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"Never let 'em see you sweat" -- that was the advice of a well-known ad campaign several years back.  And most of us said, "Oh, yeah? HOW?"  Of course, they thought their product would solve all problems, but the truth is that we sweat in many areas besides the underarms.  So, unless we're going to coat ourselves in antiperspirant, we need some other strategies to keep dry.

This week, we're looking at a few ideas to help you maintain your cool while everyone around you is losing theirs in the summer sun.  A little planning, a little preventative maintenance, and you can be cool even when the mercury goes higher than your thermometer cares to register.

Some people have a knack for always looking cool and together.  We'll help you can swipe a few tips from their playbook and look just as good.  We'll also be here when your clothes need that all-important freshening up.  No sweat!

We hope to see you soon!

Jim Nixon
The Cleaners

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Whole lotta sweatin' goin' on .. COUPON!

Unless you're from some other planet, you sweat in the summer.  (Or, if you prefer, you GLOW.)  One of the best ways to preserve your summer wardrobe items is to have them cleaned frequently so that the sweat salts don't break down fibers or bleach out colors permanently.  Let us dryclean one garment, and we'll do a second of equal or lesser value at no charge.  Pass the sunscreen, will you?
(Include first page of this e-mail with your order.  Offer expires August 19, 2004.  Cannot be combined with other offers.)

Perspiration Stains are no laughing matter!

They're annoying, they're embarrassing, they're everywhere in summer.  Those ugly wet circles beneath your arms, around your neck, across your back or chest.  If you've just worked out, it might look macho to be sweat-stained, but the rest of the time you'd rather not.

Perspiration includes a good dose of salt.  The salt it contains is salt you're losing, and that can upset the electrolyte balance in your body, as well as have other effects.  Perspiration is your body's way of cooling off.  In the summer, if it's a humid day, you may not be able to sweat (which is not what you want if you intend to stay healthy.)  The reason for the lack of perspiration is that the air is already saturated with water, so it can't evaporate off your skin.  This can lead to a rise in your body's core temperature to dangerous levels, even resulting in heat stroke or death.

• Read about preventing heat-related illness!
• Heat Index -- the real effect on you.  This site has charts to help you estimate the heat index by comparing temperature to relative humidity or dewpoint.  It also has a handy calculator so you can figure the heat index for temperatures not listed on the charts (or, if you're a real glutton for mathematical punishment, they have the actual formula, so knock yourself out!)

That salt, as we've told you in other newsletters, can also be hard on your clothes.  If you find bleaching of the colors of a garment in areas where perspiration tends to gather, you know what we mean.  That color loss is permanent, so it's a good idea to have clothes cleaned frequently in summer to protect them from damage.  Salt crystals are sharp-edged, as well, and can even begin to weaken the fibers of the garment.

Look COOL, any time!

There are ways you can look cool, and even feel cool, despite the temperature and humidity.  Haven't you ever felt like you were about to wilt from the heat, and then around the corner comes someone in a white linen get-up with sandals and a shady hat?  Just looking at them makes you feel cooler, doesn't it?  And envious, of course.

Here are some tips to keep cool by.

• Wear appropriate antiperspirant.  It sounds silly to have to say it, but sometimes we just don't think about it until it's too late.  If you are an excessive perspirer, you may have a condition called hyperhidrosis.  If so, you can get a prescription for special antiperspirant from your doctor that will have many more times the amount of sweat-preventing aluminum ions than regular over-the-counter stuff has.
• Wear light, breathable fabrics in loose layers.  This way you can remove a layer if necessary, and benefit from the ability of air to pass through the fabric to your skin and evaporate that all-important perspiration.  Fabrics that are polyester-based tend not to breathe as well as cotton, for instance.
• Wear undergarments or items that will soak up sweat before it gets to your visible garments.  Cotton t-shirts and underwear will absorb a lot of sweat before it leaks through to your clothes.  There are also pads you can purchase that are attached to a very light strap harness to keep them under your arms.  In the days before antiperspirants, this is how people controlled sweating, and it still works.
• Stay out of the sun.  Not only will this help reduce your risk of many types of skin cancer due to UV rays, but will keep you cooler, as well.  If you are going somewhere that doesn't have shade, bring your own -- wear a hat that shades your face or carry an umbrella.  And don't forget sunscreen for protection.
• If you know you're going to sweat, select colors that don't show it so much.  Some fabrics and colors darken considerably when you perspire, and make it obvious even from a distance that you're sweating.  Colors like white, black and navy blue tend to look the same wet or dry.  Colors like red, tan, gold, and light gray can be discolored by even a drop of perspiration.  To test a garment, touch a small corner or bit of a hidden seam with a wet finger.  What you see is what you'll get!
• Do like the army and camouflage the target!  You can wear clothes in colors other than the ones that don't show perspiration by wearing things with an abstract pattern or print to them.  Almost like camouflage, the pattern will confuse the eye and keep it from being able to detect the hard lines of perspiration circles as easily.

To keep yesterday's sweat rings from ruining today's look, be sure to wash or have cleaned garments that you've perspired in as soon as practical.  Repeated stains can become permanent  -- permanently removing that item from your wardrobe.