What is the difference between natural & commercial deodorants?
When we think about sweat, we think of odor. But sweat isn’t responsible for odor. Sweat does not smell bad. What does smell bad is when sweat mixes with bacteria found on your skin.
But even sweat is not all the same. We have two types of sweat glands:
– Apocrine glands are found in areas where you have hair, such as your armpits and groin. These glands release a milky fluid when you’re stressed.
– Eccrine glands occur over most of your body and open directly onto the surface of the skin. When your body temperature rises, these glands release fluids that cool your body as they evaporate.
Simply put, our pits release “stress sweat,” and bacteria feed on it, which in turn creates body odor.
Now that we know how our body works, let’s talk about the difference between deodorants and antiperspirants – which are completely different!
Deodorants use antibacterial ingredients which reduce the number of bacteria that are responsible for body odor. While antiperspirants with aluminum, clog pores and sweat glands, preventing sweat from escaping, thus not reacting with bacteria.
Antiperspirants have been around since the early 1900s, but since the ’60s, many health concerns have been raised about aluminum in antiperspirants. Especially concerning the possibility that they lead to a higher likelihood of cancer, particularly breast cancer in women.
Another concern is the yellowish stains that are left behind, by aluminum, on your shirts.
Natural deodorants
When products have “natural” written on the label, we believe that the product is 100% natural, or at least that it is mostly natural. However, most ‘natural’ deodorant producers seem to be using this as a cheap marketing trip. Usually, this natural label just refers to the fact that it is not an antiperspirant and that it does not contain aluminum.
Read the ingredients carefully if you are looking for a 100% natural deodorant.
Using deodorants instead of antiperspirants has its benefits:
– Natural deodorants don’t close your sweat glands, helping your body release harmful toxins.
– Natural deodorants all microbiomes to be present closer to their natural state.
– Natural deodorants help the skin look and feel healthier
– Natural deodorants don’t stain your clothes, unlike aluminum antiperspirants.
Anyone who’s been using an antiperspirant will need time to adjust to the use of natural deodorants.
When you stop using an antiperspirant and stop filling up your apocrine glands, you will experience an increase in underarm sweat. This abrupt increase in underarm sweat can lead to skin irritation. Also, your pit sweat is probably going to smell more pungent than usual, because the previous antiperspirant killed off almost all the bacteria in your armpits.
But don’t despair, this increase of sweating and odor is short-lasting. It will likely last 1-2 weeks.
In this time your body will adjust to your sweat glands’ new openness and many people will notice less sweat than they did while using antiperspirants.
Let your body breathe!
