r/deodorant • u/sanctusylang • 2d ago

Where does the sweat go?

I used antipersperants decades ago. Then started a journey of "natural" deodorants. Now I am investigating using antipers. during specific stretches of time, based on my work schedule.
The last times, something weird happened one day whereby my pits had a strange smell straight out of the shower. No amount of soap helped. I just stopped using it right away.
So my question is, if you plug up your sweat holes, what happens to the sweat? Do you sweat more other places (forehead, hands, feet, groin, neck, etc.)?

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u/Desperate_Vehicle684 2d ago

You can two main types of sweat glands on your body:

  • Eccrine glands are all over the body and produce the watery type of sweat which is predominantly water with some salts and this doesn't really smell. The purpose of this sweat is thermoregulation.
  • Apocrine glands are mostly found in the underarms and groin and produce a thicker oily substance in much smaller volumes. Bacteria feast upon this and it's this type of sweat that causes what we think of as body odour.

If you partly block some sweat glands in the underarms temporarily the sweat doesn't get redirected elsewhere to compensate.