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Solutions

4 October 2003

A man with a terrible perspiration problem went to his doctor for a cure. The doctor examined the man, and made his diagnosis. Pulling out his prescription pad, the doctor wrote "Aluminum Chlorhydrate, TID" on it and handed the sweating man the prescription. "Apply this to your armpits three times a day, and your problem will disappear", the doctor advised. A week later, the perspiring fellow showed up at the doctor's office again, holding out a soaked, ripped, and tattered piece of paper. He said, "Doc, I need another one of these, but so far it ain't working very well."

I hope you are smiling from the joke. The first step in coming to terms with a perspiration problem is to learn it's not the worst problem one can have. Yeah, it's inconvenient, uncomforable, embarassing at times, but it is not life threatening. Would you rather have a debilitating disease? I'm a cancer survivor, and after you've had the post diagnosis worries, the surgery, the recovery, the followup treatment, well, I'll take sweat over that any day. Accept the sweating, deal with it the best you can, then get on with life. Life is too short to miss out on the important and fun things!

But this column is about solutions, and I've found one that works, sort of. If you've been following my writing, you know a few weeks ago I got a promotion to project manager. I love it, but it's been stressful, and for me stress means sweat. Even when I'm working along in my office, my armpits will be someone damp. But working with other people, scheduling meetings, visiting the client, all that is sweat city for me.

It is difficult to look managerial when your silk blouse is dripping with perspiration stains down your sides, racing to see whether the right or left side can reach the waistband of your skirt first. Fortunately my co-workers know about my HH and have grown to accept it such that they hardly give it a second glance anymore. Visiting clients is another matter entirely. After soaking through a blouse AND suit jacket one day, I finally gave in and ordered a Comfywear camisole. Their site is on my links page.

The Comfywear camisole is like a cotton undershirt with built-in dress shields. They offer 6 levels of dress shields, from thin to super absorbent / can stop a fire hose. With the amount I sweat, I didn't fuss around and ordered the maximum level right off. The max dress shields have layers of both absorbant material and water resistant materials to block wetness escape.

Does it work? It did for me. I wore it for a meeting with the client and my blouse stayed dry the entire time. As you might guess, the absorbant pads were completely drenched, but the wetness did not soak through. If giving the appearance of staying dry is your top concern, this is an excellent solution for you.

Are there any drawbacks? You bet, otherwise we'd all be wearing this thing all the time. First, it's basically an undershirt. One of the reasons I often wear silky blouses is because I like the feel of the soft fabric on my skin. With the cotton camisole, that is lost. Second, there's this constant feeling of bulk under your arms. Now, since I got the maximum protection level, some of that is to be expected. But there were times I was worried that if I put my arms down, I'd squeeze the absorbant spongelike material in the shields and cause a sudden gush of sweat. That didn't happen, it just felt like it could. Perhaps with time you get used to the sensation of bulk.

Something else is that the garment will be visible under sheer fabrics, which could be a problem if you don't want anyone to know you are wearing it. That's wasn't an issue for me as it has never bothered me if my bra straps were visible under a blouse. Something that does bother me is that it is yet another layer to wear: first a bra, this this camisole, then a blouse, then a suit jacket. For summertime wear that's not appealing. I think I did sweat more overall than I would have without the camisole simply because it was another layer to retain body heat. I ended up taking it off before leaving work to go home that day.

Since then, I've worn it without a bra to reduce by one the number of layers. The camisole is not a support garment, but the main reason I wear a bra while at the office is for nipplage issues, and the camisole helps with those. I'd recommend the Comfywear product to anyone who wants to better control underarm sweat visibility without resorting to chemicals or drugs.

For prior stories, see the archives.