Apparel and safety

Gaiter or buff

Also called neck gaiter, face mask, Buff

A fabric tube worn around the neck that pulls up over the nose and ears for sun protection.

Buff is a brand name that became the general word. The tube covers the neck, and pulled up it covers the lower face and ears, which are the places a hat brim misses and where skin cancers most commonly show up on people who spend their lives outside.

It doubles as wind protection in cold weather and, wetted and worn damp, as evaporative cooling in heat.

A hooded sun shirt with a built-in face mask does the same job with nothing extra to lose, and that design has largely taken over.

Breathing through one is the common complaint. Thinner, more open knits are easier to wear over the nose for hours, and some designs add a mesh panel over the mouth for exactly that reason.

Check the UPF rating on a gaiter as well. A cheap polyester tube with no rating gives you far less protection than the number of layers suggests.

In practice

Wet the gaiter before putting it on in hot weather. Evaporation off the fabric drops the temperature against your neck noticeably.

Related terms

Where this comes up

The guides that use gaiter or buff and show it on real gear.

Gaiter or buff is one of 206 terms in the glossary.

Browse the full fishing glossary