Baking Soda: The best and cheapest deodorant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMcawo5BRo0

I stopped using antiperspirant years ago when it donned on me what the name meant: it stops the sweat. Well, sweating is important: it cleanses and cools. I remember at the time being disappointed at my discovery, as I had used deodorant in the past, and it didn't work too well. Well, up until recently, I still carried that disappointment. The best alternative I found prior was crystal salt, but it lost effectiveness as each crystal wore down for some reason, plus the worn crystals would start to pit, and sharp edges would form... not something you want to run all over your sensitive arm pits. So, I googled away, and found various suggestions for natural deodorants. One suggestion was for "Terra Naturals", but that just made me stink MORE (the back said "With a prebiotic ingredient to help maintain the natural balance of the skin's flora"... no wonder). Another was for "Toms of Maine", but they got bought out and quality apparently suffered, as some people's skin starting reacting badly to the new formula. Then, I found this on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcbqjEm0Eho

A bit too much backstory and buildup, but I was convinced: try baking soda. I haven't looked back... except once. At the end of one of the first days of the switch, I didn't smell all through my clothes like I did with the Terra Naturals, but if I stuck my nose to my pits, I smelled what I thought to be "BO"... it wasn't very strong, and remember thinking "Hmmm.. kinda smells like my BO.. but... not... BAD". Well, in the shower next morning I made sure I gave my pits a good cleaning, and confirmed in the shower... *sniff*... yup, all clean. Then a couple of minutes out of the shower, I sniffed again... and there was that smell again from the night prior. Frustrated (it still hadn't clicked yet), I rubbed on the baking soda and sniffed again... still there. Then the mental fog cleared, the clouds parted, and the light shone down: it wasn't "BO" I was smelling (even though it is technically "body odour"), but my own body's aroma. Then I realized what my ex-girlfriend was talking about when she said she loved how I smelled all the time(because I rarely ever used cologne, so I didn't know what she was smelling).

So, if you switch to baking soda, just make sure you don't get deceived by your first pit-whiff: it's probably the real you you're smelling unobstructed for the first time in a long time, and not the bacteria-created funk that kept getting mixed in with it.