If that's your head, then surely more heat will be lost to the body that way than any other. Head heat loss is not the majority of heat lost. They found that the head accounts for about 7 percent of the body’s surface area, and the heat loss is fairly proportional to the amount of skin that’s showing.What about when you want to cool off? Sure, the explanations are a bit dubious—the skin on your scalp is extremely thin, heat rises, and if you’re wearing clothes the heat has nowhere else to go—but who can question such an enduring yarn? Origin The earliest reference of this comes from the U.S. Army Field Manual in the 1950s, which claims that “40% to 45% of body heat” is lost through the head. This article is more than 11 years old. When they wore only swimsuits, they lost between two and three times more heat, an average of 914 kilojoules when their heads were above water and 988 kilojoules when their heads were submerged. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Special machines help overheated athletes cool their core temperature and recover from heavy exercise by dunking their hands in icy water. The reality is that the amount of heat lost from a given part of your body is relative to how much skin is showing. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

Head heat loss is linear with temperature, meaning the lower the temperature, the higher percentage head heat loss.

Firstly, let’s go back to the basics of heat exchange. The heat you lose from your head is small compared to the rest of your body, and varies with temperature and exercise. Or 80 percent. A slightly higher proportion of the heat might be lost from my head thanks to the greater blood supply to the head and face, but the head doesn’t have a lock on heat loss. (Source: bit.ly/SJDnNB. The 2008 study corroborated these findings, saying that about 7% to 10% of body heat is lost through the head. The normal temperature is often quoted as 98.6°F, but it can be slightly lower or higher. “There’s really no such thing as ‘cold’ when you’re talking about the body. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, )Stay up to date on the coronavirus outbreak by signing up to our newsletter today.Thank you for signing up to Live Science. You lose half of your body heat through your head, making it the most important part of your body to cover in frigid temperatures. Origin The earliest reference of this comes from the U.S. Army Field Manual in the 1950s, which claims that “40% to 45% of body heat” is lost through the head. "The real reason we lose heat through our head is because most of the time when we're outside in the cold, we're clothed," says Richard Ingebretsen, MD, PhD, an adjunct instructor in the department of internal medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

If you go outside in a pair of shorts you’re going to lose a lot of heat through your legs. In one test, the volunteers wore only swimsuits, and in another they wore warm clothes covered by wetsuits. It might feel like more heat is lost through the head because the head and face are more sensitive to temperature changes. There’s always heat—it’s just a matter of keeping it in.”The ice at the lake edge is dark, slushy, and covered in standing water, as if the lake dug a moat...The ice at the lake edge is dark, slushy, and covered in standing water, as if the lake dug a moat...After six hours, my eyes start to water. They devised a series of experiments that put volunteers into 63-degree water.

You lose most of your body heat through your head. Perhaps, they thought, more heat was lost through the head because it was the only body part directly exposed to the cold. Not even close. "WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

(Of course, dunking your head in icy water will probably cool you down, too. So, while it's not true that we lose more heat through our heads, having a cold head does cool down the rest of your body - in fact, a cold head increases core cooling by nearly 40 per cent. Though the head accounts for about 7 percent of the body's surface area, clothing and exposure conditions on the rest of your body dictate how much heat you lose through your head in … So if the head were to lose even 75% of the body's heat, it would have to lose about 40 times as much heat per square inch as every other part of your body. In each condition, they spent 30 minutes with their heads above water, and later, 30 minutes with their heads fully submerged in the water, breathing compressed air. Our picks for the week’s best hunting, fishing, wild foods, and conservation content.

"Richard Ingebretsen, MD, PhD, wilderness medicine instructor; adjunct instructor in the department of internal medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine.Wilderness Medicine Newsletter: "Heat Loss Through the Head and Hypothermia.