15 Tips to Help Keep Your Underarms Dry and Fresh

We've all been there– all of a sudden, you feel a moist, unpleasant sensation around your armpits. You notice an offensive scent emanating from the region, and you glance down only to find that your crisp, white shirt has been stained by an unsightly yellow hue.

There are few things that can tear down your confidence than feeling like you're a beacon of BO. What can you do to ensure that your underarms stay as dry and fresh in the late afternoon as when you got ready for the day?

Though sweating is a useful and natural function that cools your body down, it's pretty frustrating when you're just trying to get through the day without feeling like a swamp under your arms. Here are fifteen ways that you can attack armpit sweat and ensure that you end the day as clean as you began it.

1. Stay Hydrated

Though sweaty pits certainly don't seem like something that serves any purpose other than to make you feel uncomfortable and potentially humiliated, sweating plays a key role in cooling your body when it's hot out.

One of the things you can do to make sure that your body's AC is working the way it should be is to drink plenty of water so that it doesn't have to cool you down through excessive sweating.

2. Choose Your Clothes Wisely

Wearing tight clothes in the heat of summer is a recipe for disaster when it comes to your armpits. Not only can snug clothes beneath your arms create an outcome of underarm stains, but they can also make you sweat even more.

The best type of clothing to help keep your underarms dry and fresh is made out of breathable fabrics. You want to facilitate air movement around the area so your pits can stay cool and dry.

Instead of wearing shirts made out of synthetic fabrics like acrylic or polyester that don't let your pits breathe, look for natural fabrics like cotton or linen to allow airflow and keep you dry.

3. Avoid Caffeine

We know, we know. How are you supposed to get moving for the day without a cup of coffee or your chosen form of caffeine?

Unfortunately, when caffeine is busy stimulating you to start your day, it's also stimulating your central nervous system. This tells your sweat glands to get going and turns your armpits into a stinky mess. All forms of caffeine will start this process, but drinking caffeine in the form of a hot liquid can only intensify the experience.

4. Quit Smoking

If smoking cigarettes is one of your favorite ways to take a break from the day, we seriously hate to be the bearers of bad news.

Nicotine raises your body temperature when you ingest it, meaning that your heart starts beating faster and your sweat glands receive a message to get to work.

5. Lay Off the Alcohol

When you drink, the blood vessels in your skin get wider (technically known as vasodilation.) This can make your skin temperature go up, which makes your brain tell your sweat glands that it's time to cool your body down by producing sweat.

The good news is that vasodilation typically only starts occurring when you're intoxicated. This means that you don't have to become a complete teetotaler to reduce your sweating– just don't go overboard, and you should be all set.

6. Dry Off

Once you've hopped out of the shower, it's tempting to throw your clothes on and move on with your day. If you're dealing with sweaty, smelly armpits, though, you'll want to take a breather for a minute.

Before you put on your clothes, give your body a little bit of time to cool down and dry off. Otherwise, you can find yourself in a situation where you start sweating right away after you've gotten all clean and fresh.

If you live in a hot and humid climate, this is particularly important. If you don't let your body cool down and dry off before getting dressed, you'll find yourself feeling damp and gross practically right away.

7. Change Your Diet

You've heard it a million times before– you are what you eat. It's possible that your diet could be partially responsible for your stinky, sweaty pits– both in that you're eating too many sweat-inducing foods and not enough foods that help to reduce sweat.

You might not like what you're about to hear, but it's worth considering that your diet of beer, coffee, and hot sauce actually isn't helping you get a handle on your odor.

Some of the foods that can cause sweating include:

• Beer and liquor
• Processed foods
• Caffeine
• Spicy food
• Ice cream
• Cruciferous veggies

Beyond that, foods that are low in fiber can make your digestive system work extra hard to break them down, which can lead to sweating. High-fat foods also warm up your body during processing, and high-sodium foods make your body go into overdrive, getting rid of all that extra salt in the form of excess sweat and urine.

There are also some foods that can help to calm your overactive sweat glands and reduce how much sweat your body is cooking up. These foods are typically gentle on your digestive system and don't excite your nervous system.

Some of the foods you might consider incorporating into your diet include:

• Bananas
• Almonds
• High calcium foods
• Green tea
• Olive oil
• Whey
• Fruits and veggies with high water content
• Sweet potatoes
• Oats

It might not sound like a lot of fun to make such a drastic change to your diet, but you don't have to do it all at once. If you find yourself frequently indulging in many of the items on the above "do not eat to avoid sweat pits" list, consider dropping them out of your diet one at a time to see if you can notice any changes.

8. Wash Your Clothes Regularly

It's tempting to re-wear clothes again and again– after all, isn't that the environmentally friendly thing to do?

The reality is, though, that wearing the same shirt you wore yesterday means that you're exposing your underarms to sweat-causing bacteria that's been chilling there since you took it off. This is particularly important when it comes to clothes you've been exercising in or otherwise sweating in.

9. Take Regular Showers

It might sound like obvious advice, but it's worth mentioning how important regular showers are for helping to control bacteria buildup on your skin.

When you're in the shower, you'll want to ensure you have a body wash that actively helps cool your skin down and fight odor, like our shower primer. This 5-in-1 formula is made with a proprietary blend of natural ingredients and helps to:

• Eliminate odor
• Moisturize your skin
• Reduce irritation and chafe
• Soften your body hair
• Cools your skin

No matter what body wash you choose, you'll want to ensure you stay away from nasty ingredients like parabens or aluminum. Our entire line of man care products are free from questionable substances you don't want to slather all over your body and are made with natural ingredients like witch hazel, hops, and pumpkin seed extract.

10. Drink Tea

Drinking a piping hot beverage might not sound like the best idea when you're confronting an armpit sweat situation, but there are actually things in green and black tea that can help to keep you calm and constrict your sweat glands, primarily magnesium and vitamin B.

If you suspect that your sweating problem is resulting from stress and anxiety, you might consider swapping out that morning cup of joe with a green or black tea.

11. Exercise Regularly

It might seem a bit counterintuitive, but actually getting more exercise can help you get your sweaty pits under control. One reason for this is that it can habitualize your body to sweat during your workout rather than at ridiculously inconvenient times of the day.

Additionally, exercise actually simulates your body going through a stressful situation, which can make both your body and your mind better able to confront real or perceived threats throughout the day without starting to pour buckets out of your pits.

If you're also dealing with sweaty nether regions as the day goes on in addition to sweat pits, check out these five ways to keep your balls fresh.

12. Try Some Home Remedies

There's a laundry list of home remedies you can try to keep your underarms cool, fresh, and dry all day long, and if you're willing to do some experimenting, you might just find that one of them works for you.

Some of your options include using apple cider vinegar on your armpits, making a paste out of cornstarch and baking soda, applying lemon juice at night before bed, and applying witch hazel to help get a handle on odor-causing bacteria.

13. Take an Epsom Salt Bath

If you haven't discovered the true bliss of soaking in a warm Epsom salt bath, you're in for a real treat. This is an incredibly relaxing pastime you can add to your routine, but it can also help reduce body odor and act as an astringent.

Taking a soak once or twice a week for about twenty minutes can help reduce sweating and make you a lot more chill overall.

14. Chill Out

Do you ever find yourself sweating when the temperature is perfectly comfortable out? If you are prone to getting stressed out and you simultaneously find that your body is exuding moisture from your pits, face, palms, or other unfortunate places, you might be dealing with anxiety sweat.

To make things even more frustrating, being anxious about the fact that you're sweating so much can actually heighten your anxiety, which, in turn, can increase how much you sweat.

If you're wondering who the heck to blame for this cruel fate, you'll want to turn your attention to your sympathetic nervous system. When you face a threat– regardless of whether it's real or completely in your head– the fight-flight-freeze response gears up from your sympathetic nervous system.

One of the not-so-delightful responses this system has to a scary situation is sweating. It's trying to help you stay cool in the face of that lion you're fighting or whatever, so don't be too hard on the old SNS.

In any case, you might find that working to take control of your anxiety and stress levels has a noticeable and positive impact on your sweaty pits. Of course, anxiety can also wreak havoc on just about every aspect of your life, so there are a lot of compelling reasons to get a handle on the situation.

There are a lot of things you can do to combat anxiety, including:

• Exercise
• Meditation
• Journaling
• Deep breathing
• Reading
• Eat a healthy diet
• Listen to music
• Limit caffeine and alcohol
• Prioritizing sleep

Beyond stress and anxiety, getting angry can also kick your sweat glands into gear. When you get mad, stress hormones are released that raise your blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature, all of which lead to sweating.

15. Use Body Powder

It's amazing how far a little body powder can go. After you've taken a shower and dried off, use a body powder specifically designed for men to ensure that you stay dry and fresh all the livelong day. Not only does it absorb moisture and destroy odor, but it also helps to keep your skin cool and smooth.

This can be a great alternative to antiperspirant, which typically includes questionable chemicals like aluminum (which, for what it's worth, is thought by some to be potentially linked to Alzheimer's disease.) Antiperspirants also block the pores of your skin in order to prevent you from perspiring. Whether or not completely blocking your ability to sweat is a good thing is something you can find plentiful debates about, but we'll leave that up to you to look into.

Are You Ready to Defeat Stinky, Smelly Pits?

There are a lot of different angles you can attack sweaty pits from– whether it be your diet, your clothing choices, or your laundry regime. All that being said, it's pretty frustrating to have to adjust your entire lifestyle just to get through the day without feeling like a walking, talking advertisement for BO.

That's why so many guys have been turning to Chassis Premium Body Powder. Though our specially formulated powder is best known for its ability to defeat moisture, odor, and irritation "down there," it is also incredibly effective at destroying any sweat and stench that might be emanating from your underarms.