Even though the saying that you loose 50% of your body heat through your head is a myth, a beanie still helps to keep your head warm.
During the cold season, it is crucial to keep your head warm after exposing it –the ears above all – to frigid water and wind. Especially if you are a surfer. You don’t wanna end up with an inflammation of your middle ear that keeps you out of the water for weeks. Not to mention the pain it involves. A beanie helps you avoiding such trouble.
The heat-loss myth.
The US army researched how the human body looses heat in the 50ies, exposing soldiers to freezing temperatures. While keeping their bodies isolated, their heads were uncovered. Guess what, they lost 50% of their body head through the head. Recent and way more accurate studies showed that the head accounts for about 7% of the body’s surface area and the heat loss is fairly proportional to the amount of bare skin. Now you can do your maths, with a beanie you can reduce that by some 50%. Just cover the most vulnerable parts of your head: the ears and the sinuses. I even consider a beanie helpful to prevent a stiff neck, which I have to deal with often.
From Bali with love.
I first met Rian when I went to Bali for a surf trip in 2013. He was my surf guide and it was the weekly beanie sales-party on the camp’s pool table where I got my first Dana beanie. The story behind the brand is a true love story: Martina met Rian in Bali while spending the summer of 2004 on the island and they instantly fell in love. Already in the knitting business, Martina wanted to make more beanies to afford a flight for Rian to show him Austria, her homeland.
After four years traveling forth and back, they married in 2008. By that time, Dana Beanies was already past the weekly homemade sales-party. More and more shops started to put them on their shelves.
It’s more than a beanie, it’s a community project that helps a whole range of people every day. – Martina Walch Dana
Beanies with a purpose.
The beanies are handmade by housewives and mothers at their homes in Bali’s northwest. Despite it’s vicinity to the developed areas around Kuta, it is still very rural. The lack of the tourism-industry makes it hard to find a job, particularly for women. As a result, families are often poor. The work for Dana beanies gives them a chance to work at home. Like that, they can do their family duties while earning their own money. It is very important to Dana beanies that all people involved in the project are treated fairly.
Get your own.
If you like online-shopping you can get your beanie (or the one for your significant other, we’re close to Christmas) at blue-tomato. If you like it more personal in any way, you can either get a custom one from Dana beanies directly or head to one of the stores that sell them in the Alps.
