WOW! I can't believe how cool parasols are!

My friends use umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun all the time.   I always thought they were a bit um, hmmm... well, my thoughts were incorrect.  

Parasols are really cool!


A couple of days ago I was at an outdoor antique fair and it was lovely.  So many people enjoying themselves.  So many pretty things.  But boy, oh boy, was that sun hurting me with it's icky hotness.  So I bought this:



Sweet little, hand painted, silk, antique parasol from what was once Burma (Myanmar now).

Mostly I got it for a photography prop, but as a joke, I started using it while we walked around the market.  And wow!  It was better than ice cream at cooling me down.

I expected it to be either too small to keep the sun off - it was just the right size - or too big and take someone's eye out - it was just the right size to not do that.  It did stop people pushing against me which is something I dislike about these kinds of markets and opened up a couple of inches of personal space that allowed air to flow between me and the other market-go-ers.  But it didn't have anywhere near as much awkwardness  as an umbrella.  It was also light weight and well balanced, so I could rest it on my shoulder and not really need to do anything with my hands except reposition it between me and the sun as we changed walking direction.  Both my hands remained unincumbered.  

In the end, I returned and bought a less fragile parasol for future outdoor events.  



Why is a parasol better than a hat?

This will depend if you are a hat-person or a not-hat-person.  

I am very strongly a not-hat-person.  I'll wear them, but sunhats trap the heat in my head and I've only ever found one that isn't excruciatingly painful to wear (it's a bit too far gone to wear to most high end public events these days even if I still proudly wear the neigh 20 year old hat around the farm).  Anyway, pain of wearing a hat plus trapping the hot air against my crown and not allowing wind to blow past my face.  I find it difficult to remember my hat.  

Sunhats really only focus on the top part of my head.  The parasol can shade my shoulders and head at the same time but isn't much larger than my going-out hat when extended.  The small modern parasols are about 6inches by 1 inch when folded up.  

I think it's worth experimenting more with this idea.  Maybe get a very light weight, fold-up small sun umbrellas I could keep in my bag or car.  They usually list their spf rating too.  It feels like the sun gets stronger and stronger each year, so it might be worth investing in one before everyone else finds out how cool these are.


As for my new, old parasol.  



A deep dive into the history shows it's almost impossible too date as it could range from 1820 to current day.  Often the same families still make the parasols in the same techniques and materials.  

This one, I know comes from Myanmar because it has some script on the handle.  The translation software can't help me, but it says it's written in Burmese.  The fabric is rough silk that has been patched together to make the parasol then dyed.  The painting is in something like tempura or perhaps the local watercolour tradition.   I wouldn't want to get it wet.  On top of the fabric where each spoke is, is a firm cloth or leather to help keep it strong.   It's giving off strong 1880s to 1910s vibes.  

how gorgeous!!
I take a page from the local ladies here and just use my umbrella. In fact many umbrellas here also have a special coating underneath to make them absolutely cut-all-UV shady. I can wear whatever I want and still not get burned!! It's awesome.
When I visit North America in the summer I do it too, I'm often the only weird person using an umbrella on a sunny day, but I figure maybe (like wearing special cover-up clothing to the beach, which also used to be rare) it will eventually become more common.

Tangential information for those interested...

Our Gov't of Canada Weather report includes a "UV index". The scale is organized into 5 risk levels:
Low (0-2)
Moderate (3-5)
High (6-7)
Very High (8-10)
Extreme (11+)

We have had several days this week, where the forecast was for UV 8 or 9.

Historical Trivia:

In 1994, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Program saw the value of Canada’s UV index and made it an international program. In 2002, they created a global standard, using the Canadian model. People now use it around the world. UV values in more southerly countries can be much higher than those in Canada, so the WHO and its partners decided to make the scale open-ended. This way, it can go over 10. You can find UV index values up to 14 in tropical countries.

So I would see Parasols, or as Tereza suggested, regular or specially lined umbrellas, a very valid tool in the tool-box of keeping people safe during high UV index periods, particularly those who aren't comfortable wearing hats. My secret for those times that the hat makes my head feel hotter, is to wet it down so that it evaporatively cools.

However, we have some upcycled "market umbrellas" (the big ones for over tables) that we use for our chickens for shade at times. I have set those up for weeding at times. Too heavy to walk around with!

I tried to find a picture of the tradition in New Orleans, La where the groom carries a black umbrella and the bride carries a white frilly parasol.

The wedding guests also carry parasols.

So cool, just couldn't find a picture ...

Jay Angler wrote:
However, we have some upcycled "market umbrellas" (the big ones for over tables) that we use for our chickens for shade at times. I have set those up for weeding at times. Too heavy to walk around with!

This is such a good idea. I have shade cloth I put up for my bunnies when it gets really hot. And when we have a warm snap in winter (like last week when it was high 80sF, mid winter!) I put up the shade cloth for my plants. Umbrellas, awnings, shade cloth, tarps even- they all work when the sun is way bright.

If you're looking to buy something for this purpose, consider that the fabrics used for rain umbrellas aren't likely to have the same UV stability that a traditional Parasol fabric should have. What stops water vs what stops UV radiation, aren't all in the intersection set of the Venn diagram of materials available.

Although there are people who want to look fashionable in the rain, and I have seen some awesomely beautiful rain umbrellas, many are basic dark tones that won't show the dirt and are frequently in danger of breaking from the wind.

I think that parasols put a higher focus on beauty and craftmanship, because the weather they're protecting you from doesn't have the same issues as a bad rainstorm!

So... is it possible to hand craft your own, as a beginner? Alas, it would take some research because there are many types of equipment called a parasol which isn't the type pictured above. Many people interchange the words parasol and umbrella in both directions! However a quick search did suggest you could recover an old umbrella frame with shade, rather than rain in mind. I've recovered large table umbrellas with whatever I could get cheaply, as mentioned above, for my chickens. I've never considered DIY portable people shade. I wonder what I might find in my fabric stash that would have potential?

Back when I was knitting, I really wanted to make this handkint parasol



I suspect there are different levels of sun protection.

Shade is infinitely better than no shade.

Some fabrics like linen and cotton have their own natural spf.  Same too with different dyes like indigo and kakishibu.

And then there are the parasols (sun umbrellas)  my friends use from japan, china, korea...and other pacific asian countries that have extra layers of spf blockage.  They all seem to be two tone, with a light shiny outer layer and a dark inner layer.  They say they work for rain too, but are designed for sun by being smaller, lighter, and fold up smaller than a rain umbrella.  Someone gave me one once and it's smaller than a modern cellphone when folded up.  I've been trying to figure out where it is for this weekends experiment.

Found it!

It's got extra spf protection.   I'm told it's okay to use as an umbrella for rain as the sun protection is on the inside, but try not to get it wet for more than an hour.

It's bigger than I remember.  

Personally, uv protection was never something that interests me.  I'm more after the shade as i usually wear linen long sleves and skirt to keep the sun off my skin in the summer.  But this is worth a try.

Yes parasols are pleasant and the pretty ones will bring compliments, because they're different than an umbrella, made from different materials like silk, lace, or like the one I have, ricepaper which has been waterproofed to make it appear as a parasol but also function as an umbrella covertly.  Mine looks like a sunflower and has bamboo spokes and handle.

Anne Miller wrote:I tried to find a picture of the tradition in New Orleans, La where the groom carries a black umbrella and the bride carries a white frilly parasol.

The wedding guests also carry parasols.

So cool, just couldn't find a picture ...

wedding parasols

I found some! How lovely is that! In the UK you'd want ones that double as umbrellas!

Great find.

The couple look like they are having so much fun.

Nancy Reading wrote: I found some! How lovely is that! In the UK you'd want ones that double as umbrellas!

A friend's son just got married yesterday. She managed to score 74 matching umbrellas off Fa---ok, because our summer drought has turned into inconsistent threatening weather. The rain yesterday only amounted for 2+ millimeters, but everything was damp. At least it stopped raining for the period of the ceremony.

So the UK isn't the only place where it's useful for parasols to be at least a little bit waterproof - or at least water resistant!

One of the knitting youtubers I follow said something about knitted parasols. And she showed the yarn used for such a parasol, the kind with different colours slowly changing.
I thought it was a good idea. But if I start now, the parasol will be finished next Summer (or later) ...

If you search the internet for pictures of knitted and crocheted parasols, there are many beautiful ones!

They are indeed gorgeous!. Silly me, I thought you meant parasol *mushrooms*, one of my favorites!.
We are not getting any mushrooms or rain now as we're suffering from a nasty heat wave: No rain for over a month an a half. Cornfields are grilled and the farmers around me are watering every day (and night, sometimes!)
Yesterday, my Spyder registered 105F, in Central Wisconsin, so I cut my trip short. Parasols are really nice if you don't need both hands, like for weeding. I'm looking for large sombreros with a lot of ventilation.