VerySweatyBetty.com

Clothing for Excessive Sweating

Sweating is something that the body does naturally all the time. Even when it is cold, the human body perspires to keep its temperature regulated. However, there are people who have excessive sweating or to give it its official name – hyperhidrosis.

Sometimes excessive sweating is a medical condition that a doctor can treat. This usually means the condition will improve. During this time, a person may feel embarrassed, or feel self-conscious about their appearance. They do not want people to see perspiration marks on their clothing. Being anxious about sweating and others seeing the perspiration, can lead to more incidences of heavy sweating. People often become depressed and isolate themselves from others, to hide the excessive sweating. 

If people with this issue do go out, they will often try to hide the sweating by wearing loose fitting clothing regardless of fashion trends and looks. Shopping for clothes becomes a mission to find clothes that will not make it obvious that they are sweating rather than if a person actually likes the clothing.

There are clothing fabrics and colors that will prevent others from noticing the excess sweating. A person will feel more confident if they have knowledge of the type of fabrics that will work best for them. In addition, sweating can create body odour, so choosing the proper fabric can reduce the smell of perspiring. Using anti-perspirants and frequent bathing is imperative for people with excessive sweating. The first items of clothing we put on each morning are undergarments. While generally, no one else will see them, the fabric of undergarments can help prevent, or conceal excessive perspiration. Choose cotton fabrics as these will allow perspiration to evaporate more rapidly. 

Women and men can also purchase speciality products that are made for hyperhidrosis. Dress shields, or underarm shields, can be worn in the armpit area to absorb perspiration. They are available in disposable and washable formats for men and women. Camisoles or undershirts in breathable cotton, bamboo or other natural fabrics can also absorb sweat. People must experiment with layering, and find what works the best for them. Socks are now manufactured by many companies in fabric that has wicking action. Wicking action means it carries the sweat away from the skin, allowing the perspiration to evaporate. 

There are also clothing items in athletic wear, which provide wicking. These can often be worn as undergarments, or for everyday wear. Colour choice in clothing is also important to hide perspiration. Darker colours do not show sweat marks as much as lighter colours. Patterned fabric prevents perspiration marks from being as apparent. Wearing a jacket, bolero, sweater of other layering garment can prevent others from seeing armpit stains. While shopping for clothing, bring along a water bottle. Sprinkle a tiny amount of water on the clothing item to see how the moisture reacts on the fabric. 

There is help out there so don’t let hyperhidrosis get in the way of loving and living your life.

Author Bio:
Catherine is a freelance copywriter working for websites on cosmetic dentistry and health. She has a cat called Pete and enjoys baking, reading and cinema trips.

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How Compensatory Sweating works:

The current train of thought is that our own inbuilt thermometer is faulty. This is called the Hypothalamus and it’s tucked away in the brain. This is what causes us to overheat. When the body’s temperature rises by 4 degrees C, we become disorientated and confused. By the time we reach 7 degrees C, we’d be dead. Because the body is such an amazing feat of natural engineering, we have an inbuilt sprinkler system to prevent us from overheating and to keep us alive. This is where the sweating comes from. When you block off any area of sweating, that’s all you’re doing. You’re not cooling yourself down. As you’re still hot, you’ll still be sweating until you cool down, it’s just that the sweat will appear in other areas and it’ll take longer to cool down as your sweating is limited. Blocking sweat is not the best way of dealing with it, although we all need to block in the odd area or two – ie underarms etc. It’s always a far better idea to soak up and disguise sweat than to block it.

CS as a result of ETS and Generalised Hyperhidrosis:

The main places ETS people suffer is down their back, torso, groin and legs. I would suggest products like laulas undershirts and polo shirts, www.sweat-help.com and Wrapps www.coolwrapps.com. Both of these products will deal with soaking up sweat by clever use of fabrics. I use both products and they certainly make life easier for me. Wrapps are also increasingly used by sportsmen and women, musicians etc as well as HH sufferers.

Please feel free to visit the site and dive into the forum conversations – or even just keep an eye out for competitions (we get to give away lots of free products) and hints and tips on disguising and dealing with your sweating.

Thank you for your blog Lisa! It sounds very familiar to me, with friends like that, who needs enemies? **big hugs**

Me and my annoying friend hyperhidrosis i cant get rid of.

I wake up suddenly with my hair stuck to my face and my pj’s clinging to my body, I throw the duvet off and jump out of my sweaty bed. Glancing at the temperature I see 12 degrees today in my house…..yet it still feels like 30 degrees as i’m burning up. Grab a cold drink, sit down and calm myself down.

Time to get ready for the day….highs of 15 degrees today. White t-shirt, jeans and thin black cardi. I fling the bathroom window wide open, feeling the cold air on my face whilst brushing my teeth. Start applying my make up, I’m tempted to turn my mini fan on but I battle through this morning. Scrape my hair back and clip the loose hair back. I wish I could straighten my hair but this friend of mine doesn’t let me straighten it and if he does within 10 minutes of walking out the door he has made it a curly wet mess.

Grab my bag, and pull my coat on…..attempting to look normal and avoid catching a cold. I’m running late for my doctors appointment, a 10 minute brisk walk and i’m there. Now I could be wrong but I’m sure I have walked into a sauna…..I quickly strip down to my t-shirt and push open a window. Only to get moaned at by an old lady complaining its cold with the window open. I want to scream at her, she’s sitting there in her coat rosy cheeked, I’m sitting there in a t-shirt sweat pouring everywhere. I stumble into the doctors room and get through my appointment in a soggy mess. I can’t bare to put my coat on so walk come without it on.

Strip down for 10 minutes before I need to leave for my follow up dermatologists appointment. Surprise surprise Im sure the doctor made them turn the heating off and open all the windows so its cold in the waiting room. I get called in, instructed to strip and told Im not sweating. Plucking up the courage to tell her to shove her hand in my undies when a male nurse flies in and I back out. My pills didn’t work. Her response? It’s only sweating you are just going to have to live with it. Oh how much I wished something like freaky Friday would have happened right then!!

I head into town finding it unbearable. I find it ironic that the shops turn their heating on to encourage custom. Any hot shops don’t get my custom I walk straight out.

Get the phone call about my car. It’s not worth fixing…..the sweat pours just thinking of the stressful few days to follow. Arrive at the garage to pay the man just in a t-shirt, he comments about how I must be freezing. I brush it off and get out of there as quick as I can.

Finally home, I chuck on some joggers and a vest. Time to start on dinner. Fling the kitchen windows wide open, prepare my kitchen towel to dab my face and crack on. Eventually get though cooking.

Bath time, my favourite part of the day. I let the cold water run into the bath 5 minutes before i get out. Sit down in my towel drying off and get into my pyjamas.

Bed time with half my body outside of the duvet and half my body under the duvet I finally get to sleep. Another day over in what seems like a hell hole.

My name is Lisa and I’m a generalized sweater, my friend hyperhidrosis insists on introducing himself first every day.

Hello all,

I thought I would approach this subject as most of us seem to be complaining about what to wear, what if I sweat.  We all have the, “What If’s?”
I know I am, and as time is getting closer to Thanksgiving, Christmas office parties, dinners, dances, Ball’s, schools plays, shopping we all tend to suffer from pre-festivity panic.

We tend to panic and make ourselves worse than what we began.  If we just looked at this simply we could erase a lot of our, “What If’s”
If you are like me and my life has been so busy this year has flown and were here again!  I am currently getting ready to move and I have a big ball approaching.  I have tried to get out of it but looks like I am going to have to attend.  I have been listening to the other wife’s and their excitement on dresses and hair do’s and such and I wish or I pray I could also get as excited as them and wear the lovely clothing.  But in reality I can’t!

I have thought about going back on my oral medication for a few weeks but I am still battling a sinus infection and will probably not help matters right now.

Can you join me in making a list on what we should do and what we should not do?  Here are some of my sugestions.
If daytime office lunch, dress in layers and battle your way like a rugby player, American Football player, to get that seat next to the window, and as the lunch begins and you feel your sweating arrive, take off your layers, ask to open up the window and if your a woman blame it on a hot flash…yes we do have an advantage on that one, sorry Gentlemen.

If an office party, again dress in layers and make believe your an onion and peal them off, also if windows available use them or take in a power hand fan or use a folder to cool you down lol..I’m beginning to smile here now as have been there done all the above and will carry on.

Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner..one of the worst as so much preping and cooking can make for a hot hell hole before it even begins, If you can make sure someone else cooks or go out..laughing hard now! 

OK, if you are cooking then do what I always do, buy a already cooked turkey and prepare most of your sides and deserts the day and evening before, takes off so much stress and you can sweat all over everything and they will never know, with 5 fans blowing on you from every angle, kidding about the dripping in food sweat…tee-hee!

Dressing for the occasion can be the hardest of them all and the daunting task we all fear….What am I going to wear that wont show my sweating, wishing you could just crawl into a dark hole and remain there.  I would advise a very light material or dinner jacket, nothing that is going to cling to the body or create more heat. 

I swear by dark clothing, hides a multitude of sins, including sweating..ha!  I love black and silver as they look so good together, a bit of bling and you can’t go wrong.  What I have found helps also is wear some glimmer lotion as if the sweat does arrive you can’t really see it, or as my girls like to call it, Fairy dust

For our hand sweaters, I encourage a cold or half frozen water bottle always remain in your hands and you can use the frozen water melting as your excuse.  Also have a face cloth hidden in a pocket or purse.  For head sweaters also, go to the bathroom and mop down! 

For the ones whom like to have a few drinks, like me, I always have two beers before as this will trigger my sweating and once my body has had the initial shock of alcohol it will not be bad as first arriving and having a drink!!!  I tend to go bright red in the chest, neck and face…I wear a shawl and large jewelry to try to hide this.

So my dear friends, members, fellow sweaters, brother and sisters, I encourage you to add your little secrets on what you do to keep the sweat at bay.

Will you be on the naughty or nice list this year?  Hee hee…you can use your imagination and help others achieve less sweat this SEASON.
Hugs,

Anne x

I want to personally thank a new member for allowing us to post her story.  She knows how important this is for us all in raising awareness on this awful skin disease, that brings us all misery every day of our lives. 

This is a very moving story of inspiration, bravery and courage. 
We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts….

Anne and Beverly xxx

If you want to join in our cause on, “Raising Awareness” Join the cause, we have a section in the forum for this HAC, Hyperhidrosis Awareness Campaign, good things are happening. 

I always say lots of little voices can make one big one.  If you want to join our cause then please send your story to our very own Beverly at betty@verysweatybetty.com   She will be glad to post it on our front page and if requested all will be confidential.  Thanks for helping us here at Very Sweaty Betty, your friendly sweaty support group.

Vicki’s story,

I really hope this inspires you all, it did for me.  Thank you again my dearest friend, Denise, what a talent in writing you have and for sharing this great info and inspiration with us.

Help Wanted…

Last night I was watching the news and saw a story about a book: Our Bodies Ourselves, it was the 40th anniversary of the original publishing of the book. 40 years, wow, I have a copy of it and I had forgotten how much flap there was about the book back then. But there was a real bruhaha over this book and it was just a small group of women who started it. The horror of it all, a group of women, the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective had the unmitigated gall to gather information from women, about their own bodies, sharing information even Doctors were not giving their patients, and publish a book so millions of women would have access to information about their own bodies. There was a series of interviews (on the news) by many from so long ago, and some recent. Dr. Susan Love was talking about how this book was what in fact drove her when she was in medical school. As a student Susan Love was learning what was being taught to up and coming Ob/gyns, and it was sorely lacking.

This may be surprising to some, but to others, not so much. I believe the medical profession would prefer to go back to the good old days when any “female” complaint was simply treated with leaches. Fortunately, women are no longer banned from higher education allowed and vote, so it is highly unlikely that will happen. But at least it gives us a point of reference for what we are dealing with: The Medical Community.

Sometime ago I read a blog entitled: A Diary of a Dying Mom, by Michele Mayer. Michele Mayer started as a nurse, then went on to pursue a Masters and a Doctorate in Public Health, which earned her the title of Doctor. She was not a physician, but had achieved a rather lofty status, not that it helped her much. It took her over 6 years to be correctly diagnosed as having Scleroderma.

Repeatedly doctors told her she did not have this disease, and she honestly did not want it. There is no cure for Scleroderma, what it does is turn the skin into an exoskeleton, as well as vital organs, it is an autoimmune disease that starts up for no apparent reason. There is a medical term that indicates unknown origin, that escapes me at this moment…Idiopathic, is the term. At any rate, if you have the time to read it, you should read this blog. Yes, Michele Mayer died about 2 years ago, but what the lesson is: she lived, and battled the medical profession every step of the way, along with a disease that eventually took her life. Michele Mayer presented a paper detailing what is is to be a “difficult patient,” and how proud she was of it. Going against “the doctor” is not pleasant ; getting a doctor to listen to the patient is almost impossible.

SHOULD WE ALL WRITE A CHAPTER WHAT LIVING WITH HYPERHIDROSIS REALLY IS AND SELF PUBLISH IT? 

Would it help?  I CAN GET NO RESPONSE!   I have written Dr. Love about Hyperhidrosis, I have written Dr. Oz. No response. That is all I get: nothing. But I am going to keep writing letters, in an attempt to be heard. Occasionally I go back and reread Michele Mayer’s paper on being “a difficult patient” and keep on, because I can. Hyperhidrosis is still a better card to draw than Scleroderma any day of the week.

Denise

I admire Denise as she stays so strong and refuses to give up.  I also am battling with raising awareness on this, I feel like I hit brick walls daily.  No one ever gets back to you or even members wont help.  Were not asking a lot, a short story, blog on how it is to live with this skin disease daily.  We are suffer daily and why not help ourselves along the path to get better treatment, a Doctor or medical staff who are trained to help us.

I’m tired of being fobbed off with another oral med that is not even related to my Hyperhidrosis, living in a fog from the side effects or another harsh topical treatment that burns our skin.  PLEASE HELP.

Want to thank our member and guest for this wonderful blog. You are a pure gem.

If you want to help us RAISE AWARENESS on living with Hyperhidrosis, please join in our cause.  We are one of the highest viewed sites and our Alexa ratings are high.  What could be better than trying to get our little voices out to make one big one.

My story,

I have had palmer hyperhydrosis since I can remember (I’m 25) and it has caused me no end of bullying through school with people not wanting to hold my hand etc.   I have tried all the creams available and, although they work well to an extent, they make my hands so dry and sore that I can’t use them for any length of time.

Since having my son I have also developed it in my armpits (and also a bit in my feet though not quite as bad) and now my problems have really started.

I work in a high school as a learning support assistant, and even though I wash everyday and use various deodorants etc. throughout the day, I have kids refusing to sit with with me because ‘I smell’ and now have my boss on to me trying to get occupational health involved as she has had ‘complaints from other staff’ about my condition.

I have explained many times that I am doing all I can to control my condition and that the last time I spoke to a doctor about it I seemed to know more than they did!  (So basically don’t think HE will tell me anything I don’t already know!)

Also I myself do not always notice any odor so I need the other staff support to tell me, but to no avail.   They are even telling me that if I don’t “SORT OUT THE PROBLEM” then I may not be able to CONTINUE WITH MY JOB!

I am also suffering with work related stress at the moment which is only exacerbating my condition, and now with them ‘on my back’ about it it is only getting even worse in both respects! (The only strategy they have suggested to ‘help’ is that I change my clothes at regular intervals during the day. With the amount I sweat this would be about every 2 hours or so to avoid any trace of sweat patches or smell so I would need 3 changes of clothes everyday at work! Plus I could just imagine the kids asking “Why have you changed your top Miss?”   So it is just not practical in my view!

I also have a problem with my amateur dramatics society when,  at the last minute I was given a very thick,  hot cloak to wear onstage.   I informed them of my condition and that I would be likely to faint with the heat and loss of water if I had to wear it,  (I once came VERY close to fainting onstage in the past and only just made it backstage before I literally collapsed in a chair!)   I was told to “GROW UP AND GET ON WITH IT“!                                                                             “EVERYONE SWEATS”,  and finds the cloaks hot but they just get on with it!”   Evey night of that show I used to just about make it through the scene and then have to rush to sit on a chair and drink loads of sports drink before I was fit for anything. even then if one of the older members wanted the chair I was expected to give it up as I was ‘Just being silly!’

I really think more should be done to, PROMOTE AWARENESS,  for this condition to the general public and medical staff,  as people seem to have no idea about how debilitating this condition is or how hard it is to ‘just deal with it’. They seem to think we can just stop the sweating but we can’t!

How we can all relate to this, what would you advise our kind member?  We all suffer the same.  Please join us in our battle to raise awareness on this awful affliction we all share.  Feel free to leave comment, join us in our forum www.verysweatybetty/forum

The more we help the STRONGER WE BECOME.

Tell us your story, join the forum to make this possible, help for the better cause.

Sometimes it’s easier to gauge whether a product is worth trying when you read testimonials – so we’ve been sent the below for you to get a feel of what Klima Antiperspirant has done for other people.

Sweat Guard’s website

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Here in the UK, the weather has cooled down to a hyperhidrosis-friendly degree. It’s warm and sunny, on the whole, and the days are still long enough to do Summer-type things. Today it’s nice and fresh too – it’s been quite humid recently. In short, this is my favourite weather. Too bad it doesn’t come about that often!

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I’m looking forward to getting a bit of a life going on now. All Summer I’ve been plugging away on VSB – and loving every minute of it – and when the colder weather, the rain and humidity return I’m going to be getting my ‘down under’ head on as Australia and Asia are now gearing up for their hottest period.

In the meantime, I’m going to be catching up on all the fun things I’ve been missing out on! All being well, we’re meeting my sister and her husband for a picnic soon. There are so many things to do where I live (in the middle of a Royal Forest) that I can take my pick. I can’t walk too far because of the polymyalgia/fibromyalgia/etc but that doesn’t matter. I’ll take my book and choose a good spot, Tilly D Dawg will love having a good sniff around for an hour. I’m hoping to get to the beach, too. Not to swim or sunbathe but just because I love it there.

What are you looking forward to doing that you’ve been putting off because of the heat and humidity? Family days out? Some window shopping? Meeting friends you haven’t seen in a while? I’m looking forward to wearing clothes that I really want to wear, too – I haven’t worn jeans since the beginning of April.

I have so many things saved up for the cooler weather, today I’m like my once 4-year-old nephew in a sweet (candy) shop!

What are you going to do?

My plans for today? Erm, housework

Whatever you’re doing, have a good one!

How many of you have tried Denise Bartell’s Wrapps?  Since we posted this blog 11 months ago, Wrapps has gone from strength to strength.  They’re now being sold all over the world and have given hundreds (if not thousands) of people enormous relief from groin sweat.  Denise is always looking at ways to improve the Wrapps but unlike corporations, the quality of the fabric or fastenings will never be compromised.  Each Wrapp is handcrafted by Denise who worked for many years as a professional seamstress.  If you suffer from sweating in your ‘area’ and you’re either a) male or b) female, then Wrapps are perfect for you.

For me, Wrapps means I can wear a skirt or dress for the first time since I can remember.  It also means that I can wear any colour of trousers – I’m not restricted to black linen cropped trousers.

Denise’s testimonials page is great reading, you can tell just how much these have changed people’s lives LINK (opens in new window).

This is our original blog, it explains how Wrapps came about.

Hello, my name is Denise and I designed the Wrapp.

The Wrapp literally wraps around the crotch of one’s briefs. The name just seemed to fit perfectly, like the Wrapp itself. The idea of the Wrapp came out of years of sheer desperation and utter frustration. The extra P stands for Perspiration.

Having taught myself to sew at 7, I have always kept decent size scraps from previous projects, tucked away…so I found my stash of muslin scraps, and got to sewing. I had some towels that were old, but not quite ready to be “dog towels” yet. So, I started drawing, freehand right on the fabric, using a commercial pad as a guide using a soft lead art pencil. My first attempt fitted great, however much to my disappointment, the Velcro closure added heat, and frankly did not work too well. Unless scratching ones inner thigh with the teeth of the Velcro was the goal…and it was not. So I took the seam ripper to all the Velcro, and tried a sew-on snap.

The snap looks great on paper, but the snap just could not take the tension. The snaps just popped open with the slightest movement. So, back to the drawing board…a simple hook and eye, they are still used on bras today. These work great admittedly, occasionally I have to either apply pressure to the hook to bend it in or get out the fine adjusting tool (known in some circles as a hammer,) and give the hook portion a tap to take it down a bit. So, that is what I went with…the hook and eye. Although very tedious to sew on, this works the best and does not add any heat, and doesn’t pop open. Initially there was no top stitching on the Wrapp, but was added later as the insert had a tendency to shift, hence I stitched it down to keep it from shifting…

I later switched from terry cloth to waffle muslin, for the (inside) liner – thus named because it looks like a waffle, when looking down on it. I also experimented with muslin fabrics as I had some difficulty with quality that I had never encountered with muslin before, some muslin had a tendency to pill and stretch. It was very disappointing to spend so much time on the construction of a garment to have it the fabric pill and stretch. So I finally went with a finer weave, more expensive, unbleached muslin that has a luxurious 200 thread count, and is always consistent.

I was just trying to solve an extremely difficult problem, for myself, to enable me to find a job. Never knowing, much less believing anyone else ever suffered from soggy elastic cutting into ones inner thighs to the point of wanting to literally rip my hair out of my head as I staggered around screaming. This excessive sweating started when I turned 14 and I suffered with it for well over 4 decades. It was only in the last few years that I even learned there was a name for this condition, moreover, I learned that it was not “just me.” For years I tried just about everything, baby powder, deodorants, antiperspirants, bladder control pads, yet nothing seemed to help. The talc turned to a gray sludge and only served to further aggravate skin eruptions. Deodorants and antiperspirants caused blisters, different soaps caused a variety of problems. The smaller sanitary pads did not work, they shredded into thousands of soggy pieces. The bladder control pads were bulky, hot, expensive and not always easy to dispose of. But as there was nothing else available, that is what I went with. But, with virtually no money, what to do, what to do…

What one frequently does is look within to solve a problem. So, I sat down and sewed until I made my Wrapps perfect. I wore my Wrapps for a few months, before I even found the Very Sweaty Betty web site. I was absolutely astounded to discover I was not alone. I am not the only person alive who sweats enough to float a battleship. It was such a relief to know it had a name. By then I had experienced a dry, comfortable crotch for a few months and I could not believe it. No skin eruptions, no yeast infections, no overheated, soggy clothing. After all those years that I did everything humanly possible to hide my soggy, miserable, painful secret were suddenly reversed, and now I was ready to take out billboard space over it.

The commercially produced incontinent pads I had been using cost approximately $15.00 for a pack of 60, so even using 2 pads a day that was still about $180.00 a year. They were bulky, uncomfortable, hot, added to the landfill, and were expensive. The Wrapp encapsulates the elastic on one’s briefs, holding the elastic away from the skin, allowing the moisture in the bend of the leg to evaporate instead of being absorbed into the (elastic and) underwear. And my Wrapps are completely washable, hundreds and hundreds of times, they get softer with each wash and there’s no need to iron! No more standing in line at the grocery store with a bulky package of incontinence pads (Wrapps work for more than ‘just’ perspiration)…all that and they still catch a laugh too! I now wish I had discovered these when I was going through menopause, but I didn’t, oh well…

Wrapps were initially just for myself. However, for men, there’s more good news, the Wrapp work just as well for you, holding the elastic of your briefs up off your skin, no more chaffing in that oh so delicate area, and no one will ever know unless you tell them. This too, came about quite organically (and later went on to be tested by various men and women to wear whilst playing sports). I was at the kitchen table, cutting out a batch ofWrapps, and my sisters boyfriend (a musician) walked by, and asked what I was making. I explained theWrapps and he wanted to know if he could try them. A few days later, he asked if I had any more of them, he had an outdoor gig he had to play and the Wrapp worked great for his outdoor gig…Now, all of our Wrapps have been marked with an indelible pen, with our names, so we all know his from mine and my sisters Wrapps as virtually every batch of clean clothes has dry, clean, cool Wrapps, ready to go…

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me. I will respond as soon as humanly possible.

Denise x

www.coolwrapps.com