Here’s how to treat deodorant allergy:
- Use natural deodorant
- Eat detoxifying foods
- Shave your armpits
- Use antihistamine
- Cold compress
- Oathmeal bath
- Hydrocortisone and Calamine lotion
- Aloe vera
- Tee tree oil with coconut oil
- Baking soda paste
- Epsom salt
- Vitamin C
- Take Allegra or Claritin
- Anti-chafing powder
If you’re a person who can’t simply live without deodorant, possible allergens may sometimes be overlooked causing you itchy, inflamed, swelling, flaking skin, blisters, lumps, and red patches under your arms. This is what causes people to try different variant of deodorants and/or resort to chemical-free and natural deodorants. Have you experienced this?
Deodorant allergy isn’t rare to people with sensitive skin, knowing that our pits itself are already sensitive as is makes it more common, and there are a lot of ways to either get rid of it or prevent it from reoccurring. Read on to find out!
What are the symptoms of a Deodorant Allergy?
Armpit rashes are common symptoms of an allergy. It’s usually itchy, inflamed, and swelling. Blisters and lumps are also common indicators of an allergy reaction. Although these can be symptoms of an allergy, consulting to an allergist is still advisable to make sure.
If you have at least one of these symptoms, make sure to check your deodorant’s ingredient label to take note of all the active ingredients there. Also be reminded that deodorants are allowed not to specify the fragrance they use, and finding the irritant that causes your reaction might be a little harder due to this.
Contact Dermatitis is an example of a deodorant allergy. This condition occurs whenever you’re in contact with an allergen. The common culprit of this condition is the fragrance used on your deodorant. You can resort to fragrance-free deodorant to avoid this. Take note that other products with the same fragrance, like the detergent you used or the perfume you applied on your shirt, might also cause you contact dermatitis.
On the other hand, here are the other armpit conditions with similar symptoms:
- Seborrheic Dermatitis – this condition is due to excessive or overproduction of skin oil (sebum) underarms. You would notice oily patches of flakes that can be both yellow and/or white due to the produced excess oil.
- Candida – This is a yeast infection commonly found on the moist areas of our body, like armpits. Similar to an allergy reaction, candidiasis can result to swelling, inflammation, itchiness, rashes, and scales that may get worse if exposed to warm weather, tight clothing, and poor hygiene routine. If you have this, do not apply steroid creams, for this might only worsen the symptoms. It’s advisable to treat it with antifungal cream instead.
- Atopic Dermatitis (eczema) – this condition often begins in childhood, targeting the folds in the body, like armpits, back of the knees, and the insides of the elbows. This will result to intense itch and rashes. Avoid scratching it to allay discomfort, for it might only cause bleeding.
What are the other alternatives to deodorants with allergens?
Here are the alternatives that you can choose from:
1. Natural Deodorant
Natural deodorant is obviously a chemical-free deodorant that uses natural ingredients like cornstarch, baking soda, and essential oil. There are few tried and effective do-it-yourself natural deodorant that you can search online. Resorting to all natural may help avoid allergens, but that does not guarantee a hundred percentage of safety, for people can still develop allergies even if the deodorant is labeled natural due to other possible allergens. That’s why it’s really a must to know what your allergens are to completely avoid them. You also have to take note that changing into natural deodorant will never be an easy transition. It might take a few try to find out what natural deodorant formula works on your pits the best.
2. Armpit Detoxification
Using natural deodorant and eating detoxifying food will help you to naturally detoxify your armpits. If you’re allergic to deodorants, resorting to this will help you avoid getting an allergy reaction while continuously taking care of your pits. The use of antibacterial substance underarms, like tea tree oil diluted with carrier oil might also help detoxify your underarms. Perspiration or sweating is normal and good for our body. Sweat is not really what makes us smelly, but the bacteria clogged underarms. In armpit detoxification, we are helping our pits unclog those bacteria to eventually produce odorless sweat. Be reminded that deodorants do not stop sweating, it only aims to hide the smell.
3. Armpit Shaving
Armpit shaving is not really an alternative to deodorant, but it helps minimize pits from producing smell due to excessive perspiration. Armpit shaving also minimizes the use of deodorant. Other armpit shaving alternatives might be of huge help, as well, to stop the excessive use of deodorant and/or antiperspirant. So, if you’d like to go razor-free, then that’s completely fine!
How is deodorant allergy treated?
There are different ways to treat and/or ease an allergy reaction, and here are the options that you can choose from:
Symptom-relief
Deodorant allergy may cause you itchiness, inflammation, swelling, and other annoying symptoms. Your priority is to at least allay the discomfort. If this happens, you can look for over-the-counter topical antihistamine, such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl) to soothe inflammation and itching skin. If the symptoms did not subside, prescription-strength topical cream may be prescribed.
Home Remedies
Home Remedies are very rampant nowadays, mainly because it’s more budget-friendly and accessible to most people. If you’re experiencing a deodorant allergy, there are a lot of home remedies that you can try on to soothe the symptoms. Just make sure it’s proven tested and won’t worsen your allergy reaction.
Here are some of the said proven and tested home remedies that you can choose from:
1. Cold Compress
Cold compress helps in soothing inflammation and itchiness brought by the allergy reaction. This will also help in gradually getting rid of rashes and lumps underarms.
2. Oatmeal bath
Oatmeal bath will help refreshing the body and getting rid of the stored bacteria underarms. This will help soothe irritation brought by your allergy reaction.
3. Hydrocortisone &Calamine lotion
Lotion contains ingredients that can help hydrate armpit skin. This will help soothe inflamed rashes underarms.
4. Aloe vera
Aloe vera is known for soothing and moisturizing dry skin.
5. Tea tree oil, diluted with coconut oil
This is the common ingredients in natural deodorant that can help soothe deodorant allergy.
6. Baking soda paste
Baking soda is a popular home remedy. This will help allay discomfort.
7. Epsom Salt
This will help cleanse your pits area.
8. Vitamin C
This will help you fight against skin issues caused by infections.
Medication
Here are the over-the-counter medication that you can try to soothe the symptoms:
- In the morning, you can opt to take Allegra or Claritin, both are non-sedating antihistamines that will help soothe symptoms. You can consider taking sedating antihistamines (Benadryl) at night to help you sleep with comfort.
- You can try using anti-chafing powder, as well, to make rashes tolerable at night.
What are the preventative measures to consider?
- Always check the ingredient label of your deodorant. Drop the product immediately if it causes you itchiness, swelling, inflammation, and other symptoms underarm.
- Know your allergens.
- Make sure to practice good hygiene.
- If possible, air-dry your pits after taking a bath instead of using towel.
- Avoid wearing tight clothing, especially on the armpit area.
- Apply talcum powder on heat rashes.
Final Thoughts
A person may have a hard time living without deodorant on, but odorless pits should never outweigh the importance of ensuring pits safety. Deodorant allergy is a common condition nowadays. There are also similar armpit conditions that you may confuse allergy with. Take note of your allergens, and avoid it as much as possible. Armpits are sensitive, so take a good care of them!