2016 Mar 24
by Anuki Premachandra
The heat is excruciating. Sri Lanka has now become the ultimate summer vacation destination? Why, its summer all year around here. Now for those of you Non-Sri Lankans reading this, it sounds so much fun doesn’t it? Imagine having summer for an entire 365 days! Now for those of you Sri Lankans reading this, I know exactly how you feel. This is time, where the rest of us try and look up to Kim Kardashian as role model and consider taking up nudity as a practice. Whether it be less clothes or no clothes at all, with a temperature as high as 30°c that even goes as high as up to 34°c, we are at an absolute need to revamp our fashion sense.
Let’s beat the heat and try and look as less a sweaty disaster as possible. Keep reading to find out how. Our hair is also an essential when it comes down to our final outfit ensemble, and with this heat, keeping your hair in one piece seems impossible. Do check out our conjoined article Beat the heat! – The HAIR guide to learn how to tame those manes with this heat by simply clicking HERE.
- Choose your fabrics wisely.
A great deal of merchandise from the high-end stores are made from poly-blends that aren’t breathable and tend to hold swear stains, To keep cool, it’s best to go for materials like cotton because, as the fibers are hollow at the center, it allows the material to absorb your sweat and release it quickly.
Linen is also a solid summer material, it’s a stronger conductor of heat than cotton. Although a lot of people are going to tell you to avoid silk, silk is also a good choice for the heat, since it’s natural, breathable and cooling. But the only disadvantage here is the fact that if you sweat, you’ll have to wash your silks frequently and this may cause your outfit to wear out faster.
- The looser, the better.
The less amount of fabric you have actually touching your body, the less hot and uncomfortable it will be. A flowing top or maxi will make you feel so much better than a tight t-shirt and shorts.
From harems to skirts to sarongs or whatever you would call it, loose-fitting pants are the pairs to have for the hot days ahead of us. You can team your loose pants with a vest or a skinny and not look homeless. A mistake people make with loose fitting pants is pairing it up with an equally flowing/loose top, for some, this works well but for others, it makes you look fatter than you are. You need to be smart when pairing up your loose pants and tops!
- Skip the padded bra
Three inches of foam padding on a hot day equals to a major sweat disaster. Your sweat doesn’t need to dampen your plans girls. You need to let your skin breathe, so you’ll need something simple, such as a sports bra. Before you cringe and imagine yourself with a flattened chest, sports bras have come a long way. Choose a style with individual cups for support, a racer-back cut and no metallic embellishments that can get warm against your skin.
Tip: Pick a bra made from cotton, a cotton blend or mesh fabric.
- Hide the sweat
The whole world doesn’t need to know how well you’re perspiring. Knowing you have a sweat patch can make you feel uncomfortable and disgusted. Finding clothes that hide the sweat is also another tough venture. Simply wearing white might seem like a good option. White hides sweat decently well. But if you use an antiperspirant that features an aluminium compound as the active ingredient, you’re only asking for your pristine whites to later have unsightly yellow stains on the underarm area. Try wearing clothes with wide armholes. Because there’s no cloth against your underarm, there’s nothing for the sweat to mark onto. This option will also allow for better air circulation. The next is to go with bold prints. A busy print can easily hide a sweat stain because there’s already so much going on, the sweat won’t stand out. You can also opt for clothes in sheer fabric. Sheerer, lighter materials can breathe better. That means sweat has a better chance to be evaporated rather than absorbed. But even if your shirt does pick up some moisture, gauzier fabrics won’t show that they’re wet as easily as thicker ones would. And finally, always wear black! It’s hard to wear black in this heat, but it’s the best to hide pesky sweat stains.
- Keep your clothes fresh.
Don’t re-wear it, just wash it. Wearing your clothes over and over again between washes is a great way to avoid doing laundry, but even light wear leaves dirt, sweat, skin cells, and cosmetics trapped in the fibres of your clothes, which makes them less breathable and you hotter. For your cottons since they are super-durable, garments can be washed in the machine with any detergent, and bleach can be used as needed. For best results, machine wash cotton items in warm water on a normal cycle. Cotton wrinkles up easily but can be ironed on the highest heat level. For your linens, contrary to popular belief, linen actually fares better when washed by hand or in the machine than with dry cleaning, and it becomes softer with each washing. Feel free to pop your linen clothing into the dryer on low, but take them out when still slightly damp.
