Yellow stains in armpits of white tops (yuk)

[fatsatsuma]

Am I the only person who has this problem ?

I am not excessively sweaty or (I hope) smelly, but my white tops are invariably stained within a few wears. I hope they are deodorant stains rather than actual sweat - but whatever they are, they look horrible.

Has anyone got a tip for getting them out? Am tempted to slosh bleach around, but am not sure how concentrated it should be etc.

I have soaked things in bleach (diluted, obviously!) and that has worked. Should be instructions on the side of the bottle for the amount to use.

Have you tried two souble asprin in the wash? This often works. It's a bit better then bleach as it won't harm the fabric. You can also buy Stain devil.

Thanks, I will try the bleach. Haven't heard of using soluble aspirin - sounds interesting. I think I tried stain devils in the past and found they weren't much good. Is there a specific sweat one?

I think this is deodorant. I used to scrub with a nail/clothes scrubbing brush the area with bio-tec soap dissolved in warm water. Or change deodorant. I use Sanex deodorant now.

I used to get this too- you should try Mitchem deo, as it's great. I think vinegar is supposed to be good but that might be to combat the reactivation of BO smells? Can't remember but worth a go?

scrub with fairy liquid, then still in the wash.
(do that for grubby cuffs on shirts too)

Thanks everyone. I have tried different deodorants including the mitchem one, but it didn't stop the nasty stains.

IIRC (don't puke), it's the bacteria in your sweat reacting with the deoderant. There is a specific stain devil for sweat as it's basically protein, it's the bacteria that make the colour. I don't know how soluble asprin works, I got the tip from a Kim and Aggie book, it does work but not for bad patches. Pop 2 in the draw with the washing powder. It does make the clothes smell weird though so you may have to wash them again without the asprin.

soaking in white vinegar has helped here.

I discovered that it is the alchohol in deoderant interacting with the perspiration that causes this. If you switch to an alcohol-free deoderant (like Sanex, don't know about Mitchum, check the ingredients) you shouldn't be troubled by this anymore.