BODY ODOR REMOVAL | A Dry Cleaner’s Guide

This is a 4th generation dry cleaners guide to removing body odor from your clothing

First, body odor is not really your fault, and contrary to popular belief, sweat is naturally almost entirely odorless.

Our sweat glands secrete an oily fluid comprised of proteins, lipids and steroids. The odor is caused by bacteria that live on our skin and produce odor after they eat up our sweat!

This is typically most notable at our armpits which offer a moist, warm environment where microbes can thrive. [shouts out american society of microbiology for this info]

Now that you understand what causes body odor, here are some tips on removing it from your clothes:

1) pretreat those stinky areas with a stain removing spray designed for odor removal. [Pro Tip - Spray this on when taking off your clothes and before putting them in the hamper, the longer its on the better it'll work]
2) Use a detergent especially designed for odor removal
3) Add washing boosters like washing soda, borax, and baking soda into the drum before loading your clothes to make the detergent more effective [a 1/4 cup will do]
4) If cold water isn't cutting it, you may need to move up to warm or hot which will improve cleaning results
5) Use rinse or sanitizing products in the fabric softener slot. it goes in this specific slot because it is dispensed at the end of the cleaning cycle. you should NOT be using fabric softener if you have odor issues. softener can trap body oils which as you know now, is what bacteria love to eat [fun story - my aunt recently let me know that the only product that removes funk from her sons hockey gear is lysol sanitizer]
6) I'd also steer away from using perfume products like scent beads until you have actually figured out how to remove the odor. otherwise it may be hard for you to distinguish if the problem is actually solved or if you've just covered it up

I don't expect you to do all of this, but maybe try one or two of these to find what works best for you. I wanted to give you lots of options and let you take it from here

Hope this helps :)