Tips for living with hyperhidrosis


– Yeah man, tips for living with sweaty pits.
Let’s get into it, let’s roll that intro.
(electronic music) Hey everyone, it’s me Hallease endeavoring to not perspire as much as I do.
So yeah, this video is about hyperhidrosis and how I live with it and a few of the things I’ve done to sort of adjust my lifestyle to it.
I developed hyperhidrosis basically as another form of reaction to the anxiety and general nervousness that I have in new situations or stress from work and things like that.
[Hyperhidrosis] So when I was younger my stress sort of manifested itself in bouts of IBS.
Say if I was nervous about speaking in front of a lot of people, or doing anything like that.
I wouldn’t appear nervous to people but I would immediately really feel the urge to go to the bathroom.
And then as I got older, it sorted of shifted from IBS to heart palpitations, so when I was in high school, I was drum major in band, and with that came a lot of responsibility, leading the band, blahblah blah blah blah, all that kind of stuff, I was a nerd, yes.
And I would literally touchthe door in the mornings of the band hall to go inside, and my heart would just start racing, and that happened like everyday for two years.
Once I kind of hit my mid 20s or so, I’ve realized that now my anxiety and stress has manifested itself in excessive sweating, which is what hyperhidrosis is.
It literally means sweating a lot.
Most people that have hyperhidrosis it tends to be either in the pits or the palms of their hands,or their feet, or their head.
And it can be caused by a variety of different things.
Like I said, mine is stress and anxiety based.
But some people it’s based on the food they eat.
Caffeine is known to kick in sweating.
If you’re eating really spicy food, maybe that can make you sweat excessively.
It’s mostly just about managing it through a variety of different things.
So I do two things to manage my hyperhidrosis and keep it in check.
The first thing is I use a prescription grade antiperspirant.
So most antiperspirants when you go to the store, are a combination of deodorant and antiperspirant.
So they smell good,and then they also have some kind of aluminum function to them that essentially clogs up the sweat glands in your pits.
And that’s how it works.
And it’s usually anywhere from 12 to 16% aluminum.
I use Drysol.
It’s 20% aluminum, so you can’t just buy it at the store, you have to have a prescription for it.
It’s a topical liquid, and I basically put it on my arms every other night, or now I’m at the maintenance dose so I only put it on my arms once or twice a week.
And generally I’ll put it on the night before I know I’m gonna do something stressful like be in a room with people I don’t know, and things like that.
So I have the antiperspirant that is stronger and it’s used at night and all of that but I still want to smell fresh during the day.
And so with that, I use a deodorant which is not an antiperspirant.
Even though I am online,I still get influenced by people just like the rest of y’all and the deodorant I use is actually one that was recommended by Evelyn from the internet via her IG stories a couple months back I think.
And it’s by Crystal.
It’s their invisible solid deodorant.
It’s lavender and white tea.
I really love the smell of this deodorant.
It’s just like fresh, fresh baby smell but like feminine too.
I don’t know, I just really like it.
I put this on in the morning and then depending how intense my day is, I might also put it on in the afternoon.
But usually I can go a whole day and be OK.
I will say though that the liquid version of this was not working.
I felt like I put it on after,and after like an hour or two it was as if I hadn’t put on any deodorant at all.
Another deodorant line that I also really like which is pretty affordable too, is by Arm & Hammer.
They have a few different deodorants that are not antiperspirants.
And they all have different scents but I feel like all of the scents are very gender neutrally kind of scents.
Of their deodorant line, I generally reach for the unscented one.
And I reach for it because even though it’s technically unscented, it basically smells like what products are in it.
Which is, there’s germanium flower in it, am I saying that right? Geranium.
That’s how you say it.
There’s geranium flower in it.
Orange peel extract and things like that.
So it has a very clean, slightly floral, just fresh sort of smell even though it’s technically unscented.
So yeah, so that’s the first part, is a medicated antiperspirant combined with a daily deodorant.
The second thing I do is I’ve adjusted my wardrobe a lot.
My general fashion sense now is a little bit more I would say, tomboyish meets prep, meets peasant vibes, meets slight modesty, meets.
Reebok.
I don’t know.
(laughing) I think erring more on the sight, giving you ever, and ever soslight androgynal kind of feel, but also having just a decent silhouette.
And the point of that is to create just air.
Space for, literally space for the fabric to not be against my skin, if you will.
And someone else who also have hyperhidrosis is Jackie Aina.
She did a video about how she has adjusted her wardrobe based on her hyperhidrosis.
Very different fashion sense.
Bamboujee, you know what I’m saying? She’s like showing off the curves, tight, looking right, all that kind of fun stuff.
But she’s learned how to adjust even with her hyperhidrosis to that fashion sense.
So that’s why I’m referencing that video.
And I tend to go for clothes, pieces of clothing that are as much cotton as possible, and or linen.
I find that linen is really good about almost kind of sort of like moisture wicking things away from your body.
And then also linen really doesn’t usually show the sweat stains as much, or as easily which is really nice.
So if I’m ever in a store and I see a piece of clothing that is a cotton linen blend, or leaning more towards the linen side,I get a little excited and I think about, I think critically like, can I buy this piece right now? I tend to try to buy pieces that aren’t necessarily on trend, but more timeless where you can kind of drop me in any decade more or less, and I won’t be necessarily out of place,but I also won’t be specific to that decade I think.
Not fashion forward necessarily, but in fashion.
Those are the two main ways that I have learned to sort of adjust my life with hyperhidrosis.
The other thing I would say you can do is start a sweat journal so that way you can figure out what triggers you.
For me, like I said, my trigger is stress and anxiety.
And I have picked a career path that is very stress driven.
So that’s just the life I have to live now.
But maybe again, something for you is that food triggers your hyperhidrosis and things like that.
So that’s maybe there’s a way you can avoid it unlike me.
So keep a journal and see if that helps.
In the comments below, if you live with hyperhidrosis and you’ve learned a few other tips around clothing or adjusting your lifestyle accordingly, let us know so that way we can help each other out living our best sweaty lives.
Source: Youtube