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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
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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.
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/11/19/the-return-of-jai-alai/http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GI8UPI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=stucosuccess-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005GI8UPI8/12/2019 How to Remove Yellow Armpit Stains | The Art of Manliness.pdf
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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-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005RXGLUS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=stucosuccess-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005RXGLUS8/12/2019 How to Remove Yellow Armpit Stains | The Art of Manliness.pdf
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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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