Deodorant - History

History

In the 9th century, Ziryab introduced under-arm deodorants in Al-Andalus. In 1888, the first commercial deodorant, Mum, was developed and patented by a U.S. inventor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose name has been lost to history. The small company was bought by Bristol-Myers in 1931 and in the late 1940s, marketing executive Edward Gelsthorpe decided to develop an applicator based on the newly invented ball-point pen. In 1952, the company began marketing the product under the name Ban Roll-On. The product was briefly withdrawn from the market in the U.S. It is once again available at retailers in the U.S. under the brand Ban. In the UK it is sold under the names Mum Solid and Mum Pump Spray. Chattem acquired Ban deodorant brand in 1998 and subsequently sold it to Kao Corporation in 2000.

The modern formulation of the antiperspirant was patented by Jules Montenier on January 28, 1941. This patent addressed the problem of the excessive acidity of aluminium chloride and its excessive irritation of the skin, by combining it with a soluble nitrile or a similar compound. This formulation was first found in "Stopette" deodorant spray, which Time Magazine called "the best-selling deodorant of the early 1950s". "Stopette" gained its prominence as the first and long-time sponsor of the game show What's My Line?, and was later eclipsed by many other brands as the 1941 patent expired.

In the early 1960s, the first aerosol antiperspirant in the marketplace was Gillette's Right Guard, whose brand was later sold to Henkel in 2006. Aerosols were popular because they let the user dispense a spray without coming in contact with the underarm area. By the late 1960s, half of all the antiperspirants sold in the U.S. were aerosols, and continued to grow in all sales to 82% by the early 1970s. However, in the late 1970s two problems arose which greatly changed the popularity of these products. First, in 1977 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the active ingredient used in aerosols, aluminium zirconium chemicals, due to safety concerns over long term inhalation. Second, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limited the use of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) propellants used in aerosols due to awareness that these gases can contribute to depleting the ozone layer. As the popularity of aerosols slowly decreased, stick antiperspirants became more and more popular. Today, sticks are the most popular type of antiperspirant.