Well, the humidity and heat are here for next few months. I like to do stuff outside and I’m trying to figure out how to keep cool. Some things I’ve recently added:
A boonie hat. I got it mainly to keep the sun off but wasn’t thinking about material. It’s polyester. Anyone recommend one that’s cotton/whatever that does a good job on cooling? Does wetting down one of those help at all in high humidity?
A Frogg Togg “towel” on my neck. Size 33x13. Dampen it down, shake it out. This works great in the spring before the humidity arrives. But not so as well now. The area on the back of my neck heats up and dries out too quickly. (“Dry” being relative here.)
I’ve seen guys use a wetting scarf that has a big sponge lump there. But that was in the dry Intermountain West. Might be too much of a wet blob here. (I don’t want water running off onto my shirt adding to the sweat.)
I’m thinking about some sort of addition to the nape spot. A little bit more material. Maybe an long, skinny ice-bag thingy wrapped inside the towel.
I’d be interested in what my fellow Dopers use to keep cool.
Years ( decades ) ago I’ve relocated ( for economic reasons ) to a place with longer and somewhat hotter summers than from where I was originally from. Everyone said “you’ll get used to it”. Negative. Negatory. “Used to it” ended up meaning being resigned to be uncomfortable when outside. Put up with living hell for 4+ months in exchange for very pleasant autumns and springs, and comparatively mild winters.
I sweat a lot by nature, and the humidity really exacerbates it. When working outside on my property, I can count with the fingers of one hand how many times over the last 20+ years I’ve NOT gone shirtless. I’d rather risk sun exposure ( and I’ll use good sunscreen if I have to ), but the feeling of a wet shirt on me is very unpleasant. If one is a female, that’s not an option obviously. The “cooling towel” I’ve tried, but did not really help much at all IMO. The dampened and wrung out towel may be cooler technically, but it still feels clammy and unpleasant on my skin. I hang a lot of wipe rags off my belt hooks, and dry myself off often. I do my yardwork in shifts, taking advantage of the shadows the house and trees cast over different parts of the yard at different times of the day. It also provides breaks, so there’s a feeling of light at the end of the tunnel as the work is broken into small hunks.
Nothing helps in high humidity as it prevents the evaporation that cools you in the first place.
Cotton absorbs and holds sweat. A good performance fabric will wick sweat off and allow whatever evaporation is possible without feeling drenched.
if it’s practical, ice/water you can dunk your towels/rags in. Otherwise a hydration pack(Camelback-style) with ice water will not only encourage hydration but the cold water will absorb heat. Some models have an uninsulated back so the water bag acts directly to cool the back.
Stay in the shade as much as possible, direct sun raises the felt temps by 15-20F.
That’s funny; I’m female (and no I’m not flat), I often have to work outdoors in the heat, and that’s a large part of what I do about it.
To be fair, often there’s nobody else around, or only other women. If I am expecting other people to show up, most of the water goes down the back of the shirt, not the front. And even more of it goes on my head.
I come at it very old style, except for the design of the hat: cotton clothing, light colored (that’s important), loose (that’s also important), long pants, long sleeves, and depending on what I’m doing and on what the wind’s doing either wet kerchief tied on my head or light colored cap with long front bill and a back flap. Water poured both into me and over me frequently. Go sit in the shade at any sign of dizziness, no matter how slight; heatstroke’s nothing to play with, especially if you’re out there alone.
If you want to go new style, assorted companies selling serious work clothes will sell you various sorts of cooling vests and wearable cooling packs. Here’s a sample page from Gempler’s; they’ve got more than that.
I got these weird wrist pads that you soak in cold water for five minutes, then Velcro them around your wrists. They are supposed to help keep you cool, and you can use the back of them like you would any wristband when you’re playing tennis (quick wipe the sweat off your forehead).
I’ve only used them once, as I don’t live in a particularly hot climate, and frankly I thought they felt a little slimy, but they may have helped.
I also have a water bottle that doubles as a spray bottle, giving you a fine spray if you need it. That works pretty well although in the case when I’m using it I’m probably already sweating so…
Outdoor Research has some good sun hats. I have one similar to this but it’s older and they called it something else. Works good as a rain hat too. The brim is very flexible so not so good in the wind. I notice the text for this one notes that they added piping around the brim for added wind resistance so maybe it’s better than mine.
After I posted I went and got my hat and I believe it is the same hat I linked above except mine is sand color. I was confusing it with my other OR hat which is more of a rain hat.
Light colored clothing. As little clothing as you can get away with. Hydrate. I find if my feet are cool than I am cool. I hate shoes and binding clothing. I live in the boonies so I can sport the less than dressed look. Stay in the AC around mid-day. I garden very early in the morning.
My main advice: laziness. I’ve worked on this approach for many years. Finally have it nearly perfected.
I walk to work and back every day. If the temp is greater than 95F with the heat index, I’ll take the bus. Otherwise, I walk.
I avoid the sun. I have a route I take for the winter-fall-early spring and a route I take just for the late spring and summer. It’s not the most direct path, but it’s much shadier. In total, I probably only have to spend about 15 minutes out of the 2 hour round-trip commute in the direct sun. If it was much more than that, I don’t think I’d be able to do the walking thing every day.
I also wear a wide-brim hat. My coworkers tease me when they see me in my big-ass old lady hats, but I. Don’t. Care. They keep the sun off of my neck and face. Plus, I think they make me look like a cute old lady.
I also wear above-the-knee skirts. I don’t wear such attire in the office because it’s too cold with the AC, but that’s what I wear when I walk in (I change my clothes once I get to the office). I sometimes wear capri yoga pants, but I am able to radiate heat much better with skirts, I’ve found. (When it is very hot, I get chub rub due to thigh swelling. Those are the times I wish I wasn’t wearing a shirt.)
Finally, I carry a sweat rag with me. Now I’ve been told that wiping away sweat when it’s humid is a big no-no so I try not to wipe too frequently. But I feel miserable (and ugly) when I’m sweating so much that it’s dripping off of me.
If I may ask, what was the reason you heard it’s not good to do? I should think that whatever excess sweat is on you, sweat that will not evaporate, does a body no good at all.
Sweat cools you down in two ways. First, by coating you in moisture (which is why the wet t-shirt trick works). Secondly, through evaporative cooling. As sweat evaporates off your skin, it wicks heats off of you. This cooling doesn’t happen when you wipe the sweat away. It has to evaporate.
So the sweat that’s literally sheeting off of your face isn’t doing you that much good, so there’s no harm in wiping yourself before you get to that point. But you shouldn’t be wiping yourself dry, because then you’re kind of defeating the purpose of sweat. And you’ll quickly dehydrate yourself if you aren’t careful.
^^Dang, girl. You got gumption! I don’t walk an hour no where. When I walk my dogs we just amble along the trail. I might be out with them an hour or more, at a time. Part of that is me sitting and throwing balls or sticks for them. Neither retrieve but they do chase. Hey, it works for us.
I have some bandanas that have beads in them that swell up when soaked in water. I would periodically pour cold water over them to refresh, and also carried a small spray bottle of water that I would spray on my neck (I don’t seem to sweat much). This helped me cope when I had to travel to Singapore and do some sightseeing.
I’ll give today’s weather as an example. About 8am it’s 77 with a dew point of 71. It’s going to be in the 80s till noon. (And after that I would not work outside.)
So fairly bad in terms of heat and humidity but not Texas coast bad.
The cooling towel still works … partially. So evaporative cooling isn’t completely hopeless. I think I’ll try the spray bottle idea. Dry off some skin, do a spritz.
Regarding excess sweat. This is a thing. You pretty much want a molecule layer of sweat on your skin. So the cooling caused by a warmish molecule flying off cools your skin. The thicker the layer, the more it’s cooling other molecules, esp. ones that just drip off, and not you. Your body doesn’t know the Physics so it’s just keeps going “Too hot. Sweat more.”
I wear a white t-shirt. I know the desert folk like black stuff since it absorbs body heat. But my experience with dark t-shirts is that they are a Bad Idea here.
Are cotton things (hats, shirts) really that bad of idea? What material should be considered?
I’ve got a mop of thick, shoulder-length (when it’s too long) curly hair. The only thing that helps me is a cotton bandana folded in a triangle and tied in a knot at the back of my neck. It collects all the sweat, keeps sweat from running down my face, and keeps my hair off my neck.
Keeping the hair off my neck makes things SO much cooler. It’s crazy. I started doing this in the 90s when I worked in an outdoor restaurant, in the kitchen. Between dinner and dessert shifts I’d put the bandana in the freezer for a minute to cool it down, and then tie it back on.
Sometimes I wear a hat over the bandana to keep the sun out of my eyes. Once or twice I’ve used an actual sweat band instead, which serves the same purpose.
I do live on the Texas coast, and frequently exercise in the heat of the day. Just the way our schedules work.
I like the various synthetic wicking fabrics from places like Adidas’s climacool etc… They reek afterwards, and if improperly laundered, FWIW. We hydrate constantly. Going through a L or 2 of water is not unusual for an hour’s hike. We try to stay in the shade. And eventually, we just get our minds used to the idea that it’s going to be unpleasant and just deal with it.
You do sort of acclimate after awhile. But I still prefer coastal California and fog, to 90 degrees and 50 percent humidity.
For me it is basically drink a ton of water, nibble on snacks, wear a broad brimmed hat, and pour water over your head/shirt and/or dunk shirt in water.
That was plenty when we hiked the Grand Canyon last August in 100+ degrees, and worked yesterday in 90+ degrees for a hard 30 mile bike ride followed by mowing the lawn and an extended period of weeding in the back yard.
A lot of it is mind over matter. Don’t get me wrong - nothing will convince you that it ISN’T hot. But if you just accept that you’ll sweat buckets, and prefer whatever you are doing outside over huddling inside in the AC, it really doesn’t matter. You can always take another shower, and put on another clean shirt! Yesterday was 2 showers and 3 shirts - a good summer day in my book!
Different people do have different levels of ability to adapt to the heat. So some of it is that.
And, even for those with good heat adaptation, heatstroke is possible, and can be deadly. Ignoring discomfort is one thing, and may indeed be enough for some people in most circumstances. But ignoring early symptoms of heatstroke would be a very bad idea indeed; because it really does matter.
