Sudden heat loss – While soaking in a hot bath, your body absorbs heat, raising your internal temperature. Once you step out, this heat rapidly dissipates into the cooler surrounding air, making you feel cold.
Evaporation effect – Water left on your skin after bathing starts to evaporate, drawing heat away from your body. This is the same cooling mechanism as sweating, which helps regulate body temperature but can leave you shivering.
Blood vessel constriction – Hot water causes blood vessels to expand (vasodilation), allowing more blood to flow near the skin’s surface. When you exit the bath, the cooler air causes these vessels to constrict (vasoconstriction), reducing blood flow and making you feel cold.
Temperature contrast – The bathroom or bedroom may be at a much lower temperature than the bathwater, creating a stark contrast that makes the air feel even colder than it actually is.
Lower body temperature – After exposure to heat, your body's natural thermoregulation kicks in to cool you down. This process continues even after you leave the bath, sometimes overcompensating and making you feel colder than normal.
Heat dissipation from the skin – The warm water heated your skin, but once you’re exposed to cooler air, that heat quickly transfers away, leaving your skin feeling chilly.
Hormonal response – Your body may release stress hormones like adrenaline due to the sudden temperature shift, which can briefly make you feel colder as part of your body's effort to stabilize its internal temperature.
Wet hair effect – If your hair remains wet after a bath, it retains water that continues to evaporate, drawing even more heat from your scalp and making you feel colder for longer.
Moisture on the skin – If you don’t dry off immediately, water left on your skin continues to evaporate, accelerating heat loss and intensifying the cold sensation.