Isn't that an urban myth?

Sounds great! It's always been the tips of the fingers and toes that are the problem for me, esp. when cycling.

How thick are they? Even thick socks require a larger sized shoe. A pad would need footware a few sizes larger around the toe area. And mittens would be more better than gloves.

Ah, but try that on a bicycle.

Without getting arrested

You mean you get THEM to pay YOU?!?
Wow, respect...

Long Johns!

I spent the last week wandering around Ruschlikon, Thalwil and Adliswil and boy is it cold.

But I remembered hat I some long johns from a trip we did to Iceland, so after rumbling down in the cellar, I found them and yup, they made a biggggg difference.

Actually, it was like wearing womens tights, which I did ONCE in a school pantomime (honest!!! ). Nothing like that denier 10 to warm up your vitals.

But then again, that's another story...

Layers.

Not necessarily:

People in Zürich seem to think that, at least, judging from how much they stare at me when I walk around town in my nice and warm colorful ski cap. Gloves seem to be completely unfashionable too; better pull down your sleeves and look like you've never heard of minus celcius in your whole life.

get used to it

Move to Stockholm.

There, if it's 1° above zero, they will gleefully tell you "It is one degree warm today!"

I'd say you have to go a bit further north in Sweden for them to really mean that (I got email from a friend in Östersund today; they had -22 degrees C earlier today and he did think that it was a little bit chilly).

(It's actually around -15 degrees C in Stockholm right now, but that's unusually cold - Stockholm's climate isn't that different from Switzerland. It'll most likely be back around zero degrees later this week.)

All i know is that when i am outside in -7 (where we live) when i wear a hat i am alot warmer than when i don`t wear one

Alcohol makes a big difference too to our tolerance levels.... tank up on a bottle of scotch and see how cheerfully one steps out into the cold ....

of course a big disclaimer on any side effects experienced the next day when sanity returns!...

im from a colder place, so normally i think the winter in zurich is pretty mild. in my opinion, there are 3 places on the body are weak, and easily feel cold. Head, hand, and feet. Using scarf to cover your head and your neck, gloves to cover your hands, a thick socks out of thick stockings (better 2 layers stockings), is would be enough for a girl/woman to live over the winter in zurich.

in terms for guys, just tell yourself, you are a guy,and tough, and can live well over the winter.

When you are cold, the body restricts the flow of blood to your extremities such as hands and feet, in order to maintain the supply of warm oxygenated blood to your brain.

You can live without hands and feet but you need a brain
(or half one in my case !)

So, Sutter's right. If you have cold hands or feet then put on a hat !

Indeed it is - it comes from some old army study where they gave the soldiers full arctic suits but no hats... Unsurprisingly most of the heat lost was from the uncovered head.

This and some other health-related myths are debunked in a BBC News article here.

The wearing a hat thing is not a myth at all.

It does make the assumption that one is not walking around Zurich in this weather stark naked.

A normally winter-clothed person will, all things considered, lose most heat from their head. (It's got quite a bit of exposed surface area).

The warm blood will be drawn away from their extremities. Put on a hat and there is a lot less heat loss and so your hands and feet stay warmer.

I could probably do the maths but I haven't got time right now.

That's true about alcohol. The boy's natural reaction to cold is to close the pores and withdraw blood from the extremities to the trunk of the body.

Alcohol opens the pores and also sends blood to the extremities, both of which lead to heat loss and eventually exposure.

Many a true word said in jest! When I lived on the edge of the moors in the UK, both the postman and the milkman wore womens' tights in cold weather.

Those little packets of activated charcoal are marketed in the US as "Hot Hands" and "Toasti Toes" and they are awesome. The ones for your feet are very thin and I don't even notice them in tight ski boots. They say not to put the ones in your gloves directly against your skin but I have been doing it for years without glove liners and they are deliciously warm, not dangerously hot.

I would totally agree, if you had to budget, of course you should cover the larger body surfaces with warm clothing first. But some people pack on more layers on their body without covering the head and wondering why they still are cold.....the head is pretty big surface area.