Costume Cooling

Depending on what you are doing in uniform, where you are doing it and how long you will be doing it, you might want or need to consider a cooling system so you do not start to sweat in uniform.

Member of the IKV T'Mar, such as myself are often placed in warm or even outright hot situations while assisting the community at a variety of charity events. Since out uniforms are made of fairly heavy vinyl, we can get uncomfortable and worn out after just a few hours if we are outside in the sun or being particularly physically active. So I am working on ways to keep our warriors cool during service.

This is not just for hard working Klingons. Even if you are just wearing your uniform inside during a convention, if you use water based makeup, any sweat will ruin your look. If you are performing in a Masqurade or Costume Contest, you might also find it quite warm inside your uniform. These helpful hint may be adapted to other kinds of costumes as well, but I will focus on staying cool while being Klingon.

The most important places to cool are the inside of the body, the body is most sensitive to overheating in the brain and the digestive tract. Common heat injures are dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. The problem is we don't have access to the inside parts to cool them directly.

First of all, the most important thing when out in the sun is to drink lots of water (or sports drinks). Lots of water keeps your digestive tract cool and keeps your fluids flowing, but that doesn't stop you from sweating, ruining the Klingon look.

For your water bottle take an old bottle or a plastic flask from a military surplus store, spray paint the outside grey, and pretend it is bloodwine, warnagh or whatever your favourite Klingon beverage is. Acting drunk is optional, because klingons are known for being able to consume vast amounts of alcohol without ill effects.

Okay, you got your water, but you are still hot. Well there are a few things you can do. We want to get to cool the inside, cooling the skin is nice, it will keep down the sweat, but the most important part to cool is the brain. Check your local drugstore for migrain patches. These are flat squares of disposable chemical coldpacks that can fit under your forehead appliance to try to cool your brain from the outside.

But cooling from the outside is not the most effective way to keep the body cool. You are Klingon, your blood boils for battle, but that doesn't mean it has to boil because you are wearing your uniforn all day. Cooling the blood will keep your whole body cool and will increase your comfort level quickly. The best way to cool the blood is where the bloodvessels are closest to the skin, that is in your wrists and also your neck. If you have a camel back backpack, you can take the bottle out of it, sew a new pocket into the inside back of your armour to hold it. Hide the nozzle under your shoulder pauldrons and drink when no one is looking, or just enjoy the cold on your lower neck and back. You can also apply the headache pads to your wrists. Or...

Sew pockets into your vambraces for holding cheap reusable ice packs. I haven't tried this yet, but my idea is to take a cheap icepack you get from your average supermarket, fold it in half along the long end and freeze it. This will give you two smaler ice packs that should be the right size to use inside your vambraces. Use an old Seal-a-Meal(you can usually find these in a local thrift store) to create two seams where you folded the icepack in half. Cut between the two seams and you have two small ice packs that should be the right size to hide inside your vambraces to cool your wrists. I'll let you know if it works. Worst case, the plastic for the icepack doesn't work with the seal-a-meal. No problem, you still have the frozen jell in two lumps, simply create new puches for them using the seal-a-meal bags for your machine.