Entering Your Hat Era? The Right Way To Measure Your Head For The Perfect Fit

A great way to spice up your outfit is by using accessories, and nothing screams fashionista more than adding a stylish hat to your ensemble. Hats have a way of livening up an otherwise drab look, and lots of people put this knowledge to good use. Plenty of celebrities are known for their signature hats, like Frank Sinatra who wore trilby hats so often that he is credited for popularizing them and even has some named after him. 

We can't forget Demi Lovato's worn-on-the-crown hat phase during her Disney days, or Taylor Swift's iconic newsboy hat during her "Red (Taylor's Version)" era.

While hats may be elegant add-ons to complete your look, they have a variety of other uses as well. You don't have to be going somewhere upscale to don headgear, but one thing you do need is to get your head measurements right. Some hats come with an adjustable strap nowadays, but not all of them do. The last thing you want to do is spend a small fortune on a quality hat, only to discover later that it's oversized. Whether it's a fancy fedora to enthrall fellow partygoers or a bland baseball cap to shield your face from the sun, you need to know your correct head size. Don't worry if you don't fancy a stroll to your nearest haberdashery. You can get your head size at home in just a couple of steps.

Go around your head with measuring tape

The way you measure your head size depends on what type of hat you're looking to wear. That being said, no matter the style, all you need is a soft tape measure.  According to Real Simple, in order to measure yourself for a standard hat that sits on your forehead and rests above your ears, wrap the tape around your head. Without wrapping the tape too tight, make sure to get as far down as your mid-forehead and the mid-section of the back of your head. Let it rest above your ears. Record the measurement. If you don't have measuring tape, don't fret. You can use string to measure your head, and then cut the string where the ends meet and measure the length later.

If you want to rock your hat like Demi Lovato used to, where your hat sits on the crown of your head, then the measurements need to follow that pattern. Real Simple describes this process as measuring from above your brows all the way around to above your neck where the hat would naturally rest. Record your measurement, and that's it! Now, check your measurement in centimeters or inches on the size chart of the hat shop you're buying from.

With this process, you can measure your head for any hat you want to wear. You can put on a fascinator hat like all the fancy British royals or a vintage fedora to channel your inner Sinatra.

How to prevent hat hair

Hats are a great accessory to finish your look and they are useful for protecting your hair. However, they are also culprits of causing hat hair. You have probably experienced getting your perfectly coiffed hair messed up after wearing a hat, especially if the hat is made of coarse material. The kind of hat you wear is important in alleviating the crime against humanity that is hat hair. There are ways to prevent hat hair from happening, such as ensuring your hair is completely dry before putting on the hat, adding an anti-frizz product like hairspray, or switching up your style entirely to one that would be less affected by the hat. If you have curlier or kinkier hair, you could try lining your hat with satin.

You also want to make sure that your hat isn't too tight because this can lead to other problems such as discomfort and compression headaches.