Unsightly sweat stains can make dress shirts and gym clothing unwearable. Your favorite T-shirts don't need to be relegated to cleaning out the garage or doing solo housekeeping--you can easily wear them out in public again. While old stains require a bit more effort to get out, removing sweat stains is a lot easier if you tend to them sooner rather than later.
Removing New Sweat Stains
Don't wait for sweat stains to settle into your favorite clothes. What causes sweat stains to change a fabric's color is not the color of your sweat, but its interaction with your antiperspirant. If your shirts are prone to staining, tackle potential new sweat stains immediately rather than waiting for them to settle. This technique is quite simple. Unless your shirt must be dry-cleaned, turn it inside out and run cold water over the area of the stain before you wash it.
Removing Old Sweat Stains
Stains caused by underarm perspiration tend to be yellow, brown or greenish in color, while stains caused by antiperspirants may appear clear or white and have a greasy or chalky texture. Both types of stains are notoriously difficult to remove once they've settled into fabric. If you're faced with a tough stain, here are some stain removal tips that may work for sweat-stained clothing.
Turn the garment inside out and rinse the stain with cold water. Next, you'll pre-treat the stain by applying one of the following: detergent, ammonia, white vinegar, a bleach stick or hydrogen peroxide. (Some laundry products with enzyme action are designed to help you remove tough stains.) If the stain has already caused yellowing or other discoloration in the armpit area, ammonia probably won't work as well as white vinegar or another treatment. Ammonia works best on new antiperspirant stains and those which have caused fabric to have a bleached-out appearance. Whatever you do, never use ammonia and bleach together--the fumes these two substances create can be toxic.
After you pre-treat the garment, let it set for 30 minutes, then wash your clothing in water as hot as its label allows using a detergent with a color-safe bleach. If the stain is still there after the first wash, you may have to treat the garment again. However, putting a sweat-stained shirt in the dryer is a bad idea, as heat will only set the stain. So if you've put your clothes in the dryer after stains have already settled, chances are you'll have to throw in the towel--and the shirts along with it.
Preventing Sweat Stains
Don't want to deal with sweat stains? There are several methods you can use to avoid them entirely. Some dry cleaning businesses will sweat stain-proof your garments for you. Alternately, if you're wearing a dress shirt to work, wear a T-shirt underneath to soak up underarm sweat.
The application of antiperspirant also has a role in creating sweat stains. When you apply antiperspirant, use only one layer and massage it into your armpit, making sure that it covers all of the skin area that secretes sweat. Make sure that your underarms are completely dry before you put on your clothing. Alternately, you can put on antiperspirant at night rather than in the morning.
The type of antiperspirant you use can also make a difference. According to Mike Thomas of Proctor Gamble, which makes Secret, Old Spice and Sure, roll-on and gel antiperspirants are likely to cause more underarm staining. These products are very watery and transfer to clothing more easily.
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