Why Do Ears Get Cold Easily?

When it comes to going out for a lovely winter walk, many people find the first thing that become extremely cold are the ears, well why is that?

The average human body temperature is 37 degrees C. To keep your body warm when your are outside, your body will send out less blood to the extremities of the body, such as your fingers, toes and ears. Your body does this to prioritize keeping your main core and organs toasty warm. Blood provides vital warmth and nutrients so without good blood flow and circulation to your ears they will become cold.

Aswell as how your body reacts, your outer ear is predominately made of cartillage which does not provide an extra barrier or layer of warmth to protect that area of your body that you would find elsewhere around your body, like on your torso.

Your outer ear also has a large surface to volume ratio meaning that a large part of your ear is exposed to the elements. As you get older your ears continue to grow which means that the size of your ears will be bigger and therefore will need more protection that when you were younger to keep them warm. 

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Your body will do its best to cope in an environment when you're out in the cold and parts of your body are exposed and your body will start to shiver. However the best thing you van do is make an effort to protect those vunerable parts of your body such as your ears yourself. Three of the best ways to keep your ears covered is to wear a thick winter hat, ear muffs or a thick snug headband or our personal favourite, a buff, to go over your ears, maybe if you get really cold you could combine all of the above.

You can't beat merino wool as the material for a wool hat, great in windy, wet and cold environments. The material stretches to your body shape as it's slightly elastic and falls back to it's normal shape when not being worn. Being an active fibre it changes to the temperature of your body and breathes, meaning you won't overheat and any moisture wicks away easily compared to other materials, perfect for outdoors and protecting your ears.

merino wool hat

cold ear protection merino wool hat

merino wool buff

cold ear protection wool buff merino

Cold Ears In Sports

As well as winter hiking or even walking to the office through winter, there are some sports which we partake in which make your ears cold. Cycling being a prominent one within the UK, even in summer we can have cool and windy days, and when we're out on our bikes we more often than not wear ear protection as well.

Wind chill factor is involved in other sports as well, skiing, snowboarding, surfing and others. If you were to cycle or move forward at 20mp/h and it was 10 degrees C, this will make the wind chill factor and surrounding air temperature of 0 degrees C, that is a huge difference and can make a ride very uncomfortable.

If you're having ear problems and partake in a sport which is contributing to the problem, check out our ear protection section of the site for a multitude of ear protection information and advice.

 

 

Quick Tips

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