Hat Hair: A Celebration

It's high time that we forgive the concept of hat hair. What did hat hair ever do to you? Nothing! Except love you and deal with you even though you put it all up under that hat. That was very rude of you—and still, you lament the idea of hat hair as if it morally wronged you and not, actually, the other way around. Seems a little disrespectful and closed-minded of you, doesn't it? But that's OK; by the time you're done reading this, ITG will have absolved you of all hat hair-related sins.

Sticking with this spirit of charity and forgiveness for a second, might it also be time to reclaim the idea of wearing baseball hats for fashion reasons? Yes, you're right, it probably is that time. No longer for just for hiding a hangover face, frizz, grown-out color, greasy roots, or the fallout from a Christine Chin facial, the humble baseball hat, simple as it is, should be a hair accessory staple for any day. Even [gasp] a clean hair day. Reason being: Baseball hats are a perfect gateway hat. Not quite on the level of a full-brimmed straw situation or a Instagram model newsboy topper, they're the nonchalant accessory that everyone wants but nobody can quite point out. What takes that outfit from "person who wears clothes" to "person with noticeable style"? That Nike hat you got as a bar mitzvah giveaway when you were 12 but managed to hang onto for more than a decade (a true thing Emily Ferber has done). It's not expensive; it doesn't have to be designer. But it lends that practicality, that sense that you legitimately live your life in these clothes. And nothing's chicer than that. Hat hair underneath and all.