mix it with

one scoop of OxiClean. Place your blighted shirt in the sink, making

sure the yellow stains are completely submerged. For mild stains, just

let the shirt sit for an hour; for DEFCON 5 stains, let your shirt sit

overnight. After youre done soaking, rinse your shirt and launder as

usual.

Because my experiment shirt still had yellow pit stains, I used it in the

OxiClean experiment. I followed the directions on the box. The one

thing I did differently was actually rub a thick mixture of OxiClean

and water on the stain before putting it in the more diluted mixture.

Why? I dont know. It seemed like it would do something. I let theshirt sit overnight. After waking up from dreams of battling a sleuth

of cyborg bears in ajai alaideath match, I went to check on my shirt.

The intense yellow stains that once graced my pits had nearly van-

ished. I rinsed the shirt off and threw it into the wash. When I took it

out, the stains were pretty much gone. Six years of yellow pit stains

were blasted away with just a scoop of OxiClean and a little helpfrom the ghost of Billy Mays beard.
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Before soaking in the OxiClean mixture, I rubbed some of the powder direct-

ly on the stain. I have no scientific evidence that this does anything. Just

seemed like it might help.

A six year stain, practically all gone.

OxiClean is color safe, so you can take care of those yellow stains on


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your blue oxford shirts, too. The only precaution to keep in mind

when using OxiClean on color clothing is that some clothing fades

more easily when using products like OxiClean. Test for colorfast-

ness in an inconspicuous area before using the product.

Raise Yellow Stain Remover

Result: Success

There are a few products on the market that are specifically formulat-
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ed to remove yellow pit stains. I ordered a bottle of one these prod-

ucts. Its called Raise. A 12 ounce bottle costs $12.50 plus shipping. To

use it, you simply lay your shirt on a towel and apply a bit of Raise on

the armpit stains, brush the stain a bit, and then let sit for 15-20 min-

utes. Finish everything off by laundering as usual.

Because my original experiment shirt had been cured of its yellow

armpit stains, I unearthed another white shirt that had some medium

staining to test out Raise.

Raise Before
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Raise After

I followed the directions on the bottle. When I took my shirt out of the

wash, the stain had faded but was still a little visible. Perhaps if I ap-

plied Raise more liberally and let it sit for longer, I would have seen

better results. But overall, I wasnt completely happy with the prod-uct. Oxiclean and Raise had about the same results, but Oxiclean was

tasked with cleaning up a stain that was ten times worse.

Final Recommendation: OxiClean

OxiClean works. Its simple, cheaper than Raise, and can take care of

the gnarliest armpit stains. Plus, you can use it to clean a million other

things.

How to Prevent Yellow Armpit Stains

So we know we can remove armpit stains if we need to. But its prob-

ably more time and cost effective to prevent them from appearing in


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the first place. As the old saying goes, An ounce of prevention is

worth a pound of yellowed armpits, or something like that. There

are a few things you can do to prevent yellow armpit stains from

forming in the first place.

Wear an undershirt.Just simply wearing an undershirt can work for

some men. The extra layer between their skin and a nice dress shirt is

all thats needed to prevent the yellow menace from forming in their

axial region. If regular undershirts arent cutting it for you, you can

always try some specialty undershirts with sweat guards built in.

Unfortunately, for many men, an undershirt isnt enough to prevent

the dreaded pit stain. For these men, other actions are required.

Stop using aluminum antiperspirants. As we mentioned above, the

biggest culprit for yellow armpit stains is your sweat mixing with the

aluminum in antiperspirants. So naturally, if you want to banish yel-

low pit stains, youll need to stop using aluminum-based antiperspi-rants. But its somewhat of a Faustian choice between swamp pits or

yellow stains.

Use a stain prevention antiperspirant. The deodorant and antiperspi-

rant industry has been in an arms race against yellow pit stains for

the past few years. Recognizing that their product may be contribut-

ing to yellow stains, antiperspirant companies have been spending

big money figuring out how to provide wetness protection and pre-

vent yellow stains from forming. Speed Stick has an antiperspiranton

the market that claims to keep wetness at bay while preventing yel-

low stains.

Use deodorant + Gold Bond. One way to get dryness protection
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How to Remove Yellow Armpit Stains | The Art of Manliness.pdf