Just putting a jumper on isn't gonna do that much to solve the problem.
[Upbeat into music]
I've ha so many comments online, so not just uh YouTube, I've had a couple here and there,
but I've had plenty on my Instagram and I've had quite a few on comments on newspaper articles
as well that just because I'm sitting somewhere in a t-shirt, that I must not have it that
bad, and that obviously if my arms are out I obviously must not need my mask. Dressing
when you have Cold Urticaria is about striking a balance. You want to be warm enough, obviously,
but in my case I also don't want too warm because not only do I react to my sweat- cute,
I also struggle with low blood pressure and overheating makes that so much worse and I
quite like being conscious. So how do I do it? Well, let's throwback to past me for a minute
Past me: Hi future me!
Future me: Hi past me!
Past me: How did the date go?
Future me: That's cheating, get dressed.
Past me: Dammit. Anyway, so I want to look nice today
but I also happen to be allergic to cold, so, how do we get dressed for that?
Good question. Firstly, we must check the weather, so I have my trusty weather app.
Currently 13 degrees which I am allergic to, but if we look at later... I meet them at
12, so then it will be 17 degrees, which I am not allergic to. And then it seems to continue
and be nice and warm all day. So really at this point I'm just kind of dressing for wind
chill, and for if we go anywhere cold, like I don't know, a shop that has air conditioning,
so I will obviously have one of my masks which I will pick after my outfit. Sometimes I do
it the other way around, but not today. Today I feel like wearing a skirt because I feel
like it's going to be very very warm, and I want to feel pretty. So I have my options.
There is a lot of them. This is the kind of thing that I want to wear today, so how do
we make this Cold Urticaria friendly? This goes up to kind of shin length and I wear
it quite high anyway so white tights. I could wear other colours, but I don't have any that
go with this blue. But I might change my mind, we'll see. So then what do I want to put with
it? Well, one of my favourite Cold Urticaria clothing tips is to tuck stuff in, so I want
to wear something I can tuck in to this skirt. Let's put them over here. Do I have anything
I can tuck into that? Ol' faithful. Kind of goes, doesn't it? Maybe? You can't really
see that. So, I'll put that on and get back to you. So I don't know if you can see all
the way how low it goes. It comes down to about there. So it's nice and tucked in so
I've got warmth in the body, and I have the option to untuck it if I get too hot and then
I can tie it around my middle if I want. Likewise with the collar area- God I feel weird doing
this. Likewise with the collar area I can button it up to keep the warmth in or I could
keep it unbuttoned to look nice. And then I've got sleeves which I've rolled up for
now because that is how I wear shirts, but I have the option to unroll them if I so choose.
But now, do I want to put a cardigan with it? Or will I put a jacket with it? Or will
I do both? I don't know. So I don't have a cardigan that goes with it, so it'll probably
just be a jacket, but I do have an arse tonne of jumpers because I am queer, and that is
what we do. I'll take that with me just in case I get really cold, but it's unlikely.
So I'll put that in my bag. Here's my box of masks. And I'm going to go with either
a yellow one, I wore a yellow one yesterday, but I don't know where I put it. Or a blue
one I think. Maybe this blue and white one because it's blue and white. Ta-daaa. This
is my entire outfit. So I've got me old faithful shoes, my white tights, this pretty skirt-
this is vintage by the way, and so is the shirt. So I've got all my options covered,
I'm gonna wear, um- I've got that jumper that I've said, and I'm gonna take a hat with me,
I've got gloves that are gonna come with me and I'm going to wear a jacket so I've got
a black leather jacket, I'll do a wave as I go out the door with it. And that's it.
That's how I'm- this is one morning's get ready with me, and uh- I should probably clean this
Good. Oh well.
That was an example of the kind of things I think about when I'm
getting dressed. So let's talk about this a little bit more. I think that thing that
is the most obvious is layers. I give myself options. So, I usually wear like a vest underneath
a t-shirt with a jumper on top and then a coat, and then I can take those off. But layers
doesn't always mean just many many many clothes- I mean, well, probably does, but I also do
things like wearing socks under tights if it's in, like if it's especially cold, or
I try and make it a look and I put some socks over some tights. I have like 2 outfits that
I do this in. And I do things like skirts, you can wear petticoats under skirts to make
them a bit warmer so you've got more fabric, and wearing stuff under dresses, all that
kind of thing. I make sure that my layers are easy to take off. So I don't want to wear
5 layers and have to keep 5 layers on. So for example, if I wear a shirt under a dress,
that's not giving me many options to take, because I can't just take the dress off so
there's that. Tights can be deceptively warm if I want to wear a skirt in winter, which
I do sometimes, but you can also wear them under jeans, you can wear them under trackie
bottoms, you can wear them under anything. Half of the time you're not even gonna see
them anyway. I like to ask myself the question "Am I going outside today?" because I have
a south facing room, and I know this because the sun kind of blares in all day and it's
like a greenhouse in here. It is so hot. That is why in winter videos and future videos
coming into winter, you will see me complaining about how cold it is outside, but sitting
in a vest, because my room pretty much stays above 25 degrees, and we don't always have
the heating on and it just... It's a mess. I have found that dressing for a bike ride
is near impossible, so I do not have any advice to give on this yet, I just kind of... I try.
Scarves, hats, gloves, obviously your friends. And think about the types of material you're
wearing so it doesn't have to be a chunky knitted scarf every time you put a scarf on.
Even those vintage silky ones, they can be incredibly warm and they can be very versatile
as well so you don't just have to wear them around your neck, you can drape them around
your shoulders. I talk about this in my Cold Urticaria must haves video. Masks come in
all different kinds of patterns, colours, designs, so you can work those into your outfit
to make it match, I try to do that a lot, that's kind of my thing now. Long socks under
jeans for extra warmth. Maybe even two pairs if it's very cold. I find that tighter things
are warmer than looser things. So I wear a lot of skinny jeans, partly because I am really
short and it is hard to find a pair of jeans that fit in the leg, so with skinny jeans
you can just roll them up really easily, but they also do keep the heat in really well.
You are a little bit limited on how many layers you can wear under them, but because they
give that extra warmth it's not so bad. I don't wear thermal underwear because it's
expensive and it's so easy to overheat in it. But everyone's different and I have heard
of plenty of other people with Cold Urticaria rave about how much it's helped them out in
their daily lives, so definitely give it a go. Tuck your shirts in! That is my favourite
trick to uh, keeping warm, no matter what I'm wearing, I will, about 90% of the time
have my shirt tucked in, apart from my jammies. They don't count. Open things like zippy hoodies,
cardigans, that kind of thing can be really helpful when the weather is kind of warm but
also kind of cold. So like spring and autumn. So that you don't have to take off entire
layers and get things stuck, you can just kind of unzip and you don't have to be like
off and on off and on with temperature changes. And my final tip is having sleeves that you
can roll up and down easily, like jumper sleeves because it just saves having to take the jumper
off and then five minutes later being cold, having a reaction, and having to put it back
on again, so just the sleeves. It's just an easier and quicker way to figure out whether
you're going to have a reaction or not. That is everything I can think of about dressing
with Cold Urticaria. If you have your own tips, put them down in the comments below,
if you have any questions about things I haven't mentioned but I may have done or you want
my opinion on it, ask me in the comments. And while you're down there don't forget to
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