Which is the correct way to mention the idea of feeling cold in a part of the body:
My head felt cold.
or
I felt cold in my head.
or
I sensed cold in my head.
I was just describing the journey to a desert in a winter night. So I had to choose any one of the above two sentences. The complete description that I used is as follows:
Suddenly the temperature started declining. I felt cold in my uncovered head.
So, I know what the word means. I just need to know how to use it so it sounds natural.
To this US English speaker, "I feel cold in my head/hand/other body part" sounds wrong and un-idiomatic. I think this is because I feel cold is a standard phrase that doesn't usually take "in..." with it, so it sounds unexpected and wrong to add it on. Also, "in my ____" implies "inside my ____", which is not what we mean. I would only add "in" if I meant something like "I felt cold in my room", because I was literally inside the room.
A more normal phrasing would be "My head feels cold."
Another possibility would be "I felt a sensation of cold in my head."
"My head felt cold" is the best for what you're describing. It is stating that your head specifically is cold. "I felt/sensed cold in my head" says the same thing, but the first half of the sentence says you're cold in general, then it specifies where the coldness is happening. That is unnecessarily clunky and disjointed.
There is another problem that can arise with the body part head when you're discussing feelings or sensations. Having a feeling in your head can mean that it is not real, but just in your imagination. An example would be hallucinations. The person having them is not seeing something in the real world, but their head/brain is making them up. So the last two questions might mean that it is not really cold out, just the person has something wrong with them that is making them feel cold. This would not be a problem if the sentence was talking about another body part, such as an arm.
