Botox to Stop Sweating Is Coming in Hot Amid Recent Heat Waves

The country is hot and bothered. New York City experienced its hottest day of the year on Monday; it was hot, humid, 95 degrees and the second heat wave since June. A third heat wave is expected kick off on Sunday. While New York was sweltering on Monday, Portland, Ore., was too and saw three consecutive days of highs at 100 degrees and above. Google Trends data showed that a top search term in Oregon was “heat wave.” In Los Angeles County , excessive heat warnings are in effect through Thursday, which is expected to see temperatures ranging from 106 and 116 degrees, and Palm Springs saw its hottest day on record on Sunday at 124 degrees.

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Across the country, the weather is a hot mess, but some people are riding the heat wave without breaking a sweat.

“Some people have excessive sweating in their armpits, and when they have Botox, they don’t have sweating anymore — it’s what they call a game changer,” said Dr. Stafford Broumand, a board-certified plastic surgeon at 740 Park Plastic Surgery in New York. “It’s better living through medicine.”
Broumand said his practice has seen a surge in patients requesting Botox for sweating throughout the city’s recent heat waves and overall muggy temperatures.

“Whether it’s summer months or whether it’s winter months…and you don’t want to sweat and you don’t want to have to use antiperspirant, and you don’t want to have your clothes yellow because of antiperspirant, you can have Botox and that’ll get rid of it.”

Botox, a botulinum toxin that can be used for medical conditions like excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis), works by blocking the body’s nerve signals that trigger sweat glands at injection sites. Locations such as the armpits, palms of the hands and soles of the feet are typically the most treated areas for hyperhidrosis, Broumand said.

For aesthetic use, the injectable is marketed under Botox Cosmetics by parent brand Allergan Aesthetics , and it achieves the same sweat-free results. “If you have it for your forehead and your crow’s feet, you’ll notice that you’re not going to sweat as much in those areas,” he said, adding that the neurotoxin doesn’t traverse through the body.

Though Broumand cited situations related to sweating that some people might find embarrassing or awkward like a hand shake with wet palms or unsightly damp underarm stains — he emphasized that it’s the body’s way of mitigating risks of overheating. Sweating is the physiological response to lowering the body’s temperature during activity (or as a reaction to anxiety).

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“Wherever you have sweating, injecting Botox — that does not have to be a large amount, a subtle amount — eliminates sweating in that area. So, it doesn’t mean that you don’t sweat anywhere else, but in the areas that you have the predilection to sweat, it gets rid of that.”

The treatment typically lasts three months before a refresh is needed. “Whenever I feel there’s a little perspiration, I get an injection,” Broumand, who uses it himself, said. “I have Botox in my armpits and I haven’t sweat in 20 years to my armpits.”

Products that contain aluminum to block and dry up glands — and antiperspirants that control perspiration — have been alternatives to injectables like Botox. Another option, though typically done for nerve injury, is to severe sympathetic nerves that cause glands to secrete sweat.

But there’s also a growing segment of allover deodorant solutions on the market that offer fresh-feeling skin through toxic-free and clean formulation.

Proctor & Gamble’s First Aid Beauty released its Whole Body Deodorant Cream on Tuesday, which the brand describes as providing 24-hour odor control with a citrus-scented formula that keeps users “feeling dry and smelling fresh all day from pits to privates.” The new allover deodorant by First Aid Beauty joins P&G’s brands Secret, Old Spice and Native, which have also added full-body deodorants to its product lineup. “As we talked to consumers, we kept hearing how with smell, comes insecurity,” the brand told WWD in a statement. “At First Aid Beauty, we want to make the less-glamorous aspects of body care glamourous. Many seldom-discussed body care products are our bread and butter, so it was only natural to tackle another one of these ‘unsexy’ first aid beauty emergencies — body odor.”

Lume, which launched in 2017 as an early pioneer of whole-body deodorants, said its Invisible Cream Sticks “contain ingredients that can absorb wetness,” adding that it is not marketed as a wetness control product. “We have many customers with hyperhidrosis who love Lume. They do report less sweating over time with fantastic odor control,” the brand said in response to a consumer query on its Amazon marketplace.

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