Woman to Woman: The Best Way To Beat The Winter Cold Is With the Proper Under Garments
As we leave fall behind and descend into winter, those with leaky homes—or just thin blood—will soon be feeling a chill that seems miserably inescapable at times. The temptation to crank up the thermostat to a toasty 76 degrees will seem more like survival than self-indulgence, but wasting heating fuel or electricity and putting up with sky-high heating bills isn’t the solution.
Those desperately seeking warmth will find lots of suggestions online ranging from drinking hot liquids to warm the body’s core to sealing gaps in the home that let cold air in and heated air out. I’ve tried them all—and they work—to a point. But the one solution that has made the biggest difference to my comfort through the unbearably long Northwest winters is layering. More precisely, I wear long underwear—every day and all winter long.
Several of my lady friends have said that wearing long underwear underneath their clothes would make those clothes feel tight and that they would feel less feminine knowing they had it on. To which I respond, no problem girls!
Long underwear doesn’t have to be a set of heavy, sallow polyester with a high-waisted bottom and an unflattering crew-neck top. Women’s long underwear (also known as a thermal base layer among active types) comes in lots of fashionable colors as well as different fabrications, silhouettes and weights. Lightweight merino wool and silk varieties make it easy to wear the stuff under a well-fitted pair of jeans and sweater without feeling pinched.
As far as not feeling feminine in long underwear, well that may be all in one’s head. How a woman feels in her clothes is deeply personal, but a
form-fitting set of black leggings and a matching scoop neck top isn’t exactly, um, masculine. How we feel, psychologically, when wearing long underwear aside, it works.
Shop for merino wool long underwear.
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How right you are! I just bought light weight Polartec longunderware bottoms at REI on sale. They are perfect for that lighter underlayer when you are indoors on cold days. A vest can usually suffice for the over top; easy to zip, unzip or remove as your body temp changes. Keep the toes toasty with wool blend socks, too.
Comment by Donna B — November 24, 2011 @ 4:32 am
I use old opaque tights with the feet cut off as an extra layer under jeans. The cut edges don’t run, and they don’t sag like thermal long pants do.
Mountaineers use women’s tights as a thin warm underlayer..I got the idea from them.
Comment by Linda P — November 24, 2011 @ 7:00 am