I’d kill for one that can get me through a public speaking engagement or at least appear calm and collected on a humid day. It seems 90% of my perspiration wants out through my head, and it’s getting annoying. Help!
As someone who grew up in a very cold, dry place and moved to a very hot, humid place, I sympathise!
Unfortunately I don’t know of any over the counter remedies. How ever it might help if you knew why you are sweating. Is it because you just get hot? Or is it due to feeling uncomfortable/embarrassed. Wearing different clothes can help with getting hot, also make sure you are very careful not to exert yourself at all before any engagements where you don’t want to be seen sweating. I sweat just if I feel flustered, so I always make sure to give myself a lot of time and to prepare well. If you feel calm, you’ll probably look calm.
Worst part about it if it’s caused by feeling selfconscious is that you become aware that you’re sweating which makes you sweat more.
It may also help to identify other people who are sweating as much as you are. It always feels better knowing that other people are suffering too :).
Sorry I can’t be of any real help.
Count me in as somebody who’d love to find a remedy for this. Ever since I started taking medication, I find myself sweating a lot more than I used to. If there’s any heat at all (if I’m feeling at all hot, that is), or if I exert myself at all, boom, I’m soaked. My forehead in particular – it now has a permanent “prickly heat” rash in a red v-shape from all the perspiration that builds up there. I can wipe it dry and literally watch the droplets grow back over the course of a minute or so if I’m looking in a mirror. It’s enough to seriously dehydrate me if I don’t keep up a pretty constant fluid intake.
So if anybody has any ideas, I’d also love to hear them.
I also moved from Siberia, ooops, I mean northern Illinois to a warm, humid climate. The first year or so was pretty bad, I required a minimum of 2 showers a day. Then year two, I started getting used to the heat. We can always tell who’s a tourist down here by watching them sweat when they visit in the winter. 
So about all I can recommend is a visit to Florida for a few days before your speaking engagement. When you go back north and escape the heat and humidity down here, you should feel cool, calm and collected. Maybe a few visits to a Swedish steam bath in your local area would be more economical though. 
I’d just go to a dermatologist. They probably have something that will help. I know it’s not cheap, but it beats being embarrassingly sweaty.
Don’t know any OTC stuff to suggest, other than anti-perspirants or a dusting of translucent ladies face powder (you can get a compact, or those papiers poudres sheets.
If it’s nerves more than humidity, you could try Bach’s rescue remedy, it’s homeopathic stuff, you put a couple of drops on your tongue or in a glass of water, and it’s supposed to calm you down. Can’t hurt you anyway, unless you have a problem with grape alcohol or the flower extracts.
Doctors would probably be a little stumped, as perspiring on a hot, humid day is completely natural and normal, they don’t like messing with the stuff that’s meant to happen.
Beta-blockers can help with the flushing and tremor that you sometimes get when nervous, but not the sweats.
And the dermatologist will probably suggest injecting the sweat glands with botox…but I don’t know if that’s going to work well on your head and face!
Good luck though!
“Flop” sweat? What’s that?
I have the exact same problem you do. Anytime I have to rise to the occasion (public speaking, meeting new people, etc.) I get sweat pouring out of my forehead, squeaky voice, tremors, etc. No fun. But now, no worries. I found the solution.
Go to a doctor and get a prescription for Indural (generic=Propranolol). It’s a low level beta-blocker. Many professional athletes and performers use it to calm their nerves. You don’t have to take it all the time. Just take it a few hours before the event and say goodbye to uncontrollable sweating and other physical reactions.
When I asked my doctor about it, he said he uses it too. He plays the trumpet in a band and it helps him stay relaxed so he can play better.
It doesn’t seem to do anything to get rid of being mentally worried or nervous about the event. It just stops the physical reactions. In my case, that’s all I need. In my head I don’t feel nervous, but for some reason my body decides a nice squirt of adrenaline would be just the perfect thing. Indural blocks the response to that. Do some google searches and see what I mean.
Just to clarify, Indural is for anxiety-related hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating). Commonly called “flop sweat”, it’s the sudden onset of excessive sweating in a stressful situation. I don’t know that it would be good for excessive sweating on a normal basis. There are treatments for generalized hyperhidrosis that would address that condition.
There’s a great example of flop sweat in the movie “Broadcast News” with Albert Brooks. He works behind the sceens and, one weekend, he gets the chance to be the newscaster. As soon as the cameras turn on, he starts sweating like crazy. It’s dripping from his forehead and his shirt is soaked so much they have to have him change shirts during commercial breaks. He wasn’t sweating because it was hot or high humidity–it was the anxiety. In fact, it could have been -10 F in the studio and he would have had the same reaction.
I did not have much luck with relaxation techniques. First, it was difficult to keep my mind on the task at hand when I also had to think about slowing my breathing and relaxing. Second, it didn’t seem to make any difference. No matter how focused I would be on relaxing, I would still get excessive sweating. Fortunately, Indural works great for me.