Winter Accessories Guide

Having a winter accessories guide helps you decide what you need for you and your family. Getting the right kind of winter extras like gloves, earmuffs, headbands, a variety of hats and scarves is a crucial part of your winter wardrobe. It's important to cover those sensitive areas such as your hands, neck and ears to prevent the cold from making you too miserable.

If you are new to snow or an almost seasoned veteran, having a winter accessories guide helps you to decide what's needed and necessary. Over time, you'll end up with having many duplicates of these items that I mentioned above. Now, two good things happen with this strategy:

1. You'll have lots of flexibility and choices in how you use your accessories
2. You'll also have a back-up plan if something is missing, misplaced, lost, tears, wears out or needs to be cleaned.

Here's my recommendation for what you need in the way of all those winter extras. This list is based on what I do and it's worked well for me over the years.

Hats

The variety in hats is endless but you'll definitely need several based on what the weather is doing or at what time of the winter season you are in i.e. early, mid or late winter. You'll need everyday ones, ones for really cold weather, going-out good ones and maybe others ones coz you like them!

Earmuffs and Headbands

With earmuffs (or earwarmers) and headbands, it's your choice but I find them handy for spring days where wearing a hat is too hot but the wind is still cold so either option works well. One pair per person is sufficient for those in the family who want to wear them. You can get fun animal ones for children besides the more plain, functional ones for adults.

Scarves

You'll need a few different type of scarves for your various coats and jackets. I'm not a scarf junkie with hundreds but I have several of each to mix and match with my outerwear. For really cold days, I wrap a pashima around my head then put my hat on which leaves very little of my face exposed to the elements.

• For women: silk, fleece, wool, synthetic blends
• For men: wool, fleece, synthetic blends
• For children: fleece or wool is the most practical.

Gloves

Every day use, you'll end up having at least three different types of gloves depending on the activity and what you want to use them for. Here's a basic list for everyday winter living.

Women's winter gloves:

• Lined leather dress gloves for business or formal occasions
• Thick waterproof gloves for everyday or casual use
• Insulated work gloves for outdoor tasks (that's if you do snow-shovelling)
• Spare pair for all of the above.

Men's winter gloves:

• Lined leather dress gloves for business or more formal occasions
• Heavy duty insulated work gloves for doing outdoor work
• Well insulated gloves for every day or casual use
• Spare pair for all of the above.

Children's winter gloves and mittens:

• Well-insulated mittens for small children
• Well-insulated gloves for older children
• Extra pairs (that one glove or mitten always goes missing!).

Outdoor winter sports

• Thick insulated and waterproof gloves or mittens with an elasticized wrist cuff
• Choose the recommended gloves for the sport you are doing
• Thin cotton glove liners for inside your gloves (you buy these separately which gives you that extra bit of insulation).

Gloves versus Mittens

Mittens are ideal for children where air is trapped inside one main area keeping little hands warm extra warm. For adults, the exceptions would be mostly for skiers, snowmobilers or any other outdoor enthusiast who might wear mittens for the same reason. For everything else, wearing gloves is just more practical.

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