Picture this: You’ve just bought the cutest tank top and decide to wear it to brunch with your besties. As you sit under the not-so-shady umbrella, you feel something wet under your arms. To your disbelief (because you definitely applied deodorant this morning), you find that stains have started to appear in your armpits. Sound familiar?

While it can be kinda embarrassing to talk about, sometimes you just have to confront the harsh reality of heat-induced pit stains (or, ahem, sweating through your shirt in other places). If you’re walking around or just being outside for more than twenty minutes at a time, you will probably face this problem. 

But, don’t sweat it (bad pun, I’m sorry), we’ve got hacks to help you avoid that underarm sweat mortification and the other sweaty issues you encounter when getting dressed in the summer.

Here are our favorite tips for how to dress to minimize sweating through your clothes:

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Tip #1: Cotton is your best friend.

Do you remember those ads with the peaceful guitar in the background and someone singing “Cotton is the fabric of life”? Ads CAN be truthful sometimes. Cotton is ideal for summer weather; polyester is not. Take note. 

Some fabrics will breathe better than others and some will get you sweaty immediately, so be careful of which you choose if you know you’re going to be outside or doing any kind of sweat-promoting activity (or if you just sweat a lot).

Good fabrics include natural fibers, such as:

• cotton
• linen
• chambray

Bad fabrics include synthetic fibers, such as:

• polyester
• nylon
• rayon

Most man-made fabrics are made to repel water, meaning they’ll just repel the sweat back onto your skin. This is obviously not what you want, so avoid them.