You Never Thought Hyperhidrosis Would Help You Find A Boyfriend
You sweat, I sweat, we all sweat, right?
Chances are you are visiting this website because you have hyperhidrosis and you probably have all sorts of embarassing horror stories about how sweating has ruined your life, etc.
Well, I bet you never thought it would help you find a boyfriend.
The story goes like this:
It’s semi-formal season in high school and I get asked out by this really nice guy I met at swimming. Now I’ve had hyperhidrosis since gr. 8 and I;m now in gr. 10, but since we swim together, he didn’t know I had hyperhidrosis.
Everyone else did though.
I could soak a shirt down to my waist and elbows on a stressful day, since my sweating is caused by “stress levels”, even if I’m feeling absolutley fine. Weird, huh?
I’m ok with having HH. Drysol does nothing and I don’t want surgery, so I just live with it. My friends have all grown used to it, (I don’t have bad body odor or anything!), so when summer rolls around I can be seen walking around school with soaking wet hair, pits and face, all due to HH. (My HH isn’t localized. I just break out in sweat in random places.)
Anyway, back to the story:
I said yes, not thinking about my own little Niagara Falls going on. After swimming I found him waiting for me and offered to walk me to my subway stop. I felt a trickle of sweat work its way down my neck, then another from my armpit, until it was drip, drip, drip, help I think I’m drowning.
I’m sure he noticed the pie plate sized wet patches on my grey basketball shirt. (I wear basketball clothing all the time because the polyester dries faster than cotton. Dazzle pants instead of jeans, shooting shirts instead of cotton tanks, you get the picture.)
Anyway, by the time we got to the station, my armpit stains were starting to soak into my pants and I had probably soaked half way down my back. At this time I really was nervous that he would be grossed out, so the sweat was really flowing.
He didn’t say anything though and just said he’d see me next week and smiled at me like he didn’t notice (or care) that I was now dripping sweat on the platform.
Since he’s a spontaneous type, my date dind’t leave me enough time to buy a new dress, so for semi I would be wearing my grad dress. A light blue satin strapless that would show every single sweat drop that hit it. The night of semi I tried once more using Drysol, knowing it would be useless.
I waited until the very last minute before he picked me up before whipping out the paper towels stuffed under my armpits and throwing on my dress. By the time I sat in the car, I had sweat dripping into my eyes. He still didn’t say anything about the sweating and we talked like normal people out for a date. He did ask the driver to turn down the heat though.
Well, I made it to the school without turning into a puddle, but I did notice a nice big sweat mark on the car seat. I didn’t even want to know what shape my back was in. I decided that no mixture of water and salt was going to ruin my night. So I took a deep breath and started dancing.
About half way through I looked down and saw that I had I had literally turned my dress a shade darker and that there was a puddle of sweat where I had been dancing. I was so surprised that I hadn’t noticed sooner, I mumbled something about going to the washroom to my date and ran upstairs without looking back.
I got into the washroom and nearly fainted. My hair was completely soaked and plastered across my face and neck. The sweat from my armpits had made huge stains down past my waist with only little parts of light blue peeking out.
I turned around and saw that my back was soaking wet, as was my whole chest. The blue satin ballet slippers I had been wearing were now soaked as well and left wet footprints. In my oppinion, I looked like a drowned rat. For the first time in over 2 years I broke down and cried, cursing my HH and wishing I had never been born with this condition.
I didn’t even bother to clean myself up and stormed out of the washroom. My date was waiting outside and he took my hand and said, “Lets talk”.
He led me into a deserted room and said 6 words I’ll never forget:
“So what if you have hyperhidrosis?”
He said that sweating was just a normal bodily function and nothing to be ashamed of. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Finally, he said that my being comfortable with my HH made me one of the bravest and most genuine people he has ever met. He said that I could sweat all I wanted, but he wouldn’t care a bit.
I couldn’t help myself and gave him a great, big, sweaty hug. He hugged me back and kept holding me as we shared a wonderful kiss. We went back and danced the rest of the night. After the last dance he glanced at the wet patches on his shirt where I had pressed against him and smiled.
So, in the end, we became boyfriend & girlfriend and lived happily ever after. I still sweat so much I leave puddles behind, but he still loves me, so I couldn’t care less.
The point of this story is to let you know that hyperhidrosis doesn’t have to ruin your life. Don’t hide under black clothing or from your friends. Get out and enjoy life and meet new people that will accept you the way you are, sweat included.
You only have one life on this planet, better make the best of it. Wet or dry.
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Hi there, and thank you so much for your submission. I have heard stories like this before and they are just heart-warming. Thank you for sharing and you should feel good b/c other people are reading that and getting inspiration from it I’m sure.
Chris Mechanic
Gosh i hope im that lucky to find someone like that!
I just wanted to say thankyou for posting such an uplifting story. It’s nice to hear of someone just accepting and getting on with their condition. I admire you.