Some of you are singing along with me and some of you have no idea what’s happening. Either way, can we talk about keeping sweat and sunscreen out of the eyes? Oof. I’ve written about surviving summer running, but have really been struggling with the burn.
This summer, more so than others for some reason, has got my eyes looking like lizard skin! So red, scaly, and irritated from all the sweat and sunscreen getting into my eyes while out for my runs. So as you can imagine, I’ve been on a bit of a quest to stop the insanity.
Sunscreen
This was the easy part. As you may know, I’m a real stickler for sunscreen. The problem of course is keeping it out of my eyes. Yes, I’ve tried many of the natural, mineral, good for you brands. Every single one still. stings. my. eyes. A few quick tips from friends, strangers, and Google and I decided I just have to wear a hat (or a visor, but that’s not my jam). This way, I can protect my forehead from the sun and avoid putting the sunscreen above my eye area altogether, and BLAM! No sunscreen sting.
Sweat
Now for the harder part. While the sting is less harsh without the sunscreen, it’s still present and my eyes were still in rough shape. This lead me to try a couple of things and one new product to nip this in the bud.
The forehead gutter
OK. That’s not what it’s called but that’s totally what it is. The Veo strip is an adhesive strip for your forehead that is designed to divert the sweat away from your eyes, kind of like a gutter on your house would do. A friend tagged me in a Facebook ad for these, and they aren’t terribly expensive so I thought I’d give it a go.
The pro’s? It stays put and is hardly noticeable. I forgot I even had it on most of the time. It also didn’t leave any kind of mark once removed, and while adhesive sounds scary it wasn’t even as bad as taking off a sweaty bandaid.
I do think it helped a little bit. But not so much that it was worth their one time use for me. I still needed the hat, because sun. And I still got a bit of sweat in my eyes from the area underneath the strip. I guess I’m a brow sweater. Is this a thing I can coin? Anyway the product is cool and may work for a lot of folks, and kinda did for me but still left me wanting more.
Dab Dab
Who knew the solution to my problems was really so simple? I posted in a runners online group about my desperation and several people suggested what now seems like a completely obvious thing: a sweat towel. Sure, I have one for after a run or a workout at the gym, but I had literally never thought about carrying one with me on a run…and I still haven’t.
Buuuut, what I did do is wrap a buff band around my wrist. I’ve used small sweat bands before but they didn’t quite work either. I guess I need more surface area. During my trial run, I just kept dabbing above my eyes to keep the sweat from dripping in. Awesome! And not as disruptive and annoying as it sounds. I did have to get into a groove with it, which hand do I put it on, how do I do it easily, etc. Once I figured that all out, and it will depend on the person what works, I felt great, no more sting and my eyes are returning to their normal appearance.
I think I may invest in a small towel of some sort and figure out a good way to carry it, as the buff did get a little…drenched by the end of the run but who knew this is all it would take?
Sunglasses
This one gets tricky depending on the intensity and your sensitivity. I generally wear sunglasses most of the time outside, I feel like my eyes are really sensitive to bright sun and I want to protect them. The problem is, they really prevent the nice face breeze that keeps my eyes from getting sweaty and stingy.
Besides being a sweat soaker upper, another benefit of a hat is shielding some sun from the eyes. Most of the time I bring along sunglasses as a backup if I need them, but keep my eyes free and breezy under the shade of the brim.
Ok, to sum it all up: I dinked around with a fancy sweat diversion gizmo, and ended up finding that a good old fashioned piece of fabric to wipe my brow is really all I needed to keep the sweat and sunscreen away from my eyes and be sting free. If you’re like me and going scaly, give it a go and I hope it works for you too!