Plucking, shaving or removing armpit hair does not help eliminate sweat odor, but can also cause infection and make the odor worse.
The skin under the arms has two main types of sweat glands: water sweat glands and oil sweat glands. Highly active sweat glands help lower body temperature in high temperature environments, vigorous exercise, fever, and stress. Sweat is initially sterile and odorless. The cause of underarm odor is mainly due to the oily sweat glands (apocrine) secreting many substances such as proteins, fats… that are decomposed by bacteria on the skin, causing an unpleasant odor.
MSc.BSc.CKI Pham Truong An, specialized in Dermatology – Skin Aesthetics, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, said each person has different levels of body odor. People with underarm odor often have more apocrine glands and their activity level is higher than other people. Factors such as poor hygiene, lots of physical activity, eating smelly foods (onions, garlic), greasy foods, hot weather, stress, obesity, genetics or other diseases such as diabetes, cancer… can increase sweating and smelly armpit sweat.
Dense armpit hair also makes the armpits damp, creating a favorable environment for bacteria to reside and decompose secretions from oily sweat glands, making the odor worse.
Hair removal helps keep the armpit area clear, reduces surface bacterial activity, and limits dirt and stagnant sweat that cause infection and folliculitis. Although it can partially reduce odor, hair removal does not solve the main cause of underarm odor. Odor can only be controlled with optimal treatment of hyperhidrosis and odorous underarm sweat.
Dr. An said that to effectively reduce underarm odor, treatment with botox injection, miradry microwave technology or sympathectomy and sweat gland curettage surgery is needed. However, these methods cannot eliminate 100% of body odor and need to apply other methods. If the odor is less, you can use products containing aluminum chloride salts such as underarm spray or underarm roll-on. Besides, you should keep your body clean, keep the skin under your arms dry, limit smelly and greasy foods, and keep your spirit comfortable.
There are many medical-standard hair removal methods such as laser, IPL (using high-intensity pulsed light) to help reduce the risk of infection and other complications.
Armpit hair removal using IPL technology at Dermatology – Skin Aesthetics department: Photo: Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City
Hair removal using IPL is quite popular and has many advantages such as less pain and fewer complications. This method uses the principle of selective photothermal lysis, through the absorption of energy from melanin in hair fibers to eliminate hair and destroy hair follicle stem cells. Destroyed hair follicle stem cells prevent hair from growing back or can grow back but the fibers are weak, thin, pale, and low density.
You should not pluck or shave armpit hair regularly, because when plucking and shaving hair, the armpit skin is easily damaged, causing folliculitis, swelling, and pain. Bacteria also grow stronger, the odor becomes more unpleasant. After plucking or shaving, the hair grows harder and denser, and can grow back into the skin. Ingredients in waxing products can irritate the skin, causing itching, redness, blisters, superinfection with pus-forming bacteria, or scarring.
When treating increased sweating and smelly armpits, patients should go to a dermatology or skin aesthetic specialist for advice on appropriate treatment. Wrong treatment methods and techniques can cause burns, scars, and infections.