Testing TikTok’s Headband Hat Hack: See Photos

If anyone reading this cares about my personal well-being, you should know that I’m going through yet another break-up (does it count if it’s always with the same guy?). This past week, I was unwell — I’m talking full body sobs, red, puffy eyes, face swollen beyond recognition, friends are taking care of me in shifts, kind of unwell. Since my schedule was fully packed with crying, wallowing, and mourning, I hardly had time to wash my hair.

I’ll admit, I’m not always this . . . disheveled, but I do like to go plenty of days in between a full hair cleanse. This requires me to be inventive with ways I can cover up my seriously greasy roots. Of course, using a hat like a baseball cap is always a go-to solution, but I’ve realized that wearing my hair down with a hat doesn’t always look good. If I’m wearing my hair up in a ponytail or a claw-clip, things are fine, but when I want to put my hair in front of my face, my ears either stick straight out or my hair gets stuck over them and I look like I have a bump in my hair.

I didn’t think there was a solution until I saw a TikTok video of user Raven Nolan going viral with what looked to be the easiest solution ever. The other good news? All that the trick required to master it was two products I already owned. Since I was on day seven (or was it eight?) of not washing my hair, I decided to try it out the first time I was able to get myself out of bed and go out in public.

Testing the hack was honestly the easiest thing I’ve done all week. All I needed to try it out was a stretchy fabric headband (the kind that we used to wear as children but are suddenly having a resurgence) and my hat of choice. I used the Amazon Sport Headbands ($7) in black because the color matched not only my hair but the shade of the hat I was wearing.

After I brushed my hair out to make sure there were no knots, I took the headband and put it over my head, positioned it around my neck, and flipped my hair over it. Then I pulled the headband over my face and over my hair, making sure that it was covering my ears. Pro tip: covering the ears is absolutely necessary — don’t skip this step or it won’t turn out like it’s supposed to. (You can leave your earlobes out if you have earrings on.) Next, I pulled my hair over the headband and in front of my face.

The final step was putting on my hat. Once I had it on, I needed to do a small amount of adjusting to make sure that you couldn’t see the headband. My hair needed to be pulled forward more, but once I was finished, I was pretty shocked with how it turned out. The end result was perfect: my hair looked good, my hat looked good, and while I didn’t necessarily feel good, I looked a lot better than I did when my hair was a ratty, greasy mess. If you’ve been struggling to figure out how to wear cute hats over your hair this summer, give this hack a try before you give up. I promise it’s worth it.

Renee Rodriguez is a staff writer and social producer for PS. She writes across all verticals, but her main areas of expertise focus on fashion and beauty content with an emphasis on reviews and editor experiments. She also produces social content for the PS TikTok and Instagram accounts.