Layer Your Clothes to Stay Comfortable in Any Weather

Layering is not a complicated matter. This is the process of adding and removing layers of clothing to keep your body comfortable in changing weather and temperature conditions.

Billions of dollars have been spent trying to optimize this process (and sell things), but it’s really simple: wear clothes in the cold and take off when it’s hot. Which clothes? As they said, that is friction. But don’t worry. We will take you through each layer, how to layer and when you need it. Once you’ve finished here, check out our guide The best river jacket,,,,, The best merino wooland The best raincoat More.

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Layered foundation

The key to layering is knowing what these layers are for and when to add and delete them. The advanced overview looks like this:

• Grassroots: The layer that touches the skin. These provide some warmth, but just as importantly, they blow sweat away from the skin. Humidity means cold.
• Middle level: The middle layer. This is the layer you actually start insulating or trapping body heat. This is key to the entire system and can be more than one layer (e.g., lightweight wool and puffer jacket).
• Outer layer: The top layer is a waterproof, windproof layer that ensures that nature does not steal all the precious heat you retain in the middle layer. It is sometimes called a “shell.”

While you won’t always wear all of these, especially when you’re exercising yourself while walking, running, etc., it’s usually worth carrying these three. If it’s cold, you can start with all three and then peel them off when it gets warmed. When it’s hot, you can do the opposite, pulling out the shell when you stop on a windy ridge. Obviously, in some cases you don’t need to carry all of these situations. Hiking Florida Trail in July? Skip the middle level, ya lunatic.

Grassroots

Let’s start with underwear. Whether it’s a boxer, underwear, boxer profile or bra, you can buy materials that help remove moisture from the skin. I found it Merino wool is ideal For lingerie, it’s worth trying different fabrics to find the one that works best for you.

Next is what we usually think of as the basic layer: relatively tight, but not overly restrictive pants and shirts, whose dual purpose is to insulate and sweat in cold weather. Likewise, there are all kinds of fabrics. If you choose Merino wool here, you will benefit from the natural ability of the wool that smooths your skin with temperature changes and makes you warmer/cooler (I call this temperature regulation).

There are other fabric options here, including Nuyarn. It has most of the benefits of Merino (usually more than half the Merino), but adds some nylon to provide extra strength and durability and speed up drying time. The latter may be important in very humid climates. In my experience, synthetic base layers do not perform well in insulation or moisture removal, although they usually dry faster, last longer and are usually cheaper.