Chemo hat buying guide – what to look for?

If you’re newly diagnosed and overwhelmed by all the internet options available, here is our chemo hat buying guide. I hope it answers all your headwear concerns.

Read on for the definitive guide on how to select your chemo headwear, so that it flatters you and lifts your day.

Chemo hat buying guide – tip no.1 – hats for indoor wear

A key difference when thinking about hats for hair loss is that you’ll need to consider wearing it indoors, as well as outdoors. Therefore cancer hats are best made from lighter weight fabrics that have some give in them, so that they are super comfy to wear over longer periods of time.

‘Outdoor’ hats are often thick to keep us warm, or seasonal such as a straw hat to protect us from the sun. We might wear them for a couple of hours but then we’ll take them off. Many hats are just a bit too warm to wear indoors with the central heating on and they can look out of place when worn in the office, or out socially.

Chemo hat buying guide – tip no.2 – the hat needs to fully cover to the nape of the neck

The cut of the hat is important – not all hat styles fully cover the head i.e a baseball cap with a cut out at the back would leave your neck, lower head exposed. Cancer hats should cover the head fully and easily i.e. you do not need to pull the hat down to achieve the coverage and spoil the shape of the hat. The only way to figure out what you’re happy to wear and what styles provide you with confident coverage is to try on as many different styles as you can find; tuck your hair up inside and see how the shape suits your face.

Certain styles are synonymous with hair loss – scarves and turbans for cancer patients in particular. There is a good reason for this – scarves fit any size of head (read on for more about sizing), they add volume to the head. Once we lose our hair our head shape is clearly defined – scarves and turbans wrap heads in layers of fabric giving the head back a ‘fuller appearance’.

Chemo hat buying guide – tip no.3 – look at the shape of the hat on your head / face shape

This is useful – the fuller the hat style the easier and more flattering it is to wear. As an example to illustrate this point not many women feel confident and comfortable enough to wear a simple ‘sock’ beanie that hugs the head, if the beanie is then wrapped around with a scarf or layered with a head band, the overall impression is a softer, more flattering profile.

Once you’ve got use to wearing hats you’ll begin to quickly realise certain hats make you feel more confident, or you have ‘favourites’. This is also an important consideration – hair loss may last for a period of 6 months and beyond, it really is worth investing time to develop ‘your look’, rather than making do with the purely practical – a head covering.

Adjustable hat styles are another good idea – our heads heat up and cool down throughout the day, so stretch fabrics, elasticated styles or re-tie-able scarves can be much more comfortable to wear over longer periods of time.

Chemo hat buying guide – tip no.4 – think about headwear for certain situations

Chemo sleep hats can be really useful in the cooler seasons and enable you to sleep well. (Your head above the duvet can get cold, once the central heating goes off.) They’re not particularly ‘exciting’ items but should be made in soft fabric with minimal seams, so that when you’re lying in them they are super comfy and a little cosy to wear. You may have school age children and need to be at the school gate, or pitch side, on a regular basis. Or maybe you regularly dog walk – all casual situations in which you may not have the time to get ready a wig. A go to hat / cap when time is tight in the morning, can help ease your morning out the front door.

Sizing is important. Many of us have a regular head fitting (the High St. works to a 56-57 cms head fitting for women), however if your head is a non-standard size, fit will make all the difference as to how comfortable the hat will be to wear and will dictate what you can buy to wear. Not all retailers supply hats in all sizes, it is worth measuring your head and knowing your own head fitting size.

Here is how to – place a tape measure ‘sweatband style’ around your forehead. The tape is placed just above your eyebrows at the front and around the bump at the back of your head i.e the widest circumference of your head front to back; remember to keep the tape level all the way round the head.

Once you have established your size, what hat styles suit you and provide the level of coverage you’re happy with, then you have pretty much defined what your ideal chemo hat should be. So there are lots of options out there apart from the purely practical ‘patient wear’ items and armed with this information you can quickly filter down what you are looking for.

You can find more information about hair loss headwear here, and many more headwear styles in our headwear shop. Further information on Living with Chemotherapy here.

© Suburban Turban 2018 – Suburban Turban has been online for 11 years and now sells its headwear range in 11 countries worldwide. Our designs are produced solely under our own label.  Bridal and special occasion bespoke headwear is also part of our service.