Squashed hair turns women into mad hatters

Tips will help you avoid that dreaded 'hat hair.'
Scripps Howard
In the '80s, when women sprayed and teased their hair to look like Linda Gray of "Dallas" fame or Melanie Griffith in "Working Girl," wearing a hat was big-hair suicide.
No amount of hair spray would prevent hair from flattening onto your head, causing the dreaded affliction of "hat hair."
It was not a good hat decade, but times have changed.
"Hat hair is pretty much in," says Jennifer Ruiz, owner of Lunasea Hair Designs in Pittsburgh. "The shorter the hair, the better. You take your hat off and you mess your hair up."
Think of the short and choppy cuts of Sharon Stone or Keira Knightley.
Or the sleek long hair, a la Jennifer Aniston or Kate Hudson.
It's much easier to heed your mom's warning about wearing a hat in the cold, lest you lose all that heat through your head.
Still, stylists say there are a few tricks to avoid hat hair, which is more of a concern for women, but has been known to flatten the hair of men who walk around in wool caps pulled down over their ears.
Get a good natural cut that lays well, says Ruiz. And then use a dab of a light wax product like pomade when you style your hair. After you take your hat off, reactivate the wax with a little bit of water in the bathroom at work and tussle it. "It is not the sprayed and sticky look of the '80s," Ruiz says.
Wear less gels or spray on a day when you wear a hat, advises Brian Pava, a senior stylist at Hair by Damian in Shadyside, Pa. Otherwise, he said, the hair will conform to the hat's shape.
Better yet, he says, go for ear muffs.
Anti-static
Wear a loose-fitting hat so it doesn't crunch down on your head, says R.J. Sexton of Atomic Hair Salon in Ross, Pa. "Find something that doesn't give you static."
Tie your hair back so that when you take the hat off, your hair will look sleek, instead of full of static, says Susie Kirsch, owner of the Posh Look in Green Tree, Pa. "Experiment with it when you are not working," Kirsch says.
Of course, if a hat keeps flattening your hairdo, you can always just leave the hat on all day.
"There is nothing worse than your hair smushed to your head," Sexton says. "If you are wearing a beautiful hat, there is no reason to take it off."
Special look
Wearing a hat inside might not fly at a conservative corporate office, but it is a look that Kirsch favors.
"As long as the hat fits perfectly, there is no reason not to wear it all day," Kirsch says. "It is the biggest man attraction you can do, more so than wearing a low-cut dress. I do it for the fashion and convenience, but the most conservative and quietest of men will come up to me and comment on how nice it looks. You have no idea."