Forehead (freeze?)

[John C. Ratliff]

Thanks everyone! I do wear a nice 7/5 bibbed hood that keeps the rest of my head nice and warm. I figured it was just and exposed skin issue. It's comforting to get pretty good confirmation of that. "Subcooled" Thanks for the tip! I tried venting warm air out of my mask on my last dive. It felt great until I had to breath in and then instant cold again. I'll definitely try my glove next time. I'll also work on getting my hood to cover the troublesome area!

Thanks again!!

Aaron,

There are two other things you can do to help this shooting pain from cold water on your forehead.

-- get some sheet neoprene and wet suit cement, the cut out a small addition to your hood so that the neoprene extends over your mask skirt, and cement it to your hood. Wet suit neoprene cement requires two coats. Coat both surfaces with the cement, and let it dry completely. Then recoat both surfaces, wait until tacky, and press the two edges together. This will make an almost permanent bond.

-- get a different mask with more volume if your present mask is one of the "low volume" masks currently in vogue with divers. The old-style oval mask works well, but I like three-window masks with more volume. The more air you can get between your forehead and the cold water, the more comfortable you will be. Here are some examples:

https://www.amazon.com/IST-Tortuga-...ocphy=9032951&hvtargid=pla-369988430528&psc=1


Aqua Lung Atlantis Mask

https://www.amazon.com/Aqua-Wraparo...ocphy=9032951&hvtargid=pla-643850302496&psc=1

SeaRat

 

[Diver-Drex]

I’ve only gotten this pain while ice diving. The good is obvious. I also wear a lava core hood under my wet set hood, it makes a huge difference. Extra insulation and it slows water movement through the hood. During SI I keep the lava core on. It dries quickly and insulated very well. I have done this with 35 degree water temps and 29 degree air temps and have been comfortable.

The other thing I do but isn’t practical in dealing with a thermocline, is to slash cold water on or dunk my head before diving. This give a ch ace to acclimate. And if you do get brain freeze it’s on the surface rather than at depth.

 

[Aaron Lambright]

Thanks again for all the tips! I have been a couple of dives that have dropped below the thermocline and I have not had any issues. I have been taking a few extra seconds during pre-dive to push my hood forward and make sure it is covering my forehead and that seems to have been the key. It truly is the little things that can really improve a dive!

 

[The Chairman]

I've only had a brain freeze once off the coast of Florida during an Artic upwelling. 80F down to about 60 ft and then it was like diving in oil... a cold, cold oil. Vis was less than 3 ft and the temp was 49 during mini-season. Everything on the reef, including me, was stunned. I hate hoods. I didn't wear one then, and I won't wear one now.

 

[TMHeimer]

Seems like moving the hood has helped. I always wear one, even when water is warm enough to not have to--in order to keep water from going far into my ears. I haven't had any noticable (painfull) forehead freeze and at times am in water 35-40F diving wet. Perhaps it varies from person to person. I have gradually been more succeptable to cold last 15 years since moving South, but still nothing specific to exposed forehead.

 

[BlueTrin]

Hello.

I've been looking over the threads trying to find a possible explanation for what I've experienced a couple times but I can't seem to find anything that truly fits.

I live in Michigan and therefore, pretty much every time I go down, I'm hitting 50 degree (F) or worse water. A couple times I have experienced a very intense piercing/stabbing pain on my forehead. NOT behind it in my sinuses but on the surface. I figured it was just the cold on my skin and it would subside but it didn't until I ascended to warmer water and then "poof" it was gone, no after effects.

Can anyone tell me if this is just, for some reason, my exposed skin on my forehead has an issue or is it something else? Also, does anyone know how I could avoid it?

Thanks!

This has happened to me the first time I went I really cold water.

Now I am carefully to cover my forehead with the hood going over the top mask seal and it didn’t happen again (like other posters said)

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I wear a 10mm hood in Southern California. I can't imagine using a 7mm in Michigan.

 

[Jeff_O]

I wear a 10mm hood in Southern California. I can't imagine using a 7mm in Michigan.

Sure this is an old thread, though I just had the same happen to me. The Pacific Ocean of Northern CA, Mendocino County I did not have the problem. I dove in a river and a month ago I was fine, except my hand were painful. Now gloves are dry glove with my CF200. The idea of glueing an extra piece of neoprene to my wetsuit hood I thought of. I only have a 1/4 inch neoprene hood I think it is. Only forehead had the problem. I did have the hood overlapping top of mask skirt. I would probably not like the really large volume mask. Don't think that it would help when the skirt does not have air between it and forehead. Maybe though just being adjacent nearby it might help? I like my just under 1 year old replacement dry suit for the more than 20 years on the worn out CF200 I had been using. The warm neck collar does work better with the newer way they make it now. I fit the bib hood flap in the collar with wetsuit gloves off before I got my dry gloves. Now I find I have to remember to put the hood on before arms go in the sleeves with the dry glove suit up. Getting out of the suit I found that I would not try to keep the dry glove inserts on my hands. Bare fingers inside arms of the drysuit make getting out of the suit easier. Pick the inserts out later after out of the suit. I did just take one arm out and then removed the neck seal. One hand bare and one dry gloved hand worked the seal off safely. Then the second arm off after that. Just this seemed easier. The getting into drysuit with dry glove attached, by having neck seal first is a bit more of a contortionist feat, but I managed. I'll bring a more accurate temperature gauge to the river next time to see if my SPG with it's temp gauge correlate. I don't think the 46F was really that low. A digital food thermometer at waters edge and both gauges side by side test will tell. Maybe a dry hood? Not really, but a past buddy I dove with, an lost touch with used to use a Viking drysuit with a dry hood. It had some kind of valve at the top of the hood I remember.

 

[BlueTrin]

I wear a 10mm hood in Southern California. I can't imagine using a 7mm in Michigan.

I got a 1cm hood last year, I didn’t realise how much of a difference it would do in cold water vs a 7mm one.

 

[Thrutch]

I got a 1cm hood last year, I didn’t realise how much of a difference it would do in cold water vs a 7mm one.

Fit is also exceptionally important. Due to flushing, my Fathom 5mm NEO hood is just as warm as my Waterproof 10/5mm H1. Neither compares to my 11mm Fathom, though, which combines the best of both worlds and was pretty pleasant in 37F/3C recently.