Should You Wear White Clothes to Stay Cool?

Common sense dictates that since light-colored clothing is more reflective than dark, it'll help keep you cooler in hot weather. Learn why this myth doesn't hold water in today's episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/light-colored-clothes-in-hot-weather.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff, Lauren A bogle Bomb here. Question, what all
do astronauts, modernly traditional brides, American author Tom Wolf, and
some people trying to keep cool in hot weather have
in common? Answer? They all wear white, and that's probably

(00:26):
what all they have in common, but you never know anyway.
The sartorial thinking is this, fabrics of the lightest colors
force all the solar heat fighting its way to our
skin to just reflect away instead, where dark fabrics, the
idea goes, and you're stuck with that heat. Is it
greedily absorbs into the fabric and causes you to swelter

(00:48):
in your own clothes. But white clothing will cheerfully bounce
that solar heat right off, and you'll be more comfortable
on a hot day. But while all that certainly sounds
great in theory, there are a few other factors at
play that might be working against the light clothing adage.
At the very least, there is some compelling evidence in

(01:10):
the form of a real, true scientific study that says
it doesn't matter. Let's start with some research published in
night in the journal Nature titled why the Bedouins wear
black robes and hot deserts. The researchers were curious about
the fact that in oppressive heat, the residents of the
Sinai Desert wear billowing black robes instead of say white

(01:34):
or maybe a pretty pale lavender. What they found was
when they tested white robes versus black, and note that
they did this by having some poor guy stand out
in the heat while recording temperature, the differences were nil.
They found that the black clothing did more to absorb heat,
but that's where it stayed. In other words, the black

(01:56):
soaks up additional heat, but that extra is law by
the time it actually gets to your skin. A way
more useful for keeping cool, however, was the fact that
the robes are loose and billowing to allow air flow.
There's also a concept that the whole light clothing argument
is missing a key element the person who's wearing the clothes,

(02:19):
meaning that the heat your body radiates will reflect off
of white clothing as readily as heat from the sun does,
bouncing back to your body and actually keeping you toastier.
Not a bad theory, but it's not been tested on humans.
It's only been studied in birds with white plumage, and
that with mixed results. So the answer is it doesn't

(02:42):
make a huge difference whether you're wearing black or white
in hot weather as long as you choose loose, breathable
clothing either way. Today's episode is based on the article
should you wear light colored clothes and hot weather to
stay cool? On how stuff works dot com written by
Kate Kirshner. Brain Stuff is production of i Heeart Radio

(03:05):
in partnership with how stuff works dot Com and is
produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
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