Is Your Favorite Hat Making You Break Out?

Do you wear the same hat all the time? Maybe you’re just doing your best to rep your team. Maybe that little bit of overworn headgear is a tried and true rally cap. Can’t exactly begrudge a guy for pulling in a few extra wins from the sidelines.

We feel you. We really do.

But…there is something we need to talk about. It’s about that hat. Sure, perhaps it has generated some good outcomes for your team. The thing is, though, that go-to cap could very well be responsible for the bevy of forehead and hairline acne you just can’t seem to shake.

That hat is — there’s no nice way to say it — riddled with bacteria. Pair that nastiness with some friction, and you’ve crafted the perfect environment for an acne conflagration. The thought alone is enough to make us snatch up our charcoal face wash and rush off to the bathroom for a thorough cleansing.

Don’t fret, though. We aren’t about to tell you to toss that rally cap. We are, however, gonna open your eyes to the problem and develop some solutions that won’t cost your team (or your forehead) in the long run.

So let’s dip into it and do what we can to keep your favorite hat in play while putting a stop to the unsightly results.

An Abundance of Friction

Chances are if you’re among the many dudes with a go-to hat, regular bouts of acne ring your head right around where the hat band rests against your dome. Coincidence? You’ve read enough so far to know the answer to that.

In fact, there’s a term for breakouts of this nature: acne mechanica. It’s caused when tight-fitting gear rubs and rubs and rubs against your skin. Throw in a good amount of sweat and a repeatedly worn article of unwashed clothing and the conditions are ideal for an outbreak.

That Hat’s Drying Your Skin

The friction also gradually robs your skin of its natural oil. That oil — sebum — is often unfairly villainized as nothing more than a plugger of pores. Now it is true when too much sebum production is paired with a flawed skincare routine, breakouts are often on the way. But sebum is there for a reason. It protects and moisturizes your skin.

And all that back-and-forth jostling from your hatband wicks away your sebum, and in its wake, pandemonium for your skin. The sebaceous glands that produce your sebum ramp up their output, and when that happens, acne happens.

Solutions, Man

What’s a fella to do when he suffers from routine forehead acne but he’s simply gotta rock that hat? Well, for starters, he should launder that damn thing every once in a while. If the hat in question is a straight-up cotton baseball hat, you can de-nasty that thing by simply tossing it in the washing machine.

But you also need to be taking regular skincare steps to reduce the likelihood of hat-related acne.

Wash your face before donning that cap — any reduction of bacteria is a good thing — but as we were saying before, you also need to moisturize. And this goes for guys with naturally oily skin, too. Oily dudes often operate under the false assumption that moisturizing will exacerbate their acne. The opposite is actually true, as long as the moisturizer is non-comedogenic, like this gel moisturizer for oily skin.

Moisturizing will keep that hatband from drying you out and go a long way toward preventing acne mechanica. Overall, it’s simply a good idea to maintain a rock-solid skincare routine. We mentioned face washing and drove home the importance of moisturizing, but if you really want that all-star routine, exfoliate a couple of times per week. You can go with an exfoliating scrub or rock a charcoal mask.

Reviewing That Game Plan

The harsh reality is your favorite hat can indeed cause breakouts. You can still rock the cap but ditch the acne, though. One of the surest ways to put a stop to the acne your go-to hat leaves behind is to simply clean up your act. And that starts with the hat. Wash that sucker.

You also need a proper skincare routine, though. Regularly wash and moisturize your mug. If you really want to play it safe, you should wash and moisturize before and after you rock the hat for any long periods, especially if you’re going to be sweaty. But if that’s not an option, at least try your best to clean it up and moisturize when you take the hat off for the day.

It’s really just all about keeping it clean. Don’t let things get too nasty so you can keep rocking that rally cap and bringing home the big wins for your squad.