What soap do I need?? I just thought scrubbing my skin until it was red was the only way to wash it off 
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An oil-based soap works well to break down the mineral sunscreen. I use this, which seems to work well (though it’s a little gritty when washing my face):
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Second the mineral sunscreen. Switched to that late last year. Have done some rides into the early afternoon with blazing uv indexes and never had to reapply.
Usually anything past a uv index of 3/4 and my skin has to be covered in cloth or sunscreen within 30ish minutes.
This is what I’ve had good success with these for face/body:
Oh yeah, somebody else mentioned skull caps. I bought a couple of the Bontrager branded caps and they’re excellent. They don’t seem any hotter and they absorb sweat. Highly recommended. I had a skin check a month ago with a few little keratosis things burnt off so am paying much more attention to these things nowadays.
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I usually only buy sleeves in black and have found these are the best for cooling.
They are similar to nylon stockings and long enough to reach your armpit. No need for grippers.
If you want them to last you should wiggle and roll them off and avoid tugging.
They handle being tugged off but that wears out the elastic sooner.
I also have Pearl, Voler, and Pactimo sun sleeves but when the heat is up I choose Velocio.
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I love some white arm sleeves for sunny days and use them regularly. I quite like the Castelli’s, but find them expensive considering they go from white to grey with stains so quickly.
I’m using some cheap Amazon ones that are OK, so at least I can just throw them out when they get too gross looking.
My main question is how do people clean these types of things (can apply to white jerseys too) to get them decently white? I’ve tried bleach, baking soda, vinegar, stain remover….all with marginal success.
That’s a nice recommendation since you’ve tried so many. Where do you live? What is a typical summer temperature and humidity where you would use these?
I’m located in Southeastern USA with Appalachian Mountains nearby.
Weather search says:
Warmer months from June to August see temperatures peak, averaging between 82.2°F (27.9°C) and 86.5°F (30.3°C).
Average humidity 72% to 77%.
I have ridden with Velocio sleeves in the 90s a number of times under an afternoon Sun.
When you’re moving it’s fine but a long slow climb without a breeze or any shady spots can be a chore.
Do you think the experience will be different for those in Texas or the Southwest or in Mediterranean countries?
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Yeah, a bit different because we’re often dealing with the combo of both high heat AND high humidity, and no tree cover. It’s counterintuitive because you’d think high humidity would keep them wet and thus cooler, but for some reason it feels even hotter to me. They’re worth trying though, and I think I’ll buy a pair when they come back in stock.
Yep, the higher the humidity, the less evaporative cooling you get. 90f and low humidity can feel really nice because sweat is efficiently evaporating and cooling as fast as it’s being produced. I’ll take 90f and dry vs. a muggy 80f morning with 90% humidity where there is almost zero evaporative cooling going on. If you look at the performance of those evaporative swamp coolers, they can drop the temp 25-30 degrees in low humidity, but you are lucky to get 3 degrees of cooling at 80+ % humidity.
I’ll often start my long summer rides at 5 or 6am. In early summer, it’s usually near 90% humidity before sunrise and it’s pretty brutal even with temps only around 80f. Walking into my first store stop, I’m leaving a little puddle of sweat every step I take, couldn’t be more drenched if I jumped in a lake. By 10am, it’s getting warmer, but much nicer with the humidity burning off. By noon, it’s getting too hot to ride and I’m looking for roads with shade to get me home.
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Yep! You really learn this stuff when you do cycling holidays too. 45 degrees and sunny in Moab is actually pleasant and you have to remember to use sunscreen! The first time I went there, Poison Spider loved me because I had to buy a bunch of warm weather gear after looking at the forecast and packing all the things I’d wear for 45 degrees in Houston 
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Here in south Texas, I use the Chinese sleeves from Amazon. I did a test to confirm the big difference on temperature by color, so I always use white sleeves. I used to ride a couple of days a week to work, in the morning it was fine, no sun but when returning back home at 5pm I had to water the sleeves (arms and legs) and the bandana for the face. Being a one hour ride, at 30 minutes I had to water them again because already dry.. I used as well soaked white socks covering my water bottles, and my testings also confirmed they were useful to maintain low temperature on the water.
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Underrated hack, especially in humid environments as it slows down the condensation on the outside of the bottle.
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That was my concern, so before implementing on my hot rides I did an experiment measuring the water temperature on several bottles under the same conditions. Bare, clothed, clothed wet.. the one that increased the least temperature was the wet. I use the hack only on my fidlock bottles since they only need a hole on the sock on one side. A normal bottle will not fit on its cage with the sock on.
Yeah, the advent of carbon / plastic cages that grip tightly pretty much killed this hack. If you use alloy or ti cages that can be bent, however, it is a great trick to keep bottles cold.
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Not sure putting something on will actually cool you.
I just soak mine water every time I stop for water. Doesn’t last til the next stop, but nice while it lasts.
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If it increases the surface area for evaporative cooling enough, while not adding too much insulation effect itself, yes it will cool you, if you’re sweating and the humidity in the air isn’t too high. Hence all the discussion of humidity in this thread.
In order for sweat to evaporate, it has to absorb heat from the surroundings, e.g. your skin. The larger the surface area to spread the sweat out, the faster the sweat can evaporate and the stronger the cooling effect.
That’s a major reason our bodies grow hair in our armpits. It enhances evaporative cooling right where a lot of blood is flowing, which helps cool down our core. Same for hair on our heads (at least when we’re young), to keep our brains from overheating.
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In theory, which is why base layers exist, yet no study shows they actually help.
Rarely need them in the UK but I use Nike dri-fit running sleeves for sun protection, I wouldn’t say they help cooling but neither do they make it too hot.
I’ve worn them quite a bit over the years but not to protect from the sun but for those many morning’s when it’ll start 10 deg or less but quickly rise to 15 deg + 
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