Crusty pits in work shirts?!

[LillyBugg]

Omg this drives me nuts. DH's work shirts, it always happens to them. He admits he wears too much deodorant but that's not an easy habit to break or one he's willing to break. How can I get them clean? Not only how do I remove the crustiness but is there something I should be doing before this happens to prevent it from happening? I am literally useless at household stuff. I have a whole host of questions to start threads about but thought I'd tackle this one first.

[IAmAPaleontologist]

Dh's are like that. He is a sweaty sod and his shirts Quickly end up crusty and stinky with ingrained sweat. Nice. And that's with using the special put on at night deodorants etc. Deo Go is very good. If you've got really bad ones then soak them overnight in a vinegar solution, treat with deo go and then soak overnight again before washing. Should shift it. Regular soaks in vinegar solution should the keep on top of it. Tbh though I just end up chucking them and making him buy new ones because I'm far too bloody busy to keep separating out his work shirts and soaking them and he never thinks to do it (not a dig, he does loads of housework and laundry).

[LillyBugg]

Thanks paelon, can you be more explicit when you say vinegar solution please? Off to google deo go...

[LillyBugg]

Bugger. Typo on your name, sorry!

[IAmAPaleontologist]

Just water and white vinegar.

[rabbit123]

Use a biological washing powder, not a liquid. Makes the world of difference

[CointreauVersial]

I make a thick paste of Vanish stain remover (or supermarket equivalent) and rub it into the pits of the shirt before washing.

[Kennington]

Agree spirit vinegar and biological washing powder - at least at 40, or higher if they are sturdy.

[Fluffycloudland77]

I heat cheap vinegar in a pan and pre soak the area for a while before washing.

[Aquamarine70]

My husband has this problem. With have tried everything. The only thing that works is for him to wear a white cotton t shirt under his work shirts. We live in Australia so he does sweat a lot even in air con. If helps avoid the wet patches under the arm pits too.

[WtfWasThis]

I soak DH's shirt armpits in Oxyclean (or Oxyplus) and really hot water. Not much faff and works really well. This will sort even the ingrained stuff but I do it weekly to stop it building up again.

[typetytypetypes]

DH used to get this. First step was finding a deodorant that actually worked better for him so he didn't have to coat himself so much (still uses loads though!).

Now I do a shirts wash which I put Dettol laundry liquid into, and I use non-bio powder. This does the job for regular washing. To fix the ones that were a bit bad I first washed them on a hotter wash with Biotex and that worked. I had to do a couple more than once.