Last lock down, I used my time to drink wine with friends online [rather; consumed copious amounts of wine, played house party games and chatted until our eyes hurt]. I felt like I didn’t make the best of my once in a lifetime, time until one day I did.
Mid lockdown 1.0, I decided to test my relationship. I mean really test it by, forcing my partner to sniff my underarms and tell me if I smelt or not before I would leave the house weekly to do my parents groceries and our own. Throw in a few
mental health walks with my friend and I ‘perspired’ at the thought of becoming known as smelly and forced him to sniff me a few extra times!
WHY? I was detoxing from antiperspirant and pivoting to the natural side. Don’t get me wrong, I do many things to my body that are unnatural and full of chemicals – so I’m not really in the ‘self-care’, natural skin care demographic. In fact, probably the opposite. If a chemical will fix it, count me in baby! Usually.
And then, my dad got cancer. Yep, that big scary C word. My dad isn’t a young man, but he isn’t ready to buy the farm, if you know what I mean. So, the cancer, was under his eye and in 44 lymph nodes [44 right? Who knew we had so many, Doctors maybe...] Luckily, it was caught early, after having what looked like a sty for 3 weeks, he begrudgingly agreed to go to the doctors, which in the end saved his sight. He had some pretty major surgery [he also got a free face lift to one side of his face] all during the first wave of the pandemic and in Isolation 1.0.
Anyway – this impacted me. I decided to make some life changes, one of which was the Transition to Natural Deodorant. I researched, very little on the pros and cons on giving natural deodorant a crack. When I say researched very little, I mean not at all. I used my existing knowledge which consists of; over hearing conversations on the tram, hearing natural deodorant mentioned on random cooking Facebook pages – yes hello ‘Skinny Mixers’ and other fleeting seconds of conversation over the last few years. I had never thought to engage with that content, as I am not generally the consumer of health-related content. [Cause’ I erh, love sugar and have a very treat yourself personality and body type]. I decided that based on this overheard information that there was probably some evidence somewhere [read: I’m not researching it] that suggests going for a natural product is a ‘bit’ better.
I made the change. I called a pharmacy, confirmed they had the only brand of natural deodorant I had ever heard of “Black Chicken” [why a health brand called themselves this, I will never, ever understand]. I googled it a little to check what kind I needed, I couldn’t decide and purchased both the sensitive and original. Now going into this process, I assumed the switch was easy and it wasn’t going to change much of my life aside from a change in product. Cue, unexpected reality shock! I am so glad I used isolation to start the process, as soon as I started: I felt anxious about smelling, I cannot imagine ever sticking it out without being gifted Isolation and the time spent at home.
So here we are, a few weeks into Isolation 2.0 and I want to help you if this is something you want. It is the perfect time to try, while you are locked away from friends and colleagues who might otherwise not appreciate the detox your body ‘has to’ go through. Cause’ let me tell you, you are going to detox and if like me at all, you are going to stay up to 4am one [definitely more than one] morning, googling ways to stop smelling naturally… but it’s all a part of the process. I am here, writing this, so when you are scouring the web, after 11.59pm you can find this entry and be reassured about where your life and armpits are going from here.
Enter phase one, the switch. About a week in. The first few days were fine, I smelt like the new deodorant, I didn’t notice a body odour smell at all. I didn’t particularly like the scent of the deodorant I was trying but I decided to persist. Sunday arrives, and I have noticed a scent around me. I clean the house, vacuum, mop wondering what the strange faint new scent is…. Drum roll please. Partner sniffs me, turns out it is me. I think, all good I did an at home work out, cleaned our place - I will just have a quick shower and it will be a-ok! [No].
I STINK. It’s been 7 days. I have washed my underarms in warm water, I have used more Thankyou body wash on my armpits than I usually use in a whole shower [Sorry about the misuse of plastic here]. I am panicking. I get out of the shower, still sopping wet and beg Jack to sniff my underarm. He does [read: he is the best, the absolute best], he politely pushes my arm down and suggests I have another shower. I am in full panic mode now, I dry off and start researching the process of what happens when your move away from antiperspirants and to deodorants (whether natural or chemical based). I am 10+ tabs into my research when I land on Adore Beauty, where they wrote a blog on types of natural deodorant, a general process, detoxing, what they recommend. I watch this once, and begin my online search for new found saviour Lavanila: The Healthy Underarm Detox Mask. Sold out all over Aus [guess I will always wonder if everyone used Isolation to give natural deodorant a whirl?]. I refuse to pay $30 for shipping from the US so I start googling alternatives. I find several, when I say several I mean, I read more than 20 articles on how to detox your underarms. You see, my aroma was due to the chemicals and build up in the armpit region. I had odour causing bacteria (corynebacterium), aluminium (which essentially plugs sweat ducts and pores to reduce sweating), and on top of this my sweat glands were overcompensating now I was [finally] unclogging them and produced sweat at an alarming rate. I considered quitting and I was only a week in.
Basically, your body must detox everything that has been clogging up your armpits and preventing sweating and odour for the past XYZ years [29 years living for me, probably started using a scented form of antiperspirant when I was 11 or 12. It was called Impulse, I am sure you know the variety in which I refer]. I found a solution; suggesting using a reusable cotton round to wipe apple cider vinegar under your armpits to remove odour causing bacteria. I found an easy at home detox; where you used Bentonite Clay (I got mine at the Source Wholefoods) with apple cider vinegar and make a paste to apply to your underarms. I did this, and although I don’t love the smell of apple cider vinegar, I can handle it for the sake of my pits [my poor partner Jack, felt himself gagging anytime he came near the bathroom that Monday evening]. Lots of articles suggested using activated charcoal as well, but I didn’t bother and it still worked well. Day 8 and I started to notice a serious decline in odour immediately. Even without deodorant on, I wasn’t so smelly.
I decided I was going to change natural deodorants as I wasn’t a huge fan of the scent or difficulty in winter getting the paste of Black Chicken to spread on my underarms [I even used my hairdryer to soften it, so I could get a paste that was malleable]. Introducing No Pong Original, after a chat with my friend who is a health and beauty specialist she suggested I give it a try so I ordered this online on day 9 and eagerly awaited its delivery. It was very affordable in comparison to Black Chicken and I worried about the quality [premium price marketing working its magic].
It was a smaller size and the website I ordered from suggested it that as it was easier to apply, more malleable therefore was quicker to use. Then it showed up on day 12 and it smelt lovely. I proceed to lather my armpits in it daily and both my partner and I noticed a significant reduction in any smells [not calling it an odour as it was likely just the essential oils in the other deodorant I (we) didn’t enjoy]. It was a scent we both liked a lot better [when I used Black Chicken he often noted, you don’t smell like body odour, but you don’t smell like you or nice or something. Then proceeded to make apologies about having to be “that guy” for my transition. It is what I asked for, a whole lot of honesty] and that made me far more comfortable. Perfectly timed I thought as the end of isolation grew closer and thus the beginning of socialising within our bubble. I was relived I wasn’t going to stink up the picnic we were headed for.
Fast forward, amid the first week of my transition to No Pong natural deodorant. I am around 16 days in, I wake up in the middle of the night with such itchy underarms I couldn’t help but scratch through my jammy’ top. I even got out of bed to investigate. Red. Rashy. Blotchy. It wasn’t pretty and it was extremely uncomfortable. NOOOOOO.
I went onto No Pongs website and considered reviews and noticed that people had mentioned this occurring, it seemed to be a reaction lots of people with sensitive skin [mine is oh so sensitive] have from bicarbonate soda. I now wish I had purchased directly from No Pong, where they have a bi-carb free option too [impulse buying on the phone to my pal saw limited consideration in the original purchase]. I read a few articles suggesting my body was just adjusting and it was something that could be overcome, so I persisted using No Pong, enjoying not smelling too much to return to my Black Chicken bi-carb free deodorant. Deep down, I wanted to quit. I was ready to go back to my aluminium filled, antiperspirant especially because we were socialising again.
3 days later, I could not handle it anymore. It was so painful, I must have subconsciously scratched in the night and had caused the welts to get much worse. My partner told me it was better to smell different than it was to keep going on this route. He was right, but I fought through 2 more days in distress.
I eventually agreed [other people are often better at looking after us, than we are at looking after ourselves] and reverted to Black Chicken. That’s where I have been for a few stable weeks now. I no longer smell, I am using a natural deodorant, while I do not love the smell it is better than nothing as when I do exercise at home, I do sweat and get a little smelly. I am using apple cider vinegar daily in the shower and have done one extra detox, when the welts fully cleared up at the end of week 4. It’s been a journey, hopefully you are more prepared than I.
I wanted to give up at many moments but persisted and am odour free now!
A few things I learnt along the way;
- Taking a hot bath helps open the pores which assists in flushing toxins out
- Deodorants with arrowroot powder or corn-starch help limit the “wet” feeling you may experience. (So does BiCarb but some people will have reactions [remember my red, rashy welts?] so have noted the alternates]
- Avoid deodorants with a high level of coconut oil in them, these often leave stains on your shirts [sorry beautiful Gorman shirt].
- Apple cider vinegar is the best. I use Braggs on cotton rounds, and it genuinely is my saviour. Lots of people agree with the use daily whether you use antiperspirant or natural deodorant.
When I went back to Black Chicken, I started actively researching alternatives that often have lower bicarbonate soda in them or just different reviews and have since ordered;
- Native Deodorant (it has a reduce level of BiCarb but long wait as it comes from the USA)
- No Pong Bi-carb free (No Pong)
- Lavanilla Luxe Sport (Adore Beauty)
- Lavanilla Healthy Earth (OZ Beauty).
Which I will post a in depth review for in the coming weeks. I will also probably try Kaia Detox deodorant when their Australian website is back up and shipping.
I feel like what started as a knee jerk reaction to something scary in my life, has become quite the investment. I want to get it right and enjoy the smell [or lack of] daily so it’s not a sacrifice to not use the scent free $3.80 bottle of roll-on Mitcham anymore.
Logging Out,
Emily
Some links to the products I tried;
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