Beanies are a great accessory especially on those cold wintery mornings or when you are having a bad hair day, as it is something you can just throw on your head and walk out the door. But what effects does a beanie have on your hair?
Here Are 5 Ways Beanies Can Damage Your Hair:
Beanies can do damage to your hair, this damage includes:
Flattening Your Hair
Not healthy for your scalp (as it covers your head)
Can increase hair breakage
Makes Your hair oily
Releases too much heat through your head
But the good thing though is that Beanies won’t cause your hair to thin or cause a receding hairline over your head.
If you want to know more about this topic of Beanies and how wearing one can affect you or not affect you, please read on as we have all of the detailed answer below for you.
Ways Beanies Can Damage Your Hair
Beanies are popular hats, especially in the cold, winter months when your head and ears feel like ice, but they aren’t the best choice of headwear if you are looking to keep your hair as healthy as possible.
This is because hair is so delicate and needs to be looked after carefully, otherwise it can easily become damaged. And the majority of people know that, unfortunately, once hair becomes damaged, it is so much more difficult to restore it to its original condition.
So, before you put your beanie back on this winter, you might want to consider the possible implications for your hair.
They Flatten Your Hair
Beanies are designed to be tight in order to keep your head and ears warm, but this also means that they flatten your hair. Aside from ruining the look of your hair, flattening your hair on a regular basis with a beanie can also cause damage to it. This is because squashing the strands down makes them more likely to break, especially with constant friction from the hat against your head.
When strands of hair start to break down, they fray and can break off entirely. Having a beanie constantly flattening your hair isn’t the only cause of this, but it is something that can easily accelerate the process. The flattening motion can crush strands of hair and cause them to snap, which ruins both the look and health of them, deteriorating the condition of your hair.
As well as this, you also won’t be able to keep your hair looking as styled when you wear a beanie, especially if you have long hair. The flattening motion will push down any volume, cause creases and increase the likelihood of frizz. When you remove the beanie, your hair is likely to be left looking deflated and messy, so it might be a case of choosing between being cold or ruining your hairstyle.
They’re Not Healthy For Your Scalp
Even though it is covered by your hair, your scalp still needs to breathe, otherwise your hair can become damaged. A lot of hair problems begin at the scalp, so you need to look after it and ensure that it gets all the air possible in order to promote healthy follicles. Of course, wearing a beanie won’t instantly begin to damage your hair from the scalp down, but completely covering your scalp for prolonged periods of time isn’t good for it.
On cold days, a beanie will work wonders to keep your head warm, but overheating your scalp can be just as problematic for your hair. If the scalp doesn’t get enough oxygen, it can slow your hair growth and give your scalp a sweaty or greasy appearance. Sunlight and vitamin D also help to promote hair growth, so keeping your scalp in the dark all day restricts it from getting what it needs.
One option that you have is to try only wearing your beanie for shorter periods of time, or not wearing it every day. Once your head and ears have warmed up, you should be more comfortable being out without your beanie on, which will allow your scalp to breathe and also expose it to the sunlight. This will also stop your hair from drying out and help it to preserve its natural shine.
They Release More Heat Through Your Head
However, while exposure to sunlight is good for your scalp, too much heat is not. This is because too much heat can dry out strands of hair, weaken their natural keratin and cause them to become brittle. The drier and more brittle that your hair becomes, the more likely that it is that strands will start to split at the ends or break off entirely.
Beanies are designed to contain heat and raise the temperature of your head and ears on the coldest of days, so you’ll want to consider the condition of your hair before you commit to wearing one all day. After all, it’s not advised that you straighten or curl your hair without using a heat protectant because the strands can become fried, frizzy and broken, and the same applies with hats too.
The pores in your scalp are more likely to sweat if you keep them hidden under a hat with lots of heat trapped inside. This also traps oils and stops them from travelling further through your hair, making the ends appear a lot drier in comparison. So, while sunlight is a good thing for your scalp, too much heat in the confined space of a beanie is not.
They Can Increase Hair Breakage When Taken Off
One of the main causes of hair damage is the strands breaking, splitting and tearing out, and, unfortunately, beanies do increase the chance of this happening. It is all to do with friction, both between the strands themselves and between your hair and the hat. As beanies are fitted tightly to your head, friction is practically unavoidable, making strands much more likely to break.
When you remove a beanie, strands of hair can cling to the material due to static and end up getting damaged in the process. It might not pull at the roots of your hair, so you won’t feel it, but this damage is one of the biggest causes of hair breakage. And once hair has started to break off, the strands will take longer to grow back, especially if you don’t do anything to improve their condition, such as use specialised haircare products.
You should think of your hair similarly to a delicate fabric, such as cotton or silk. You wouldn’t unnecessarily yank those fabrics around because they are highly likely to fray at the edges, rip, or become a lot more fragile. Treat your hair just as delicately and carefully because too much friction or rough treatment will wear away at it.
They Can Make Your Hair More Oily
The oils that your scalp produces are incredibly important for the overall condition of your hair because they help it to look glossy, retain its colour and stay as soft as possible. However, too much oil collected at once makes hair look greasy, especially on the scalp. This also restricts the amount of oil that the rest of your hair gets, making some parts look very oily and others completely dried out.
If you have naturally oily hair, wearing a beanie can make the problem even worse, requiring you to use products like dry shampoo all the time if you want to keep the oiliness at bay. In some cases, if your hair is too oily, it can also irritate parts of your skin, such as around the neck and ears. A lot of hair and skin problems with the overproduction of oil are made worse by perspiration and overheating, two pretty common occurrences when you wear a beanie.
Reasons Why Beanies Won’t Cause A Receding Hairline
But despite all the ways that beanies can damage your hair, you can be sure that they won’t cause a receding hairline.
Of course, constantly having your hair pulled firmly back by a garment like a tight hat isn’t the healthiest thing for your hair, but a receding hairline is brought on by much biggest factors. These include age, genetics, diet, and hormones, and they can affect both men and women.
It is a common misconception that hats cause baldness or hair loss because of how they restrict your hair, perhaps because some people who suffer from receding hairlines feel more comfortable wearing hats to hide them.
However, if you do notice that your hairline is starting to recede, it is just a coincidence that you are also wearing a beanie. To identify exactly what is causing your hairline to recede, it is best to meet with a professional.
Reasons Why Beanies Won’t Cause Thinning Hair
It is also a common misconception that beanies cause your hair to thin, which is another form of balding.
However, thinning hair can also be chalked up to bigger factors, such as your weight, genetics, age, hormones, and even your stress levels, so you don’t need to worry about your beanie being to blame.
You might notice that your beanie does sometimes catch strands of hair and accidentally pull them out when you take it off, but this will never be enough to contribute to the problem of thinning hair.
Just as with a receding hairline, any form of hair thinning or hair loss is best talked through with a professional. It is likely nothing because so many men and women experience thinning hair as they get older and their lives change, but if you are worried, a professional, such as a doctor, will know best.
One thing that you won’t need to spend time thinking about is whether your beanie is causing you to lose hair because the real reasons for that have nothing to do with whether or not you choose to wear hats.
