Jimbo Bandana
The Jimbo Bandana is a bandana that is sown into a triangle shape, with an opening to add ice. This is a cheap and effective way for staying cooler on a hot day.
1 Making a Jimbo Bandana
The Jimbo bandana is made by folding an ordinary bandana into a triangle shape and selling along the edge nearly all the way. You need to leave a gap that is large enough to get the ice into; too small and you'll have trouble filling it with ice quickly, but too large and the ice will tend to fall out. An improvement on the current design might be to use zipper along one edge, but I've not tried this.
2 How much ice?
Obviously putting more ice into the bandanna will keep you cooler for longer, but more is not always better. Putting too much ice into the bandanna makes it heavy, and the bandanna will press on your throat which can be quite uncomfortable. Getting the right balance of ice requires a little trial and error.
3 Caveats
Wearing a Jimbo bandanna can make a big difference when running in the heat, but there are a number of downsides to you should be aware of.
- It's best to wear some type of top with the Jimbo bandanna to prevent chafing. The photo at the top of the page shows me running shirtless with the Jimbo bandanna, and I ended up with some more skin across my shoulders. I would recommend an Under Armor Heat Gear Top.
- The Jimbo bandanna keep you cooler but you also end up with the melted water soaking you. In my experience pure water seems to cause more chafing problems than sweat, and you can easily end up with your shoes and socks completely soaked. (Note: in some conditions you can be sweating a lot and if the sweat evaporates rather than rolls off, there may be an accumulation of salt crystals that can act as an abrasive.)
- You can tie the Jimbo bandanna so that the ice is pressing against the side of your neck. This is very effective at keeping you cool, but can also be extremely painful for a little while.
- Be careful tying the bandanna to tightly or you may have problems getting it and done when you need to refill.
- Once all the ice is melted, the Jimbo bandanna does not provide much cooling. There are commercial products, such as the "cool off bandanna" that has a chamois that will hold water. I've used this product and rather like it, but it does not hold as much on ice is the Jimbo bandanna and is obviously a lot more expensive. The "cool off bandanna" is probably a better choice if you want some simple evaporative cooling without filling with ice.
- Depending on the situation having several Jimbo banned and those pre-filled with ice and stored in a cold box can save a lot of time.
4 Alternatives
The McGinn Sock is an alternative to the Jimbo bandanna. It is simply a knee-high sock filled with ice and tied around the neck. I've heard good reports of this approach but I've never tried it myself. The other alternative is the previously mentioned "cool off bandanna".
