DaveLeeNC

I am always really frustrated in the summer dealing with sweat in my eyes. When you do research on cycling sweat management the vast majority of the discussion is about keeping forehead sweat out of your eyes. This simply is NOT my problem.

I generate significant amounts of sweat AROUND my eyes (in/around my eyebrows, the outside of my eye socket, etc). On a really bad day (here in NC) I can feel sweat "welling up" around my eyes inside of four minutes of the start of the ride. At minute 5 or 6 I have to start wiping. I find myself having to wipe my eyes almost continuously (maybe every 45 seconds). It is really a pain in the butt. I have to wear eyeglasses and it is hard to properly clear sweat away from my eyes without removing my eyeglasses (more than once a minute). It is enough to make you not want to ride.

What surprises me here is that I seem to be somewhat unique in that respect. Nobody talks about it. I was watching the Vuelta the other day - a replay of a really hot day. NOBODY wipes their eyes. It seems to me that not one of the 175 riders have my problem. So either this is self selection (guys like me but with pro level skills just don't compete) or my 'condition' is rare.

How many others have this specific issue? If you are not sure then YOU DO NOT HAVE THIS PROBLEM.

Thanks.

dave

ps. I am a heavy sweating type. On a really bad day - hard ride - I lose almost 4 pounds of water per hour (determined by a reasonably carefully run experiment a couple years ago).

brianmcg123

Dan333SP

I wear a headband and still get a lot of sweat in my eyes on really hot days, a lot of it is coming from my brows below the headband so it's similar to what you're describing. Not much you can do to alleviate this, other than wiping your eye with your fingers every now and then and/or spritzing some water on your face. It can definitely be annoying because it can get on the inside of my glasses and the salt in the sweat obviously can irritate your eyes.

DaveLeeNC

Not sure that I understand the relevance of the picture.

dave

Dan333SP

He's telling you to wear a headband, which you already do, so not very relevant.

DaveLeeNC

Re: the red stuff

I can only dream of something like this ('every now and then') addressing my problem.

dave

Dan333SP

I mean, there's no way to stop the glands there from producing sweat. The only ideas I can offer are better ventilated sunglasses so you have more airflow over that part of your face, or maybe a small hand towel in a back pocket that you can use to dab your face every few minutes. If your back is soaked with sweat you may need a plastic baggy. I usually wear thin long finger gloves when it's really hot so my hands don't slide all over my hoods and bars, those tend to be better for wiping away eye sweat.

DaveLeeNC

That's "beginner stuff"

I cut cotton washclothes into four small squares. On a typical summer ride I would carry six of those plus two regular washclothes kind of as a back up. Apparently my back doesn't sweat much so putting these into my cycling jersey rear pockets is OK. On a typical summer ride I would probably go through six of those small squares. When one gets soaked through (15 to 25 minutes) I just stuff it inside the front of my jersey (which is typically unzipped).

I find the small size of the little squares much easier to handle as I have to have one of them in my hands pretty much all the time.

dave

MagicHour

Headsweats headband, terry thumb gloves, helmet with good airflow (some are better than others). If it's really hot sometimes wear a terry wristband mainly as a "face sponge". Also make sure to have your barber keep those eyebrows tidy! - helps to prevent that thing that happens where all the sweat collects then spontaneously releases all at once into your eyes....usually on a climb. The worst!

Oh yeah another tip I do, once in a while stop and "wring" out your helmet pads by giving a push here and there on helmet with head tipped appropriately.

memebag

Does the OP wear a headband? I don't see anywhere in this thread where he says that.

I sweat a little below my headband, but I use a Halo II headband with the little rubber strip on the bottom. That does a really good job of keeping the sweat out of my eyes.

Dan333SP

He's started threads about it before. Pretty sure he's a skullcap sort of guy.

DaveLeeNC

I (OP) have tried everything. A really good and effective headband/cap/whatever isn't any more helpful on my head than it would help me if it were on your head. I am serious here. Whatever would drip down into my eyes from my forehead is nothing compared to what gets into my eyes from my eyes.

dave

bikecrate

I sweat a lot. Seriously the only thing that every stopped it was Botox injections in my forehead. This was a side benefit from an attempt to stop chronic headaches. It lasted for a couple of years before the effect wore off. Generally, I wear a cap with a terry cloth band inside. It helps for awhile, but sooner of later it was get overwhelmed. I do douse my head with water when I'm really hot. If anything it washes away the stinging sweat.

TimothyH

@DaveLeeNC, I suffer from it as well but not to the extent you do.

Sometimes sweat pours from my left temple into my left eye. It's almost always the left and perspiration comes out about 1/4 inch from my eye socket.

Wiping doesn't help. In fact, the more I wipe the worse it gets. The only thing that works for me is to completely leave it alone no matter how bad it burns. It generally stops or seems to dry out on its own if I leave it alone.

You seem to have it real bad and I'm not saying this is your solution. All I can really do is commiserate somewhat.


-Tim-

wphamilton

Don't some people use petroleum jelly on their eyebrows, with the idea of channeling it down to the sides? I use a Sweat GTR band with the same idea which works pretty well, keeping it close to my eyebrows.

NoWhammies

I've been wearing a painters cap under my helmet from the getgo. I don't know if I'm just lucky or if the cap is doing anything to help keep the sweat from trickling down and in to my eye, but it seems to work for me.

DaveLeeNC

Interesting that you would bring up the Sweat GTR band. I tried that (typically in conjunction with some more traditional type sweat band) and it made zero difference. That was the point at which 'the light bulb went off' telling me that I have a different problem.

dave

DaveLeeNC

I am curious about the 'wiping doesn't help' thing. I can't survive without wiping but admit that it is close to being a continuous process for me. Once (a very long time ago) I somehow got out on the road without any kind of sweat rag to wipe my brow/eyes. I got sweat in my eyes and ended up sitting on the road for about a half hour waiting for the burning to stop. I truly could not see, but it was both eyes (maybe not for you). I ended up taking a handful of paper napkins from a fast food place and riding home relatively carefully. One thing to note here is that this was a 'early in the season' ride so I had not been doing a lot of sweating. In that case the mineral content of your sweat can be pretty high vs what it is when you are heat trained (so I understand, anyway).

dave

noisebeam

caloso

Terry wristband?

wphamilton

I don't understand, you tried both together, the GUTR and a cloth sweat band at the same time?

Are you wearing a helmet?

DaveLeeNC

I wear wrist bands simply because sweat runs down my arm and fills my brifters with sweat. I really need something that I can shove under my glasses. Taking my glasses on/off is not smooth with glasses rims, ears, helmet straps, and headband stuff all in the same space. But that is with thin wire rims (prescription). Maybe with heavier rims I could just bully the glasses behind my ears (once every 45 seconds).

dave

DaveLeeNC

Other than a helmet adjustment, not a big deal.

dave

wphamilton

Two reasons why I asked, one because sometimes the helmet pads caused that issue for me, and second because I couldn't make the GUTR work right with the helmet. The pad interfered with the band's channeling the sweat, and I expect having a sweat band on in conjunction with it could also have that effect.

DaveLeeNC

I am inclined to think that I tried the Gutr by itself, but I am not positive. dave