You can be properly dressed for the cold, with layers, but if you don’t wear socks you won’t warm up properly. Similarly, wearing gloves makes a huge difference to how warm you are outside as well.
What is it about covering extremities that is so essential?
In: Biology
This is actually something of a mistaken assumption that gets the logic backwards.
Scientists have done studies that show that people lose the most heat through hands, feet, and head in very cold situations *while dressed for the cold*. They take a thermal image, which shows the most heat around those areas. And a lot of people have interpreted this to mean that those areas lose the most heat, which causes this. But the actuality is that people lose the most heat through those areas because it is harder to extensively cover them while still maintaining enough functionality to do anything. Your core/torso is actually the place where you would lose the most heat if it’s exposed, but it’s very easy to layer up your torso with multiple layers of clothing, insulating it well. Meanwhile, you sacrifice significant dexterity in your hands by wearing even one pair of relatively thin gloves, and going beyond that rapidly diminishes utility. Likewise, your feet have to fit into your shoes/boots so you can’t just wear six pairs of socks, and it’s difficult to fully shield the face from cold exposure without also blocking your vision. There also tend to be more gaps, i.e. between your sleeves and your gloves, between your pants and your shoes, and between your collar and your head covering, which gives an avenue for heat to escape.
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