On the front page of the Personal Journal Section, ABOVE the Fold as they like to say in the newspaper world, was a big article, continued on the next page even, about removing perspiration and anti-perspirant stains. I guess people with money have these problems also. The article seemed geared to dress shirts, but for me the staining is most evident in my tee shirts.
First off, laundering was recomended over dry cleaning because the stain is water-based and using a detergent or pretreater with oxygen bleach helped. They showcased a pretreater product called Pit Stop from Pharmworks LLC. It was invented by a man who is a physician as well as a chemistry buff and has sold quite well on the Internet. I have included a link. If you use an antiperspirant, it was recommended that you apply it before going to bed at night. That gives the aluminum salts time to soak into the pores of your sweat glands to make them swell to block some perspiration (that's how they work). The effective dose will not be removed from the area by the morning shower. I think that is interesting. So much of an antiperspirant stain is caused by the perspiration flooding the antiperspirant from the skin and onto the fabric. Maybe this will help.
I, personally, have had much more success in keeping that area of my undershirts white by turning them inside out before washing, using Tide HE powder, STPP and some oxygen bleach and washing them at 180 in the Miele 1918 where the wash lasts for 46 minutes. If you think that is something, the rest of the cycle, which includes 5 rinses, takes an hour. It had never occurred to me to turn the shirts inside out to expose the area to more direct scrubbing, but I just decided to do it one day when looking at light yellowing that seemed unremovable and it really helped. Whoda thunkit?
First off, laundering was recomended over dry cleaning because the stain is water-based and using a detergent or pretreater with oxygen bleach helped. They showcased a pretreater product called Pit Stop from Pharmworks LLC. It was invented by a man who is a physician as well as a chemistry buff and has sold quite well on the Internet. I have included a link. If you use an antiperspirant, it was recommended that you apply it before going to bed at night. That gives the aluminum salts time to soak into the pores of your sweat glands to make them swell to block some perspiration (that's how they work). The effective dose will not be removed from the area by the morning shower. I think that is interesting. So much of an antiperspirant stain is caused by the perspiration flooding the antiperspirant from the skin and onto the fabric. Maybe this will help.
I, personally, have had much more success in keeping that area of my undershirts white by turning them inside out before washing, using Tide HE powder, STPP and some oxygen bleach and washing them at 180 in the Miele 1918 where the wash lasts for 46 minutes. If you think that is something, the rest of the cycle, which includes 5 rinses, takes an hour. It had never occurred to me to turn the shirts inside out to expose the area to more direct scrubbing, but I just decided to do it one day when looking at light yellowing that seemed unremovable and it really helped. Whoda thunkit?
