for the eagles out there...

[giverdada]

hey boys:

as i inch closer to my 35 year mark, my hair continues to thin and recede as it has since my 24 year mark. brutal, but i can bear it. vanity takes a back seat to genetics it would seem.

now, it's been really cold in toronto this week and my rides and runs have been plenty warm with all the layers and windstopper out the wazoo. however, i show up to class each morning looking like i had a lobotomy with a big, nasty, still-red, screaming scar across my entire head. what gives? seams on any hat give me this line, and it's worse on hats that are warmer, like windstopper ones, as the seams are bigger and the material harder.

WHO MAKES A HAT TO KEEP BALD HEADS WARM? and this, without leaving a single damn trace of said hat upon removal. anyone? please. help a baldie out...

[tiretrax]

Rapha makes a great wool hat.

[giverdada]

agreed. and i wear it the rest of the time when the temperature and windchill aren't as arctic as they are this week. the rapha hat and its seam leave the least horrendous mark on my head. only no-mark headgear i've found is the castelli skull cap that i wear on summer days in super-vented helmets to avoid vent tan patterns. yeehaw.

[Ti Designs]

Winter clothing is winter clothing, it follows the same rules, be it on your body, your feet or your head. I'm not saying you should stuff your head into a boot, I'm saying the same three layer method works, other things not so much...

Base layer - the stuff that wicks moisture away from your body. It can't be warm, if it's acting as a thermal layer it's not wicking moisture. If you have body temp on one side and a 30 degree drop to the other side, it's not passing moisture... Wool is the exception because it still insulates while it takes up moisture. The problem with moisture is that it's a big thermal mass, if you stop and it cools, it's a big, cold thermal mass sitting against you.

Thermal layer - dead air space. We're talking R value here, just like insulating your attic, thicker is warmer.

Isolation layer - the barrier between you and the cold. It's simply the layer that keeps the dead air space around you from going anywhere. If you get too warm you can vent the isolation layer and give a little movement to the air in the thermal layer.

Doing things in the right order makes sense and it works. Wind front base layer is a sign that you've gotten it wrong... Feet, hands and head play by the same rules. Lots of people try to stuff thick wool socks into their shoes and it doesn't work - why would it? R value is thickness, it's the volume of dead air, not the mass of compressed wool that counts. If you want your feet to stay warm, wear a sicking sock (or wool), then the shoe, then take a large wool sock, cut the cleat out of the bottom, pull the sock over your shoe and put a bootie over that. Then for style points, pull the end of the sock down over the top of the bootie. It's a 3 layer system that works...

For the head, the same three layer system works, 'cept that too many people forget the isolation layer. You wear this inch thick foam salad bowl with holes cut in it so it's useless as an isolation layer. Plug up the holes!!! They make wind stop helmet covers - that's your isolation layer. With that in place, keeping your head warm gets easy.