Pit Stains on Your White Tee? Don’t Sweat It. We Can Help.

Published March 30, 2023

Zoe Vanderweide

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Classic, cool, and … yellow under the armpits?

Though a great white T-shirt is an effortless wardrobe staple, keeping it looking fresh over the long haul isn't always easy. But with a little know-how and the right arsenal of cleaning products, it's possible to revive even the dingiest shirts in your drawer.

We asked Zachary Pozniak, vice president of operations at the luxury dry cleaner Jeeves New York (and the face of the company's compulsively watchable TikTok account), to share his tips for brightening white T-shirts with us. Read on to learn how to bring old, yellowed shirts back from the dead—and make sure that new, pristine ones stay that way.

You can stop blaming yourself: Those unsightly yellow stains on your white tees are not evidence of poor hygiene or excessive perspiration. They’re the result of a chemical reaction that occurs when aluminum—an active ingredient in antiperspirants—combines with the proteins in underarm sweat.

The simplest way to avoid this, ahem, pitfall, is to swap out your antiperspirant for an aluminum-free deodorant (which controls odor but not perspiration), or to go au naturel. But if that switch doesn't appeal to you, fear not: You have plenty of other options.

Don't let dirty white tees languish in the laundry basket; the longer you wait, the more likely it is that stains will set and be difficult to remove. Pozniak recommends washing garments (especially badly stained ones) within one week of wear.

Begin by pretreating any discolored areas with a stain remover (Pozniak cited Shout Laundry Stain Remover and Puracy Natural Laundry Stain Remover as favorites). Apply it as soon as you can—ideally, right after the stain occurs—even if you don't plan on doing laundry for a few more days. The longer the treatment has to penetrate, the better, but if you’re in a hurry, at least 15 minutes should do the trick.

Before tossing your laundry in the machine, be sure to separate lights from darks—darker garments can release dyes during washing that can transfer onto your whites. (In particular, watch out for reds and anything dark or colorful that hasn't been washed yet; I say this from bitter personal experience.)

For maximum cleaning power, says Pozniak, use a high-quality detergent—it does make a difference. His favorites for removing stains are Tide Ultra Stain Release and Persil ProClean Stain Fighter, and Wirecutter's in-house experts concur; both were top performers in the tests we did for our guide to the best laundry detergent.

Always check your garment's care label—and consider its material and fit—before selecting your wash cycle. Cold water is the gentlest, while hot water delivers the deepest clean and most stain-busting power. In our personal experience with white tees, a warm wash strikes the right balance of getting the job done without running the risk of shrinking garments. (Just a heads-up: In our tests, we have found that new, all-cotton T-shirts—even if they’re preshrunk—shrink by about 3% after the first laundering; a good deal of that is caused by the heat of the dryer rather than by the wash, but we avoid scalding-hot water anyway to err on the side of caution.)

If you want to put your shirt in the dryer after washing it, make sure the stain is completely gone first; otherwise, the high heat of tumble drying tends to set any stains, making them harder (or even impossible) to get out. For anything that's been heavily soiled, air-drying is the smarter bet—you can avoid unwittingly locking in any lingering stains, and air-drying is easier on fabrics.

To give white tees a boost, use a powdered oxygen bleach—we’re fans of OxiClean—that contains the whitening agent sodium percarbonate. "Oxygen bleach is much better than chlorine bleach, as it does less harm to the fibers of the garment," Pozniak said. (It's also color safe, more eco-friendly, and gentler on skin.)

For the best results, dissolve the oxygen bleach according to the product's instructions into a basin-full of the warmest water your garment can tolerate (we like to bathe cotton tees as we would ourselves, in the hottest water from the tub faucet), then soak the garment—overnight if possible. This is most successful when given ample time to work—8 or more hours—so try to plan ahead accordingly.

You can also add ¼ to ½ scoop of OxiClean to a hot wash cycle instead; Pozniak recommends using the soak function (typically only available on top-loading machines). Just remember that although oxygen bleach is color safe, it's still important to separate lights from darks to avoid color transfer.

For yellow, oxidized pit stains that have been through the dryer more than a few times, it's better to take a more targeted approach, says Pozniak. In a cup or other container, combine a generous amount of OxiClean or other powdered oxygen bleach with a splash of hot water to create a thick, spreadable paste (roughly the consistency of toothpaste), then rub it into the armpits of the shirt.

Using plastic wrap, cover the treated areas—this prevents the paste from drying out—then let the garment sit in a warm room for at least 8 hours to give the oxygen bleach time to work its magic.

Wash the shirt as usual (with light colors only)—air-dry it rather than tumble dry afterwards to be on the safe side—and check your results. We tried this technique (video) on a shirt with deep yellow stains under the arms, and we were amazed at the improvement. "If the stains aren't all the way gone after one treatment," advised Pozniak, "repeat!"

Looking for a shortcut? Though the results (in our case) were not quite as dramatic, Pozniak does suggest a far simpler method: Put 3% hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle and spritz it liberally on the stained areas. (Hydrogen peroxide is a liquid form of oxygen bleach.) The hydrogen peroxide has to air-dry completely before you can see the full effects of the treatment, but there's no need to wash the garment before wearing it.

In the event that your shirt is still beyond saving, Wirecutter deputy editor Annemarie Conte offers a final piece of advice: "Tie-dye it. It's a great second life for a white T-shirt." (Psst: We found the best tie-dye kit.)

This article was edited by Ingela Ratledge Amundson and Jennifer Hunter.

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