I have a basket in my closet for clothes that need help in some way. It has single socks that I’m hoping I’ll find the match for, shirts that need a new button, clothes with tears or rips, and clothes with stains I need to work on. I realized that my husband had been adding many shirts to the basket, all of which had deodorant stains in the armpits. As the pile grew, I decided I needed to start figuring out how to get those stains out.

The Internet has many ideas and suggestions. Some are preventative, like using certain kinds of deodorant and limiting how much deodorant you use. I shared this information with my husband, but I still had to figure out what to do with these shirts. I decided to attempt a low-key science experiment by taking all the suggestions and trying each one on a different shirt. I then washed them all, dried them, and checked to see which ones worked the best. Stay tuned to see the best way to remove deodorant stains from shirts!

How to Remove Deodorant Stains from Shirts

Of the seven ways I tried, most use things you already have at your home. In total, I used the following items: baking soda, white vinegar, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, Dawn dish soap, Dawn power wash, Oxiclean stain remover, and Borax. I’m going to share how I treated each stain and then at the end, I’ll share how well each method worked!

Method 1: Make a 3:1 baking soda and water paste, let it sit for an hour, scrub gently, and rinse with cold water

The first method was the cheapest and one of the easiest. All you need is baking soda and water, three parts baking soda and one part water. I made the paste in a bowl, let it sit for an hour, then rinsed it with cold water.

Method 2: Soak shirt in white vinegar for an hour

This method was also very easy. I just put some white vinegar in a bowl and made sure the armpits were submerged. I let it sit for an hour.

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