Will Carrick-Buchanan
The hottest day of the year is upon us, with temperatures in London reaching a scorching 32°C. Everyone is desperate to know how they can keep refreshed and sheltered from the relentless UK sun.
Not only do people want to stay comfortable, the heat and the sun can come with some serious health risks, so it’s most definitely necessary to take some precautions before going out and enjoying the sunshine.
With that said, here are a few tips to keep yourself cool today.
Sticking to the basics, make sure you drink plenty (and we mean plenty) of water. Sweating is the body’s way of cooling down and this can only happen if you stay hydrated. So although sweating all day might not be the most pleasant thing in the world, it will help you stay cool.
If you want to double the effectiveness of this method, try drinking hot drinks such as tea, as drinking warmer drinks will trick your body into sweating more. Steer clear of coffee however, as it's been known to have dehydrating effects.
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Another way to stop yourself from cooking in the rays, is to avoid the sun altogether. Well not quite, but try and keep out the sun from around 11am-2pm.
These are the hottest hours of the day and it's pretty unpleasant going out at this time anyway. Waiting until the afternoon and evening will give you a much more comfortable experience of the lovely weather.
Another obvious one, make sure you’re wearing the right clothes. Loose clothes are the best and try avoiding too many synthetic materials, cotton and linen are good choices in weather like this.
Just make sure that if you’ve got skin exposed, you cover up with sun cream to avoid those nasty burn lines. Hats and caps are also great to keep the sun off your face and neck.
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Now for some more unorthodox ways to keep yourself cool. The first one is ‘the Egyptian method’, this consists of dampening a bed sheet before going to bed and sleeping under the cool cloth.
You can attempt this method by soaking a sheet and then wringing it out, or put it in a spin cycle of your washing machine. Although sleeping under a wet sheet may disgust some people, others have sworn by it in blogs and facebook posts all over the country.
If you want to take this method one step further, you can put your sheets in a plastic bag and chuck them in the freezer, to get a really cool and refreshing sleep.
The next method sounds really strange, and that is to point your fan out of the window. While this might sound wasteful and ludicrous, many have claimed that this is a very effective trick.
By pointing your fan out the window you prevent hot air from entering the room, and if you close your curtains behind, this will also stop the sun from heating up the room like a greenhouse.