Can Going Outside With Wet Hair Really Make You Sick?

You Should Know: There’s no shortage of health-related old wives’ tales, like that swimming right after eating will cause cramps or swallowed gum takes seven years to digest. As cold and flu season commences, here’s another one you may have heard growing up: Going outside in the cold with wet hair will make you catch a cold or pneumonia. Is it true?

Going Deeper: The origin of this myth involves Louis Pasteur and some chickens. Pasteur was researching anthrax and found when he lowered the body temperatures of chickens, they contracted anthrax and died, but when he warmed them, they survived. The experiments were later replicated in humans by other researchers. Ultimately, the experiments showed how body temperature can influence how humans and animals fight infections, but this got misinterpreted as cold temperatures causing illnesses. 

Takeaway: Cold weather creates better conditions for viruses and other pathogens to survive, but it’s the germs that make us sick, not the cold or wet hair. We catch respiratory viruses through contact with bodily fluids from sneezing, coughing, and touching contaminated surfaces.

Bottom Line: Wet hair in cold weather might make us feel cold and could even freeze our locks, but it won’t make us sick on its own.