Cooling

Extreme Heat. The High UV Buff® fabric cools you. So good you can use it as a face mask whilst running.
Extreme Heat. The High UV Buff® fabric cools you. So good you can use it as a face mask whilst running.

It’s hot. So hot that heat exhaustion or stroke are a real danger. Add some activity and you need some serious cooling.

The head is a great place to cool. That’s why you sweat so much there.

The High UV Buff® fabric was created to help. It uses your sweat to cool you.

drawing showing how all elements of a cooling fabric
A cooling fabric takes the moisture of the skin and spreads it super thin on the outer fabric surface. The heat evaporates the moisture creating a cooling effect

It is the highest cooling headwear fabric in the world. In fact it created the category Coolmax® Extreme in 2003.

Photomontage: Left image: Stockphoto. Desert woman thirsty dehydrated in Death Valley. Dehydration, overheating, thirst and heat stroke concept image with girl in desert nature. maridav © 123rf.com Right image: Participant of the 2003 Marathon Des Sables running. He is wearing a Buff® as face mask. © Unknown. Distributed 2003 by Original Buff S.A for the promotion of Buff® products
Twice as much cooling as standard Coolmax®. The highest cooling fabric in the world.

Popular Applications for Coolmax® Extreme

Motorcycle

Danielle Murdoch on the first leg of her epic Australia, Africa, Europe and back trip. She is standing in front of the Northern Territory border sign. The sun is shining, it is hot and she is in full motorcycle gear. © Danielle Murdoch http://motomonkeyadventures.com/
Heat and motorcycle gear don’t go well together. The cooling fabric around the neck can ease the heat (Motomonkey)

Motorcycle gear in the heat is dreadful.

But there is a gap between the helmet and the jacket. Your neck. Your neck is a great place to get cooling.

The High UV Buff® as helmet liner does a few good things. It

  • Cools the neck in the heat
  • Draws the sweat out of the helmet. Keeps the helmet dryer
  • Keeps the bugs out of your jacket

Fishing

Fly fisher holding a catch in the flats. He is wearing a High Uv Buff® as face mask. The cooling effect makes the face mask comfortable. © Pat Ford http://www.patfordphotos.com/. Licenced by Original Buff S.A for the promotion of the High Uv Buff®
Intense sun and heat. The High Uv Buff® fabric cools to make your sun protection comfortable (Pat Ford)

You are out all day. Sunscreen is not really an option. It creates all kind of skin issues.

You’ve probably seen the pro’s wearing a face mask. Thats’ the High UV Buff®.

The cooling feature makes the High UV Buff® the only face mask you can wear comfortable in the heat.

Cycling

Scott smiling into the camera at the 2005 24 hour mtb race in Kooralbyne. It is hot. He is wearing a Original Buff® as helmet liner to cool down. It also stops sweat from running into his eyes. © Buff Downunder Pty Ltd
Hot under the helmet? The High UV Buff® as helmet liner gives you cooling.

Bicycle helmets are hot. No matter how many air vents. And then there’s the sweat running down into your eyes.

The cooling feature of the High UV Buff® as helmet liner

  • cools your forehead
  • keeps the sweat out of your eyes

Travel & Adventure

Andrew Johnson on the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea. He is wearing a Visor® Buff® and raising his arms in a victory pose. Image taken during the first source to sea traverse of the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea. © Clark Carter. http://www.adventureplaybook.com/
Hot, humid? No wind somewhere in the jungle? The cooling High UV fabric will give you heat relief.

A lot of great places to visit are in hot & humid climate zones.

The cooling feature of the High UV Buff® can help you in many ways:

  • Sweat in your eyes – A cooling bandana or sweatband
  • A cooling wristband
  • A neck cooler

Limitations

You are a heavy sweater that hates the heat. You are in a tropical rainforest. Chances are that even the High UV Buff® fabric will fail you. At least you know that you’ve tried the best money can get you. Better get out of that place or take ice packs with you.

Also the fabric has to be flat on your skin. No air pockets allowed. Also not more than one layer.

I recommend to make the fabric moist and shake it before putting it on. This way you have an instant cooling effect on your skin. You don’t first have to sweat to get the cooling effect.

How to easily check other fabrics for MM

Test it

This one is easy. Best is to take your Buff® as reference. Do the following first with your Buff®. Then do it with any other fabric and you’ll be able to compare.

  1. Make the fabric wet and squeeze excess moisture out.
  2. Feel the fabric and memorise the temperature.
  3. Now shake the fabric vigorously in the air to activate any cooling process
  4. Now feel the fabric flat on your palm or on your cheek. Does it feel cooler or not.
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Only Non-Toxic and Non-Itchy Ingredients – Oekotex Certified

8 December 2018 No Comments

The most dangerous way for a toxin to enter the body is not through the digestive system, but through the skin

Andreas Schimkus, former senior industry adviser to the Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia's (TFIA)
A toddler wearing a Baby Buff® as a face mask. The toddler looks happy. Source: buff.eu
A Buff® passes the most stringent test for fabrics. Free of anything irritating or harmful for babies.

Did you know that fabric ingredients are grouped into toxic or safe and non-itchy?

The difference in costs is huge.

This article shows you how to spot the safe products and why Buff® headwear ticks the right boxes

What makes you itch?

There are 2 main reasons for fabrics itching.

The first is bacteria. Call it bad hygiene or simply fabrics that make you sweat and breed bacteria (cheap polyester beanie hat for example).

The second is toxic and irritating ingredients in making the fabric.

There are ingredients available that can not only make you itch but also severely impact your health.
These ingredients are on a list and banned in most 1st world countries.

How safe are we in Australia?

Not at all, unfortunately.

Australia has no tests or regulations regarding safe textile ingredients. You can import into Australia whatever you like.

This leads to Australia being the only 1st world country supplied with 3rd world quality clothing.
Whenever we mentioned in China that we are from Australia and want headwear that passes the Oekotex test, we heard something like, “Why do you want to waste money on Oekotex. You are from Australia. You do not need this …”.
We were quite shocked at first but got used to hearing it all the time.

Here is a nice article from Choice that goes into more detail
https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/everyday-shopping/clothing/articles/chemicals-in-clothing
My favourite quote is

Products that are made in China for the Australian market could not even be sent back to China, as many of them would not meet the Chinese product safety standards but are acceptable here.

Andreas Schimkus, former senior industry adviser to the Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia's (TFIA)

How do you find safe and non-itchy clothing in Australia?

You look for the Oekotex® certificate.

Oekotex® is a worldwide testing standard for classifying the safety of clothing.

Just look out for something like the logo below. If you spend more money to make your product safe, you will have it tested. If you can’t find it, assume the worst.
Especially if it’s our beloved “The same, just cheaper…” products.

The logo of the Oekotex® 100 certification for babies (class1). Source: buff.eu
The logo of the Oekotex® 100 certification for babies (class1)

You can always go to the AITEX website and enter the test number. That will give you all the details of the test.

So what are Buff® tested to?

The more intensive the skin contact of a product and the more sensitive the skin, the stricter the human-ecological requirements that need to be complied with.

Oekotex® 100 website

All adult products are rated to class 2. This is the class for adults close to the skin clothing (underwear, socks, headwear,…)

All baby products are rated to class 1. The most stringent class.

You can find the logo of the Oekotex® 100 certification on the back of the Original Buff® packaging. Source: buff.eu
The logo of the Oekotex® Certification on the Original Buff®

Sources

Choice – Chemicals in Clothing

Oekotex® 100 webpage

Wikipedia – Oekotex® 100

UV/Sun Protection

6 December 2018 No Comments
Photomontage: Left image Cutout of a man with a severely sunburned face. © Jonny Hunter, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnyhunter/3565036940/in/photostream/ Right image A flyfisher proudly displaying his catch. He is standing waist deep in salt water and he is wearing a High Uv Buff® as face mask. © Pat Ford
Ouch. That must hurt. The Buff® fabrics protect. (Jonny Butler / Pat Ford)

Sunburns hurt. Skin cancer can kill.

The Original EcoStretch and the Coolnet UV fabric give you UPF50 excellent protection (98% UV/Sun protection).

Scan of a UPF report issued by ARPANSA
Skin Cancer aware? If it’s not rated it will not protect you.

This is an example of a UPF report. It was performed by the founders of the UPF rating ARPANSA. Nowadays both Original EcoStretch and CoolnetUV fabrics are constantly monitored for their UPF rating at the factory. The testing company is Aitext Textile Research Institute.

BUFF® Original EcoStretch and CoolnetUV multifunctional headwear comes with a label stating the standard (AS/NZS 4399:1996), the UPF Rating and the testing laboratory.

Beware of UPF Claims without reference to the test!

We see a lot of tubular headwear that advertises sun protection claims but has no labels or mention of the test standard. Those claims are bogus. Why?

A thin fabric without a UPF rating cannot protect you from skin cancer.

For example, a T-shirt is only around UPF 6. That’s because it just filters out enough UVB to stop a sunburn. It will not stop you from getting skin cancer because it doesn’t filter out UVA enough.

UVA is harder to filter, and it goes deep into your skin, so the damage is not visible.

That’s where special dyes and other ingredients that absorb UVA and UVB satisfactorily enter the game. This function can only be tested and proven in a laboratory.

That’s why sun-protective clothing is more expensive than non-protective clothing.

So, if you see a tube with a UV protection claim that doesn’t clearly state the UPF rating with the testing standard and the testing laboratory, do yourself a favour and walk away.

Most Popular Use

 
Fly fisher holding a catch in the flats. He is wearing a High Uv Buff® as face mask. The cooling effect makes the face mask comfortable. © Pat Ford http://www.patfordphotos.com/. Licenced by Original Buff S.A for the promotion of the High Uv Buff®
Intense sun and heat. The BUFF® CoolnetUv fabric cools to make your sun protection comfortable (Pat Ford)

Fishing

The most popular application so far for sun protection. A face mask that you can wear in the heat.
All fishing professionals now wear the BUFF® CoolnetUV for this one reason: Replace sunscreen and still be skin cancer protected.

 

In the Snow

A man wearing a High Uv Buff® as face mask in the snow. He is in a ski resort. © unknown
Forgot your sunscreen? A BUFF® Original EcoStretch helps you out.

How often did you forget your sunscreen? I have tons of times.

  • Wear it as a face mask and you’re protected
  • Not sweating – It eases the biting wind

 

Travel

Halong Bay in Vietnam as seen from a kayak. The kayaker in front is wearing a High Uv Buff® as legionnaire style cap. Submitted to us as part of a testimonial. Copyright unknown
Long sun exposure during a great adventure. Good to have a protective and cooling BUFF® CoolnetUV as legionnaire cap with you.

You’re travelling and you have this opportunity to go on a tour. No cloud in the sky, and of course, you didn’t bring some specialized headgear with you. The BUFF® CoolnetUV tube as a legionnaire-style cap will give you protection.

 

Endurance Sports

A participant of the Marathon Des Sables running through the desert. He is wearing a custom made High Uv Buff® as face mask. Copyright is unknown. Distributed by Original Buff® S.A. for the promotion of Buff® products
Sunscreen sweating out, and there is no time to replace it. The BUFF® CoolnetUV protects. The fabric cools enough to wear in a desert.

Running events in the sun are a prime example. You’re sweating throughout the day, and no sunscreen will work for long. You also don’t have any time to apply sunscreen constantly.

Events like the Marathon des Sables have their custom-made BUFF® CoolnetUV for their participants. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than burning to crisps.

 

Limitations

They are thin fabrics so stretching them too much or wearing them thin over several years reduces the protection.

Sources

ARPANSA Resource Guide for UV Protective Products

Wikipedia – Ultraviolet

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