Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Hair under winter hat

Stray Cat

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Well ladies... :confused:

HOW do you handle your hair when wearing winter hats?
Does your hair get all flatted down, loses its volume, and "play dead" after it spends some time under a hat?
..and WHAT about washing hair MORE in the winter?

I just can't handle mine.. she's got a life of her own, and refuses to let me be in charge. :hurt:
 

Miss sofia

One Too Many
Messages
1,675
Location
East sussex, England
I'm feeling your pain, i really am. As i suffer with lank, thin, hair generally. Winter is a total mare for me regarding hat hair. I have learned the following:

Felt berets, if they're worn all day, tend to leave an indentation around my head, ie serious hat hair, with my crown flattened like a pancake. The solution is for me to wear a sparkly beret for evening, if i'm going out, so therefore i don't have to do much to my barnet. Dry shampoo works well at re-poofing my hair quite well and giving some volume back to the crown area. It also helps between washes as my hair does get a bit greasier with a hat crammed on top of it. You could try pinning back the sides of your hair and your fringe under your hat, to stop it getting so greasy, if that's a problem for you.

Hat fabrics make a big difference. I have a velvet and a lovely soft, wool cloche, which i bought from a local hat shop. They actually were sized and the lady recommended buying a size up, which helps with the hat hair thing. Also with the fabrics being softer i find they are kinder to my hair than the felt hats.

I also have a hand knit big sloppy beret which doesn't give me too much gyp either, again it's not too fitted and lovely and soft.
 

C-dot

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,908
Location
Toronto, Canada
Wool and fur berets are the best - It also helps, like rue refers to, to have a hairstyle that works with a hat. Most 30s, 40s and 50s hairstyles when worn down lie close to the head at the top-back, and fan out toward the bottom.

Personally, my biggest issue is getting my pompadour to stay up in this weather. A good strong hold hairspray does the trick, but it's no fun to comb out later...
 
Last edited:

Miss sofia

One Too Many
Messages
1,675
Location
East sussex, England
OOh i know, i use the Tresemme freeze hold, as it's the only thing to keep my front rolls in check. But it's a bugger to comb out. I just really suffer anyway with my hair all year round, it being so fine and uncooperative, but i've learned to live with it, sigh.
 

RodeoRose

A-List Customer
Messages
415
Location
Vermont
Provided you're not up against subarctic climes, I can't sing enough praises of earmuffs. They actually changed my life (...well, my hair's life). Also, wrapping a silk scarf about your head in an approximation of a hood is dramatically glamourous plus very cozy.
 

Stray Cat

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Yeah.. [huh]
Wearing hat ruins hairstyle, but.. for a short hair.. it's just a DISASTER.
I prefer beret (it's more stylish) but I can't cake it off.. or I'll show the world "Look, my hair is dead and flat".
And washing.. oooh, dreadful thing has to be washed every day, or it'll just look oily, dead and flat. :rage:

Some days (yesterday.. that's what made me write the thread) I find it useless to even style it. What's the purpose of dealing with it, when it's just going to get ruined.

C-dot,
I understand your problem. Mine is this: getting anything to stay on my hair.. due to 100% moist in the air. It's so wet outside, I feel dispersed water on my face. (yup, it melts mascara right off) :Cry:

I'm losing the battle against Weather. :frusty:
 

bunnyb.gal

Practically Family
Messages
788
Location
sunny London
Funnily enough, I find that a big warm winter hat actually helps keep my hairdo - i.e. it keeps it from frizzing up in this drizzly, humid British weather. (I have a very simple vintage-eque short flat 'round the crown and curly/wavy 'round the bottom 'do).
 

zombi

A-List Customer
Messages
491
Location
Thoracic Park
Frankly I use a knit or crochet beret to help salvage bad hair days all the time, especially now that I've cut my hair off and I can't get it out of "clown stage" when I try to brush out. AUGH. Most of my berets don't flatten hair too much because they're a floppier knit type, not a solid felt type.

I agree that most 40s style have a smoother crown, so unless you're wearing a cloche or one of those furry russian hats I can't think of the name of with the ear flap things and such? I would think your hair would be okay, if you're wearing it in that style. I haven't been able to manage keeping a good pomp with a hat on. I usually try to get a good wave in the front and pin in place.
 

Retro_GI_Jane

One of the Regulars
Messages
289
Location
Midwest US
I echo C-dot. Ladies planned their outfits ahead of time and set their hair accordingly. I've been paying close attention to vintage ads as of late and I've noticed that if you were to wear a hat, your 'do wasn't as elaborate on the crown if the hat was meant to sit there...most of the time, the sides were pinned back with combs and the rest in a snood. If you wore a tilt hat, you might do a nice roll on the side with the hat on the other, maybe a smaller roll that fit underneath so when you took your hat off it, you weren't so "lopsided." ;) If you were to wear something knitted or crocheted that covered your ears like a head band, you brushed your hair back and made emphasis on the waves and put the rest back in a low ponytail.

As for me, I tend not to wear my hats because I don't have anywhere to wear them. In the winter, my hair tends to overdry and get static-ky so I do my best to try to keep it up so I don't have to mess with it so much.
 
Last edited:

C-dot

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,908
Location
Toronto, Canada
The smaller the hat the less damage to a Hairdo, think jaunty little Toques, and lots of Bobby Pins!

The problem with Toques is that they fit so tightly around the head that they'll flatten your entire hairdo. Some styles don't cover your ears, but in sub-zero weather, you may as well not wear a hat, then you're back to square one!
 

Stray Cat

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Some styles don't cover your ears, but in sub-zero weather, you may as well not wear a hat, then you're back to square one!

Touché!
My point exactly. :nod:
It's just ridiculous to try to get my hair to stay UP, when a knitted hat is doing all it can to iron-flat it. And I did love to comb my bangs back in a little pompadour.. those were the days..
(not as elaborate as yours, C-dot) :)
 

Marla

A-List Customer
Messages
421
Location
USA
My favorite solution is to wrap a long scarf or a shawl around my head. If it is long enough it can do double duty as a head covering and a scarf. It's warm and doesn't smoosh the hair too much. And it's vintage!
 

Lily Powers

Practically Family
My hair is thick and has a lot of body. It's short in back with natural waves and the length is graduated towards the front where it falls below my jaw but above my collar bone. It gets topped with a beret or wool cloche these cold mornings. To keep my hair from being flattened, if I'm parting my hair on the left, then I switch the part to the right before I put on the hat so that when the hat comes off I just flip the part and "flat head" has been pretty well thwarted. Sometimes I put a dab of oil on the ends and finger roll them under the hat, so there will be bit of curl when the hat comes off.
 
Last edited:

Juliet

A-List Customer
Messages
368
Location
Stranded in Hungary
I usually go with a simple pincurl set and a felt fedora or a jaunty little 30-es hat (mine is amazingly warm for its' size). This way, the crown is smooth anyway. Although the little flyaways that jump up all over, when I take off the hat? Those I don't appreciate. :D
I'll have to try the scarf option!
 

shopgirl61

A-List Customer
Messages
341
Location
Auburn, CA
My hair works just fine with any kind of hat, i've got natural wave and curls that do well in all but humid weather.
Grandma swore by hairspray, Adorn was her brand Elnet by Loreal is mine and, I can never do wrong by it :eek:
 

Forum statistics

Threads
109,257
Messages
3,077,456
Members
54,183
Latest member
UrbanGraveDave
Top