Death to Deodorant

I was reading my buddy's entry over at The Healthy Muslimah about deodorant. It's pretty interesting. It makes me wanna stop using the stuff and opt for a mineral stone- except for the fact that I just stocked up on deodorant because they were on a great sale haha. A matter of fact... my son's here in the living room tossing around 4 deodorant sticks... *fun*

She mentions a mineral deodorant stick sold at iHerb.com. The Islamic shops I frequent in Brooklyn also sell these, I never tried them before though. They're just $0.50 more than iHerb, but if you choose to get them you'll be supporting a Muslim business.

On top of that the Madina Industrial Company has a wide range of vegetable based products for Muslims - including other halal deodorants, bar soaps, shampoos, hand soaps, hundreds of alcohol free perfumes (for men and women), body lotions, lip balm, all natural shea butter, dead sea salt, neem toothpaste, hair serums, facial scrubs and a few other items. So check them out!

Here's the sisters entry in case you're too lazy to just click the link above =p

Be sure to subscribe to her for updates - she has some really interesting info mashaAllah!



The main gist of deodorants:

• Most, if not, all deodorants have aluminium in them; this greatly increases your risk of Alzheimer's disease.

• When you put deodorant on your underarms you're really just plugging the pores. All the waste that your body excretes through sweat is basically being pushed back into your body because your pores are being blocked by disgusting chemicals in deodorants. You don't want to do this. You want to allow your body to excrete it's waste. Sweating isn't a bad thing; it's natural!

• The nasty stuff that gets on your shirts as a result of sweating with deodorant on, is because of your deodorant. The chemicals mix with your sweat and produce that disgusting color.
  

An alternative to deodorants: deodorant stones. They are made of mineral salts, which kill the bacteria from the sweat. Thus, eliminating the odor when one sweats. The salt basically deprives the bacteria of it's fluids and eventually the bacteria die.

I suggest buying the one I linked to because it's cheaper than the larger one. Regardless of it's size, it will definitely last you a long time, inshaAllah.

Using it is pretty simple:

1. Wet the top of the stone.
   
2. Apply to underarms (it can be applied to feet, as well, to prevent bad odor during excessive exercise or on a regular basis).
   
3. Wash off the top of the stone again so that there is no bacteria left and the salt is not doing unnecessary work.