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I have a basket in my closet for clothes that need help in some way. It has single socks that I’m hoping I’ll find the match for, shirts that need a new button, clothes with tears or rips, and clothes with stains I need to work on. I realized that my husband had been adding many shirts to the basket, all of which had deodorant stains in the armpits. As the pile grew, I decided I needed to start figuring out how to get those stains out.
The Internet has many ideas and suggestions. Some are preventative, like using certain kinds of deodorant and limiting how much deodorant you use. I shared this information with my husband, but I still had to figure out what to do with these shirts. I decided to attempt a low-key science experiment by taking all the suggestions and trying each one on a different shirt. I then washed them all, dried them, and checked to see which ones worked the best. Stay tuned to see the best way to remove deodorant stains from shirts!
How to Remove Deodorant Stains from Shirts
Of the seven ways I tried, most use things you already have at your home. In total, I used the following items: baking soda, white vinegar, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, Dawn dish soap, Dawn power wash, Oxiclean stain remover, and Borax. I’m going to share how I treated each stain and then at the end, I’ll share how well each method worked!
Method 1: Make a 3:1 baking soda and water paste, let it sit for an hour, scrub gently, and rinse with cold water
The first method was the cheapest and one of the easiest. All you need is baking soda and water, three parts baking soda and one part water. I made the paste in a bowl, let it sit for an hour, then rinsed it with cold water.
Method 2: Soak shirt in white vinegar for an hour
This method was also very easy. I just put some white vinegar in a bowl and made sure the armpits were submerged. I let it sit for an hour.
Method 3: Mix equal parts lemon juice and water and soak shirt in mixture for an hour
Another cheap and easy method, and I was curious to see how it compared to the vinegar, since both are acids. I also submerged the armpits of this shirt and let it sit for an hour.
Method 4: Mix equal parts hydrogen peroxide and Dawn dish soap, apply to stain and scrub, then let sit for one hour
I’ve found Dawn dish soap to be helpful in so many cleaning activities. While I’m not normally tied to a name brand, I have found that somehow there is a difference between generic blue dish soap and the Dawn dish soap. I only use this for cleaning, so it lasts a long time!
Method 5: Spray stain with Oxiclean stain removal spray
While this one is pricier if you don’t already have it, spraying the armpits of this one was simple!
Method 6: Spray stain with Dawn PowerWash
Another easy option; all I did was spray and let it sit for an hour. I was curious to see how this compared to the Dawn dish soap and hydrogen peroxide mixture.
Method 7: Make paste with borax and water, apply to stain and scrub
I’ve used borax along with other ingredients to strip laundry, so it made sense that it might work to get deodorant build up off of shirts. I made a paste with water and scrubbed it in, and then let it sit for an hour.
While not all of the methods said you needed to let the shirts sit for an hour, I did leave them all for an hour since some of the shirts needed to soak. Then I threw them in the washer with laundry detergent on the setting for the hottest water. After they were done washing, I threw them in the dryer. They looked pretty good before the dryer, but it was hard to tell if the stains had been fully removed when they were still wet.
After they were done in the dryer, I eagerly pulled them all out to see which method worked the best.
It was very anticlimactic—they all worked!
Here are all seven shirts. Every single one was clear of any remaining residue or buildup from deodorant. While it doesn’t make for a very interesting side by side comparison, it is good for those of us who are frugal! What this tells us is that you probably have just what you need already at your house to get these pesky stains out, whether it’s lemon juice or baking soda or trusty Dawn PowerWash.
