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Sunscreen vs Clothing and body temperature

Old 07-11-20, 09:00 PM
  #26  
Sy Reene
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It has been an interesting thread, but hasn't really touched much on what I was looking for feedback on. That is, can technical clothing actually be more cooling than slathering bare skin with sunscreen. There've been mentions in past threads how the right kinds of clothing increases the surface area that holds sweat, (ie. more than the skin's surface area), so that with wind effect, the sweat evaporation rate is actually higher than with bare skin and therefore could be more cooling (if it's not instead insulating the body)..
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Old 07-11-20, 09:07 PM
  #27  
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You'd have to ride in the double digits of mph constantly in order to have clothes be effective for cooling. Once you stop, you turn into a moist stinky heat sink. You could continue on after stopping, but the icky feel already set in. Best to dress for outside temperature/conditions & not effectiveness of cooling.
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Old 07-11-20, 09:38 PM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Pop N Wood
Not to call anyone out but what is SPF clothing? Isn't all cloth sunblocking?

I do prefer light weight, long sleeve, hi vis shirts but put sunscreen on the back of my neck
Usually unbleached cotton which has natural UV protection via reflection of UV Ray's.
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Old 07-11-20, 09:50 PM
  #29  
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yes, performance fabrics can be cooler or as cool as bare skin with sunscreen. Sunscreen makes me sweat where it is applied, and it gets sticky as well

a light colored long sleeve fishing shirt ($20 bucks) will do the job nicely. You can do fishing gloves also with spf 50. I ride like this when it's in the 90's. Not sure about you, but with bare skin and sunscreen I'm still getting a lot of sun, more than with the long sleeve shirt, gloves, and hat (all performance fabric). If sun blockage is the goal, the clothes win
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Old 07-12-20, 12:35 AM
  #30  
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Start with a wet bulb

Psychrometrics

This is not my field of study.

Evaporative cooling, used for climate control and evolved to regulate body temperature in humans, has limits effectively controlled by the ability of the other side of the system to accept the water vapor created during the process. Unless the water can ferry the heat away, the process doesn't work. With regards to cooling or wicking clothing, the primary benefit is eliminating barriers to evaporation, and potentially enhancing how well your body's use of sweat works. That gets into where you produce the most sweat vs where the sweat most effectively cools blood returning to your core.

The clothing cannot change how well evaporative cooling works in a given situation; that is controlled by the thermodynamics of the system. Technical fabrics have advantages over untreated fabrics, not bare skin.

Chemical sunscreen doesn't interfere with sweating, mechanical sunscreen might, depending on the lotion ingredients.

With regards to sun protection, clothing has the advantage because you can't sweat it off.
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Old 07-12-20, 12:52 AM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by Sy Reene
It has been an interesting thread, but hasn't really touched much on what I was looking for feedback on. That is, can technical clothing actually be more cooling than slathering bare skin with sunscreen. There've been mentions in past threads how the right kinds of clothing increases the surface area that holds sweat, (ie. more than the skin's surface area), so that with wind effect, the sweat evaporation rate is actually higher than with bare skin and therefore could be more cooling (if it's not instead insulating the body)..
Louis Garneau has recommended certain jerseys specifically for the cooling effects of some fabrics. That's why I got a Garneau Lemmon II jersey, for our brutal Texas summers. I rode for two hours at noon Saturday when the temp reached 100F, and so humid the "feels like" temp was over 111F. Brutal and I dialed my effort way back. But the jersey was comfortable -- more comfortable than my Bontrager and Pearl Izumi jerseys with more typical tech fabric.

If I wanted to avoid sun on my arms I'd get the long sleeve version of the Lemmon II. But I need more sun so I'm considering the sleeveless version.

Garneau also has an Icefit fabric jersey. Like the Lemmon jersey it uses multiple types of fabrics, including mesh fabrics in the high sweat areas -- underarms, upper back yoke, etc.

I'm sure other jersey makers offer similar jersey fabrics designed more for summer comfort than purist graphic appeal. There are two or three major mills that make almost all the wicking fabric for almost every sporting apparel maker.

These fabrics may not accept sublimated graphics, and tend to resemble a patchwork of two or three fabric types. I'm not a fan of sublimated graphics or the type of fabric designed to accept those graphics. Feels kinda plasticky to me. I have 'em, from Pearl Izumi, but I don't wear them often in summer.
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Old 07-13-20, 07:16 AM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by AlmostTrick
Regarding SPF levels of clothing, I've made an interesting observation. I wear a wide variety of jerseys/shirts, which surely vary in SPF ratings. Yet I never burn or even tan in the areas which are covered. This leads me to believe that SPF rating is not as important as just covering up with something.
This has been my experience as well.* I suspect most of this is marketing, backed up with science for sale.

*The one exception I can think of was an old, well-loved jersey that was bleaching and stretching. I noticed I was tanning through the jersey (had bib straps visible on my skin) before I discarded it.

Originally Posted by Sy Reene
It has been an interesting thread, but hasn't really touched much on what I was looking for feedback on. That is, can technical clothing actually be more cooling than slathering bare skin with sunscreen.
That's a different wrinkle on your OP. Theoretically, it might be possible. Practically, the only time I've noticed sunsleeves being cooler than sunscreen covered skin was in the 30 seconds or so after I sacrificed some drinking water from a bottle to wet the sleeves down. OTOH, I've noticed sweat-covered sleeves being much hotter when I peeled them off.
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Old 07-13-20, 07:43 AM
  #33  
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I'm really bad about using sunscreen, so I need to use sun sleeves. I am pretty sure that if it's too hot for sun sleeves, it's going to be too hot without them too. At least that has been my experience. I have voler spectrum fabric sun sleeves and my arms are usually the coolest part of my body when I have them on. And they are black, which makes a lot of people think they can't work. If it's really hot, you can put ice under the sun sleeves. Try sticking ice to your arms with sunscreen.
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Old 07-13-20, 11:21 AM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by pdlamb
This has been my experience as well.* I suspect most of this is marketing, backed up with science for sale.

*The one exception I can think of was an old, well-loved jersey that was bleaching and stretching. I noticed I was tanning through the jersey (had bib straps visible on my skin) before I discarded it.



That's a different wrinkle on your OP. Theoretically, it might be possible. Practically, the only time I've noticed sunsleeves being cooler than sunscreen covered skin was in the 30 seconds or so after I sacrificed some drinking water from a bottle to wet the sleeves down. OTOH, I've noticed sweat-covered sleeves being much hotter when I peeled them off.
Yeah, for sure the only possibility that they'd be cooler than bare+sunscreen is if/when you're moving at some speed that's generating airflow of some significance. Definitely stopping any period of time, the heat builds up quickly and the potential benefit has turned into a negative.

Originally Posted by unterhausen
I'm really bad about using sunscreen, so I need to use sun sleeves. I am pretty sure that if it's too hot for sun sleeves, it's going to be too hot without them too. At least that has been my experience. I have voler spectrum fabric sun sleeves and my arms are usually the coolest part of my body when I have them on. And they are black, which makes a lot of people think they can't work. If it's really hot, you can put ice under the sun sleeves. Try sticking ice to your arms with sunscreen.
Interesting. It was Voler I was thinking about as they have some variety of SPF 28(?) longsleeve jerseys.. which got me to wondering about wearing one of these vs. slathering sunscreen in combo with a shortsleeve jersey. What black voler arm screen did you get? I only see everything in white unfortunately.. hence another thread i tried starting about whether people have had any success dyeing these types of clothing articles. Voler SOL SKIN stuff
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Old 07-13-20, 12:06 PM
  #35  
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sunblock is spf rated...clothing is upf rated
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Old 07-13-20, 10:23 PM
  #36  
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Actually, a great many more people ARE dying of skin cancer.

Science > anecdotes
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