Happy Wednesday! And August 1st. Can you believe it? I certainly can’t. BTS life is about to get busy, school starts today so I’ll be busy most days again with that. But we’re also getting itchy to get out of this current apartment so I’ve been cleaning and organizing like a mad woman so if and when we move, it’ll go smoothly.

Anywho, in the summertime I adore digging into my ball cap collection. But I’m not the kind of person who likes to wear hats inside – like at all. So hat head is a major deterring factor. But I love my caps so much, I can’t give them up. SO it’s taken some time to come up with a method to avoid hat head, but I’m happy to say I’ve found one.

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SIMILAR TOP // SIMILAR HAT ($6!!)

HOW TO AVOID HAT HEAD

I’ve broken it down into tons of pictures and steps just to make it super clear, but if you were a fan of the poof in high school, these steps will be generally familiar. This is the kind of tutorial you can do completely without a mirror, because all the pieces that matter hide under the cap, and the point is to remove the pins when you’re ready to ditch the hat. If you want to keep them in though, just use a mirror to get a smooth finish.

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YOUR HAIR + YOUR HAT

The first and seemingly most obvious thing is your hair and hat – but it’s actually a little more complicated. It’s best to start off with some texture and volume already. If you’re just covering a bad hair day, that’s one thing. But if you’re trying to preserve something good, it’s easier to preserve a loose wave than anything straight. The pins you use may crease your hair and those creases are much more disguised with a curl.

When it comes to the hat, you want to pick one with an adjustable band. This is essential. You need to be able to make the hat fit a certain part of your head so that it doesn’t put pressure on your scalp, thus killing the volume.

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STEP ONE: THE ALMOST HALF UP

The first step is creating essentially a half up. You don’t want to grab all of your hair above your ears, but you need to make sure you’re gathering up everything at the tip top, or the crown, where that volume is so essential. I like to leave out my bangs area so I have some hair to play with in framing my face at the end.

I start about an inch to an inch and a half back and gather the area that would sit under a small crown (that must be where the name comes from!). Using your finger pads, press against your scalp so you’re really collecting all the hair, and not just the top layer.

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STEP TWO: THE TWIST

Next you’ll bring that hair together and twist it once. If you’ve done any kind of half up twist, it’s no different. If you’ve never done a twist before, essentially you’re pretending your hair is a flat ribbon and flipping it once so the left side is now on the right and vise versa. Don’t worry about being too neat here unless it’s important to keep the half up with your hair out of the hat.

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STEP THREE: THE POP AND PIN

Now you’ll take your little twist and gently push it up about a quarter to half and inch. This will create a lot of slack at the top of the head. You don’t want the hair to be too loose, but you want to make sure there’s absolutely no pressure on those roots.

Pin into place. I usually use two pins, one for each side of my twist. You want it to be secure, but not super permanent feeling. If it feels like I need just one more bobby pin, I leave it. That’s the perfect level of security. Your hat will help prop those pins up, the pins are just protecting your roots.

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YOUR DONE! UNLESS YOU WANT A PONY…

Finally, add the hat. Put your hat on, but do not press it down. Instead, let it go down far enough to look natural, but still be barely grazing your poof. Tighten the hat band to help it stay in that position. You can also slip in a bobby pin beneath the strap if your hat is similar to mine and you need more security, but I’ve never found it necessary. Touch up the pieces around your face and hit the road!

Keep following the steps if you want to make it a pony!

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STEP FIVE: FINDING THE MARK

If you want to add a pony tail. Keep your hat on, and mark with your finger where you want your pony tail to be. Carefully keeping that mark, take the hat off. You want to position the pony tail below the bobby pins.

I also use my nail to press onto my scalp just a tiny bit just so I have that tingly sensation to help me guide the pony tail later.

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STEP SIX: THE PONYTAIL

Using a softer elastic, one that won’t leave too much of a crease if you want to let your hair down, pull your hair back. Your hat will end up supporting the ponytail a little bit, so don’t worry about making it super tight. Just get the pony tail in place.

You probably pulled on those roots, so while holding the tail with one hand, stick your fingers from your other hand into the poof and squeeze them together. Ever so gently pull with equal pressure across all your fingers so you loosen those hairs up again – just a hair. Pun intended.

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STEP SEVEN: THE PULL THROUGH

Your ponytail should look a little something like this now. If you want to keep the tail all day, but make it cuter, use a little extra strand of hair to hide the elastic by wrapping it around the base of the ponytail and pinning it in place. If you take the time to do this step though, make sure the rest of your poof and hair look nice so you can take your hat off.

Now it’s time to add the hat. Start at the back. Gently place the opening from your hat on top of the elastic of your pony tail where it would come through. Without pulling the hat onto your head (or just avoid it as much as you can), pull the hair through the loop.

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STEP EIGHT: KEEP IT NEAT

Once you have your ponytail in place,  pull the front of the cap down. Use a hand at the front, and at the strap in the back to guide the hat into place without putting pressure on your scalp. The hat should sit so that it grazes the poof, but doesn’t put pressure on it. Tighten the strap and add a pin if necessary.

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AND NOW YOUR DONE…

And that’s it! Double check the sides and back to make sure everything looks good and go enjoy the day!

Are you a fan of the ball cap? How do you wear your hair with them – or any hat?