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Dressing for warmth in the winter months

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With the clocks about to go back it can only mean one thing – winter is getting closer and closer.

Whether you love the colder months or long for the warm sunny days to return, one thing everyone can agree on is that dressing for warmth makes this time of year a lot more bearable. How exactly do you do this however?

shutterstock_1068986612Wear a waterproof coat

According to lecturer and researcher, Dr Heather Lunt;

“Water has 25 times the thermal conductivity of air, so will drag heat out of the body four times faster. If you fall in water, you can become hypothermic within half an hour in temperatures of 12C-15C.”

While it’s unlikely that you’re going to go for an outdoor swim at this time of year, it’s not unusual to get caught in sudden and unexpected rainfall when you live in the UK. Wet clothing can lower your body temperature very quickly – especially if it’s windy outside and can therefore create a similar effect to being immersed in cold water.

Ensuring that your jacket is waterproof not only helps you stay dry, it will also help to keep you much warmer if it does rain. For inspirational Autumn/Winter designs check out the Edwin website.

Layer up

You probably remember your mum insisting you layer up when you were a child and there’s good reason for it. Wearing several thin, warm layers insulates much better than one thick later. Not only does this help to keep you nice and toasty, it’s also much easier to take off a layer if you do get too hot.

The base layer is the most important because this is basically going to act as a second skin. Choose a soft, comfortable and natural fabric (such as wool) which sits close to your body.  Believe it or not, cotton is actually a bad choice because it absorbs water which will actually cool you down if you get a bit sweaty.

Wear a hat

We’re always told to remember to wear a hat because we lose most of our heat through our head. While this isn’t actually true (https://www.livescience.com/34411-body-heat-loss-head.html) as it’s now been proven that we only lose about 5-10% of body heat from the head, heat does escape from any part of the body that’s exposed to the cold so it does still make sense to wear one.

Our ears are also particularly sensitive to the cold and can in fact become quite painful if exposed for too long, so another benefit of wearing a hat is that you can keep your ears nice and warm.

Stop cold air getting inshutterstock_521320309

No matter how well you layer up, you’re still going to feel the chill if freezing cold air is reaching your skin. There are a number of ways you can prevent his from happening including:

  • Ensure as much of your skin is protected from the cold as possible – this includes your head and hands
  • Wear jumpers that cover your neck or if this isn’t possible, a scarf
  • Tuck your trousers into your socks and your top into your trousers so that cold air has no way of getting in
  • Wear thick socks and waterproof shoes so your feet don’t get wet

For more great tips on how to keep warm during the winter months, have a read of this article on the Marie Curie website: https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/blog/keeping-warm/179148

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