Most of Your Body Heat is NOT Lost Through Your Head

Headwear: Up to 60 percent of your body's heat can escape from an uncovered head, so wearing a hat, headband or helmet is essential when it's cold. (Tip: If you wear a hat, you may be able to wear one less layer on your body.)
~The Weather Channel

The origin of my, until now unchallenged, belief that one loses most of one's body heat through the top of the head has roots in a US Army survival manual from 1970. The manual highly recommends wearing a hat in the cold because "40 to 45 percent of body heat is lost from the head."  For many years I have worn a hat thinking I am retaining all of my body heat with that simple accessory. I would feel incredibly silly about being duped like this if every one I know didn't believe the same thing!



There was an incorrect conclusion drawn from a military experiment done in the 50s. Volunteers were dressed in arctic survival gear and thrust into bitter cold. They did lose most of their body heat from their heads, but that was because their heads were the only part of their bodies exposed to the cold.

As it turns out, any exposed part of the human body will lose heat in the cold. So by all mean, put a hat on your head when going out in the cold. Just because you don't lose most of your body heat from your head doesn't mean you don't lose any.

Wearing a hat in conjunction with all other winter weather apparel will help retain body heat. Just make sure you have winter weather apparel for all of your body.

Note: Someone needs to tip off the Weather Channel about this.

Something else I learned: Studies by the British Medical Journal are not available online.