It's like a sauna here on the beach most summer days. An hour working outside in the heat of the day and your clothes are as wet as if you'd been swimming. You can't go to town looking like that, at least that's how I was raised. You can try to cool off with a fan, or sitting in an air conditioned space if you have one that'll let you drip sweat all over while you cool off. When you get cooled off you still feel worn out and you smell like a farm animal. The solution is simple, quick and refreshing. A cold bath. You could make do with a wash basin, wash cloth and bar of soap, but a few inches of cold water in a bathtub is more refreshing. Wet clothes get hung up to dry if they aren't going right in the laundry. Clean, dry clothes are ready. Bath is cold, so it speeds things up. I give my scalp and face a quick rubdown with a dampened wash cloth. Not getting my hair or beard very wet, Let some cold water flow down my back, give everything a quick scrub and rinse and I'm cool, dry and refreshed. Ready to put on clean, dry clothes and go to town. That brings up a whole other area of preparedness that's unique to my humid coastal climate. I might change clothes two or three times a day in the summer. That means lots of clothes and lots of clothes that are easy to wash in one big load and/or rinse and dry quickly. As long as I can keep it to one laundry day a week I'm good. Could probably make it once a month, but I'd look like Mom dressed me for school. Try a cold bath on a hot day. It could save you hours of cooling off time and you won't stink.
I usually come home from work, peel off my sweaty clothes, and take a quick shower, regardless of the season. It makes me feel soooo much better. Also, a quick swim in the pool, if you have one, is nice. The first few summers that my aunt from Finland spent here in the South was tough on her. In Finland, a heatwave is when it gets almost to 80F for a week in the summer. As soon as my uncle left for work, she would fill the tub with cold water and stay there all day, changing the water as it got warm. That and an exotic drink called Iced Tea, was what got her through our long summers.
I learned a neat-0 trick for dealing with the high heat and humidity. Being from the PNW, our summer temps never used to get much above 80° or for much more then a week. Serving in Texas was absolutely miserable, and worse when I eventually got transfered to Florida and on up the East Coast. Met a Feller in North Carolina who showed me the trick, wear the old school woven thermal under where under your normal clothes, it helps regulate your temps better, it wicks the sweat away better, and controls the stinky later! I was Leary at first, but eventually tried it and was stunned that it worked, seemingly the opposite of what you would think, more layers actually work better then fewer! Today, it's 84° and humid in the valley, were nearly finished with first harvest, and everyone is sweaty and miserable, but not me, I'm sitting here in the combine with my gallon of iced tea, feet up on the dash and motoring through the last hundred acres or so, and No A/C! Got my vintage 1970's thermals on under my Carhartts and I'm nice and comfortable, though face and head are pouring sweat, everything else is fine and dandy! Need to find a good hoody, or stop and get a bucket of cold water as a shammy to wrap my head with,........... I forgot! Hey, been at it since 6:00 a m!
As a Civil War re-enactor, I'm here to say that wool is great in hot humid weather. Yes, wool! It wicks the sweat away from you skin and it evaporates, which cools you. Also, wool socks keep your feet dryer and blister free. Coton jeans and socks just get wet and stay wet. Once you button up the jacket it takes a while to notice the effect, but it works. Those metal canteens will get really hot, but a wool cover will keep the canteen and its contents cool.
We wore long underwater and sweatshirts under our shooting jackets on the range. I didn't wear glasses back then, but they would've been fogged up constantly when we were shooting during the humid summer months at Quantico. It was miserable in the summer out on the line, but it was more miserable if you didn't have a couple layers of clothing on to protect you from the sun. It seems like common sense to wear as light a uniform as possible, but once I'd spent a day with the sun beating down on my back I understood how the sweatshirt and long johns under the shooting jacket helped. They padded the sling on the arm and protected the elbows and knees, but more importantly they protected us from baking in the sun. The only shade I had all day was from the brim of my cover.
Interesting. This wicking and cooling effect may be why I don't feel like my beard is hot. People ask me all the time in the summer if it's hot. It's not. I don't even notice the heat on my face except on my forehead.
