suggestions needed from one smelly man to my fellow smelly Men (or women?)- Deoderant...

I try to avoid anti-perspirants (just deodorant) because of the aluminum stuff.  My family has a history of Alzheimers and it's not that they have established a solid link between them, but I try to avoid it.

I go back and forth between anti perspirants and deodorants because deodorants just don't work for me.  Even if I shower religiously every day.  I even use a chlorhexidine scrub (basically the veterinary version of iodine pre-surgery scrub), I smell like a middle-school pencil sharpener by the end of the day.

Most of the time I embrace it, but I just started dating someone, so I'm considering going back to anti perspirant.  This will sound strange, but I'd rather have a companion for my last 30 years and die at 80 with a sponge brain than smell bad and die single with all my wits at 90.

The one thing I've discovered is that deodorant is just a stick of perfume.  It doesn't matter what the Lume website says, it's just perfume paste.  It doesn't matter if it has baking soda or tea tree oil, it's just a stick of smelly-good stuff.

I guess until they come up with something without the aluminum that actually works at preventing your body from secreting the food that feeds the bacteria, I'll keep slathering it on.

Datsun240ZGuy said:

This is it for me. The flavor doesn't matter as far as rot prevention goes, but it absolutely must be the High Endurance type. I have not used antiperspirant in a very long time. The crusty cakes would never wash out of my shirts, and then they'd start to smell worse than me. Soft, breathable, clean undershirts that wick the sweat away seem to work a lot better than blocked pores and nasty shirts. Keeping a breeze on me whenever possible and avoiding too much caffeine both help a lot, too.

I should add that I respectfully but strongly disagree with Curtis's statement about deodorant being nothing but perfume. As someone who is extremely sensitive to perfumes, much to the disappointment of Mrs Monohue, I actively avoid heavily-scented hygiene products. They give me a searing headache. The right varieties  of High Endurance deodorant just sort of smell like scented soap for a few hours and then fade away. Success occurs when I can smell neither the deodorant nor my own decomposition.

One other hint is that modern synthetic "sport" clothes and sometimes other fabrics need more than regular laundry detergent to get them to stop smelling. Sometimes it's that the smell returns fast to the same shirt over and over again.  Try to find "sport wash" at Walmart or Amazon. This stuff will remove the stank that your regular detergent won't. 

A lot of deodorant and antiperspirant manufacturers have come under fire for specific compounds in their products. Most have dramatically changed their formulas over the past few years. 

The aluminum free deodorants do not last as long but help make you not get cancer so it's a positive trade off. 

I use one of the Old Spice aluminum free products. It's good for 5 hours. Once it's gone I have purchased some Every Man Jack to replace it. 

Welsh is spot on with the antifungal scrub. One of the boys started being funky after a week vacation with his friends that involved swimming at a community pool. Six months of swamp pit was resolved with a bottle of Derma Nu antifungal body wash. 

Fueled by Caffeine said:

One other hint is that modern synthetic "sport" clothes and sometimes other fabrics need more than regular laundry detergent to get them to stop smelling. Sometimes it's that the smell returns fast to the same shirt over and over again.  Try to find "sport wash" at Walmart or Amazon. This stuff will remove the stank that your regular detergent won't. 

Very true.  Synthetics like spandex and microfiber make me smell like I haven't showered in days in a matter of hours.

Stupid as this sounds, scrub your nasty bits with hand sanitizer.  Do it a couple of times a day when you start getting funky.  

I had feet that could peel paint.  A week or so of daily hand sanitizer scrubs, getting between the toes, smell fresh as a daisy.  Never really came back.  

One note about "laundry sanitizer": clothes have to soak in it for 15min, you can't simply add it to the wash cycle and go.

I haven't tried to figure out if I can make my washer do this.  The only time I've tried the sanitizer so far, I soaked the clothes in a bucket.

My problem is with the clothes themselves starting to smell.  I also really need to wash my washer.

In reply to Oapfu :

If you have a top loader, start the load, then open it after 2-3 minutes and let it soak. 
 

Most front loaders should have a soak option. Mine is for about 30 minutes. 

Once a shirt has gotten funky I have never been able to recover it.  Laundry sanitizer, oxy clean, vinegar, 24 hour soaks, etc.  i just end up throwing it out 

Just came upon this thread on Reddit. Anyone heard of salt rock deodorant?

https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/s/WSkl8vkQqF

In reply to mtn :

Well, I asked Mrs Monohue to stop using it, if that helps at all...

DarkMonohue said:

In reply to mtn :

Well, I asked Mrs Monohue to stop using it, if that helps at all...

Definitely does help. I'll put that idea to rest. 

Are you using a deodorant soap? Years ago I switched to Dove Mens care deodorant soap (not all their bar soaps are deodorant) and this has greatly helped. When washing your clothing add antibacterial cleaner to the detergent. Below is what I use from the dollar store..