Modesty and Staying Cool

It is now Fall and many will be asking why on Earth am I trying to tackle Summer modesty and staying cool? Well to be honest I did not think of it in time. But perhaps now is a time to start thinking of next year. How are we to stay modest in the blazing Summer sun and heat? Some may say “I just want to rip my clothes off it is so hot.” Perhaps it is your clothing that is making you extreme hot and sweaty but maybe it is not in the way you might be thinking. People tend to have a wrong view of what can keep us cool. The mentality is less clothes means cooler feeling body but this is actually incorrect. The less clothes you wear and the tighter clothes you put on will actually make you a lot hotter and extremely sweaty. So let me give you some tips on staying cooler, dryer and feeling refresh while enjoying the Summer.

1. Keep your clothes loose. The looser, the better. The less fabric you have actually touching your body, the cooler you will be but the clothing will also block the heat of the sun also keeping you cooler then if you had no cloths on. Believe it or not, a loose and flowing long dress or skirt will keep you cooler than a pair of shorts and a skintight tank. Trust me pants/shorts are not the way to stay cool. They are extremely hot and sweaty and can create a haven for bacteria and yeast infections. Besides, Reformed Covenanter theology has held to the Katastole principle which is that women should be wearing loose flowing dress/skirts. Pants are not modest for women. I really do not understand it but many people including most women find pants or shorts to be the best thing to wear. They also believe they are better at cooling. But this is simply not true. They are extremely hot and sweaty.

Pants/shorts are contour revealing clothes. There is a natural law or line-of-sight principle.

Artist recognize this principle in their vocation as they are “aware of the power of lines that can be used to attract the eye to a certain area. When intersecting or converging lines attract the eye and emphasize that area and it becomes the point of attention.”

In addition to the contour revealing shape of legs with pants there is also an An arrow that points right to the unmentionables that just screams look here.

Skirted garments simply allow a comfort, cooliness and freedom that can not be achieved with trousers or shorts, particularly when seated for long periods.

Woman are called to be ‘Katastole’ which means long dignified flowing robes as even the Puritan William Ames teaches is the proper woman’s garments that Paul commands.

Women’s skirts are meant to be long and relatively spacious – not so tightened as to hinder a modest gait (Isa. 3:16). It is to be long, Her “outer garment”, says Easton’s Bible Dictionary, “terminated in an ample fringe or border, which concealed the feet (Isaiah 47:2; Jeremiah 13:22)”

In I Tim. 2:9 the word translated here as “apparel” is katastolh (katastole), which combines stolh (stole), a word for a dignified long robe with the prefix kata (kata), which means “down” or in some instances “covered down” (cf. I Cor. 11:4).

“that women adorn themselves in modest apparel: the word rendered “apparel” signifies a long robe, which reaches down to the feet; and the word translated “modest” signifies that which is clean, neat, and decent, yea, beautiful and ornamental; and the sense of the apostle is, that he would not have them to come to public worship in rags, and in dirty and filthy garments, but that their bodies should be covered with clean and decent raiment; so the Israelites washed their clothes that they might be ready to meet the Lord at Mount Sinai, Exo_19:14.” John Gill, Commentary on the Bible

2. Avoid flimsy fabrics if you don’t want your clothes to stick to your body. Lightweight fabrics are great for hot weather, but they need to have a little structure so that they don’t just cling to your body the second you start to sweat or show to much of what is underneath the fabric. Form fitting clothing is not only bad for staying cool but it also shows off every part of your body that is not to be seen.

3. Choose clothes in natural fabrics. Cotton, for instance, is much more breathable than polyester or rayon. It’s also better at absorbing sweat and dries faster, which means you won’t feel sweaty as long as you would if your clothes were made of synthetic fabric. Silk is actually even better then cotton for breathablity and wicking away moisture.

4. Avoid embellishments such as Jewelry — whether on clothing or on your body. Especially like beading or anything made of metal. Embellishments weigh your clothes down so they are closer to your skin, trapping body heat. They’re also just another layer between your skin and the next cooling breeze.

5. Bring shade with you wherever you go by wearing a wide-brimmed hat or carrying a lightweight that you can put over your head veil. It will help shade your head as well as protect your eyes. My daughter Lilli knows this all to well for the last time we went to the beach she had gotten a severe sunburn in her white part of her eyes. It was extremely painful.

6. Wear socks. Sandals are the most logical way to stay cool, but open shoes mean dirty feet, which mean hot feet. Socks help absorb your sweat and keep your feet feeling cool and clean and not smelly. There are more sweat glands on the soles of your feet than any other area of your body, and socks protect your shoes from absorbing your foot sweat, making them last longer.

7. Use a scarf to keep your hair off your neck. A small cotton scarf is great for absorbing sweat. Reformed Covenanters have historically held that the Gorget (Neck and Throat) should be covered as James Durham taught. Of course he taught it for modesty and we also believe it should be for modesty but a scarf on the neck goes a long way to keeping your neck feeling cool and not sweaty.

“Wantonness and lightness in them [i.e., clothes and dressings], which is especially in nakedness, as to such and such parts of the body, which in modesty are to be hid; for women having clothes for a cover, ought to make use of them for that end; and it is more than probable, that that walking with stretched-out necks, there reproved, relateth to women, their making more of their necks, and their breasts bare, than should be, or is decent, they affected to discover or raise their gorgets, when God commendeth modesty, and nature is best pleased in its own unaffected freedom, yet they stretched them out” -James Durham, ‘The Seventh Commandment’, The Law Unsealed, pp 306-308.

*gorgets- Part of the woman’s veil covering the throat and chest. Old French gorgete, diminutive of gorge, throat.

8. Stick to light colors. Dark colors absorb light and make you that much hotter while light colors reflect light and help keep you cool.

9. Make sure your clothes are as fresh and clean as you are. Rewearing your clothes between washes is a great way to avoid doing laundry, but even light wear leaves dirt, sweat, skin cells, and cosmetics trapped in the fibers of your clothes, which makes them less breathable and you hotter.

And for the final point, how to stay dry in the Summer sun and heat.

10. In order to stay dry and not smelly. Avoid all artificial deodorants and antiperspirant. These are not only unhealthy for your body containing many chemicals that can cause health issues in the long term they also destroy your cloths faster. It is not sweat that is causing your arm pits to yellow to have a bad odor after a while even after washing them, it is the artificial deodorants and antiperspirants.

Go with an Alum stone which is a natural salty rock that has the property to repeal bacteria that causes the body odor in the first place. The Alum stone has a very ancient history going back to the desert people of the Middle East. And Yes it does work! I am a man and I have used it for 8 years without a problem or body smell and if it can work on a man it can also work on women. Shower and apply it directly to underarms. Make sure the stone get wet and rub all over, even beyond where arm pit hair grows. It is amazing how many people think the smell is limited to a small area on the underarms and they go and try the Alum stone and then claim it does not work.

To remain dry since the Alum stone is not an antiperspirant apply some Talc powder not only in the underarms areas but also in other areas that get sweaty or have a lot of moisture.

Cover up to protect your skin from the sun and keep cool. Direct sunlight

not only damages your skin, it raises your body temperature.

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