Summer hats- be stylish and stay safe!/ Ljetni šeširi- budite stilski osvješteni i sigurni!

If you want to protect yourself against the sun, a summer hat is worth a consideration. Not only are they stylish, they can protect your skin. According to US National Library of Medicine, most skin cancers are caused by sun exposure. They actually recommend wearing a hat and sunglasses. As you can see, I cited them below. 

Wear a Hat and Sunglasses

Wide-brimmed hats that shade the face, ears, and back of the neck provide the most protection. Tightly woven fabrics, such as canvas, provide the best protection; straw hats with holes that let sunlight through do not provide adequate protection. A darker hat may offer more UV protection. In addition to a hat, sunglasses that block as close to 100% of both UVA and UVB rays as possible can provide extra eye protection. Most sunglasses sold in the United States, regardless of cost, meet this standard. Wrap-around sunglasses work best because they also block UV rays from the side.*

* https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK247163/

Here's another study worth reading: 

Primary prevention of skin cancer: a review of sun protection in Australia and internationally WARREN R. STANTON1,2, MONIKA JANDA1,3, PETER D. BAADE1,3 and PETER ANDERSON1,4 1 Cancer Prevention Research Centre, School of Population Health and 2 School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 3 Queensland Cancer Fund, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and 4 Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland....

SUMMARY The incidence of skin cancer is increasing worldwide. Protecting the skin from the sun by wearing protective clothing, using a sunscreen with appropriate sun protection factor, wearing a hat, and avoiding the sun are recommended as primary preventive activities by cancer agencies. In this paper the recent data relating to skin cancer primary preventive behaviour in Australia and other countries is reviewed. Comparison of the studies in a table format summarizing the methods, objectives, participants, findings and implications may be obtained from the corresponding author. The sun protection knowledge, attitudes and behaviour patterns observed in Australia are similar in other countries, although Australian studies generally report higher knowledge levels about skin cancer and higher levels of sun protection. The findings suggest that sunscreen is the most frequent method of sun protection used across all age groups, despite recommendations that it should be an adjunct to other forms of protection. While young children’s sun protective behaviour is largely influenced by their parents’ behaviours, they are still under protected, and sun protective measures such as seeking shade, avoiding the sun and protective clothing need to be emphasized. Adolescents have the lowest skin protection rates of all age groups. Within the adult age range, women and people with sensitive skin were most likely to be using skin protection. However, women were also more likely than men to sunbath deliberately and to use sun-tanning booths. The relationship between skin protection knowledge and attitudes, attitudes towards tanning and skin protection behaviour needs further investigation. Further studies need to include detailed assessments of sunscreen use and application patterns, and future health promotion activities need to focus on sun protection by wearing clothing and seeking shade to avoid increases in the sunburn rates.

I'm going to quote some hat wearing recommendations from Australian government as well. Source: 

https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/radiation-sources/more-radiation-sources/sun-protection-hats

Health effects

ARPANSA and other national and international health authorities, including the World Health Organization have assessed that continuous exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) from the sun causes harmful effects on the skin, eye and immune system.

Wearing a hat that gives good UV protection is an important preventative measure to help reduce these risks.

What hat is best for you?

Wear a hat that provides shade to your head, ears, face and neck. Broad-brimmed, bucket hats with a wide brim and legionnaire style hats provide the most protection. Baseball caps do not protect the neck and ears.

Hats can be a useful addition for sun protection of your head, ears, face and neck, but they will rarely provide sufficient protection on their own to anyone outside during times where sun protection is advised (when the UV level is 3 or higher). This is because, although they provide direct protection to different areas of the head, ears, face and neck, the Protection Factors (PFs) due to the shading effect of the brims are much lower. 

For example, in Australia on a fine summers’ day, a fair-skinned person outside and unprotected would receive enough solar UVR in about 15 minutes to cause sunburn. If they wear a hat with a PF of 2 or 3, they would need to be outside for two to three times as long to get sunburned.

Although hats are helpful, a combination of the five sun protective measures will be required if a person is outside during times where sun protection is advised.

While hats are mostly useful against the direct sun, when it is cloudy there is more indirect and scattered solar UVR. The protection provided by hats may not be as effective in these conditions.

How the design of the hat affects protection

The amount of protection provided to different areas of the face such as the nose, forehead, cheeks, neck and ears vary significantly depending upon the type of hat and the design. For example broad-brimmed hats (e.g. hats for adults with a brim of 7.5 cm or more) perform better at shading more of the facial areas than baseball caps. Caps provide reasonable protection to the scalp, forehead and nose but almost none to neck and ears. The table shows the amount of protection provided to different areas of the head by four types of hats.

Protection Factors provided for various facial and head sites from four different types of hats. The higher the Protection Factor number the better the protection.

Hat Type	Forehead	Cheeks	Nose	Ears	Chin	Neck
Brimmed	15+	2	7	6	>1	2
Bucket	15	2	6	7	>1	2
Baseball cap	9	>1	4	>1	>1	>1
Legionnaire's hat	13	3	10	4	>1	>4

 

Does hat fabric matter?

What the hat is made of can be important – the hat material must block solar UVR. Most of the materials used in hats provide excellent protection against UVR as they naturally block or absorb it. Straw hats can have spaces between the individual fibres, but they also provide comfort and fashion and allow air circulation. If needed, a second (inner) layer of material can be used to provide extra protection and comfort. If buying a straw hat, look for one with a fabric lining.

Summer hats...they seem to be the appropriate topic for the first day of summer. I start to wear them as early as April...What do you think about them? Do you wear them? I plan to buy a few more as I find them to be very practical.

Ljetni šeširi...čini se kao dobra tema za prvi dan ljeta. Ja ih počinjem nositi već tamo u travnju... Što vi mislite o njima? Nosite li ih? Planiram kupiti još par jer su mi jako praktični....