I've had to toss several shirts because of this. Mine were definitely caused by sunscreen, specifically Neutrogena Dry Touch. It's one of the few sunscreens that are photostable, but the staining is causes is awful. I tried everything but could not get them out.

Tracey

Tracey, my hubby wouldn't wear sunscreen if you paid him...LOL Silly man.

Grainlady, that is fascinating information that you found! I am going to look further into that. He is a cola junkie! I'm going to delve deeper into the pH issue. Thanks a bunch :)

I've been able to remove underarm stains from white shirts with Whink rust remover. I put it on & rubbed it with an old toothbrush. Had to keep repeating till gone. Then wash as usual. Hope it will work on a collar. I had nothing to lose since they were ruined anyway.
Good luck.

Thanks Tracey, I also use Neutrogena and have found my neck and underarm areas orange - just where the sunscreen would touch the shirt! Now it makes sense...it only happens with my summer/outdoor tshirts!

I've been having the same problem for the past 4 years and I don't believe it's from sweat. I don't get stains in the arm pits of my Tees, instead the orange stains occur around the collar, the outside of the sleeves, the chest & sometimes the back. Instead of the shape of a blotch on the torso & shoulders, they look like zebra stripes, as though staining thru folds

I've also had my ph level tested & it came back normal, went to an endocrinologist & he had no clue about what could cause this. I only have this problem from early spring to late summer. I've had polo shirts stain thru my T-shirt. I've started wearing dark orange & other dark colored shirts.

I'll try to help here lol..there's a lot of stuff in sweat phosphates, salt, acids, body oils, ammonia, enzymes, and bacteria to name a few, its the mixture of these things that cause yellowish to orange discoloration on clothing..I think some people have more of some of these in there body sweat than others which accounts for why some people have no staining on their clothes and others have yellow, orange or brown stains. Nothing you can do if your amoung the many that have the orange stains, but its dang near impossable to remove after its set..best advice is to soak your clothes in something with oxygen bleach and enzymes when you take them off and leave them soak all day, which should work well on whites however darks you don't want soaking for extended times in oxygen bleach. .so for those I'd use a good TOL powder detergent loaded in enzymes like tide for soaking. This should work as long as you put the garment to soak right away. My teenage daughter has a serious medical condition and among everything else she sweats a lot and ...you got it hers is orange, but this system has saved many of her clothes. Anyway hope this helps.

P.S. I learned this stuff from my daughters nephrologist...lol

Do you think I have a serious medical condition and don’t know it?

My white tshirts and white underwear do this when I sweat so badly in the spring and summer from yard work. I also take an anti depressant, Venlafaxine that causes me to sweat excessively during intimate times, it’s embarrassing. I will sweat so badly during these times that the bedclothes and even the pillow is soaked completely through, within about 30 minutes.

I do wear sunscreen during yard work and was hoping that was the issue. I have put off searching this on the web because I don’t want to find out it’s something like street drugs sweating out my skin.

So glad to hear your thoughts on this subject, maybe a solution will come to pass or we will fix some underlying physiological phenomenon.

Unfortunately, it seems the answer from doctors and people suffering from this strange affliction is a simple don't know. But it is some relief to know that it's happening to other people and not some figment of our hypochondriac imagination. In my case, I first thought it was from sweat, until it started showing up in places on my clothes you wouldn't expect excessive sweating, while at the same time not having signs of sweat at the underarms. After years of asking doctors, being tested for ph balance and going to an endocrinologists, I've just given up on looking for an answer while dealing with several other health problems.

But did you find a way to get rid of the orangy stain? I put in javex for a few hours and it doesn't go away... such a pain. Why I told my Dr. He taught I was a bit crazy... nothing show abnormal things