Even when people wear thick thick coats and jackets, they still leave parts of their face exposed. At most I’ve seen scarfs and beanies. Maybe glasses for the eyes. Why don’t we require a full thick face cover with little eye holes?
you do have to cover your face if it gets cold enough though... if you go skiing/snowboarding on a cold day you'll see people have their faces covered. Usually a combination of scarf (or other lower-face covering) + goggles + touque (+ hood).
Yea but their cheeks are still exposed right? Like, some part of their face is still uncovered. And unlike the rest of the body, which requires multiple layers, faces just require one. I don’t get it.
Unfortunately the face has a lot of important things on it that you need to be able to do human stuff like see and breathe and talk and move your head, so adding a lot of layers to that can occlude those important fleshy bits from doing their job unimpeded. You kind of have to balance warmth with being able to pivot your head and not being in sensory isolation, so many will sacrifice a little warmth for that. Since your eyes water and your mouth is most sensitive, covering those areas with goggles and a scarf is often sufficient.
When it gets cold enough, people will wear balaclavas - even if they're not on the way to robbing a bank.
You can get away with leaving something exposed because your blood will move the heat around. Covering your face is uncomfortable, so that gets picked as the something. You could wear a full face-covering sack over your head, use the extra heat to get away with a shortened winter coat that exposes your belly, and likely be just as warm. But why on earth would you do that.
Because it's uncomfortable at the temperatures most people deal with, and because there's a general stigma against masks due to how they conceal one's identity. Where it gets cold enough for one to need it things like ski masks/balaclavas are definitely used.
The water from your breath gets stuck on whatever you are breathing through and it gets colder and more uncomfortable than having nothing.
This is the main reason for me, and I have facial hair so it's even worse when that happens. If it gets cold enough I'll wear a winter face mask but generally I'm fine with a hat, hood, and ski goggles if the wind is bad.
Gotta use wool. Still better than almost all synthetic fibers for staying warm and dry.
your face has better circulation than other bits and stays warmer better, so the threshold where people decide to cover is a bit lower than say, gloves
Who's we? In the cold months I got my face wrapped in a thick scarf and that's how I like it
if it's more than ~10° below freezing, I wrap my face and wear safety glasses over the slits for my eyes. same if I'm in some high wind situation with sand (like spring in western NM), but I use thinner fabric.
balaclavas and ski masks don't stay where they need to for me personally (my head/ face is weird?) and are kind of an all or nothing thing. like maybe I want to sip some water or open up the area around my mouth to speak/shout easier for a second. or just have an unencumbered look around/put my ear to a speaker.
anyways, I like the freedom of a face wrap compared to a face mask. I can wrap it different ways or use it as something else entirely (carry stuff, splint wrap), whereas a mask is just a bag with holes.
The ushanka remains the most versatile winter headwear.
