Winter seems to have arrived in the capital region and with the cold, toques and winter hats are soon to follow. It makes sense that keeping your head and ear warm would be a huge priority; however, how can we do that without sacrificing how our hair looks? There is nothing worse than having to go to a professional meeting at the office and pulling off your toque to reveal a flattened and frizzy mess.

There are, thankfully, some easy things we can to in order to keep the correct volume for our hair while simultaneously preventing static and frizziness that comes with the cold. In our previous article about getting rid of winter fly-aways, we talked about how dryness in the air during the winter dries out the hair, creating more friction, static electricity and, by extension, wild hair. We talked a lot about the importance of maintaining moisturized hair, which can be done by reducing the number of times you shampoo weekly, using and anti-frizz shampoo, using conditioner and leave-in moisturizing products as well. The same is definitely true of preventing hat hair so make sure all of your conditioning strategies are intact from the get-go.

Using volumizing products to build up your hair, even despite the fact that you may have to put a hat on. These products will usually just require a little bit of primping when the hat comes off to help your hair return to its original volume right away.

Making sure you hair is actually dry is also important. First of all, going out with wet hair (even under a hat) is not good for your health and can increase your susceptibility to illness by catching a draft. Also, hair that is still wet that then goes under a hat will take the shape of the hat and totally flatten out. These means that no matter what you do, you will have a lumpy mess when your hat comes off. If you use a diffuser when you blow-dry, you are also much more likely to create additional volume in your hair as you dry it.

If you have a specific way you normally part you hair, consider parting it on the opposite side before you put your hat on. Then you hair will only flatten in that one area. When you remove your hat, simply flip your hair back to its natural part and you will likely have most of the regular volume you are accustomed to.

Lastly, the other thing that can be done is to bring some products and styling tools with you and leave your place a little early. You can arrive and head straight to the washroom to remove your hat and touch up your hair before you head to your meeting or workday. Realistically, there are going to be a lot of other people struggling with the same issue in the winter time so try to use these tips to look your best but also don’t sweat the small stuff. A good cut and nice colour go a long way to recuperating what a hat does on blustery winter days!