Sensitive skin can be uncomfortable. Especially if that sensitive skin is located at a joint like the underarm

Whether you’ve been battling skin conditions for your whole life, or you’ve woken up one day and feel like your skin has turned on you (which it hasn’t) you’re not alone in your sensitivity. A growing number of people, particularly women, are dealing with skin sensitivity issues every day, including redness, inflammation, itchiness, burning and stinging, dryness, and flakiness—and not surprisingly, many of them are occurring in one of the most vulnerable areas of skin: their armpits.

But many people still don’t know that one of the best ways to protect ourselves from harmful toxins is to stop using regular antiperspirant deodorant.

Most of these people accept without question that they’ve got sensitive skin, and believe that their allergic responses are because of their genetic or physiological makeup. But how many of these reactions are due to legitimate sensitivities in the individual, and how many are due to external factors in the environment, like our hygiene routines and the products we use, which can be better managed or eliminated? And more importantly, how do we remedy them without compromising our comfort—and without the inevitable funkiness that would ensue if we gave up using any deodorant?

The skin is the body’s barrier

Most people don’t see their skin for what it actually is. it’s doing a super important job all the time: protecting your insides from the outside.

The skin is the body’s largest organ, but it’s kind of an ecosystem in itself.

It’s home to its own brand of flora, tiny microorganisms that are working all the time to maintain homeostasis and keep the rest of your organs functioning. It’s also acting as a barrier to keep pathogens out—albeit a semi-permeable one, that’s sensitive (in EVERY person) to what’s coming into and what’s going out of it.

One of the most important parts of this skin system is the pH. Healthy skin has a pH somewhere around 5.5, and it needs to remain there to work properly. But guess what? Most manufacturers make skincare products for the body that are alkaline. Your cleansers and creams—the ones that give you that tight, squeaky feeling that you think means ‘clean’—are messing with the delicate pH balance of your skin, stripping the natural oils and substances that belong there and compromising the barrier to your squishy interior.

We’re also launching assaults on our skin every day with our lifestyle choices: shaving, hard water, lack of sleep, chlorine, clothes, and dehydration can all interrupt the skin’s systems. Is it really a wonder then, that so many of us end up with rashes, redness, and rawness, especially in important areas like our armpits? 

Is your skin taut or itchy? Could it be that your body products are too drying?

How shaving compromises our barrier

Brace yourself for a revelation: shaving your pits could be harmful to your health.

There’s been a big social push in recent times to encourage women not to shave their armpits—because it’s kind of arbitrary, right? Men don’t do it, so there’s no real reason that women should. But if you’ve got sensitive skin, you probably already know that shaving your armpits also causes rash and irritation, and a bunch of other problems like ingrown hairs and razor burn. It’s basically a really harsh and painful way of exfoliating your armpit skin.

Besides this, shaving compromises the lipid barrier layer of the epidermis. This layer stops chemicals from entering the rest of the skin and getting into our blood stream. It’s kind of scary when you think about this layer being broken, and having no resistance against the chemical compounds in our deodorants—many of which are known to cause cancer! Our armpits are also full of lymph nodes, which are basically little filters to clean waste products from our blood, and compromising those guys is asking for big health problems like a weakened immune system.

If exposure to chemicals isn’t a good enough reason to let your pits grow wild and free, maybe the discomfort of shaving is. Once shaving has removed the lipid barrier, some people experience oversensitivity, inflammation, redness, itchiness, and dryness—which is why it stings so much sometimes when you apply deodorant. And this can happen even when you’re using good products! When you’ve damaged your skin with a thousand tiny cuts, even high-quality natural ingredients can sting and cause sensitivities.

Building the barrier back up

Not all of us are ready to give up shaving though, and that’s our right—it’s as arbitrary as not shaving, after all. but how can we be hairless style icons without damaging some of the most sensitive areas of skin we have?

The answer is in growing a thicker skin. When its barrier is intact, your skin will maintain a good balance of hydration, making it both flexible and resistant to pathogens.

You can repair your barrier by:

• Eliminating astringents: don’t use anything containing alcohol or anything very alkaline. Choose natural body washes and deodorant that won’t strip moisture or lipids from your skin
• Soaking your skin: Use a moisturising shaving oil if you shave, and dampen? your skin for a little while before you shave (because dry skin is damaged more easier by the razor);
• Eating a healthy diet: Eat foods rich in fatty acids and omegas (or taking supplements) to reduce inflammation and rejuvenate skin cells, soothing the skin from the inside; and
• Using good deodorant: Stay away from antiperspirants (sweating is good for you!) and deodorants that contain harmful substances like aluminium contribute to irritating dryness…and cancer.