By: Blonde Two

Hooded tops are great, they keep your head warm, can stop that annoying back-of-the-neck draught and can be an effective way of hiding from the camera (not that we Blondes do that very often!) So many of my outdoor gear tops have hoods that I sometimes have to be careful to avoid hood overload or, even worse, hood entanglement. Add a hooded baselayer, a hooded fleece, a hooded down jacket and a hat to the super-hood on your sleeping bag and you certainly run the risk of losing yourself after a few nighttime sleeping bag shuffles. It is just as well they haven’t invented hooded bras or undies yet!

Blonde One and I were recently the recipients of two very lovely mid-layer Craghoppers synthetic and down blend jackets. They came branded for our Get Outside Champion role (thanks Craghoppers) and we are very pleased with them and their lovely bright orange colour. For reasons of size, my jacket came without a hood and, to begin with, I was a bit disappointed about my lack of head covering. However, I have since discovered that it is far easier to slip a waterproof over a hoodless jacket than it is to stuff a hooded one away out of the rain.

Have any of you got a preference towards hoods or no hoods? I have several DofE expeditions coming up this month and am wondering which to pack… great to have a choice but I predict I will be packing for both options… just in case!