Doug5150

I think I want a hat while I ride... not a helmet (I've got a helmet that I don't wear much already).

The problem I have often is that I get sunburned on my ears or around my hairline, where I can't apply sunscreen real well. Also around the sweatband, because it rubs off the sunscreen.
I kinda like this one: https://www.villagehatshop.com/sunbody_gus.html
it'd need a strap to say on, of course, and riding real fast would be out of the question, but I tend to totter along at 14-15 mph most of the time anyway.
,,,,
A hat won't protect me much in a crash I realize--but I haven't ever had a serious crash. I get mild sunburns all the time, and it doesn't make much sense to bother with preventing the problem that has never happened, while putting up with a problem that happens all the time.

I've never seen anyone IRL wearing much of any had while riding, but I did notice that there's a photo of some people doing it on the Challenge website:
https://www.challenge-recumbents.com/...ex.php?taal=en

The Challenge website has a series of photos for the top-graphic. It starts randomly and rotates through them when you refresh the page. The photo I am talking about is screen-shot-ed here:
https://www.norcom2000.com/users/dcim...ff/common.html

As can be seen, both riders are wearing hats, not helmets at all--and fairly wide-brim hats at that. Not something silly like a traditional riding cap, or a baseball cap. Also we can see--one rider has even tied his helmet to the bike, so this was not just an error of "forgot the helmet at home, so we stopped and bought hats along the way".

Does anyone here ride wearing a regular hat?
Does anyone else have issues with sunburns to the head?
What solutions have you found?
~

eubi

Get ready for a barrage from the pro-helmet lobby...but that's not your question.

OK, I wear a helmet, but those are pretty big vents on top. I'll get a really nice sunburn through those. Since I have no hair, I:

1. Slather my pate with sunscreen.

2. Wear a lycra bandanna under my helmet. It's a long bandanna so it also protects the back of my neck.

3. Both.

Sun protection is a very important issue. A wide brimmed hat is a good solution to keep the sun off the top of your head and your ears. You are right, baseball caps do nothing to protects the tops of your ears from sunburn.

Just my 2c.

why2not

No, I ride with a cycling cap.. headsweats & cool max
No, and I'm bald. Possibly a light sunburn on my scalp after my first 6+hour in full sunlight ride due to rays penetrating the coomax, but that's typically it.
For some reason, it seems my ears don't burn and I don't get any on my neck either when cycling. Now if I'm doing yard work in the same sun for the same period of time, both tend to burn. I don't know why.

Bekologist

I ride with a regular hat for cycling - it's called a 'helmet'.

you could always wear a boonie type brimmed hat underneath for extra sun protection, or just a cotton or synth cycling cap.

bmike

around town i'll wear nothing on my noggin, especially when i head out on the bakfiets or one of the dutch bikes. this is typical if i'm running errands in the neighborhood or using the bike path as my main route. if i head across town on the FG or road bike i'll wear the skull bucket.

if i'm off on a 'ride' i'll wear my helmet with a cycling cap underneath, and i'm usually adorned in full cycling garb - shorts, jersey, shoes.

cerewa

I like to wear a helmet while riding. Among its advantages in warm sunny weather are that my ears have never gotten sunburned under the helmet and the helmet's pretty breathable. I figure in the summer it's close to equally hot with or without my helmet- the shade of the helmet and the extra insulation where the helmet is against my head approximately cancel each other out.

boilermaker1

I wear a linen "newsboy" cap. It protects the top of the ears.

https://www.dadshats.com/capsmal1.html

ricebowl

SirMike1983 

There used to be a high-quality basket-type pith helmet you could buy. It actually blocked the sun nicely and was heavy enough to keep from blowing off. It wasn't too heavy though since was a basket weave-type material and allowed lots of air flow. It was rigid as well so it wouldn't flap about as you rode.

genec

Yeah I wear a regular hat when I cruise the paths or the beach boardwalk... just your basic baseball hat. My ears are still exposed though, so the hat doesn't help that much.

I think you need a cowboy hat or a porkpie hat... or something like that.

noisebeam

There is a guy I see here and there who rides a 'bent (often pulls a trailer) who wears a hat that looks just like this one.

Al

kendall

I often wear a wide brim hat, not cowboy style, straw with a loose weave, lets air flow and keeps the sun off so it's cool and comfortable.

It's for portable shade, not sun protection as I have long hair and don't think I've ever had sunburnt neck or ears.

Ken.

I-Like-To-Bike

Baseball cap or sun visor. Works for keeping glasses drier in rain storms also.

Knit cap and/or hoodie as cold temperatures require.

closetbiker

don't forget that classic from '85,



https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088707/

starring KC with a nice mustache, and Eddie Merckx has a cameo

closetbiker

from
https://www.daclarke.org/AltTrans/helmet.html

...Now, for contrast, let's look at a situation where I really am in a high risk group. According to the CDC, we can expect over 47,000 new cases of skin cancer in the US this year (2000). They also predict almost 9,600 fatalities from pre-existing skin cancers. That's ten times the number from bike crashes, remember? Nevertheless, I see plenty of people (sailors and cyclists) out there sunbathing, "working on their tan" (or on their early demise). And I don't see other people, no matter how health-conscious, walking up to sunbathers and lecturing them on their social irresponsibility. I personally wear sunscreen and a hat. In Hawai'i I got laughs all round for snorkelling in a long sleeved shirt. Heck, I don't mind being laughed at if I can avoid cooking my epidermis. More on this below...

As a pale North European type, I'm in the second highest risk category in the world for skin cancer and sun damage in general (second only to albinos). When I ride my bike, I wear a hat; just like my dermatologist told me to. I told my dermatologist that I didn't want to die from skin cancer; that, to me, was an unacceptable risk. She said, "Wear sunscreen and wear a hat with a big floppy wide brim. And I mean on every sunny day, and any overcast one when you're out for more than an hour." So I thought about that. I don't like hats that much, but on the other hand, I don't like painful sunburns or the feeling that I'm doing something for which I'm in a particularly risky category. And cancer's a bad way to go. So I wear the damn hat. Mostly. And I loathe slimy, disgusting sunscreen, but I wear it. Mostly.

If I wear a bike helmet, I lose that wide hat brim that my doctor told me very seriously to wear. Now, in my humble opinion it is my business, and no one else's, to figure out which risk is more urgent for me. Weighing the odds, the figures, and my own unique exposure, I figure the skin cancer is scarier and more immediate than the face plant. I already have skin abnormalities, but I have a flawless safety record. So I ignore the helmet and wear the hat. And thus I get yelled at :-)...

I don't mind so much being yelled at (after all, if you're a woman who routinely cycles everywhere, you do eventually build up a kind of immunity to having various things yelled at you -- and sometimes even thrown). But it's really going to piss me off if police officers start ticketing me for my own adult and informed strategy of risk avoidance. No one should be able to force me to risk skin cancer because of their own unfounded fear of bikes, any more than I should be able to prohibit you legally from eating a steak just because BSE makes me a tad nervous. I would consider that harm. It might even be enough to make me move to the Netherlands -- or any other place where the government is willing to treat me like a grown-up...

waldowales

I wear an old-style corduroy English golf cap, which shades the ears somewhat, when I ride my old two and three speeds, a helmet the rest of the time. Either way, I slather on the SPF 50. I must be weird, because I don't even notice I have it on.

joejack951

Way, way off topic, but if you hate slimy sunscreen (I certainly do) give Bullfrog a try. Not only does it come in really high SPF ratings, but their spray and gel are the least greasy and easiest to apply of any sunscreen I've ever used. I can't even use creams because I sweat them right out but Bullfrog lasts all day on me. Having had moles removed from my back due to too much sun as a kid, the sun on my skin is not something I take very lightly (though I still sometimes forget to lather up).

As to hats, when I'm not wearing a helmet for whatever reason, I'll be wearing one of three hats, either my newly acquired Headsweats Spincycle cycling cap (all white Coolmax, much cooler than a helmet), my Outdoor Research nylon baseball cap (probably not too much any more now that I have the Headsweats cap) or my Smartwool lightweight winter hat. None of these keeps the sun off my neck and ears but the rimmed hats do keep the sun off my forehead and a little more of my face than my sunglasses both of which are appreciated.

Dogbait

Seattle Sombrero, available in a number of subdued earth tones, suitable attire for any latte emporium.

Doug5150

I do use Bullfrog gel, and it does work better than any other sunscreen I've tried.... -but it still seems to sweat off my head faster than it does anywhere else. And especially gets wiped off near the sweatband I usually wear. "Sunscreen above the neck" just doesn't seem to work real well overall.
~

Bushman

i wear a WALZ wool cycling cap. Warm in winter, cool in summer, wicks sweat away quite nicely and does'nt stink.

JonH

Kind of resurrecting an old thread here...

Have you ever seen the cowboy hard hats? I don't know how practical it would be for cycling, but it might be a good way to kill two birds with one stone (protection from sun and protection for your skull).

https://www.tasco-safety.com/hhats/Cowboy-hard-hats.html

I'm not sure how they would work while cycling though, but it's an idea.

genec

Every now and then... I wear a bright yellow Penzoil hat.

Depends on what I am doing... if I am going out in heavy traffic, I wear a helmet. But for local cruises and riding on the bike path, I wear a baseball cap.

iltb-2

When a baseball cap or hoodie won't do this might be just the ticket:

voldemort

As the song goes "you can leave your hat on". So sometimes, just my brown derby...and nothing else. Of course, there are the holiday specials. Santa hat (if it's big enough you can even wear it OVER a helmet, and of course an Easter bonnet (with a nice tie string so it doesn't blow away), I saw (honest!) a turkey hat at a Thanksgiving parade, and of course, a steel helmet (with/without camoflage) for Veteran's Day. And the traditional '50's era lampshade on your head for New Years.

closetbiker