Whether it’s snowing outside or bright and sunny, hats can be the perfect winter accessory to help fight the elements or even cover up a dreaded bad hair day. But can wearing one actually cause hair loss? Let’s chat about hats and find out if it’s time to ditch your beloved beanie, funky fedora, or cozy knitted wool cap, or if it's something else that's causing your hair to fall out.
Does a Hat Cause Hair Loss?
Let's get the most important news out of the way. Fortunately, there is no evidence to suggest that regular, well-fitting hats cause hair loss or baldness. You're safe to wear your beloved wooly hat in winter or your favorite baseball cap in summer without fear of your hair thinning. Researchers haven't even found a link between wearing hats every day and temporary hair loss or gradual hair loss. Case closed? Not quite.
How Hats Can Affect Your Hair Health
While hats aren't necessarily the culprit for your hair breakage or loss, how people wear their hats could certainly be part of the problem. An extremely tight hat can pull on your hair, and that can be a cause of hair loss. This is known as traction alopecia, and it's the same thing that can happen when you wear a tight ponytail. Traction alopecia can create tiny scarring and shortening of hair follicles through pressure and cutting off blood flow to the head. And yes, it can be the result of you wearing very tight hats. If your hat hurts to wear, then it’s probably too tight and could be causing damage. Luckily, there's an easy fix. Just wear a looser-fitting hat that fits correctly, or stop pulling your hair back so tightly to fit snugly underneath it! Both of these things should cause traction alopecia to grind to a halt.
Here's another tip that can help you keep your hat on. Try to keep your hat clean to prevent irritation, oily hair, or a flaky scalp.
The Real Causes of Hair Loss
Now that your favorite baseball caps don't have to be donated, let's talk about the real reasons your hair might be thinning. Hair loss is a real problem. In fact, 55% of women experience some form of hair loss before the age of 70. Here are some of the most common reasons why women experience pattern hair loss:
- Age can cause hair follicles to shrink, slow down hair growth, and sometimes even lead to hair falling out due to lowered estrogen and progesterone levels.
- Androgenic alopecia, or genetic hair loss, shows itself as a thinning along the crown and scalp.
- Sadly, medicine that helps us with illness can cause hair loss as a side effect. This is often due to slowing down the anagen phase, or hair growth phase, or increasing androgens that cause alopecia. Fortunately, medications and stress typically don't cause permanent hair loss, and your hair may return to normal when the medication is no longer needed.
- Diet, nutrition, and vitamins play a role in hair follicle growth. The better our diets, the better our bodies work, which includes healthier hair and hair growth.
- Perms and hot oil treatments could actually lead to hair loss, too. Ditch the damaging treatments and instead choose hair products that work with your hair rather than against it. Lu's Control, Freedom, and Rescue collections are all designed to protect and strengthen hair, and are made without harmful ingredients like sulfates, parabens, or colorants. With Lu, you can match your hair type and mood to the shampoo, conditioner, and styling cream that best suits you.
- As mentioned above, traction alopecia is a preventable form of hair loss that occurs when hair follicles are repeatedly damaged by hair pulling, from tight hairstyles or snug hats.
There’s no guaranteed way to prevent hair loss or reverse it, but with the right hair care routine, you'll give your locks a better chance of staying healthy for longer. Here are some great ways to help your hair look and feel its best.
- Hair is 95% made up of a protein called keratin. If you’re not getting enough protein in your hair diet, it can affect the keratin levels in your hair and lead to hair loss. Another way of getting enough keratin is by using Lu products, all of which contain Impossible Keratin™️. This plant-based, proprietary formulation provides added strength and flexibility to every strand at a microscopic level.
- If you already feel like you’ve lost some hair, it might be time to try Minoxidil (Rogaine), which has been used since the 1970s to fight hair loss. It has been shown in clinical studies to slow certain types of hair loss. For a more natural way to help your hair, try LU’s Rescue Collection. By focusing on the root cause of hair damage from chemical dyes and straightening treatments, heat irons and the environment, this collection focuses on recovering your hair and restoring it to its former glory.
The Final Word on Hats
If you want to throw your hat collection away and embrace your hairstyle, we’re all for it. But there's no reason to blame hats for your hair loss or damage, unless you're wearing them too tight.
