I love the San soleil solcool shirts they have held up great for me
I snorted! According to hubby, my colour is “see-through,” as well!
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I have a collection of Ariat, Kerrits (the coolest IMHO, though the arms are ridiculously long), whatever the Dover brand is, Kastel, one Romfh, a Haggerties in barn colors/logo, and probably some I’m forgetting. So many that I Marie Kondoed them in a drawer so I can see them all at once, assuming that I get them off the drying rack and put away.
I wear them for riding and general barn wear, gardening, and even to teach labs. The lab room ranges from 65°F-85°F, sometimes from day to day, sometimes within one day, and once cycled through those temperatures twice during one lab. The sun shirts are nice because they aren’t too warm if it’s hot, even under a something thick flame-resistant lab coat, but you can zip up the neck for a bit more warmth.
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Has anyone tried the Nozone sunshirts? The prices seem reasonable.
Since everyone loves their Kastels, I bought one. I don’t really care for it. I don’t like to look like I’m sweating, and the sweat marks showed through. Not a fan.
Definitely!!! I’m saving my skin so much damage by wearing long sleeves all day. For normal sunny days, I like kastel and smartpak. For temps up to 90, I like ariat. For temps above 90, I like Columbia button up hiking shirts because I can roll the sleeves up halfway if I’m really dying.
I get heat/sun stroke very easily and over heat even in the shade (I am known for riding in below 30F weather in a tank top) and I love the sun style shirts I own. Ariat has held up lovely over a year and half of heavy use. I have a Romfh shirt sleeve that is very cooling but is a pain to clean horse snot out of. Smartpac’s long sleeve sun shirt is also very nice but the material is very thin. Of the three the Smartpac fits me the best and is long enough I can tuck into any style of pants/breech.
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After a melanoma scare, I am in sunshirts 100% of the time. I wear them to other outdoor events and not just to the barn. I am in SoCal, so sunny weather year round.
Kastel and IceFil are my favorites, Kerrits and Ariat are close runners up, and at a better price point than Kastel.
I treated myself to the new Romfh lace show shirt for shows and absolutely love it! The lace accents aren’t actual lace, but lace patterned fabric, so it isn’t scratchy and no worries about lacy sunburn.
I wash all my shirts in regular laundry and dry in the drier. Hubby is great about helping with laundry, but doesn’t do delicates. Mine have all held up really well, except for one Haggerty’s. If they don’t hold up, I don’t buy more.
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I don’t know if you have to look a certain way - IE button down shirt but I am now in love with my UV Sleeves. I can wear regular T shirts with my sleeves. The sleeves are affordable and held up even to thorny trail riding. I also like to dunk my arms in water and they immediately cool off my arms. Just a suggestion from someone who rides in the AZ scorch, I burn walking out to my car from work!
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I didn’t like them. The fabric was too heavy.
my favorite are the TS. Also lots of good colors.
Stupid question: do people feel long sleeve sunshirts help prevent you from getting overheated more than a short sleeve shirt? I’m only asking because several people mention having heat/sun intolerance and using sunshirts.
I honestly can never tell from the reviews, since most people focus on looks, comfort, fit, etc.
I sit here with a pounding headache after overdoing it in the heat and humidity again. This seems to be a worsening problem as I get older, no matter how much water I drink or how many breaks I take. If more coverage would help, I’m all for it… it just seems counterintuitive.
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I used to feel the same, that it seems counter-intuitive. However, after having tried the “cooling shirts” and not almost passing out after my last lesson in Florida at noon on a 90+ degree day, they do appear to help. Mostly though, it keeps the sun off your skin, which is actually the point of why I tried them in the first place. I fry with literally 20 minutes of sun exposure. I don’t want skin cancer. It has to do with heat transfer and the sun’s heat output, etc etc. Blocking the sun’s radiation from reaching your skin and increasing your core temperature, something about that.
The theory behind the “cooling” technology, I’ve been told, is that when the shirt gets wet from your sweat, the drying of the sweat and outside breeze helps cool you down. So, they don’t actually help with any cooling until you’re sweaty. The biggest thing I have noticed to really make me feel “cooled down” while working outside/riding is a neck wrap thing that you get wet, then “snap three times” (pretty sure that does nothing but make you think something happened), and wear around your neck while you work. Makes a HUGE difference. With the neck wrap thing, I did not have a migraine after my lesson last week, and even if I don’t have an almost-fainting-spell, I’ve always gotten headaches.
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Thanks, @mmeqcenter . I knew the main point was protection. I can understand and appreciate how and why blocking the sun may help; if you look at how people dress in truly hot climates, they usually are move covered rather than less.
I have a few athletic fabric short-sleeve shirts and polos; cheaper brands. I don’t notice me being any cooler in them than cotton… but they also are low end fabric, so their moisture wicking may not be as good as higher quality stuff. Who knows. They also obviously don’t provide any extra coverage.
I will have to try the neck wrap next lesson. Otherwise, I try to do minimal hard work in the humid mornings and wait until the lower humidity evenings… of course, then you’re fighting the clock with daylight. Plus the mosquitoes are usually worse here!
I otherwise don’t mind the heat, but the headaches I get are incapacitating. It’s been a problem my whole life, but they were easier to prevent when I was younger.
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Definitely give the neck thing I try. I agree, the headaches from being out in the sun are insane. I try to ride after 7p most days, but for lessons I don’t really have that option.
I live in Florida and heatstroke is always a threat. I’ve had some close incidents - one time my horse over heated and laid down on the trail, another time i got very sick from heat exhaustion. I was driving home with blurred vision after getting too hot. Not good. Horse was fine by the way- i got her back up and went to the nearest creek, got her in the water and dumped water on her until she cooled down.
I’ve taken some precautions against future incidents - i hose my head and the horse before and after riding. We ride slowly- mostly walking with minimal trotting if it is too hot. We ride very early in the morning or before sunset. I’ve doubled the amount of ice water i carry if we are trail riding. I bring enough water that i can dump some of me, and the horse if either of us start looking heat stressed. I take 3/4ths a gallon of water with me, if I’m planning on a 2 hour to 3 hour ride. In addition to Gatorade with added salt for electrolytes. If something happens and I end up outside for an extra hour or two, if i get lost or the trail is blocked, i want to be prepared.
Avoid riding in direct sunlight. Look for shade. Stop if you feel too hot and go cool off. Watch yourself. I can go from okay to systems critical in 5 minutes if doing strenuous work in the heat.
After reading this thread, I went ahead and ordered two sun shirts: one from SanSoleil (on sale) and one from Smartpak (also on sale).
I’m looking forward to using them a lot this summer!
I have mostly Kastel, one Irideon, and a few Columbia Omni-Freeze.
I find that the sunshirts don’t feel any cooler if it’s really muggy and there’s no breeze, say while grooming in the barn. But, any breeze and they do feel cooler - even on really hot days, there’s enough “breeze” created by trotting or cantering that the shirts help.
I think they do dry really quickly, except if I saturate my bra with sweat - that area of the sunshirt will stay wet.
I barely ride anymore but I wear mine working in the yard all the time and my advice is get dark colors because they stain like crazy. You’ll still be wearing sunscreen on your neck and face, and besides that the light ones get grass and dirt stains easily. They work great and really are cool though.
From Phoenix: folks, we know our sun! Kerrits Icefil all the way: I have been wearing these for years. Several of the other brands are heavier fabric, which is not what we want here in the desert. Yes, the long sleeve versions - keep sun off your skin - they “shade” the skin and provide lots of airflow. Heaven for the summer, fall, winter, … right, it’s an issue all the time in Arizona.
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As someone who starts sweating within 0.02 seconds of being in the heat, a sun shirt is really helpful. While this sounds gross, the shirt helps pull sweat off of me and any breeze blowing against the shirt is very cooling. When I hop off both my ride and I stand in front of a fan for a minute or two. That short period of time cools me down dramatically. If I am still hot I hose my forearms while rinsing off my ride and it instantly cools me down further.
In a short sleeve shirt I am wearing a lot of sunblock and then I have shiny sweaty arms that are sun magnets. Also, feelnig the sun directly on my skin makes me feel significantly hotter. If you hose down bare skin it tends to evaporate pretty quickly so the cooling effect is brief and takes most of your sunblock with it.
When it is 90 degrees and 90% humidity I’m certainly not walking around talking about the beautiful weather, but I manage to survive my rides.
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