Anyway, the NBA style sweatband worked great at soaking up sweat, but stop for just a second and all of that sweat would come streaming down into my eyes. Then I'd take the backside of my glove and rub my eyes, which just made more sweat go in them. Then my eyeballs felt like someone was jabbing them with a red hot poker for the rest of the ride.But even that was better than no sweatband and having sweat run down into my eyes as soon as I started perspiring.
This year I'm going to give a new solution a try. While browsing REI I discovered the HALO II PULLOVER HEADBAND.
At first glance I thought it was just a reworking of a standard sweatband, with a little bit different shape, but the real difference is on the inside.
The yellow rubber strip is known as the SweatBlock Patented Seal (no really it is a legit patented) and it is the reason I opted to shell out the $16.00 price. The seal is pretty self-explanatory, but for those of you who don't get how it works, the seal creates a channel about an inch above your eyebrows, and is supposed to channel liquid back and away from your eyes and face. Think of it as a rain gutter for your mug.
The HALO II is available in a wide range of colors and is made from Dryline® Visa Endurance Fabric which is a blend of 63% Nylon, 23% Polyester, and 14% Lycra. The result is an incredibly thin product, which is nice because the old NBA headband I was using was almost too this to get a helmet over. However, I am thinking that the HALO II will be more about moving sweat than absorbing it. I'm okay with that, but we'll need to see how it works in practice. The feature set says it is anti-microbial, odor resistant and quick drying. I'm hoping for excellent performance on all of these since they are all areas where the NBA sweatband fell short.
Initial fit seemed pretty good and after wearing it for a few minutes I forgot it was on. That works for me, but I'll be keeping an eye on the elasticity and hoping that it doesn't get loose.
I'm ready for some summer torture testing. You can probably tell from the pic above, and will shamefully admit, that I probably get more sweaty than some of the super fit cyclists out there. That is one of the many reasons why this blog is called "Regular Cyclist" not "Unsponsored Pro". So this thing is going to get a proper thrashing, which I'll report back on in a month or two.
I'm thinking that a replacement once a year would be cool with me, and I'd be interested in hearing what you think the lifespan of a product like this should be. Let me know.
