Any parent has been there, your child comes home from school one day and suddenly you get a pungent hit of body odour that is too obvious to ignore. Instead of rushing out to the shop to buy the first deodorant you see on the shelf, it’s important to understand the basics of why this is happening to your young teens and what the best solution is for them.

Why Do Teens Sweat So Much

On average, people have around two to four million sweat glands. However, how much sweat is released by each gland is determined by several deodorants factors from your gender, genetics, environmental conditions to age and fitness level. 

At any point from 8/9 years old your apocrine sweat glands become active, attached to hair follicles they secrete the proteins and fats that surface bacteria like to eat. This is what causes BO. With hormonal changes, children begin to sweat profusely from these apocrine glands, mainly in the armpits and groin.

Sweat alone does not make a child smell, as sweat itself is odourless salty water. It is only when the secretion mixes and is broken down by the surface bacteria that the smell is created.

What Can I Do About My Teens' Body Odour?

Often, young teens won’t even realise how much they smell, which is where you come in. Puberty is a tricky time and every child is different so use all your instincts to work out how to talk to them about it and make them feel comfortable. Smelling is a perfectly normal part of growing up and there has been much research that indicates that teenagers do just smell. This is why we understand the importance of finding a safe deodorant for teens, and not just boys, girls too.

Is It Safe for Kids to Use Deodorant?

Teens and kids don’t have to wear deodorant, just like no adult has to. There are other ways of trying to improve body aroma but nothing works like deodorant. Confidence regarding body odour is crucial while they are at school. 

Aside from using a natural deodorant for teens, we suggest:

• Wearing lighter, natural fabrics
• Washing more frequently, and especially after sport 
• Drinking lots of water
• Eating a healthy diet with lots of greens

Many parents find that even when the discussions have been had and deodorants have been bought that they still have to encourage a tween to use their deodorant. Finding one they love the design and brand of and that makes them feel ‘cool’ always helps. 

When Should Kids Start Using Deodorant?

As soon as body odour is being produced we are happy to advise starting to use a natural deodorant like Proverb Deodorant. A kid-friendly, aluminium-free, organic deodorant is perfect for a young armpit, but beware that not all children’s deodorants fit these criteria.

Some deodorants claim to be appropriate for kids yet contain amounts of unnatural chemicals, artificial fragrances and other nasties, which are not ideal for kids sensitive skin.

Ingredients To Avoid In Teen Deodorants

The number one thing to avoid in a natural deodorant for teens is aerosol gases and strong fragrances that come into contact with young bodies. Synthetic body spray, deodorant and perfume fumes have all been linked to endocrine disruption, which can harm several in reproductive function. Spray deodorants are also not ideal for asthma or very sensitive skin as they are irritants.

A safe deodorant for teens should not include several ingredients. To help you find the best natural deodorant for your kids, here is what to avoid:

Aluminium - There are increasing concerns about the health risks of aluminium and if your child, tween or teen doesn’t have excessive BO then we would suggest not starting with these. 

Anything on the skincare baddies list - like skincare, elements in deodorants will be absorbed into the body so we would suggest avoiding any products that have petroleum, propylene gases, parabens, pegs, SLS, artificial fragrance.

What Is The Best Natural Deodorant For Teens?

Choosing a safe deodorant for teens is a good step to reducing the cocktail of cosmetic ingredients they will be barraged with from a young age. Natural deodorants are the logical place to start, but you do need to understand your way around the natural deodorant sector.

This is where Proverb Refillable Natural Deodorant comes in: it is a 100% natural, aluminium-free and vegan deodorant. Proverb deodorant is gentle enough for young skin but formulated to deal with pre-and teen body odour as their apocrine sweat glands develop. 

Crucially unlike most natural refillable deodorants, they have 3 different strength levels and sensitivities so you have lots of choices for young armpits:

• ACTIVE: We have our ‘Active’ deodorants that are entirely efficacy driven, designed for heavy sweating and BO and these contain our amazing combination of deodorising ingredients - including sodium bicarbonate.
• CORE: We then have an option that does not have sodium bicarbonate, but still has fragrance and all the other deodorisers. This is for people who don’t sweat excessively, teen and young armpits or people who react to sodium bicarbonate.
• SENSITIVE & UNGRAGRACED: We then have our absolute sensitive deodorant. This is an entirely different formula as sensitive skins need to be dealt with differently. If you have previously been allergic to deodorants or are hypersensitive, then we would recommend our Sensitive & Unfragranced. 

Sodium Bicarbonate is an amazing deodoriser used in many natural deodorants but can be very irritating to the skin. If a teen has mild BO then choose an option without it like the Core or Sensitive range from Proverb.

Our deodorants not only avoid controversial chemicals but also minimise single-use plastic by being refillable. It is time to be better for the younger generation!

Remember sweat and BO is personal, therefore, differs per person so although our advice to a parent would be to start in the natural camp you could find that it doesn’t work for every child.

If you would like to test the deodorants on your child or teen as you are worried about sensitivity or efficacy, please email us at hello@proverbskin.com we can get you some deodorant stick cuttings to patch test.