Archive for sweat
HyperhidrosisAndMe Weekly Spotlight: Sweat Management for Women
Posted by: · on August 23, 2010 | CommentsThis week’s spotlight will be shining brightly on how women with hyperhidrosis can dress with more FREEDOM by wearing the right foundation wear.
As I explain in great detail on my page on the subject, called, creatively, “Women’s Undergarments”, there are dozens of undergarments on the market that will enable you to wear almost any style, fabric and neckline with confidence.
Offered in several fabrics in various colors, most of the options involve one or both of these elements: dress shields and camisoles. For example, wearing a camisole can give you that extra layer to absorb any trunk sweating that occurs– and many post-ETS patients deal with Compensatory Sweating here– while at the same time allowing you to place a disposable dress shield upon the camisole in the area of your worst sweating. This shield is called a Body Guard and is sold by Kleinert’s, the leading purveyors of clothing for sweat management.
Camisoles for hyperhidrosis come in a terrific variety of necklines, sleeve lengths and body lengths, and they usually come with dress shields discreetly sewn in. The dress shields are offered with varying barrier levels of sweat protection.
If your main problem is underarm sweating and you feel that a camisole is overkill, you can find a plethora of discreet ways you can wear dress shields. My favorite is offered, again, by Kleinert’s and it is a washable dress shield that snaps firmly onto your bra strap. That way, the dress shield is snug up against your underarm and not weighting down your top and shifting around as you go about your day. This product is called “Ready Shield”– there is a great demonstration video for you to see if you click on the link.
If you check out my “Women’s Undergarments” page, you can see a description of all of these products and many more, and can be directed to a place to purchase them.
If you are sick and tired of wearing black or having to wear a blazer or cardigan over every top you put on, please check out your options.
…You know how your Hyperhidrosis controls so much of your life? Take control of this part of your life. You can wear what you want. It just requires a little thought and one extra step! So take it.
HyperhidrosisAndMe Weekly Spotlight: Med e Tate by DERMAdoctor
Posted by: · on July 26, 2010 | CommentsThis week I am focusing the spotlight on DERMAdoctor Med e Tate Hyperhidrosis Control Wipes. Based on the stats here on this site, there is a lot of interest about this product. You can find a full, candid review on Med e Tate on its page on HH&Me, Med e Tate by DERMAdoctor.
This product has gotten quite a lot of press over the past year, as you can see below:
I do use Med e Tate on occasion and keep a few packets in my car, in my purse, and at my desk. I will point out, though, that despite the marketing of these wipes as “an injection-free alternative to Botox”, that is really a stretch! Med e Tate can best be described as a sweat-control boost.
I recommend using Med e Tate as another weapon in your Hyperhidrosis Control Arsenal. When you are out and about and you are getting sticky, these wipes can be used anywhere (cleavage, groin, underarms,feet, hands, backs of legs, face, etc). They are cooling, cleansing, and have ingredients to control sweat– all in all, a great confidence-booster.
Still difficult to find in brick-and-mortar stores, you can find Med e Tate at Amazon.com:
Or if you prefer, DERMAdoctor Med e Tate is also available at Beauty.com:
Sweaty? Don’t Get Your Undies in a Bunch: Wrapp ‘Em!
Posted by: · on June 23, 2010 | CommentsIt has been a fairly warm and steamy June here, by Chicago standards. I have been trying a few different products, as I posted on my HyperhidrosisAndMe Facebook page. Two products are antiperspirants, and one is an undergarment clothing shield, called a Wrapp. I will cover the antiperspirants tomorrow, so here’s the deal about the Wrapp:
Wrapps are handmade by a very resourceful woman named Denise. Denise lives in lovely, humid Florida and has always found it difficult managing her sweating in, well, is there a delicate way to put this? The bikini zone, shall we say? Really, most of us with Primary Focal Hyperhidrosis do deal with sweating in that area, although it is rarely mentioned. It is hard enough being upfront about sweating in your hands, feet, underarms and… it just seems to be too much to say, “and groin”. Eesh.
Well, managing this problem has not been addressed at all, really, so Denise decided to take matters into her own hands. What she has created is a fabric, full liner for the panty that “wraps”– hence the name– around, much like a sanitary pad does, but it absorbs much better, is not disposable, and thus does not feel as though one is wearing paper. It is made with washable, absorbent terry cloth and covered in soft muslin. Wrapps keep the moisture from reaching your outer layer of clothing. She has even designed a very attractive case, which will accommodate 2 Wrapps. Wrapps are available in orders of 2, 6, or 12. The lovely handmade case, or “pouch”, as well as free shipping, are included with every order.
I have comfortably worn the Wrapps that Denise sent me a few times, and there have been several times when I have not worn one and regretted it. Once you wear one and experience the comfort and confidence Wrapps engenders, you really want to wear them more often than not. You can read more of my personal reaction and thoughts regarding Wrapps on my Women’s Undergarments page. Tomorrow, I will be reviewing Klima Surefoot Spray for plantar sweating and Kiehl’s Superbly Efficient Anti-Perspirant Cream. I think a great combination would be to use the Kiehl’s Anti-Perspirant Cream along with the Wrapps, to control both moisture and… fragrance… in that area. Definitely could give a confidence boost on a hot summer day!!
Public Perception and Hyperhidrosis: Oh, the Irony!
Posted by: · on April 23, 2010 | CommentsWe all roll our eyes from time to time when the phrase “politically correct” comes up. Remember the good old days, we whisper, when you could tell a good joke without Offending People? I am just as guilty at times as everyone, although I would like to believe I am sensitive to the feelings of others. My sensitivity comes from knowing what it feels like to pretend to laugh at some offensive joke or comment about sweating, while feeling inside like the butt of that joke.
Somehow over the years, we as a species have come to see sweating as shameful and disgusting. In our society, there are only very specific circumstances in which this natural bodily function can be deemed acceptable: when exercising, in extremely hot and/or humid conditions, or when ill. Even if you are nervous, we learn at a young age, you are expected to hide it.
As a result of this unspoken rule that is taught and reinforced countless times in childhood, public perception of those who sweat visibly is negative in every way:
- People whose hands are sweaty must be nervous. People who are nervous are shifty and not to be trusted. People who are nervous are weak and not self-assured; they have no self-respect.
- Somehow, the mental image of a “sweaty guy” is of someone who is overweight. People with Hyperhidrosis come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors, as we know.
- Sweating is unclean, so it only follows that people who sweat do not observe proper hygeine.
- Yup, we’re greedy, too. I recently saw this sentence: “…he couldn’t wait to get his sweaty hands on all that money…”
So here’s the kicker, folks! When we get up the nerve to tell a friend or peer about our Hyperhidrosis, what do we hear, almost without fail?? “Oh, so what. That’s okay. It’s no big deal.”
These perceptions are ingrained in all of us. Subconsciously, we judge our own sweating as society does. So, IT IS A BIG DEAL!
The only one way to change this unfair perception is to make it Politically Incorrect. We must come out of the shadows and raise awareness that Hyperhidrosis is real and that we, to quote my friend Anne, are “normal people who happen to sweat”.
‘Nuff said!
Hyperhidrosis: Hiding in Plain Sight PART II
Posted by: · on March 27, 2010 | CommentsHave you felt like me, that you were the only one? Have fear of discovery and a deeply embedded shame shadowed you as it has me? Those who read this who do not suffer from Hyperhidrosis may have a hard time wrapping their head around the idea of a shame so deep it colors one’s perception of the world. For me, it began in childhood, as it slowly dawned on me that I was different. Other kids could hold hands during a game of Red Rover and actually have fun. Other adolescents could talk about “going steady” with someone and holding hands. Television commercials made sure you knew that sweating was disgusting and something to hide: “never let ‘em see you sweat” and “raise your hand if you’re Sure”. “M&M’s melt in your mouth, not in your hands”. Why did they melt in mine? Oh, I know… because I am a freak. What other explanation was offered to me? In a child’s world– where other children can be so cruel– the only way to survive was to hide it, at all costs. When it is part of your very existence, you get good at it.
Of course, there were occasions where I failed to hide it well enough. Times where out of the blue, a teacher or someone in charge would announce “let’s join hands”. What followed would be the other person’s surreptitious wiping of their hand on their pant leg– and my small death of shame inside with a muttered “…sorry”. Going to Mass every single week became an hourlong strategy session trying to avoid the Handshake of Peace, or God Forbid (!) the joining of hands for the entire “Our Father”. I felt like even God knew I was a freak; after all, wasn’t it He who made me this way? I’m telling you, every part of my life was colored by this!
Somehow, some way, I met someone who did not appear to notice my freakishness. Truth was, of course he noticed, but he did not care. The problem that controlled my life, that ultimately I could not hide from him, mattered not one single bit. He made me feel normal, safe, beautiful. We have been married nineteen years.
About eight years into our marriage, my husband was watching TV and I was fiddling around on our new computer… and I heard a sports announcer say something about a golfer whose hands would sweat because he had a disorder– my head snapped around and of course the name of that so-called disorder was long and unpronounceable… Immediately, I typed the words “sweaty hands” into the search engine, embarrassed, no, mortified, to just be typing those shame-filled words at all– and saw for the first time the word “Hyperhidrosis”. That word told me that I was not alone. I was not some random freak. Maybe, even, there was a cure for this, if it actually was a “disorder”!! So then began the second half of my journey, the part where I could look for answers and even for others out on the Internet who were like me.
