To celebrate the heat of summer and add to my other blog, A History of Surviving Cold Weather, it is time to explore how in the heck, humans stayed cool throughout history.

It is worth noting that in many parts of the world, many of these techniques are still used.

The first thing to know about dealing with warm/hot weather is that, you will adjust.

Although it doesn’t always seem like it, humans are remarkably adaptable. If you live in a warm climate, you are just used to it. Some days may be hotter than others but for the most part, if you live there, it is just life. In areas of the world with seasons, you get used to it, just as you do when it gets cold. You adjust and soon the heat just feels normal.

Even in warm climates, there are temps that are just too darn hot so when I talk about adaptability, I am not talking about a scorching heat wave or even trying to touch on climate change.

Florida is just freaking hot in the summer. You get used to it.

Clothing

As I stressed in the History of Cold Weather, the clothing we wear is paramount to our physical comfort. Clothing isn’t just about looking good but is essential to our survival in the climate we are in. One does not wear a thick, course, wool sweater in summer just as one does not simply wear a silk blouse in a blizzard.

The actual fabric we choose is one of the mistakes that most of us make when trying to stay cool in the summer. Modern, synthetic fabrics are plastic. Plastic doesn’t breathe. Simple as that. The more breathable the fabric you wear, the cooler your body will stay.

Cotton is a great natural fiber that allows air to flow around your body. So is linen, silk, and wool actually. Wool is a tricky fabric because we think of it as a winter fabric but it can be worked into a soft, thinner fabric that provides a ton of air flow on your skin. Leave the thicker wool in the closet in summer but a thinner wool t-shirt? Yes. It will be fine.

Looking at fashion in history can fool a lot of people. “How did those women stay cool wearing all those layers?”

Well those layers were made up of thin, natural fibers. The fibers weren’t as warm as you think they might be. Sun exposed directly on your skin is detrimental to keeping your body temperature down. The more skin you cover, the cooler you will be when being outside. This is why umbrellas or parasols were fashionable in addition to long sleeves and leg coverings.

Different fabrics are going to be better for sun exposure too. Silk may be natural and cooling but not in direct sunlight. It will retain the heat of the sun and can actually burn you. Leave the silk gown for evening wear and enjoy that cotton or linen ensemble.

Look at Middle Eastern countries today. Many of the clothing options are chosen for religious purposes, true, but they often resemble historical clothing from the same area. This is because in desert countries they learned a long time ago that they needed to keep more skin covered for optimal cooling.

Getting dressed

In western cultures, both men and women would wear a chemise of some type as the base layer of clothing. The chemise was thin and made of a cheaper fabric because it was going to absorb the sweat and oils of the skin. It was going to need washing often. People usually had more than one of these because of the fabrics purpose of touching the skin.

This base layer was washed frequently while more outer layers of clothing was not washed as often.

Women would follow with stays or corsets depending on the era, petticoats to help create the fashionable shape of the time, and then the dress. All of these layers were made of natural fibers and wouldn’t heat up the body.

Contrary to modern belief, corsets were not tight-laced (unless the woman did it purposefully). Corsets sat on the body like a well-fitted bra. It might feel good to take it off at the end of the day but it wasn’t painful nor did it hold in a ton of the heat of the body in the summer.

Activity

Ancient Egyptians didn’t have 9 to 5’s. There are no documents that specify a typical work day but we do know they worked in the morning when it was cooler and would break during the peak sun hours. Work would resume later in the afternoon or evening and continue until sunset. This is still true for many other cultures/countries.

Think about the Spanish siesta. While we know it as a little nap, it is taken during the afternoon when many communities in history would have been experiencing the sun at its strongest and hottest. This makes sense to get people out of the sun and cool down.

Architecture

Houses in the Mediterranean are built different than the houses in the English Channel. Obviously. Houses in Florida should be built differently than houses in Maine. Again, obviously. House design and building materials will help keep your home cooler in warm weather.

Historical homes in Florida definitely had more planning for air flow as much of the state is warm most of the year. Higher ceilings helped pull the warmer air up. Transom windows (windows over doors) would be opened to help flow the warmer air out of the house and to pull cooler air inside. Trees were also important not just for outdoor aesthetics but for shade and the cooler air they’d provide.

Sleeping porches were popular in warm climates and even in northern states in the summer. Beds were moved to the sleeping porch so one didn’t have to sleep in a 90 degree bedroom.

There are hundreds of extent architectural examples of castles/palaces built with the owner/monarchs personal apartments/bedroom built in a way that maximized air flow. There are still buildings showcasing the thick, stone walls used to insulate the cool, indoor air from the scorching exterior.

In the ancient world, many buildings were built to accommodate the seasonal winds in the summer. This was helpful at night in cooling rooms for sleeping. Sleeping porches as explained above have been around in some form for all of human history. We know that ancient Egyptians would sleep outside on rooftops.

Basically, the ancients knew the importance of air flow. The more air you move around, the cooler you will be.

Electricity has created modern opportunities for extreme comfort, alternating heat and air conditioning depending on the season and location. But it is characterized as extreme comfort because many modern people forget that very little of human history has existed with these artificial climates and has created, perhaps, unrealistic expectations as to our physical comfort.

I mean, 95 degrees is hot in any climate. What should our expectations be for days like that?

Water

Swimming pools have been around for thousands of years. They aren’t the invention of us modern humans. The Romans had them but really, water features are older than that. Fountains were communal and important features for communities but they also played a role in helping people stay cool.

Dampen a simple cotton cloth and tie it around your neck and you will feel cooler. Dip your toes in a cool creek or puddle and you will feel cooler. Drink water. Staying hydrated helps your body stay cool.

Sweating

There are historic examples of people worrying about sweat but none like in the 20th century. The fear we have created about sweating (always associated with smell) has created an entire industry devoted to the elimination of sweat. Antiperspirants and deodorants became popular after World War I and during the Great Depression by marketing our social fears.

A woman wouldn’t find a husband if she sweated and smelled.

Men would lose their job or would never get another one if he sweated or smelled.

But people sweat. People have sweated for our whole existence. If there was a huge fear of sweat that permeated throughout society, we have little remaining evidence of it. Because there is so little/no documents that discuss the fear of sweating (or smelling) this is probably more of a modern thing, possibly tied to our extreme interior climates we create.

Sweating is our bodies reaction to being warm. If you sweat, your body is cooling itself. You drink water to replace the fluids lost, further cooling your body because water helps keeps your body cool even if it is not cold water. Sweating is natural and shouldn’t be something we fear. Sweat on our clothing shouldn’t be ridiculed especially in the summer.

How to cope with AC

I actually am not advocating that we turn the AC off because it is wonderful. We do, after all, live in an age with AC. What I am trying to remind readers of is that we are adaptable. Our ancestors aren’t to be pitied because they lacked AC and maybe we should reconsider some of the lessons in history to help us accept our warm climates a little more.

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