Fear of Sweat
It’s been hot and humid in Boston. So there have been a few uncomfortable bike rides into work recently.
Okay, so riding a bike in summer is a bit sweaty. But it seems a lot of people really worry way too much about sweating.
I admit I have a job where a few beads of sweat or wrinkles in my clothes don’t matter so perhaps I have it easy. But still seems some people have no sense of scale. As if a single bead of sweat warrants immediate separation from decent society for a vigorous scrub and wardrobe change.
So I’ll stick to my routine of one shower in the morning and a casual bike ride to work. But I do keep emergency moist towelettes in my bag. Because July.
“A Physician” writes:
Bodily odour is not caused by sweat itself, which is mostly water, but rather by the chemicals contained in sweat accumulating for long enough for the lipases to break down into butyric acid through the action of skin yeasts and bacteria, and (later on) for the urea to oxydise into ammonia in order to give you that well-matured-ferret bouquet so favoured by methylated-spirit drinkers as a way of getting to the head of queues and having ample space around them on the bus. Both these processes require a fair amount of humidity to work: so in other words, if you really want to stink, wear clothing which retains the sweat close to your skin for about eight-ten hours; perhaps by wearing a military nuclear-bacteriological-chemical warfare suit and running around a battle training area on a hot summer’s day. After a couple of days of that I guarantee you’ll smell like a dead billy goat in August.
As regards cycling, “you’re going to smell unless you have shower when you get to work” is one of the great don’t-cycle myths, on a par with “you’ll die if you don’t wear a helmet”. A normal healthy person with reasonable standards of bodily hygiene – i.e. showering once a day – need have no fear of excessive sweating if they ride at a sedate pace and wear normal summer clothing. Down here in the south of France we’re currently having a prolonged canicule, with afternoon temperatures getting up towards 40 degrees. But I’ve been cycling everywhere as usual, and have found that wearing a short-sleeved cotton shirt I’ve had no problems at all: in fact have been a lot cooler than walking because the sleeves act as air-scoops and cause the back of the shirt to balloon out, thus preventing it from sticking to my shoulders. Oh, and I always wear a hat to keep the sun off.
I worked in an office in the Netherlands where most of the staff cycled to work each day, and even on the hottest and most humid summer days I never noticed any unpleasant smells. This obsession with showers at work as a necessary condition for cycling there really only goes to show how much cycling in the English-speaking countries has been colonised by the sport-cycling model these past forty years.
The problem isn’t the odor (deodorant can take care of that!), it’s the permanent yellow stains under the arms. Even taking a shirt in for dry cleaning a half hour after taking it off doesn’t prevent those. Wearing strap-on cloth-and-vinyl pads between the armpits and the clothing does help, but you can’t use those to protect the underarm areas of sleeveless blouses unless you want everyone seeing the pads flapping out. :/
Meanwhile, does anyone here have anything good to say about people who walk into the office with sweat-stained clothing?
Not everyone sweats the same amount. Some people sweat more than others even standing still on hot days. Look up the symptom hyperhydrosis. 🙁 http://www.webmd.com/search/search_results/default.aspx?query=hyperhydrosis
For one example, hyperhydrosis is a symptom of poly-cystic ovarian syndrome. Women with this condition are *also* stuck with extra body and facial hair growth, which even laser treatment can’t *completely* remove. If you walk into work with the sweat pouring down your face having washed off the makeup concealing your stubble, by the time you’ve reached the shower stall it’s already too late. Everyone at work who saw you walk in the door has already seen that your body grows a beard and mustache in the first place, and now you’ve already got that stigma even if you redo your makeup and re-hidden your stubble before you get back to your desk. 🙁 This goes double if your leg stubble grows back before your razor burn heals, you need to cover your entire legs every day until the razor burn heals and it’s safe to shave again, no matter how hot it is outside, and so you’re even hotter and sweatier when you bicycle on a hot day. 🙁
If someone says she or he can’t bike to work because of sweat, let it go. She or he shouldn’t have totell you his or her embarrassing medical issues. 🙁
I’m a sweater, and a bit of a stinker. Here’s some tips – wool undies. Just started with smartwool jocks and socks… all I can say is WOW. Cool, dry and smelling sweet. This summer I’ve gone with linen shirts. Breathable, and doesn’t suck up moisture or smells like cotton. I’ve tried all that technical stuff (e.g. Uniqlo airism etc) and it’s ALL LIES. Sticky, wet, and somehow an odor-amplifier. I don’t get why, just never works. I have to wash the cottons and technical stuff after one day of wear (heck, 1 hour sometimes). Wool you can definitely get many wears, linen at least a couple before needing a wash.
Ride easy. I find around cars and busy streets I subconsciously ride harder and faster. If I’m on some separated bike facility, I can ride nice and easy – walking effort – and really, you don’t lose much time. Possibly gain time by not changing depending on your distance. I feel this works up to 4 or 5 km.
Great comic! I’m pretty sure I fall into the category of very sweaty, but I’m fortunate my commute is short (just 3.5 miles each way). I’m also in Massachusetts, so summers aren’t usually too brutal in the morning and evening. My methods are to wear golf shirts or similar that wick sweat and most importantly, I have a nice fan on my desk. I find that when riding the airflow mostly takes care of the sweat, but when I stop it comes pouring out of me. Blasting the fan for 10 minutes or so when I get in allows me to cool down without soaking my clothes. I’m always clean so I generally don’t stink, but I keep extra deodorant and cologne handy also. If it’s a really hot, muggy morning, I’ll wear a cycling jersey and change shirts when I get to work, after I cool down.
Also, my bike commute isn’t the only thing that makes me sweat at work. Often, I have to walk between buildings which I find makes me about as sweaty as riding. The rare occasions when I drive to work, my car lacks A.C. and I sweat walking from the parking areas as well.
Hey Bikey face, I just love your website! sweating is just an excuse not to go to work.
I live in south of France, ride 15 miles every day and worst case scenario in the midst of the summer I wear a short to go to the office and get changed when I arrive and remove the low amount of sweat with a towel, so, really… no excuse. Back rack for the laptop and no backpack is the key…