How to Switch to Natural Deodorant
Switching to natural deodorant is one of the best things you can do for your health! Your underarms are very important when it comes to your body’s detoxification. Once you make the transition to natural deodorant, you might be surprised to find that you may not need it!
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Going from traditional deodorant or antiperspirant to natural deodorant can be a bit of a shock to your underarms. And that’s okay! Just remember that you’re doing your body a huge favor when things get difficult. Here’s what you can expect during your natural deodorant transition.
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What’s Wrong with Conventional Deodorant?
You might thing that switching to natural deodorant might be unnecessary, but it totally is! Traditional deodorants are filled with toxic chemicals that have been proven to cause rashes, hormonal disruption, and even cancer.
Here are some of the most common ingredients found in traditional deodorant:
- Parabens—A preservative found in almost every personal care product. It mimics estrogen when it enters the body, which results in hormonal imbalance that can lead to several serious illnesses.
- Triclosan—An antibacterial agent that has been proven to be much too strong for skin contact. In fact, triclosan is so strong that it creates harder-to-fight strains of sickness.
- Propylene glycol—A harsh substance often found in antifreeze. It’s most known for damaging mucous membranes and causing rashes when in contact with the skin.
- Aluminum—I hope this one is more self-explanatory than anything else. Heavy metals in the body have been linked to Alzheimer’s and cancer, among many other ailments. Although science hasn’t been able to find a link between deodorant and breast cancer (not yet at least). (source)
Aluminum is one of the biggest problems I have with traditional deodorant, among other things like “fragrance” that can be who-knows-what. Just think about it. Your skin is your largest organ and absorbs any substance it comes into contact with. When you apply deodorant in the morning, your underarms absorb what little aluminum there is, and guess what important gland is located in your underarms? Your lymph nodes!
Your lymphatic system is super important, and you need to treat it well because it makes up a huge part of your immune system. More specifically, your lymph nodes are basically your body’s trash dump where any toxic substances are taken to be destroyed. If your lymph nodes are overwhelmed or can’t function well, that leaves your body vulnerable to illness.
Is It Worth Switching to Natural Deodorant?
After everything I just told you, the answer is a resounding yes!! Natural deodorant contains absolutely no harmful ingredients that will leave your body vulnerable to serious illness. And don’t worry about natural deodorant not working as well as traditional deodorant. When you’ve completed your transition, you’ll smell great no problem!
There are plenty of natural ingredients out there that stop your pits from smelling horrible. Some are better than others, but we’ll get to that in a minute. First, I want to cover all of the things you may or may not encounter when switching to natural deodorant. It will look different on everybody, but here are the main things you should look out for:
Switching to Natural Deodorant Side Effects
- Smell—The most common side effect you’ll experience is smell, as if you never put on deodorant at all! This can sometimes catch people unknowingly off-guard which makes them abandon switching to natural deodorant altogether. But you mustn’t give up!
- Detox period—Your underarms need to get rid of decades’ worth of chemicals before natural deodorant can be effective. Luckily, I have a few tricks that I’ll tell you in a bit to make the detox phase shorter.
- Rash—It can happen depending on the ingredients in your new natural deodorant. If this does happen to you, stop using your natural deodorant immediately and try a different one with better ingredients.
Now that we know the main things that can and will happen when switching to natural deodorant, let’s talk about how you can quickly get over them and enjoy sweet-smelling, detoxified pits!
Why Do My Armpits Smell After Switching to Natural Deodorant? Is There a Detox Period?
Did you know that it’s actually the bacteria in your sweat that creates BO, and not the sweat itself? Yep, your traditional deodorant actually trains your underarms to smell horrible if you don’t use it regularly!! That’s consumerism at its finest. The second you stop traditional deodorant or switch to natural deodorant, your armpits start to detox all that crap left in them.
If you’ve been using traditional deodorant for years or even decades, there WILL be a detox phase your underarms must go through. All of those bad chemicals stuck in your underarms have to go somewhere, which means that they will be sweated out. Here’s what you can expect during the detox phase for your underarms.
Natural Deodorant Detox Symptoms
- Body odor
- Sweatier than usual armpits
- Rash or irritation
It’s possible for your armpits to get mildly irritated from all the gunk you’re sweating out. But don’t worry, it’s all temporary! You’ll be able to wear natural deodorant or none at all when you finish detoxing. Yes, it is possible to not need deodorant. But that also depends on your eating habits and lifestyle.
How Long Does It Take to Switch to Natural Deodorant?
It really depends on the level of toxicity living in your body. There’s no way to measure this, so it’s really something you’ll have to ride out. However, it seems like the detox phase can last between two to six weeks.
The majority of experts and anecdotes I’ve found seem to agree that the average amount of time for detoxing is 30 days. But again, it all depends on your body and what kind of deodorant you switch to. It took me the full six weeks of smelling like a locker room before I started to notice a difference. But if knew then the hacks that I know now, I’m sure it would’ve been much shorter.
How to Detox Your Armpits Quickly
If you want to speed up the detox phase of your natural deodorant transition, I’ve got the perfect solution for you! All you need is some bentonite clay and water. Bentonite clay is a great skin detoxing agent. I love to use it to make great face mask gifts for friends!
When bentonite clay comes into contact with water, the clay will absorb any dirt and impurities it comes across. When you turn bentonite clay into a paste and apply it to your skin, it acts as a vacuum to pull all the yucky stuff out of your skin’s first layer.
Just create a small amount of bentonite clay paste, rub a thin layer on your underarms, and let it do its thing for about 15 minutes or until it’s fully dry. And if you want to take your detoxing to the next level, you can do this while taking a hot bath. That way, you’ll really open up your pores for a more effective detox session. Feel free to use some fancy DIY bath salts while you’re at it!
Switching to Natural Deodorant Rash Treatment
If you find yourself with irritation or acne on your armpits during your natural deodorant transition, stop using your new natural deodorant immediately and look at the ingredient list. Some common irritants in natural deodorant include:
- Baking soda
- Essential oils
- Coconut oil
It’s truly annoying to me that people would include baking soda, a very abrasive ingredient, in deodorant. I learned the hard way in the beginning of my clean beauty journey to not use baking soda on my scalp as shampoo.
However, I did learn last year to stay away from deodorants with baking soda as well. I was super excited to try Schmidt’s natural deodorant because of the lovely essential oil smells they came with. After I went through my first stick, I was hooked!
However, once I got about halfway through my second stick, I started to get horrible BO. Like worse BO than when I was switching to natural deodorant for the first time. It was awful! To make things worse, my underarms started to get these painful cysts that made me think they were a tumor at first.
After a lot of research, I realized that the basic line of Schmidt’s deodorant contains baking soda, which can lead to irritation for some people. Continuous use Schmidt’s deodorant made me develop a reaction to baking soda! I stopped using it immediately (like it was doing anything anyway), and the cysts disappeared within days. It took a couple weeks for the BO to disappear as well.
Coconut oil can also cause irritation in people with sensitive skin, as well as essential oils. If you want to try a natural deodorant that contains a certain essential oil, try a patch test with just the oil first to see how your skin reacts. You can usually sample essential oils wherever they are sold!
For these reasons, I think it’s best if your very first stick of natural deodorant is unscented and specifically says sensitive skin or magnesium deodorant. Magnesium is fantastic for killing odor-causing bacteria and sensitive skin!
The Best Natural Deodorants | My Favorites!
I’ve got a couple of recommendations for natural deodorants I’ve tried over the years! It takes me about a year to actually go through an entire stick, so I’ll admit that I haven’t tried everything. However, I’ve tried enough to find some brands that I’m comfortable telling you lovely people to try!
But first, I want to mention that the places I’m linking to are The Detox Market and The Choosy Chick. They’re two of the best online marketplaces to get tested clean beauty products. You can check out my review of The Choosy Chick or my review of The Detox Market to learn more. They also have more natural deodorant options! Let’s start with my favorite transition-friendly deodorant:
Schmidt’s Sensitive Skin Line
Despite Schmidt’s main line of deodorant giving me a horrible reaction, I’ve found their sensitive skin line to work great! Their magnesium formula is great for sensitive skin, and I’ve found that the unscented version works perfectly. I don’t have to worry about a lack of scent to cover up any sneaky odors.
I also think that the scented products in the sensitive skin like work really well! They have just about every essential oil scent you can think of. It goes on easily and I’ve never had issues with it transferring onto my clothes. Plus, I get the soothing effects of aromatherapy all day!
Meow Meow Tweet
If you love smelling great and saving the environment, then Meow Meow Tweet is perfect for you! They make the cutest little deodorant sticks in in recyclable tubes! Not to mention they’re baking soda-free. Sustainability is one of their biggest missions, so absolutely all of their products are recyclable.
They even make a deodorant cream option in a little glass jar. It might seem a bit weird at first to rub cream on your armpits, but I found it to be a simple change. I think it actually give you more control on how much you actually applied to your underarms. And how cute is their packaging??
Natural Deodorant for Men
Now if you’re wondering about any natural deodorant out there specifically targeted for men, you’re going to find slim pickings. It’s true that there are natural deodorants for men in the “natural” section of your grocery store, but most of them are greenwashed pretty heavily. You can learn how to spot greenwashing to see it for yourself.
The best tip I have for finding good natural deodorant for men is to simply pick the “manlier” scents of brands that you already know and trust. That’s what I’ve done for my husband for a few years now and he has no complaints. Either unscented or non-floral scents will probably do the trick.
If you have a significant other that loves his “man scents,” I recently found this line by Andalou Naturals! It’s a just for men line with hemp ingredients. I made Devon try the deodorant from this line and it smells more minty than anything, but he said it still smelled manly, so he liked a familiar change of pace!
Final Thoughts on Switching to Natural Deodorant
Whatever happens after you decide to switch to natural deodorant, just know that it’s mostly likely not going to be smooth sailing. There will be a period where you feel like it’s not working. But if you go back to your why and have some patience, you’ll come out smelling fresh and clean without any dangerous chemicals!
One thing that helped me get through the stinky phase was I would regularly go to the bathroom and give my underarms a good wipe down. This was helpful for when things got especially sweaty.
If you find yourself coming down with a rash while you switch, stop using your natural deodorant immediately and get a new unscented stick made with magnesium. It’s likely that your skin reacted to the baking soda or essential oils used.
No matter what happens on your journey with deodorant or clean beauty in general, I’m here for you! If you ever need a recommendation, advice, or a shoulder to cry on, my inbox is always open!
Have you tried natural deodorant? Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!
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