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Feminine Odor From Sweating? Yoga Leggings, Pants Tips

By A Mystery Man Writer

Don't be embarrassed. That smelly leggings problem happens to all women. Here's a guide to the fabrics to avoid, and detergents to use.
Keep cotton away from your crotch.

But wait, there’s another thing to consider. Cotton tends to get a musty smell when it’s in humid environments where it doesn’t dry out quickly. Professor McQueen notices this when trying to line-dry clothes in humid climates versus dry ones. Could our crotch qualify as a perpetually humid environment? I asked her. “I don’t think that’s a stretch at all,” she said.
Reject rayon.

McQueen can verify the types of clothing that get permanently stinky. “My experience has been that some of my smelly tops have been rayon. There’s a buildup where, after many wears of it, you put it on and it starts to stink immediately.” Anecdotally, she noticed it with her husband’s rayon workout top. “I thought, Ugh, I think he accidentally put this top in the clean laundry pile, because it stunk. I washed it again, and it still stunk. It was disgusting.”
Ban black.

McQueen has also heard from survey respondents that black textiles are a problem. “We’ve had at least two or three people that have mentioned black clothing. Maybe it’s something in the dye,” she says. “Or maybe it’s just people wear a lot of black yoga pants.”

It could be it’s a coincidence, but I heard this from another quarter as well: a Facebook group of women. “It's mostly tight-fitting pants with stretch to them,” one commented. “And generally black colored.” Hmm, maybe there is something there.

(All these hypotheses seem to jive with my personal experience. The worst pants I ever owned that I finally trashed were black cotton/polyester/rayon stretch pants, a potently fragrant combination.)