I’ve had this post sitting in drafts since the sunscreen post. In the comments, responding to my question about what’s worse, sunscreen or sun exposure, Becky offered this very sensible suggestion:
Hats.
Our eldest first went to the West Indies to visit her grandparents
when she was five months old, and we went with all three to live there
for seven months when our youngest was not quite two. So sunscreens
were pretty much out of the question.Not to mention that with all that inning and outing with the pool
and the beach, and my husband’s and my sweat making the sunscreen drip
off, you spend more time reapplying than actually protected.My husband and I each have Tilley hats with broad brims, and the
kids have a collection of baseball caps and also Tilley-style hats. The
key seems to have been starting them out young, so they are used to
having hats on in the sun 🙂
I know you’re right. Alice said the same thing. You are wise women.
I wish I liked hats.
I like them on other people. Just not on me.
Of course, part of the reason is because I’ve been toting a baby in a sling pretty much nonstop for 12 years now, and I’ve never yet known a baby who could resist the delights of whipping a hat off mom’s head over and over and over.
But I’m probably using that as an excuse because I just don’t like wearing hats.
Maybe I’ve just never found the right one.
I do love the look of an old-fashioned wide-brimmed straw hat with a ribbon around it…I guess I never really thought of wearing one myself, but maybe I could pull it off? (Or the baby could…ba dum bum.)
Something like this?
Of course, it’s sort of summery. For cold weather, there’s this little number:
Or one of these?
In for a penny, in for a pound?
Heh.
I am fair and freckled. Some of my kids have my skin and some have my husband’s olive skin that rarely burns. They all break out in a horrible bumpy rash when we use regular sunscreen. I bought Burt’s Bee’s this past summer but it is white, rather thick and hard to apply. (It smells delicious though.) My boys wear baseball hats and put sunscreen on the back of their necks where the hat doesn’t cover. I bought some fun raffia straw cowboy hats from Old Navy for the little girls and I to wear when out in the sun. They kept them on most of the time and we still looked pretty hip (or at least no one told us otherwise 🙂
Those cloches at the bottom are gorgeous but probably not broad-brimmed enough, unfortunately. I have a wonderful hat which looks like the straw hats at the top but is made out of some kind of heavy, woven braid so I can crumple it up and stick it in my bag when I don’t want it. Totally babyproof as well.
I have olive skin, rarely burn and hate wearing hats but I hate the idea of me or my kids getting skin cancer more *sigh* Luckily both my girls have grown up wearing hats and just accept it as necessary.
I vainly searched for wide brimmed hats for my daughters this summer before our vacation and finally found this lady
http://www.gottahavahat.com/adult/index.html
My girls loved designing their hats and I loved that they’d actually wear them. They’re very lightweight, which helped them forget they were on. I also ordered a pair for my husband and I and was really impressed with the quality. And she was so quick. We had them within days of ordering.
We don’t use sunscreen. My daughter wears a hat and long sleeves. (I’m Waldorfy in this – she wears hats most of the year.) I myself don’t wear hats, I look like a gnome in them. I’m embarrassed to say that, when out walking in summer, I use a parasol. A big pale-coloured umbrella. All the Asian women hereabouts do it, and it seemed to me like a brilliant idea. It shades the entire body. But yeah, it looks dorky.
Lissa…what are you talking about?
You would adorable in a hat!
just saying..
mmi
Oh please do go all the way and get those over-the-top but oh so cure ones at the bottom…I’m the type to either wear a way flamboyant hat that will attract everyone’s attention, or nothing at all. For all the fuss it takes to keep it on my head, I’d like some bang for buck!
Go for the Tilley for practicality. Your adventure loving girls would love a Tilley and with the life time exchange guarantee its value cannot be beat. We fished our first one out of the ocean as it drifted by the boat and when it fell apart we mailed it off and they sent a Brand New One for FREE. Gotta love a company like that.
I guess I’ve gotten to the point where I value health over just about anything, especially what other people think about how I look! I’ve also spent enough time out in the sunshine in the past 15 years (farming and West Indian holidays) that I don’t want to spend my old age looking like an old leather handbag. Or worrying about skin cancer. And it’s truly cooler under a hat.
I did give up dangly earrings for the duration with babies, because I wasn’t eager for a ripped earlobe. But the hat removal business doesn’t last long, and it’s much easier to convince your kids to wear hats if you do 🙂
What’s nice about the Tilley hats is that they are crushable and washable, i.e. childproof. I wouldn’t pay Tilley prices for young children though — you can find nice washable cotton “bucket style” hats for them.
I do love those hats! And you would look beautiful in any hat there is.
(Even though I own a few pretty ones, I’m more likely to wear a baseball cap than anything else!)