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Or avoid the trails all-together. Given the 30th anniversary of Trainspotting this seems relevant: https://youtu.be/xtbS_PdA198?si=8ba8Fp8_uzdpIq6J.

I’m pretty wary of ticks, when you go for hikes just do a body check after. Also, I tend to go with long pants (even in summer, I dislike bugs more than the sweat).

Plus a lightweight windbreaker can help to cover upper body. Plus it limits sun exposure which is also harmful.

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And if you're wearing long sleeves and long pants, you can apply permethrin in a semi permanent way to your clothing to discourage ticks and mosquitoes: https://www.consumerreports.org/health/insect-repellent/is-p...

Do not do so if a cat will be anywhere near the clothes or compound. It’s super harmful to cats.

Lethal dermal exposure is somewhere near 100mg/kg.

I probably wouldn’t wear permethrin treated pants and let a cat sit on my lap, but “anywhere near the clothes” is a pretty big exaggeration of the danger.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10822630/

Linen clothes are awesome. Long trousers and long sleeves and almost as cool as short sleeves and shorts in shade, and cooler in direct sun.

Tell me your linen ironing tricks. I have a linen shirt that I dread wearing because of the effort that goes into getting it wrinkle free after every wash.

You want the wrinkles to be conspicuous. It lets everyone know you can afford linen.

Just own the wrinkles. Linen isn't meant to look perfectly structured.

On my linen button ups, if I don't iron the front gaps in very awkward ways.

Steam, not iron.

Sounds like I need some sort of Steam Machine.

Linen is the most underappreciated fabric. It's cool in both ways. I don't understand why so few people wear linen in summer.

Yeah I’m a huge fan, lots of linen and thin, fine cotton that’s not been formaldehyde treated (so, not “non-iron”) on me in hot months. I even have an open-weave linen sweater that’s comfortable into the 90s of degrees F. I’ve got a few high-twist wool pieces that are nice in the heat, but they’re more specialized, less everyday wear sorta of things.

Dedicated summer clothes in trad fabrics are a ton less durable than their winter counterparts, though, for the simple reason that they’re much lighter-constructed. Individual pieces can be had plenty cheap if you bargain-hunt and shop used, but you cycle through more of them than, say, heavy-weight denim or a hefty tweed. Still, mine usually last a few years. Cycling them out seasonally means they don’t wear as fast as some synthetic-blend shirt you wear year-round, so you may not get more wears out of them, but they last a good long while in calendar time.

But man, do they breathe better than just about any of the fancy “tech” fabrics. And feel nicer. Durability, though, is an issue, and you have to get the fit closer to correct than many shoppers may be used to, because most of them won’t have much stretch (no cheating by blending in some nylon or whatever, like a “tech” fabric would)

Cost, more complicated in the laundry, prone to wrinkling, and air-conditioning. Linen clothing was more popular before AC was invented.

How is it really more complicated in the laundry? Most of my linen can do 60C washing cycle (”hot” I think it is called in USA) which is pretty much ”throw it in there with similar colours and forget about it” territory.

The wrinkles are a bit of the charm I think, might be easier to accept if you make it part of the fashion instead of fighting it.

Just a tip, most modern laundry detergents are formulated to handle washing with cold water to save you from having to use (expensive) hot water in a wash.

I have been washing for years now with tap cold water since learning that and it seems to work fine, even in winter.

I joked on Twitter 10-15 years ago that my dream use case for AR would be to easily identify wash temperature for my clothes as I prepare for laundry.

A friend replied with the news that cold would work for just about everything, and I haven’t used warm or hot water since then (maybe once with some really dirty jeans and towels). Such a great hack.

I mostly wash in 35C (expect underwear), so yes I do that. The high temp was to illustrate that linen is one of the easiest garments to wash because you never have to worry about accidentally throwing it into a batch of very dirty clothes and having it come out changed.

I would like to but they are frustratingly hard to find

I'd love to try it, but I'm having trouble finding sustainable vendors. My use case is mostly gardening, hiking and just being outside as much as possible but still being somewhat protected from the sun (so a super light weave would not be ideal.) I'd be grateful for any suggestions, ideally from a source in the USA.

Some people don't like the scratchy feel of linen compared to cotton, although there are now linen-synthetic blends which ameliorate this almost entirely.

I have not come across linens that are scratchy. They can be coarse but not scratchy. Blends can be fine fibers. Coarse wool I do find scratchy, unless it’s cold then the scratchiness goes away. Seems like Belgian linen is good.

Ticks want to be on your neck or in your hair more than anything, so long clothes can give them a route that you can't feel them crawling on.