Face sweating is the most obvious of sweat disorders. Excessive underarm sweat can be concealed via clothing. Palm sweat can be concealed as well. While these two problems can also be extraordinarily aggravating, they are much easier to conceal than the facial sweating and facial blushing. Even make-up will do nothing to cover up face sweating problem and it is hardly an option for men.

Face sweating and facial blushing are different problems but they are often connected. Face sweating involves facial sweat pouring from the brow and upper lip, while blushing is the dilation of blood vessels in the face leading to redness and warmth. Most often facial blushing is combined with face sweating, but people who suffer from severe face sweating will not necessarily suffer from excessive facial blushing as well. Face sweating is controlled by eccrine sweat glands and helps us rid our bodies of excess body heat—a different process from facial blushing.

Though sweat is used to regulate body heat, some people will sweat a lot independent of body heat or situation. Even if the person is not active or it is not overly hot outside, some people will produce facial sweat profusely. It can be a very distracting and even demoralizing process to always be washing the face or dabbing at the face with a handkerchief. Oftentimes, obesity can lead to extreme face sweating and facial blushing, but weight is not always a factor. Sometimes, people will merely have overactive facial sweat glands, regardless of weight or other health factors. Face sweating may not be entirely unhealthy. This does not mean people who suffer from extreme face sweating don’t want to eradicate the problem.

In high facial sweat production, the cells don’t have the space or time to reabsorb the sodium and chloride found in sweat. This is the case of face sweating during hot weather or athletic competition. When nervous or scared, the body produces epinephrine, which can also affect the sweat glands—most commonly in the armpits and palms, but this can affect face sweating as well. Excessive face sweating or facial blushing is not necessarily a result of overactive facial sweat glands or too much epiphedrine, but a disorder of the sympathetic nervous system.

As a result, removing facial sweat glands or using topical anti-perspirants are wholly ineffective because they do not counter the problem of face sweating at its source. In addition, topical creams are not nearly as effective for face sweating as they may be for the armpits and palms. If you suffer from face sweating or a combination of face, palm, and armpit sweating or even facial blushing, it is very likely that you need ETS surgery—a procedure that severs the nerves in the sympathetic nervous system.