Does wearing a hat damage your hair? Is wearing a hat every day bad for your hair or cause hair loss? How do you avoid hat hair? Whether you’ve thrown on a cap on a bad hair day, worn a wide-brim on vacation to keep rays off your face, or donned a cowboy hat for a festival, you may wonder what it was doing to your hair. With wintertime approaching to make those beanies and berets more appealing, read on to find out what hats do to your hair, how to avoid hat hair, and more.

Does Wearing a Hat Damage Your Hair?
The answer is almost always no. Factors that damage your hair include the kind of hat you're wearing, how often you wear hats, and the environment in which you wear it. Overall, consensus says that wearing hats, whether your worn baseball cap or a new beanie, will not cause hair loss or hair thinning. So are we in the clear to wear hats? Not necessarily. Head coverings themselves won’t cause hair growth issues, but if your hat or scarf is dirty or sweaty, it can impact your scalp and hair health and cause itchiness, oiliness, or lifeless hair.

Is Wearing a Hat Every Day Bad for Your Hair?
Wearing hats that are extremely tight on your head puts you at an increased risk for traction alopecia – a kind of hair loss caused by constant pulling or pressure on your hair. And, as we said above, wearing the same hat or scarf every day without washing it can cause scalp discomfort. However, wearing hats temporarily for protective purposes can actually help with scalp health and care: wearing a wide-brimmed hat on sunny days to protect against harmful UV rays or a winter hat to insulate while outside in the cold are two great examples.

How to Avoid Hat Hair

We know; hat hair is super annoying. Avoiding hat hair starts by using products like Original New Wash to get hair soft, shiny, and healthy so it can bounce back after being bound by a hat. In addition to maintaining healthy, clean hair, choose hats that are loose-fitting or made of soft, breathable material, and style your hair to go with your hat rather than smothering it beneath the fabric. It also helps to have a product on hand with “memory” like Lift Volumizing Spray or our talc-free Powder to prevent squashed hair from laying flat. 

So rest assured that your favorite toppers won’t do lasting damage to your hair – as long as you keep your hats clean and wear them loosely enough, style your headgear however you see fit. And to avoid the hat hair that we all hate, we recommend styling your hair for wear with hats, like textured waves, loose braids, or a messy bun to make creases and bends blend right in.