When a box of several Buff products showed up in the mail for us to try out, at first I didn’t get it. I’ll admit it. I looked at these neck cylinders and thought – but why? I’m a simple kind of person that way. I already have scarves (so so SO many scarves) and I wasn’t entirely sure what these neck warmers could offer above and beyond my many types, colors, textures and sizes of scarves. Like I said, I have a lot of scarves. They’re kind of my thing. Could a neck warmer really compete with a proper scarf?

In the box were a few Buff products, including the Buff Original Multifuction Headwear, a hat, and a couple varieties of neck warmers beyond the Original.

DaddyMonster put on the Wool Thermal Neckwarmer and proceeded to wear it around the house for the day. We are in the middle of what the media is calling a polar vortex here in Western Washington and our house is not the warmest it’s ever been. He noted that he was nice and toasty.

So then I decided it was the perfect day to try these things out and see what exactly they were. Each one is a cylinder of fabric, some have thinner, stretchy microfiber paired with some fleece at the bottom, some were lined with fleece, some were straight up thin and stretchy. I did what I always do in times of question – I went to the internet and searched on Buff and looked into what you were supposed to do with these.

And that’s where I started to change my mind.

It started with this video, which shows that these are no mere neck warmers:

We set out to test the different types of Buff products in the box – thinner, thicker, dual fabric.

DaddyMonster gave the Lightweight Merino Wool Hat and a Wool Thermal Neck Warmer a try together. The neck warmers can be worn just around the neck or in a variety of other ways, but we’ll get to that later. For DaddyMonster, he went for a simple pulled-up-over-the-face look to keep him warm during the polar vortex winds.

Meanwhile, I tried out a few others as I wanted to experiment with some of the neck warmer gymnastics performed in the video above. The obvious way to wear these – around the neck like a scarf – is my favorite, though. I have stayed away from my beloved scarf collection this year since the number of times I have to lean forward, bend over, or otherwise reach for my always-in-motion toddler is many. Scarves just get in the way. Buff neck warmers stay right where you want them. I’m sure they’re designed for people doing adventurous outdoorsy pursuits and they would be ideal for that, but the fact is that they’re pretty amazing for moms who love scarves yet don’t want scarf stuff in their way all the time.

My favorite way to switch things up with these Buff neck warmers is to wear them as a hat. It’s super easy to do – flip them inside out, twist in the middle, then slide one half over the other into a hat shape. I used a Polar Thermal neck warmer, which has a layer of fleece at the bottom. When you turn it into a hat, the fleece part serves to keep your ears nice and warm. Ahhh.

I also tried another simple style – just wearing the original Buff as a headband instead of around your neck. It works well if you’re a ponytail fan, keeps your ears warm, and keeps your hair out of your face. Again, all facets that would be great for outdoorsy pursuits, but also that work pretty well for a mom.

About Buff

The Original Buff comes in tons of different designs and colors, and the Original the easiest to switch it up as it’s thinner and pleasantly stretchy so it easily converts to a headband, balaclava, head cover, or one of the other 12+ ways you can wear this thing. Bonus – the fabric is UPF 50 and moisture wicking so it’s perfect for walks on a snowy day or snowboarding down a mountain alike.

I even ventured out into the snow in my yard, something I haven’t done on purpose in a long time as I’m not a big fan of being cold, and built a snowman. Turns out, snowmen look pretty good in Buff hats too.

You can find Buff products on their website or at Amazon.

These products were provided free of cost for review, but all opinions are my own. I really enjoyed getting to know about these products and love how versatile they are.

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