It is quite astonishing for people to see Bedouins wear black robes despite the extreme heat they have to face in the desert. It is the belief of people that black clothes traps more heat thus making one feel hot in summer. But apart from that there are many advantages of wearing a black robe.

Learning back our school physics

You very well remember learning at your school that white objects reflects more heat and sunlight and helps to keep us cool. Whereas black objects traps heat and sunlight and is a good form of heater during winter. But what you have forgotten is that white materials are bad at radiating heat and black materials are good heat radiators. That is, black materials can give out more heat.

Since there is so much heat in the desert that white robes may keep them cool but will not be able to let out any trapped heat. On the other hand, black robes while trapping heat will also allow it to escape at the same time thus keeping them cooler. Hence Bedouins wear black robes.

Also, at night time the desert is not anymore hot but becomes cooler and at that time also Bedouins wear black robes since they would want to keep themselves warm as it was mentioned above that black substances are also good heat trappers.

Protection from UV rays

The high amount of sunlight means Bedouins are exposed to a lot of UV rays which is not good for the skin. If we take an example of cattle, white cattle allow greater penetration of short wave radiation to the skin than black cattle. Similarly, Bedouins wearing white robes will not be able to keep away the UV rays from their skin and so they prefer wearing black robes.

It should be noted, that the penetration of UV rays while wearing white or black robes is the same. What really makes the difference is the black’s ability to give out this UV radiation thus lessening its penetration to the skin.

Black robes Vs White robes – Which remains more clean?

Another reason why Bedouins wear black robes is that they remain much more cleaner than white robes. White robes can get dirty very easily in the desert and can also get sweat marks around the neck and armpits of the robe. If you know, Bedouins are people who are always travelling in the desert and do not have a particular home. For this reason they do not have a proper place and enough time to wash their clothes for long or get new ones every now and then.

One more interesting fact is that black and dark colour clothes dry faster than light colour clothes. Obviously, because dark colour clothes can absorb all the light and heat which helps them to dry faster thus saving more of their travelling time.

Black robes are available in thicker materials than white robes

The last reason could be that black robes have a thicker cloth material than white robes. Many a times there are sand storms in the desert and so they need to not let their robes fly up.

So all in all, black robes have more advantages than white robes and so Bedouins wear black robes. Since you have got to know so many reasons behind why Bedouins prefer black robes, next time you are planning to take a trip to the desert, remember to dress in black.