Deodorants and Antiperspirants

Image from www.kissmyface.com

The research that I’ve done on the safety of deodorants and antiperspirants has yielded some varied results. Isn’t this the case for all topics? Is there anything that is guaranteed safe? Drinking water? Uh, nope. Anyways, I know that many people will tell you that using deodorant or antiperspirant is completely safe and you have nothing to worry about. I disagree, along with many others. These are products that many of us use daily. Daily, long term exposure to chemicals, pose a much greater risk to your health than single or infrequent exposures to those same chemicals. (I’m not suggesting that single exposures to some chemicals are not just as bad for your health – only that exposure to chemicals found in many deodorants and antiperspirants long term is worse for you than short term, infrequent exposure to those same chemicals.) This means that, stopping the use of these products is better for you than continuing to use them.

A well detailed (4 part) article discussing the chemicals of concern in deodorants and antiperspirants is on ControlYourImpact.com. Please check it out and read about why we should be concerned about the aluminum, and parabens in many deodorants and antiperspirants and their possible link to diseases like breast cancer and Alzheimers disease.

I have been on the search for a good deodorant for some time. I decided a while ago that I wouldn’t use an antiperspirant. If there was any chance at all that I could avoid the Alzheimers that my grandmother suffered from, I would take it! I also noticed that antiperspirant would sometimes damage clothes. Sometimes it would bleach clothes in the area it contacted them regularly. I noticed this in particular, on my husbands shirts. These shirts were also very difficult to get scent free in the armpit area. Some shirts would stain with that mild scent of antiperspirant scent mixed with a bit of body odor. Isn’t this what we are trying to avoid with antiperspirants? That strange scent that occurs when our body odors mix with the un-natural perfume chemicals really bothers me. I’m sure many of you have thrown away deodorants after finding their scent isn’t a good “match” for your own body scents.

After finding Kiss My Face Liquid Rock, a deodorant free of parabens, aluminum, phthalates, and artificial perfumes, and using it for a few months, I finally convinced my husband to get rid of his widely advertised antiperspirant and give my roll on a try. I had never used a roll on before, but found that giving it a few minutes to dry wasn’t a big deal. I apply it right after showering so it has time to dry while I get ready. It never irritated my freshly shaven pits and I noticed a dramatic difference in the first week of use. Surprisingly, my husband has stuck with this deodorant (even after years of only using antiperspirants), which has made me feel like I have made another leap in keeping my family safer and healthier. A $5.99 investment (same price as my husbands previous brand) that could mean better health but definitely means less laundry work for me!