The Deodorant Challenge: Part 2

Posted by Jeremy in , ,

This post is a continuation of The Deodorant Challenge: Part 1.

So, it has been two weeks since I stopped using commercial deodorant and I am back to report. Happily, I still get to sleep in the same bed with my wife. For now. Even better, my new baby girl seems to really enjoy spending the night in her daddy's arms rather than her cradle.

Well, here is the report and review of my strictly powder underarm deodorant after two weeks.

The recipe is very simply, 1 part baking soda, and 3 parts talc (baby powder). The mix was shaken thoroughly to ensure complete mixture of the powders and stored in a sealed plastic container. The mix was applied with a few cotton balls dabbed generously throughout the underarm area (I think you get the picture).

The first couple days took a little getting used to. For 3 days the powder worked well for about 6-8 hours. Then my natural manliness started to break through to offend. While my wife didn't complain, she did inform me later that it wasn't very pleasant. However, after the first 3 days, the smell seemed to stop almost completely. I was still applying the powder daily and it seemed to be working throughout the day. In fact. around day 7 I completely missed a day's application and still no smell. Sweet Hallelujahs!!!

But alas, all good things must come to an end. As, once my wife went into labor this past Saturday (about Day 12), and the stress levels hit the stratosphere, the powdered scent suppressor FAILED! My only guess is that my body, once freed of the harsh chemicals of the commercial deodorant, adjusted to regulate its own putrid odors, aided by the powdery mix. Once stress altered my internal body chemistry, it lost its balance and needs to reconfigure. To top it off, I woke up the morning after my baby girl was born to a painful, fire-engine red rash, the result of EXTREME chaffing.

In the last two days, my body seems to be readjusting and the smell is calming back down. The day I discovered the rash, I trimmed all the hair up in there to try to help with the irritation. And yesterday the rash was significantly better.

So, here it is Day 14 and I am declaring Experiment Candidate #1 a partial failure; because, when life turns up the pressure, I can't have my underarm odor hit the skids. Therefore, this candidate will NOT be considered for long-term trials with new white shirts :-(

Here is a quick list of pros:

  1. Very inexpensive, fashioned from ingredients already at home
  2. Simple to make, it took all of 1 minute
  3. Worked with my body's chemistry to control odor


And cons:
  1. Inconvenient application method, dabbing the pits is time consuming
  2. Messy, the powder gets everywhere while dabbing
  3. Does NOTHING to even help with perspiration (I didn't expect that it would)
  4. Failed to control odor in stressful situations
  5. Contributed to chaffing during stressful situation
Tomorrow I will begin the second trial with Experiment Candidate #2, another powdered concoction that I found on the BringBackSimplicity Yahoo! Group made according to the following list of ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup baking soda
  • 1/2 cup corn starch
  • 10 drops tea tree oil
  • 5 drops lavender essential oil
  • 5 drops lemon grass essential oil
Continued on The Deodorant Challenge: Part 3.

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