No One's Ever Heard of Tussy Deodorant, but I Swear It's the Best

Legend has it that my great-grandmother was the first woman in our family to discover our signature antiperspirant: Tussy. Though the origin story is unknown, her daughter (my grandmother), still associates its scent with her mom—even now, over nine years since she passed away.

My grandmother also distinctly remembers the very first time her mom introduced her to the brand. It was in her early teens, when she first started needing to use deodorant. "Tussy was the first kind I ever used, and I've been using it all of my life," my grandmother, Joanie, now 77 and still an avid user, recently told me.

The rest is, as they say, history. My grandmother passed it on to my mother, and then when puberty hit my household, a bottle of Tussy was bestowed upon my younger sister and me—making us the fourth-gen users. And like any strange family quirk (not every family grew up using ketchup on their tacos?), I assumed using Tussy was totally the norm.

But when I got to the age where you needed a refresh post-P.E., I'd look around at the other girls in the locker room lifting up their arms to reapply, and would see Secret, Dove, or Degree, but Tussy was nowhere to be found. "What the eff is that?" I remember countless friends asking me as they gawked at Tussy's retro red branding. And while I fell prey to many instances of adolescent bullying—like the time I threw away a pink and green shirt because it made me look like a 'watermelon,' or when I got teased for being the last in my class to wear a training bra (despite the fact that I desperately needed one)—I always held strong to Tussy: because I knew it was the shit.

So why do I love this roll-on deodorant of yesteryear, that you can't even find in most pharmacies (I bulk order it on Amazon)? As described on its label, it's the "original fresh spice." But it doesn't have that overtly spicy, Christmasy scent of the more popular Old Spice. Or as my 20-year-old sister, Ari, explains, "It also has this amazing powdery undertone to it. Like baby powder." This one-two punch serves as a neutralizer for any odor you might have but still offers a slight kick at the end, like the kind you find when you finish your last few gritty sips of a chai latte.

What keeps my mother, Melissa, 51, coming back is that, "while I've tried a lot of other [perfumed] brands, this is the only deodorant where I've never smelled bad. With other kinds I get sweaty, or paranoid I have B.O., but with Tussy, I just smell like me." Personally, I think Tussy smells more like me than it does her, but that's another matter.

And though I sometimes feel the pressure to switch it up after articles come out warning me about toxins and urging me to switch to natural deodorant, I keep going back. Something about the way its quick-drying liquid rolls right on, minimizing any odor, and leaving me with the subtlest spiced fragrance. Or maybe it's just that my family has me completely brainwashed, but regardless, Tussy, I just can't quit you.

Tussy Anti-Perspirant Deodorant Roll-On, $10.96 for three, amazon.com

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