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.
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.
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