No More Deodorant Blues

Today I'm adding to the line up of topics I never thought my blog would touch on: lice, my pooch, and now, deodorant. I've needed it since I was seven. I'm just that...what shall we say...potent?! My mom was opposed to me lathering my young underarms with aluminum-filled antiperspirants, so she hooked me up with some natural stuff. Which worked for a while. 

Then I grew up and got tired of the paranoia. "Do I stink now? Do I stink now?" That's when I decided I'd smell good even if it meant getting Alzheimer's some day. (Some people believe the disease is encouraged by exposure to aluminum.) The world of antiperspirants opened to me and I enjoyed sweatless, stinkless armpits all day. At least until college.

While I was studying to be a teacher, I traveled to a reservation and worked with Native American children. So fun. Except for the night I had an allergic reaction to my antiperspirant. I woke to hot, itchy, semi-swollen underarms. I couldn't figure out what to do to help it, so I lay on my sleeping bag, arms stretched overhead after covering my underarms with hand lotion. After this, I went through several different brands before finding Dove with lotion. It was the only antiperspirant I tolerated and boy, was it expensive.

I've used that ever since, but if I apply it too many times between showers, my armpits ache. This bothers me. I picture my hard-working pores crying out, around the aluminum I've stuffed them full of, "We were just trying to help you! You know detox?" So when my real-life friend and blogger, Trina raved about the homemade deodorant she uses, I decided to try it. 

Three months later, I did. This is typical turn-around time for projects that require going the store and buying things I've never bought before. Which is why, I took a photo of my ingredients and where I got each one. 

The shopping's the hardest part. Mixing it was no biggy and it'll fill my Dove container twice. It's cool enough around here that it stays solid, but it was still too soft to apply like antiperspirant, so I keep it in my refrigerator. Two things are a little inconvenient about that. The obvious one: my deodorant's not in my bathroom, but I'm learning to work around that. The less obvious one is that when it's refrigerated, it's too hard to adjust with the turny thing that makes more come out. So when I'm getting close to scraping my underarm, I leave it on my kitchen island for an hour and then adjust it before replacing it in the fridge. You might think I'd forget, but I don't because deodorant always seems out of place on my island. 

I haven't had any trouble with smelling myself, which is exciting because I have a nose worthy of a hound dog. I sometimes apply it a second time at night, if I feel I need it. I don't know if I'll be sold on it when the summer rolls around, but I'll be happy to wear this a large portion of the year, even if I use Dove for the hottest months. I'll also use Dove when I travel. Still, I'll be saving quite a bit on deodorant and hopefully keeping my underarms happier!