Welcome to the daily halacha (Jewish law). A couple of days ago, an interesting question came up for one of the rabbis I sit with to hear questions. There was a husband who went on vacation with his wife, and he forgot to bring his spray deodorant. He wanted to know: Can he use his wife's spray deodorant?
Now, I'm sure some of you might ask, “Why is that even a question? Why is it even a safek (a doubt)?” The answer is that we have an issur (prohibition) in the Torah. We have a verse in the Torah called lo yilbash, which means a man cannot wear a woman's clothing, and a woman cannot wear a man's clothing. From this verse, from this halacha, a lot of branches of different cases come up. What's considered a woman's clothing, and what's considered a man's clothing? Is it a necklace, a bracelet, a watch, or pants? So many different things come up. What's considered a man's clothing, what's considered a woman's clothing, and it varies into many different halachot. Maybe one. We're going to learn over here on this podcast.
But this time, the question was: Can a man put on a lady's deodorant? The answer is, when it comes to cologne, not deodorant, a man is not allowed to put on a lady's perfume. When it comes to perfume, a man cannot put on a lady's perfume, and a woman cannot put on a man's perfume. However, when it comes to deodorant, deodorant is very different from perfume. The goal of deodorant is to remove a bad smell. The goal of deodorant is to remove the bad smell of sweat or different smells. So, because it's only there to remove a bad smell, a man could use the spray of a woman's deodorant, and it's, like I said, a lo yilbash. Perfume, he would not be allowed to use.
Deodorant is different. There are those who are even more stringent with deodorant, but halacha l'ma'aseh (in practice), when it comes to deodorant, because it's only there to remove a bad smell, but not to enhance a person's smell like perfume does, they are allowed to use a woman's deodorant. But perfume is not allowed.