Burka Wear(y)

The other day, I was doing half of my daily 2.5hr commute and a lady pulled along side of me wearing what appeared to be a welders helmet. Double-taking and trying not to hit the car immediately in front of me, I determined that she was not actually welding.

Living in the 20% Chinese community of San Francisco, I didn’t think the giant visor was all that odd, rather, I thought the use of the full-face device in the car was strange.

After a brief Google search, I found a hint of the phenomena: China is currently in the midst of a new headwear craze. It’s like a typical sun visor with a swivel down piece of dark transparent plastic which shades the face from the summer sun’s harsh glare. The protective plastic can serve as an extended visor (up), or sort of a whole-face “sunglass mask”

The strange thing was that The Shield looked like a burka. With the world’s governments busily banning such controversial wear, I thought that at any moment, the CHP would come bearing down.

But no such event happened. Instead and in true California-freeway form, the burka/UV-shield wearing driver cut me off.