What's the origin of the belief if you bathe or wash your hair before going out in winter it makes you sick?

Question

Many people, prior to the mid-70s, would not take a morning bath and go out. Also, they wouldn't go to bed with wet hair or wash their hair in the morning and go out. They were told they would get a cold, but I am only interested in where this belief originated.

Answer 1

In the poem "The Night Before Christmas" the use of night caps was mentioned. I asked my grandfather about that. He said that homes were not as well insulated then as they are now. Since our warmth can escape from the tops of our heads the use of head cover was common for sleeping. If you had wet hair then added a night cap you would likely wake in the morning with your hair still wet.

Answer 2

It isn't really a beliefe it's truth. Although a cold comes from the germ and not from being out in the cold, It can still give you sniffles. Going to bed with wet hair makes it a pain in the a.ss to fix it the next day.

Answer 3

The belief is probably a take on how being out in the cold can cause you to become sick. Being wet would in theory cause this effect to be worse, as water is a very good heatsink (cools things off very well). We now know cold cannot directly make you sick, but it CAN temporarily weaken your immune system.

Answer 4

When homes weren't heated as well as they are today, and before there were hair dryers available, people could get chilled if they were wet. If you are outside in the freezing cold and get wet you could get hypothermia.
Obviously, when you go from a heated house to a heated car to a heated office, etc., it's not a risk.

Answer 5

Theoretically- since we do lose MUCH of our Body's heat from our Heads, -a wet head, exposed to the cold, COULD cause Hypothermia... But as for actually getting an "illness"- it sounds like one of those things your Mother used to tell you JUST so that you looked half-way decent, when you went out of the house! :)

Answer 6

There really is no hard evidence for this being true. Although why would you want to be all the more cold once you go outside? I think it is just common sense.

Answer 7

you lose 80% of body heat through your head the thought behind a morning shower and older people is that they roll their hair on rollers and it wouldn't be dry before they left that's why women wear rollers to bed.

Answer 8

well its true that if you wash ur hair in the morning and go outside when its frezzing you could get sis you should wear a hat if ur gonna wash ur hair

Answer 9

It's actually true, and night air makes you sicker than day air when it's cold out too. Especially true with babies and the elderly.

Answer 10

Medicine.