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Wet hair: Delicious but deadly. (source)
People often assume that it was a tremendous culture shock for me to move to Slovenia. But it wasn’t really. Some things may have taken some time getting used to, but at this point I’ve made my peace with the country’s idiosyncrasies. Some of them (like the café culture) I can’t imagine giving up. Others (like the hostile customer service) I’m not so thrilled about. But I’ve accepted things as they are — with the exception of one thing: The goddamn fear of the cold.
I just can’t accept it. It drives me nuts. I can’t believe how many people are terrified of the cold, or drafts from open windows, or wet hair. The false idea that cold causes colds is fairly widespread everywhere, but here it’s almost like orthodoxy. I suspect (and am not alone) that this idea is particularly virulent in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, to the frustration and amusement of outsiders. I suppose every region of Earth has its own superstitious ideas. Like fan death in Korea, intelligent design in the United States, eating-horse-penis-is-good-for-virility in China, and (possibly the worst one, if true) sex with virgins cures AIDS in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Here Comes the Science!
Let’s forget about all that and turn our attention back to colds, though. In an experiment conducted in 1958, and later published in the American Journal of Hygiene: (emphasis mine)
“More than 400 volunteers were exposed to viruses that cause colds. Some were exposed to very cold temperatures while wearing heavy coats, some to 60 degree temperatures while wearing underwear, and some to a very warm 80 degrees. All had the same rate of infection. This shows that the crucial factor that determines whether you get a cold is being exposed to the virus that causes the cold.”
Ten years later, another definitive study (published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine) drove the point home: (again my emphasis)
“Inmates at a Texas prison had the cold virus placed directly into their noses. At varying times after their exposure to the viruses, they were exposed to extreme temperatures, with varying amounts of clothing. Being cold or warm, being dressed, or undressed, and having wet hair or dry hair had on their infection rate.”
Now, you may vaguely remember reading about another study that showed the opposite. And you’re right. In 2005, two clowns at the University of Good Learnin’ in Cardiff caused a media frenzy when they announced that students who had their feet chilled were much more likely to get a cold than those who didn’t. The media took it and ran. It was on CNN and everywhere else, and the head of the center solemnly told the BBC that girls who expose their midriffs in cold weather were “asking for trouble.” Only NPR kept its wits about itself and questioned the study. As Dr. Ronald Turner of the University of Virginia told them:
“The researchers didn’t check to see if a virus was ever present. They measured symptoms… They didn’t do any virology, so that study has nothing to do with becoming infected.”
To put it another way, it was junk. You might as well show two groups of people two different episodes of The Mattel and Mars Bar Quick Energy Chocobot Hour and then see who develops a cold and who doesn’t.
But, of course, all these studies and figures and even my own experience of regularly running around outside with wet hair or sitting on cold floors and not developing Super AIDS doesn’t help anything. People continue to believe that it’s dangerous regardless of what anyone says. That’s just the way we roll. But it also means that conflict is inevitable.
Waterloo, I was defeated you won the war
My wife and I had major arguments about this subject for a long time. It’s clear that she intellectually accepts the idea of viruses causing colds instead of, say, “wearing short sleeves,” but she was so firmly raised to believe it that I don’t think she can let go of it emotionally.
So, as you can imagine, we just kept butting heads about it over and over again. Our daughter would say something like: “Can I take off my third jacket, Mommy, it’s the middle of summer” and all hell would break loose.
After the quintillionth argument, we finally agreed to seek outside arbitration. We settled on our family pediatrician and decided that we would both accept her final verdict without dispute. Forever hold your peace, etc.. Of course, I only agreed to this because I was sure that the doctor would side with me… But I was wrong. To my genuine surprise, the doctor declared that being physically cold encourages colds. It was the single biggest defeat of my arguing career. It was a Waterloo, Cannae, Little Big Horn, and Duo Platin concert wrapped up together into one gigantic fireball of a catastrophe. Afterwards I had to buy a replacement jaw, because my original one broke on the floor of her office. I had been destroyed.
The Aftermath
Being a gentleman, I temporarily stuck to our agreement and even tried, half-heartedly, to get into the spirit of things. I was like: “Son, listen, you need to put on some wool socks because, uh, otherwise the wind will blow on your feet and stuff and, uh, you’ll catch the ebola virus and your inner organs will liquefy… So put ‘em on!”
But that’s the problem with living: You can’t un-know things. If I could, I would. I’d gladly erase everything I know about the subject. Life would certainly be easier. But I can’t. I can’t. So it’s back to hostilities. No justice, no peace.
Into the breech!
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Problem is when they grow up, and they keep those ideas… and all those layers and layers and layers of clothes. So some days I don’t know if I have a wife or an onion. Then we complain that there’s no natality.
I think I’ll set up an association… the skin liberation army, or smtg.
My mother actually made me believe it so much, that my body became weak due to being always overprotected, and so now when I try to put on less clothes than usually, I really start feeling I’m getting ill; my nose gets blocked or my throat feels sore.
I’m trying to fight against it, though, but whenever I come back home, she reminds me of it again.
And try to open the car windows even in August, THAT is Apocalypse Now.
“Can I take off my third jacket, Mommy, it’s the middle of summer”
[Chuckles over his porridge]
This makes me think of the Paul Simon line:
I like to sleep with the window open
And she keeps the window closed
So goodbye, goodbye, goodbye…
For the record, I do not own a pair of copate.
well, I got the worse sore throat in my life after driving with open windows in the summer for approximately one hour. otherwise I don’t remember when was the last time I had to take a sick leave. Funny though… Now I have a convertible but that doesn’t seem to cause any problem to my health.
Hilarious! M, I KNOW you’re right, but I have the exact same problem as cija above.. When I’m driving by train or by bus with open windows, I instantly get a sore throat and inoperative nose the next day
It’s the same situation when driving by car.
So why is that? Placebo? Or are the viruses more likely to attack me when the air is flowing? Damn you all, sick passengers!
I guess being a Slovenian automatically puts me into this dilemma! Part of me wants to be scientific and knows for sure, that viruses are responsible, while the other part, that bases itself on personal experience, knows for sure, that going out in the middle of the winter with wet hair makes you just as ill! Go figure!
But while two sides are arguing, here in Japan they are taking scientific point of view to the extreme: At many kindergartens a new educational technique is being practiced. The children are only wearing shorts whatever the weather, rain or snow, summer or winter. The theory behind this is that by living close to mother nature kids will reinforce their bodies and minds, and will become healthier. They call this naked education. This method has (apparently) been very successful with children, although nobody ever mentions how many actually get ill every winter. Brrrrr!
Duo Platin, hahaha!
OK… I checked with my grandmother, and the argument goes like this: With children the head is the largest surface of the body, which needs a temperature around 36,5 degrees celsius to operate properly. If the hair is wet, the relative difference in surrounding temperatue is much greater than it feels to our body and thus we catch a cold because we don’t feel the need to compensate for the cool temperatues.
@Michael M.: Those test were done on adults, right? Not on children?
And just on a personal note: Everytime (without exception) when I went to bed with my hair wet I woke up with a sore throat.
I don’t know about y’all, but the “temperatue difference” argument seems pretty convincing to me… Why don’t we then walk around in short sleeves during the winter?
posted before I saw ka-ma’s comment. So how many kids did get sick during the winter?
No idea, Pengovsky, my kids go to the old fashioned, dressed up variety of the kindergarten. I feel a terrible urge to bundle them up every winter.
Kind of creepy to experiment on children, ain’t it?
Michael, I could be the living proof that you’re right and your wife wrong. In the warmer half of the year I constantly wonder around with totally wet hair, in the other half “only” with notably wet hair (just because I don’t want my hat or cap to be totally wet). Plus I constantly have cold feet and I never catch a cold, virosis or sore throat.
P.S. Draught, air conditioning and open windows do not affect me as well.
I
I think it’s important to remember how much of our assumptions about life are cultural - but also that these assumptions do physically affect us. Slovenes get defensive when westerners (only teasing!) correctly state you don’t get an infection from wet hair, because they DO FEEL the symptoms. Part of the problem is that “cold” is such a generic term in most languages and that not every symptom associated with it - ie. shivering, sore throat, is necessarily linked to a virus each time they occur.
And having lived in Italy and Slovenia for 10 years I still don’t worry about catching a cold from wet hair but I have developed an aversion to sitting in the back of a car when the front window’s open.
I’d end by saying Slovenes shouldn’t always listen to their mummies but mine is visiting and has just called to say i have to meet in Preseren Trg in 5 minutes or else
I’m going to have to say this ‘quirk’ was one of the things that drove me crazy about living in Serbia. My ex-husband’s father (Serb) was a doctor, very high ranking doctor for sure, and he used to berate me for walking around sockless, going out with wet hair, sleeping without blankets - hello - I’m from Canada. I *LOVE* the cold.
The funniest was that I would catch a “BRAIN COLD” if I went out with my hair wet (what, praytell, IS a brain cold) and I would “HURT MY OVARIES” if I went sockless in the house (Oh! the horror, my ovaries are attached to my feet?!)…
Hmmm. Maybe my grandma is secretly Slovenian. That or Irish Canadians have a similar belief in “catching your death” via draft.
I didn’t know about the whole wet hair thing when I first got here and wasn’t sure why the ladies at the bus stop were looking at me with such shock every morning. Oh well, just another way to peg me as a foreigner (and disobedient grandchild)!
This is definitely not specific to Slovenians. I’ve heard “Bundle up or you’ll catch cold” all my life. Today I feel like the wool has been lifted from my eyes (and thank God, because I was sweating profusely under there!).
So was this just a crafty ploy by the coat and jacket lobby? What else in my life has been an utter lie based on junk science? I’m almost too afraid to find out.
Disablez, where do I go to join the Skin Liberation Army?
If I admit I wasn’t brought up to fear wetness and air, it will probably sound as if I wasn’t brought up at all…
Michael, there is indeed a good reason why you should try to stick to your wife’s version: if she doesn’t, there will always be enough neighbours, relatives and other well-wishers who will berate you for not having protected your children accordingly. And not all of them may get convinced with sarcasm or science. After all, it has always been done like this.
Well there is a little tiny bit of truth to all this. What cold temperatures actually do is lower the bodies immune response, I.E. (your antibodies are slower moving, reacting) so it’s a little easier to get sick. That’s what they used to teach us in HS Biology a decade ago.
That being said you’re still going to need to be in the presence of a germ, or virus. So if you were running around naked in the snow in cold temperatures with no one around, you still probably wouldn’t get sick due to the lack of germs present.
The wet hair, drafts on the other hand has no scientific proof that it makes you any more sick.
@camille: just remove thy unnecessary vestments.
(And optionally send some imagery to Monsieur Pengovsky, to spread the spirit and warm the heart -and feet- of these cold-fearing people).
Ups, that one was me.
Hahaha, Michael, I have to forward your post to my American friends who lived in Slovenia for a while and to my Canadian ones who still do. This is exactly the thing they all “complain” about.
Luckily, my mom never exaggerated like this with my brother and I. I remember one time when I was sick but did not have fever anymore, she actually let me go out for a while. My friends almost dropped dead when they heard this.
My aunts (and my grandma), on the other hand, were always over-dressing my cousins. But guess who got sick more often!
Anyway, I am happy to report that I got rid of this type of behavior when someone, I think my friend Victor, said once, “Well, you don’t want your windows rolled down when you drive. What about when you stand outside and it’s windy? And when you ride your bike?” Point taken, my friend; point taken.
PS–Drought is especially lovely over night here in Texas, when it’s still cool enough to keep your windows open and save on the electric bill because you don’t have to run the A/C all night.
@Disablez: YES!:D
@camille: Do listen to the wise words of Disablez-san
I think this debate is going nowhere. Some people get the cold at low temperatures and others don’t! And in order to emphasise what i have just written I shall now blow my nose!
I’m terribly sorry for not signing the last post.
Here is my signature: Mr. Slightlysilly
Mr. Slightlysilly
P.S.:The last signature belongs to this post and not the previous one.
The question is: how cold is cold? I often drove around with open windows during summer (I tried that in Slovenia aswell) without getting a cold. The only time when I caught one was when I went into Postojna caves with a t-shirt. During summer it’s normally a bit cooler inside the house, so it’s more dangerous to stay inside with wet hair :-p
So why is that? Placebo?
That’s an interesting question. Although in this case, I guess it would be the nocebo effect — something harmless (cold, wind, wet) makes people ill because people are convinced it does. I suppose that’s possible, although my personal opinion is that what’s really at work is recall bias. In other words, people get sick and then try to remember why. Many Slovenes, I suspect, don’t try to think of the time they spent in enclosed places with sick people, but instead remember: “Oh, yeah, two days ago I was in a car with a window open.”
One thing I always find baffling is that at family gatherings, people will share a bowl of salad. And if someone is sniffing or otherwise looks ill, no one will say anything. Just God forbid there’s slight draft in the room, because then everyone will complain loudly and in unison.
how cold is cold?
Well, it’s worth mentioning that people in isolation in Antarctica don’t get colds. And it’s mega-cold there, as in -80 degrees Celsius.
Ange: Yes! I’ve heard the ovaries thing too. I’ve also heard that going outside with wet hair can make you deaf. (Best to start investing in hearing aides, Lisa!) There’s seemingly no limit to the amount of damage that can be done by water.
sunshine: Thank the good Lord for you. At least there’s one Slovene-Slovene I can turn to in moments of spiritual crisis.
Viva el Skin Liberation Army!
Yes! I am a Canadian living in Germany. One August I was warned about how sick I would get if I went outside with wet hair, on a 25C day. And anytime I wear a scarf in the winter I get asked if it is to cure a soare throat.
Be careful if you ever visit Germany, you might suffer Kreislaufzusammenbruch (circulatory collapse), which can only be cured by a day home sick in bed.
Note: I noticed that my spam filter went berserker on a lot of people. Everyone has been restored to the light.
And here I thought all these years that my Slovenian grandma was just being, well…elderly, wearing her full length winter dressing gown and three inch thick socks in the middle of summer.
Thanks for the great post!
Only thing that makes sore throath is drinking too much union during winter
@Michael M: “Well, it’s worth mentioning that people in isolation in Antarctica don’t get colds. And it’s mega-cold there, as in -80 degrees Celsius.” Well I’m sure at least one person has caught a cold during the entire time people have been stationed in Antarctica. In the end though it does support your POV since the extreme cold results in a severe lack of bacteria & viruses (hence not many occurrences of sick people)
AT MOST the only thing cold will do to a person is maybe..maybe make it a little easier to catch a cold, but it’s probably due to a combination of factors like stress, etc; which allows germs to attack your system more successfully.
My personal weird theory on why Balkanci have this hang up about cold and wet:
The entire region had a lot of malaria before modern times and it really does kill, opening windows lets in the mosquitoes, they bite then you are sick.
They have the same belief about cold air in Mexico b.t.w.
It’s not just the Slavs who believe that a draft is bad for you. When I was in Romania I was told that sitting in a room with a cross-breeze could leave you paralyzed.
I’ve been chastised here in Russia for drinking water and juice from the fridge.