Keeping sweaty exercise t-shirts white

mrrodriguez

I have been struggling with yellow stains under the arms of all the race T-shirts I regularly wear to run. I have a drawer full, but some are favorites, so I wear them more often. The shirts are getting stained by all the sweat and I can't seem to get it out. Hate to lose some of my fav's. I also notice the same stain, but less intense, on my white dress shirts. Yecchhh. I know many people on this site workout regularly, and wonder if others have had the same problem.

I googled this before I posted here. What I am reading is that most people attribute the yellow stains to sweat. Some focus on the aluminum in the majority of popular deodorants, so I will be trying a "natural" deodorant without aluminum to see if that makes a difference. I will let my friends know if this has any effect at all. One site said that the stains are there on colored shirts too, but just aren't visible on the colored material.

In terms of getting out the stains once they are there, I've tried bleach, and as indicated on one web site, it seemed to make the stains worse? The shirts are usually not 100% cotton, and we use Oxi-clean as our detergent.

Any ideas on how to keep those bad boys clean?

alimac92

I was intrigued I didn't know this was a big problem for people. My daughter has stained a few work blouses and we blamed the bodys reaction to the deodorant for the staining. Washing the clothes in a normal wash seems to set the stain instead of removing it.

I googled too and found you can get arm pit pads to wear :noway:

Also found this comment:
You can get rid of sweat stains with white vinegar.

Pour undiluted white vinegar over the affected areas. Allow to sit for about 20 minutes. Then launder as usual.

The acids in the Vinegar will break down the deposits from sweat, allowing your washer to wash them away. Plus, Vinegar is safe for all colors.

Don't use bleach on those stains...bleach makes the stains worse.

Then I came across the following:

www.armpitstainremover.com
Sweat stain removal can be challenging because not all stains are alike - stains produced by body sweat won't come out with standard stain removers or even bleach. In fact, when it comes to discolored perspiration spots, like armpit stains or ring around the collar, bleach actually sets the stain, making it permanent. 
 
RAISE is used as a sweat stain removal pre-treatment. It’s unique formula gets to the source of the armpit stain, causing a reaction that releases it from your clothing.  It is then washed away when laundered. 

One can buy pads for excessive perspiration.
www.sweatguard.co.uk ( maybe you can find a similar site)

:flowerforyou:

zgochenour

Interesting, can someone with a chemistry background explain why the stains would get worse under bleach?

Mellie289

I have had some success with using a mixture of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide, which I found several months Googling the same issue (this site: http://laundry.about.com/od/stainremoval/a/underarmstains.htm ). I think some of my Tees are too far gone, but fir the ones that had mild staining, it worked well enough to get them back to white. I followed the instructions and let them sit for 30 minutes only, and this as "at least 30 minutes", so I probably should have let it go longer for the ones that were very badly stained. I'll try them again another day with a longer wait.