Well thats not entirely true. I have been using a homemade deodorant. But I haven’t bought a standard roll-on or spray deodorant now for a really, really long time. That doesn’t mean there weren’t a couple lying around the house in various drawers that I used in an emergency. But I can tell you now that they are all gone as my lengthy personal research trial is finally complete!
Reason no 1. A while back I read some bad stuff about deodorant. If this sounds a bit hippy, skip to reason 2.
If you google what’s in your deodorant you’ll get all sorts of information, mostly bad, and I’m sure some fictional or at least exaggerated. Warnings about aluminium, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease for example. Some from scientific websites, some from superhealthyfitgirlz.com*. (*superhealthyfitgirlz.com is not a real website – I don’t think…)
But being a natural kind of girl, and a scientist always asking questions, I just wondered why nature had done this to us? Made us smelly? There are some evolutionary reasons of course. But a more accurate question might be – how have we, as intelligent human beings, interfered with nature (again) so much so that we need to slather chemical concoctions under our armpits every day?
From this point of view, I was suspicious of our ‘need’ for deodorant in the first place and even more suspicious of how these products had developed over time – concoctions of probably some natural substances with some not so natural chemical creations. In my mind, it always makes sense to stick as closely to nature as possible, so I wanted to look into alternatives.
Reason no 2. My deodorant wasn’t working.
I can go through an intense work-out, sweat bucket loads and smell pretty ok. But after simply going to the shops, teaching a yoga class or fronting up to a meeting, I am guaranteed to have substantial sweat patches under my arms and no doubt an accompanying smell – regardless of whatever new-technology, 48-hour, super-duper, sports anti-perspirant I apply.
We know that hormones play a big part in sweat responses – think puberty (smelly teenagers!), time of the month, stressful situations and menopause. My stress or anxiety-induced sweating more quickly turns into body odour where as sweating associated with exercise I find takes a lot longer to develop into a yucky smell.
So if putting chemicals I can’t pronounce under my armpits could potentially be dangerous to my health, goes against my instinct to stay close to ‘as nature intended’, costs me money and at the same time does not stop me from stinking!!!……Why would I keep using them??
Well initially – what else was there? I tried a couple of natural brands and didn’t have much luck, so then I decided to DIY.
Reason no 3. I made my own – and it was flipping gold.
I found a recipe online and gave it a shot – bi-carb, arrowroot, coconut oil and I added tea tree oil, known for its anti-bacterial effects (given that the actual smell is not sweat itself, its from the bacteria on the skin.) I went to the kitchen and made a batch up that probably cost me $3 in total. I mixed it to a paste which was a bit runny on a hot day and needed to be scraped out on a cold day. I admit it was a bit of an inconvenience carrying a glass jar around in my handbag and I dreaded taking it through customs when I travelled! But it worked. I never had to re-apply it later in the day and that tub lasted me over 6 months! In fact I can’t remember the last time I had that awful feeling of knowing I couldn’t lift my arms up until I showered. This stuff doesn’t stop you from sweating – sweating is a natural process. But knowing with confidence that I won’t get smelly is just awesome.
Reason no 4. This one is important. I noticed a change in my breasts.
They didn’t get bigger – *sigh. Seriously though, I did regularly find in the 1-2 weeks prior to my period that my breasts would get sore, a bit lumpy and swollen, and particularly near the armpits. These things can happen to some extent during the menstrual cycle, however once I switched deodorants the problem ceased to exist. I thought it may have been a coincidence, perhaps something I was going through at the time, maybe diet-related… I wasn’t sure. However a handful of times since ditching conventional deodorant I have found myself in a sticky spot and not had my natural deodorant on hand. In these instances I have used the deodorant left over in my bathroom cupboard or borrowed a roll-on from someone else. And without fail I have developed uncomfortable swellings in my breasts near my armpits in the week leading up to my period. Now once a coincidence. Twice still perhaps a coincidence. Three times? Four times?? And really, to me it makes biological sense. Whatever you put onto your skin that gets absorbed has to be cleaned up by your body’s defence systems. There are lymph nodes in the armpits that do just that, exactly like the lymph nodes in your throat that the doctor feels for when you have a virus. They have a job to do – clean up the stuff that shouldn’t be there. The body is busy processing the foreign substances that it considers potentially harmful or simply not needed.
And this last reason, surely, has to be the most significant of them all. Given that our bodies are already overloaded with chemicals and substances found in all modern day ‘necessities’, that really are brand new to our species on an evolutionary scale, surely avoiding something that I know to cause a physical reaction in my breasts and lymph nodes is a good idea. And knowing that cancer on its most basic level is uncontrolled cell division, avoiding the growth and recession of lumps in my breast tissue and associated lymph nodes seems to me to be a no-brainer. (Not stinking also benefits health by preventing social anxiety and eventually complete isolation…)
For local friends – Green Body is now stocking my favourite natural deodorant so please contact me if you would like a tub! Personally tried and tested.