Home Remedies To Reduce Underarm Sweating

Everyone experiences the moisture and odor associated with underarm sweating. Home remedies may help supplement or replace drugstore products. Additionally, you may distrust the artificial ingredients used in commercial body products, especially those applied directly on the skin. Several home remedies exist with astringent properties to reduce underarm sweating and disinfecting compounds to fight the bacteria that cause odor. For truly excessive underarm sweating, talk to your doctor about prescription medication or surgery.

Zinc and Witch Hazel Spray

Grannymed.com, a home remedies web site, suggests using a zinc-witch hazel body spray to control underarm sweating. Zinc oxide, a natural mineral, fights the bacteria that lead to underarm odor. Witch hazel, extracted from the witch hazel tree, acts as natural liquid astringent. Astringents control moisture by shrinking your skin's pores and blocking the amount of sweat that breaks through your skin. Look for zinc and witch hazel at the drug store.
Combine 2 tsp. zinc oxide with 2/3 cup witch hazel. Add 30 drops essential oil--lavender, rose, rosemary, thyme or sage all work well. Add to a spray bottle and spritz on in the morning before dressing.

Rosemary-Beeswax Salve

Put rosemary essential oil's deodorizing and disinfecting properties to good use in a rub-on salve similar to store-bought solid deodorants. Melt 1 oz. grated beeswax on the stovetop, remove from heat and add five to seven drops of rosemary essential oil. Add two or three drops of a complementary scent, such as lavender or lemon essential oil, if desired. Stir, pour into a wide mouth container and allow to solidify. Use daily under your arms.

Herbal Body Powder

Natural powders help absorb underarm moisture while essential oils provide antimicrobial protection. Kathi Keville's book "Herbs for Health and Healing" recommends combining ½ cup cornstarch with five drops lavender oil and two drops ylang ylang oil. Men might prefer the deodorizing, but more earthy, scents of thyme or sage essential oils.

Powdered Citrus Peel

Herbalist Jeanne Rose notes that lemon and orange peels make sweet-smelling and absorbent materials when dried and ground to a fine powder. Both are astringent and disinfecting. Use these powdered peels alone, if you like. Pat them under your arms with a large powder puff at least once a day. Alternatively, add powdered peels to unscented talc, or use it to replace some of the cornstarch in the herbal body powder recipe.

Alum Crystals

Those "hippie deodorant" crystals you may have seen at health food stores and bath shops consist of the natural mineral potassium alum, notes Grannymed.com. It works much like a roll-on deodorant, but needs to be moistened before use. Its astringent action tightens pores, stopping some of the moisture produced by your sweat glands from seeing the light of day while also killing odor-producing bacteria.