DaveLeeNC

FWIW, I continue to struggle with this problem. I fought it for a long time thinking there was a solution along the lines of a Halo, bandana, or something like that.

Finally I came to realize that my eye sockets generate sweat. While keeping sweat generated outside my eye sockets is helpful, it is not a solution. So I carry a couple of small sweat rags and in hot/humid weather I end up wiping my eyes every couple of minutes. On a really bad day it will start about 6 minutes into the ride for the case where, for whatever reason, I start out going hard - not always my norm.

Not really helpful unless it keeps you from chasing an unfixable problem (as I did for a year or two).

dave

DaveLeeNC

I don't think anything on my body gets wet faster in hot weather than my gloves where sweat runs down my arms and into my gloves (and brifters). Irritating. BTW, I am a 4 pounds of sweat an hour kind of guy. Or at least I used to be. Now that I have passed age 70 my ability to do work has dropped a bit and so has my sweat output.

dave

Nachoman

Cycling cap or the halo head band work for me.
But I'm a light sweater.

rseeker

Same here, some from above, but mostly popping straight out from under my eyebrows and around the socket. It's very annoying, especially since I wear glasses, meaning I can't just do an easy wipe. I did add a long sweat rag to the cockpit for summer months (old t-shirt, trimmed to the right length, making it long enough without going into the wheel).

SwtBadger

I also use Halo headbands. They help but for me don't totally solve the problem.

Couple of notes, if you reuse without washing be sure to soak with water prior to your next ride. If it isn't washed or at least rinsed out the salt will dry and then cause greater problems on your next ride. Also while using if sweat starts to get in the eyes and stings squirt some water from your riding bottle on it, this will dilute out the salt and reduces the stinging.

bbattle

The Halo sweatband has worked for me here in Alabama.

rseeker

OT but I see your name, any relation to the mayor?

CoogansBluff

You could keep a soft wash rag in your pocket.

lykbutta

The HALO sweatband hands down. I sweat buckets and these have been a lifesaver

DaveLeeNC

This is going to sound odd but the best device/aid that I have found to help me deal with sweat is a Garmin Varia rear-facing radar. Keep in mind here that I 'generate sweat from my eye sockets' so the help that I get from a Halo/whatever is limited.

In hot weather I always have a sweat rag (typically a cotton washcloth) in one hand or the other. For whatever reason my left eye is the more frequent problem (vs. right eye) so that rag is most often in my left hand. I have a rear facing mirror that clamps onto the very end of my drops. And you can't imagine how often I glance at that mirror and there is a sweat rag hanging across it. The Varia has really helped in that regard as I have found it to be very reliable.

dave

justonwo

I rode with a Halo (again) for the first time in years today. I felt like it did a great job of diverting sweat away from my eyes. The rubber strip seems to help direct it elsewhere. I was very pleased as I don’t like the feeling of constant sweat dripping down my face.

dougphoto

I'm a bald guy to sweat in the eyes is constant. I've been using the (https://www.sweatgutr.com/sweatbands
they are pretty good but sweat will sometimes go around and dump into eyes. now I want to try that halo, it looks good.

a1penguin

Hali headband works for me, but I don't live in a high humidity area. On long rides, I've thought of carrying two. If it gets soaked, rinse it out with water and put it back on. It will keep the salt from your eyes. I recently purchased the halo headband+cap, hoping that the "hat" portion would absorb some of the sweat. I haven't tried it yet as there hasn't been a really hot day yet.

PoorInRichfield

I think this is spot-on... at least for me.

After reading this thread, I bought some GUTR headbands for $10 each as an experiment. While I like it that I was able to position the headband in such a way that it didn't impact how my helmet fit (which kept me from getting a headache that I normally get when wearing a headband), it didn't stop me from getting sweat all over the inside of my glasses either. Apparently I sweat enough around my eyebrows or who-knows-where that the gutter didn't really help at all. Phooey.

Not sure what I should try next... having a big head doesn't make this easy as the "one size fits all" solutions don't work for me.

genejockey 

I tried a halo headband but it didn't help. I tried going without and that didn't help. So I got a Pearl Izumi beanie, and I discovered that helped UNLESS I wore it too low on my forehead. If it's pushed up to the top of my forehead, the sweat runs behind my ears and drips off my chin - which is irritating, but at least doesn't blind me!

vane171

Was going to make a new thread but then found this one and I think, it is on topic. It brings some theory to the problem but alas, won't solve it... but who knows.

Once when out on my bike and sweat dripping on my eyeglasses and from my chin dripping on the top tube of my older steel bike frame, where over years it is starting to develop rust around the 'chromed' cable guides, I thought about it and the more I thought about it, the more I was puzzled.

The puzzle is, why is the head sweating so much, when it is not doing any physical muscle work when I ride bike. First thing that comes to mind, is that the head contains CPU (like computer where it needs cooling), but riding a bike is pretty much repetitive simple motion that you do semi or fully automatically, it has even less variety than say running, the demand for processing should be at low level.

I would expect the upper body needing more cooling via sweating, but it seems the head takes the mick. And most sweat originates where the hair is, I think above ears and in the back where the neck starts.

Some people don't sweat much at all from their head or maybe generally overall, you can see it on tennis players, for example. So it is not the same for everybody.

I usually take along on a ride a square foot sized cotton towel that you can stash even behind waistline and use it when I stop for any reason, because it is then when the real sweat breaks out. Also use it to dry face when I splash some water on it.

There is a not too long but very steep hill on one biking circuit I sometimes make and in August there is tons of flies there because of some fruit trees in the area or what, all attracted by the sweat and the chance to attack you when you can't go fast and so there is less wind draft around your head. It provides good incentive to play a pro and develop a decent speed regardless of the slope

79pmooney

I bought a Halo cap. But I find the helmet presses against the plastic diverter and gives me a headache so I turn it around. (I don't sweat tons.)

In my racing days I took a radical approach that meant I sweated as usual but sweat in my eyes didn't sting. I went on a very low salt diet. After months of this, I sweated almost no salt. I did not need to take in salt other than what was in my not so salty sports drink that I put in all my WBs even on the hottest days. (Still needed to intake potassium though. Bananas and that sport drink, then ERG, now called Vitalyte. I loved the low salt life EXCEPT we live in the wrong country for this to be remotely feasible in any public food situation. This country LOVES its salt. To avoid it you have to be obsessive. (I was eating maybe as high as 1000mg a day, half the RDA and never had better health.) And once there, everything from the outside tasted SO salty!

Ben

79pmooney

Like your computer, your body finds cooling that CPU to be life or death important. (An no, your thoughts simply aren't all that heat generating.)

If we flip the coin and let our bodies get really cold, the body will pull warm blood from the limbs and lose them rather than let the brain get too cold.

Beach Bob

One other factor to be examined...your choice in helmets..... I use Halo headbands and a couple of skullies as well... but by far the biggest relief for me has been chaning helmets to something that ventilates REALLY WELL (Sworks Prevail)... I can't believe the difference in heat build up between it and the previous Giro something or other....

powermatt99

Halo head bands for me. I have both the thinner and wider varieties.

I got my hair cut for the first time since the COVID shutdown. I didn't realize how much my flowing locks helped mitigate sweat in the eyes. On my first post-haircut ride, my thin halo headband was saturated about four miles in. I am not a heavy sweater but high humidity plus a fresh cut had my eyes burning.

Seattle Forrest

Have you tried riding with a cat? Whenever I get home from a ride on a hot day Parsley wants to lick my arms. You could get a handlebar basket for the cat to ride in, and get a cleaning whenever you're in the drops.

Branko D

That's why I wear a cycling cap under the helmet.

vane171

All true. But after I posted, I mulled it over again and I believe I found the reason why so much sweat comes from your head even if cycling is not an intellectual exercise. It is simply that due to exertion, general body temperature wants to rise which the body keeps within some limit by sweating but that still means a bit higher body temperature than is ideal and as a consequence, the heart pumps into your head warmer blood than is the normal case and the head responds by sweating to bring the temperature down.

So it is not that the heat originates in your head due to some mental exertion, rather it is the blood which carries the oxygen into brain that unduly warms it up.

BTW did you observe that after a big and energetic meal, even just thinking makes you sweat? Also panicking brings about sweating when the conditions are ripe for it, like on a hot day, that's why we say in such a case that we 'keep cool' when we don't get overexcited.

GeneO 

Rode in 93F temps today for a little over 1.5 hour. No sweat in eyes. As soon as I came in the house and took off my halo cap, sweat was pouring into my eyes. Typical. The sweat barrier works well, and I expect other brands with barriers do too.

gios 

All of these cushion your helmet wearing as an added bonus.

Used to wear bike caps, but now I use my Schampa balaclava (one is made in the U.S., one in Mexico). Just bunch up the face mask part on top of your head. Comfortable, and seamless where it goes across your forehead...

Unlike the one under armour skull cap I have used. The seam leaves a mark, but is still not felt - so it's a wash.

edit: Ordered the Halo skull mask and it's got some new fangled 6 inch or so rubber gasket type deal that is not thin and I guess you place it parallel to your forehead so that it keeps sweat from your eyes? Very tight fit also - I'm going to return it for a refund. Amazon, so no worries.

Even the Buff headwear can be used - ff to around 1:52