How to remove yellow stains from shirts – easy!

Ever had those dreaded yellow perspiration stains on your shirt? You know what I mean, the almost luminous yellow pit stains that swoop in and ruin a perfectly good dress shirt.

If you have then you’re in good company.This is one of the main problems men face when it comes to their shirts, particularly white shirts.

Suddenly you can’t lift your arms in that once crisp looking shirt. Maybe (even more embarrassing) someones caught a glimpse of those dingy golden globes and pointed them out to you.

So you keep your arms fixed firmly to your sides, until you get a chance to rush home and ditch the shirt.

But whoa there, it doesn’t have to be that way!

The easiest solution is to never let it happen in the first place, checking your deodorant, and shirt washing regime.

But I’m sure you’re not here for hindsight, so today I’ll show you how to remove yellow armpit stains from white shirts, blue shirts, dress shirts, heck any shirt you want. So let’s get to it.

What causes of yellow armpit stains?

So what causes yellow underarm stains in the first place? Sweat – right? Well that’s not exactly true, when it comes to pit stains this is only half the story.

It’s well known that perspiration is mainly composed of water, however it also contains (in smaller quantities) sodium chloride, ammonia, lactic acid and urea.

Now here’s the science bit: as mentioned before, there’s urea in sweat, along with protein, fat and the naturally occurring fungi on skin. All these react with the aluminium in deodorants to create yellow armpit stains.

So now you know that the one thing you think is protecting you from pit stains – deodorant – could actually be the main cause of them.

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How to Remove Yellow Armpit Stains from a white shirt or any shirt

I’m going to give you 3 ways to remove yellow pit stains from your shirt. Some will be useful in moderate cases, others in yellow pit stain emergencies.

The ability for any of these treatments to work depends on few factors:

• How long the yellow pit stains have been there
• The color of the shirt in question
• How deep the staining is

Before I get into it, let me add a word of caution, never, ever bleach yellow armpit stains. The chemicals in the bleach actually make perspiration stains darker and consequently much harder to remove.

Preparation

Pre-treat your pit stained shirt by soaking it in cold to warmish water. Ensure that the stain is dampened by sponging the water over it.

After your shirt has been soaking for half an hour or so, go on use the treatment of your choice.
 

Natural ways to remove sweat stains

The natural way is always a great option, particularly if you’re avoiding chemicals (aren’t we all?). I would recommend this for cases where your yellow sweat stains are less severe, or have just begun to emerge.

Baking soda on sweat stains: For this treatment, you need four heaping tablespoons of baking soda. Mix this with a quarter of water and spread over those pit stains until every bit has been covered.

One of the ways to remove yellow stains naturally is with baking soda.

All that’s needed is to let it sit on the stains for thirty minutes, and bung in the wash and rinse as normal.

Lemon juice: Unlike bleach, which actually creates darker pit stains, Lemon juice, a natural bleach, will gently lighten those stains with no negative reaction.

For this treatment squeeze two lemons into a pitcher and rub into the stains.
 

OxiClean

If you have the kind of yellow pit stains that have truly merged into the fabric, then you’re probably looking for something pretty heavy duty. In that case my friend, oxiClean will sort those pit stains out – and with no mercy.

OxiClean claims that it can remove the stubbornest of yellow pit stains are pretty accurate.

Simply fill up a bucket or sink with cold to warm water and mix in one scoop of OxiClean. Submerge your stained shirt in the bucket and let it sit there for an hour or so.

For those welded on stains, you can soak your shirt  overnight. Once the shirt has had a good soak, wash as usual.

Here’s a little tip from me to you, try mixing a thick paste of oxiClean and spreading that directly on the yellow armpit stains. This little stain removing hack is the equivalent of releasing bulldozer on a stain, it knocks those suckers out.
 
 

How to Prevent Yellow Armpit Stains

Now we know how to remove armpit stains if needed, what about preventing them from occurring in the first place? After all, most of us can think of better things to do on a Saturday afternoon than battle with yellow pit stains.

Well, there are some things that you can do to prevent yellow armpit stains from appearing.
 
Leave the aluminum antiperspirants alone: As I revealed earlier, using aluminum based deodorants is liking inviting yellow pits stains to come and roost under your arms. So if you want to pit stains free, let go of this type of antiperspirants.

There are plenty of aluminium free deodorants out there now. For example Nivea Men Fresh, Native deodorant and L’oreal men expert sensitive. In the case of + Gold Bond deodorant, this actually stops stains in their track.
 
Wear an undershirt: This is so simple, but so effective for many men. That layer between your skin and a shirt could prevent that yellow nuisance from getting a grip on your style.

If regular undershirts aren’t doing anything, there are also specialty undershirts that contain sweat guards.
 
Keep your armpits trimmed. No one asking you to go bald under there, just keep the pit hair trimmed. This will help reduce dampness under your arm, so sometimes you can forgo the need for antiperspirants.
 
Wash shirts immediately after wearing them. You keep ignoring those burgeoning sweat stains, and they’ll get harder to remove in time. So, the moment you see yellow stains appear on your shirt, deal with them. Rub stain remover on your shirt, let it sit for a while and put in the wash. You’ll be thankful later.

Tips and recommendations:

– When removing yellow pit stains from shirts do not wash with hot water. When hot water is used, this will fixes the sweat stain into the fabric. Use cold water, or at the very least lukewarm water.

-If the shirt is cotton or linen, dry it in the sun, as this will also help eliminate sweat stains.

– There’s an old recommendations for removing yellow armpit stains that involves soaking the shirt in a solution of ammonia and detergent . Unfortunately, this hasn’t proved to be very effective, so before you reach for the ammonia bottle, give our tips a try.