Has your mom ever told you: "Put a hat on it´s cold outside"? She was right in a certain way, but not completely. I´ll tell you why.
Picture: Marly´s winter mode: ON.
Debunking the myth
25th of November 2016, winter´s arriving too fast - as every year. Short dresses, t-shirts and the adored beach sandals need to be stored in the back of the wardrobe, providing space for pullovers, jackets, long pants - and woolly hats. Are they really called woolly hats (see picture above)? I am not sure, but would be happy to receive your comments if not :-)
According to an old myth, we lose 40 to 45 % of our body heat trough the scalp. The origin of this myth is a survey done in the 70s. During a military experiment some test persons had to face extrem cold wearing special surviver suits. These suits were covering well their bodies but not their heads where they actually lost the mentioned 40 to 45% of heat.
Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll, two scientists from the University in Indianapolis studied the 'survivor´s manual' written by the army in 1970 and published their antitheses in the 'British Medical Journal'. They came to the conclusion that the extrem loss of heat through the head during the survey was only due to the fact that the head was the only not covered extremity. That´s why the idea of wearing a hat or other headdresses in order to keep most of the body´s heat was just an illusion. The scientist stated that if the survey was done with test persons just wearing swim suits the loss of heat through their heads would have been just about a 10%. 'If this were true, they stated, humans would be just as cold if they went without any hat as if they went without their trousers. Patently, this is just not the case, they wrote.' [quote: https://www.theguardian.com]
So thank God we are no test persons working for the army neither Karlie Kloss posing for VOGUE :-)
Learning: Every section of our body is losing heat in the same way and amount. Our face, head and chest are the parts of our bodies which are more sensitive to changes in temperature than the rest. This makes it as if covering them up does a lot more to prevent heat loss.
In fact, covering one part of our body has as much effect as covering any other.
The mentioned researchers decided to look at several other widely held beliefs to check if there was any published scientific evidence to prove them. In many cases, the two scientists found several studies that completely undermined them. They recommended not to operate always based on unexamined beliefs.
I would´t ever say to not trust your mom. But not all of the myths she was living "at that time" are still evident.
So this picture is for my mom :-)
No matter what kind of headdress you like or dislike and no matter if you prefer wearing swim suits in the cold snow instead of warm water: this information should not hold you off living your fashion passion :-)
More TIL, life lessons, surfing fun and a loooooot of poetry in my blog: @surfermarly.
Happy weekend to all of you!!!
Cheers & live your dream,
Marly
Picture source Karlie Kloss posing for Vogue: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/267682771572238148/
