Hats are a stylish way to finish an outfit. Hats can make an ordinary outfit extraordinary, and be the unique factor of your outfit. Hats are fun, versatile and you can wear a hat on plenty of different occasions, not just as a fashion statement, but also to protect you from the elements. So, why are alpaca woolen hats an excellent choice?
http://iamlearningdisabled.com/language-is-not-just-about-speech/ Alpaca wool has great qualities that make an alpaca woolen hat the perfect accessory to have. An alpaca woolen hat protects you from rain, wind, cold, and sun. It doesn’t leave an itch, get sweaty, or become boiling hot. Alpaca woolen hats are also durable and won’t lose their shape over time.
Here are the most important reasons for choosing an alpaca woolen hat over any other kind of hat.
Just to be clear, I am talking in this article about knitted hats. Most of the given reasons will still apply to felted hats, too, but as you’ll notice, not all of them. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll stick to knitted, alpaca woolen hats in this article.
1. An Alpaca Woolen Hat Is Perfect for RAINY Weather
An alpaca woolen hat will protect you from rain. Not from an hour long downpour, but definitely from a shower or so.
http://annedickson.co.uk/contact/ Alpaca wool has a unique fiber structure that contains scales. The texture of these scales is so perfect and miniscule that it doesn’t give water or moisture a chance to get absorbed within the fiber. The scales are shiny and glossy. They repel water quickly, easily and effectively.
For accessories like hats, being water repellent is a greatly valued feature. Imagine your hair, your face, your neck getting wet, and you’ll be cold for the rest of the day. Alpaca wool prevents that.
Given the repelling features of an alpaca woolen hat, you will not have to worry about carrying a wet garment with you.
Alpaca wool will eventually absorb water. As long as there is enough of it for a sufficiently long time. However, alpaca wool functions like an internal heater because underneath the glossy scales is a hollow fiber. The hollow fiber has microscopic bags inside which heat up moisture and turn it into air.
These evaporating qualities are extra helpful because they will keep the garment warm while doing this. So whatever moisture or water will get into your alpaca wool hat (or hair) will dry quickly without losing its warmth.
Read more in my article about the Water-Repellent Features of Alpaca Wool.
Just like rain, snow also doesn’t stand a chance against alpaca wool.
2. An Alpaca Woolen Hat Is Perfect for WINDY Weather
Alpaca wool doesn’t only provide protection from rain, it is also known to be fairly wind resistant. Of course, a knitted garment can never be 100% windproof because the wind will always find a way through the knitting. Nevertheless, alpaca wool should protect from winds up to 20mph.
Alpacas live in the Andean highlands: an outstretched area of plain, dry grassland, unprotected from the ice-cold, slashing wind. Mother Nature has given the alpaca a warm, wind resistant fluff of hair. And the alpaca gives his fluff of hair to us when he (or she) is shorn once a year.
Alpaca wool is naturally wind resistant and a tighter knitting pattern (or woven, even), will offer more protection from all elements, but especially wind. A loose, coarse stitch will protect your head a little less, but can still be better than other materials.
Read more about the Wind-Resistant features of Alpaca Wool in my article.
3. An Alpaca Woolen Hat Is Perfect for COLD Weather
Just like the rain and the wind, the natural habitat of the alpaca is known for being pretty cold. Temperatures can drop far below zero degrees (Celsius), and the nights can be particularly long and cold.
When alpaca hair is turned into wool, it maintains the ability to protect the wearer from the cold. The hollow fiber with its air pockets works as a kind of internal heater, and while protecting it from the cold outside it maintains the heat inside.
This is called isolating and insulating: being able to keep something out (isolating) and something else in (insulating). A house does it, too.
If you wear alpaca wool in a 0°F (-18 °C) environment, it would make you feel as if you were in a 50°F (10°C) atmosphere, according to Purely Alpaca.
I bet your head will like the sound of that.
4. An Alpaca Woolen Hat Is Perfect for SUNNY Weather
Wind, rain and cold are not the only elements that alpaca wool can protect you from. When the nights are not freezing, the temperature in the Andean mountains can get up to 78°F (26°C) during the day. And at altitudes so close to the sun, an alpaca is going to need some sun protection.
So, alpaca wool can be worn in hot weather just as well as in cold, rainy or windy environments.
The shiny scales that you can find on the outsides of the alpaca hair give protection from the sun. When alpaca hair is turned into wool, it is used for knitted or woven garments. Similar protection will be given to the wearer of the garment. It doesn’t provide you with 100% sun protection, but it’s better than nothing.
On top of that, alpaca has great isolating features. Just as isolation works in cold weather, it also works in hot weather. Alpaca wool will keep the sun out when it is hot. The fiber’s insulating features will assure that the temperature inside will remain cool (or at least close to body temperature).
At the same time, alpaca wool is extremely breathable. When any other garment would be worn in a hot environment with such isolating and insulating features, it would become steaming hot within no time. Alpaca wool, however, knows how to evaporate sweat back into the atmosphere. And it does not make the wearer feel clammy.
Read more about this in an article I wrote:
Can You Wear Alpaca Wool in Summer?
5. An Alpaca Woolen Hat Is Stylish: Glossy & Shiny
Alpaca wool is drapey, classy, shiny and sophisticated. It has an attitude that screams LOOK AT ME, I’M COOL! (It must be, because alpaca wool is super sustainable and green. Read: cool.) But really, alpaca wool just looks good.
You know how synthetic fibers sometimes just don’t look nice? The way the fabric drapes or falls around your contours? Alpaca wool doesn’t have that problem because it has a silky touch. This silky touch gives it a natural elegance that is hard to mimic (especially by synthetic fibers, but also by coarser, natural fibers).
6. Alpaca Woolen Hats are Sound-proof (Which Means You Can Nap With Them)
I personally love napping with a hat on. Is that weird? I just really enjoy feeling warm and comfortable, especially while traveling (and on my couch…). An alpaca woolen hat is particularly comfortable because it doesn’t only feel extra soft and itch-free, it also drowns out sound.
Yes, if you pull an alpaca hat over your ears, you will hear less. Of course, the true range of soundproofing your nap-time will depend on the thickness of the thread and stitch that will have been used on your garment. Generally speaking, alpaca wool should make your environment a little more sleep-proof when it comes to surrounding noises.
7. You Can Use an Alpaca Woolen Hat While Doing (Physical) Activities
Outdoor activities, like hiking, fishing and camping happen, erhum… Outside. Outside is also where rain, wind, cold and sun happen. It is also where bodies get sweaty, hot and/or cold, doing physical activities.
You need special equipment to be well protected from all those things doing activities out in the open. Alpaca wool is perfect for being used in nature, because it protects from all the elements, like we have seen earlier in this article. It is also well suited for all types of weather and environments, whether you are sitting, moving, or resting.
Being breathable, alpaca wool is also great for activities that might cause you to sweat. The fabric won’t absorb any moisture, but will actually dispose of it in a natural and efficient way. An alpaca woolen garment will regulate your temperature to a comfortable level.
Check out my video in which I go for a RUN with an alpaca woolen hat.
8. An Alpaca Woolen Hat Is Itch-free (for MOST People)
Softness is measured in microns, which shows the thickness of a fiber. I believe hats are supposed to be soft. There are few things worse than an itchy hat that makes your face itchy, too, and your hair, and your neck, and your ears, even after taking it off.
Unless you have sensitive skin, alpaca wool is unlikely to cause you any irritation.
Alpaca wool is incredibly soft: it generally doesn’t go beyond 30 microns, and most alpaca wool will even be softer (at 26.5 microns). Baby alpaca is the softest (23 microns), together with royal alpaca (19 microns). Any woolen garment between 20 and 30 microns is itch-free for most people.
If you are interested in finding out whether or not alpaca wool is itch-free, you can read more about it in another article I wrote:
Is Alpaca Wool Itch-Free?
9. An Alpaca Woolen Hat Breathes
Second after an itchy head, the next most terrible thing in line is definitely a sweaty head. Hats are supposed to keep you warm, not to overheat you and boil your brains until they’re cookin’ hot. That’s just uncomfortable.
Alpaca wool has the fantastic ability to keep air flowing in and out of your hat, without losing any of its warmth. It is again the breathable, hollow fiber that allows such magic to take place.
I like putting on my hat when I go outside, especially now that it is raining, windy and cold all the time (February…), and then catch myself wearing the hat long after I am back home. An alpaca woolen hat is just so comfortable that you won’t even notice that you’re wearing it, until you wonder why you feel so enlightened all the time.
Read more about the Breathable Features of Alpaca Wool in my article.
10. An Alpaca Woolen Hat Is Non-Static
Most types of wool, and thus alpaca wool, absorb moisture vapor (read more on PubMed.gov) and are therefore less likely to be charged with static electricity. That’s good for you and your hair 🙂
Heya boys and girls out there with your fashionable hairdos!!! Afraid to lose your looks wearing a hat? First of all, that will never happen because hats are awesome and everyone who wears a hat is a rockstar.
Second of all, you don’t need to be afraid of that wearing an alpaca woolen hat. Alpaca wool does not make your hair static.
- To me, static electricity is kinda’ complicated (read more on Wikipedia instead). All I know is that when I rub a balloon on my boyfriend’s head his hair will go straight up. If I do the same with the sweater I am wearing that is made of a synthetic fiber (still on his head), the hairs will do the same.
When I rub my alpaca woolen sweater on his (now very unorganized) head, the hairs will still come up, but not as freakishly as with the sweater.
- Basically, static electricity is caused when there is an imbalance between positively and negatively charged surfaces or materials. You are probably more familiar with the “electric shock” that you sometimes get when touching someone or something that has been charged, or with the freaky hair standing straight up.
11. An Alpaca Woolen Hat Is Elastic and Doesn’t Lose Its Shape
It is always such a pity to see a nice accessory go to waste when it just doesn’t look like what it is supposed to look like after a few wears.
You don’t have to be afraid that an alpaca woolen item will lose its shape. Ever. Unless you wash it wrongly, then you can say goodbye to your frizzy, fuzzy friend.
Washing instructions (read my Step-by-Step Guide) aside, alpaca wool has just enough crimp to be incredibly comfortable and elegant (as it falls naturally into new shapes), but doesn’t lose its original form. Crimp is a naturally present wave in the hair of fibers that allows it to stretch (or not). Alpaca wool has just enough of that to make for an everlasting item.
12. Alpaca Wool is Environmentally Friendly
Need I say more? Breathable, warm, durable, fit for every weather type and style… Alpaca wool is pretty amazing.
On top of all these great qualities, alpaca wool is also incredibly sustainable and durable.
- It is a fiber that is biodegradable, which means it doesn’t take centuries to decompose, but brings its nutrients back to the earth in just a matter of months.
- The alpaca is an animal that leaves a very small footprint, and given that most alpacas still roar the Andean highlands, they are also not guilty of contaminating trips around the globe.
- Alpaca wool lasts years, if taken care of properly. Which actually isn’t hard, given that the best care of alpaca woolen products means leaving it alone.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Investing in an alpaca woolen hat is the best thing I’ve ever done.
If you want to read more about how sustainable alpaca wool is, read more about it in this article:
Is Alpaca Wool Sustainable?
Check out Yanantin’s beanies: double-layered, wearable in two different styles and available in 15 colors. Get ‘em while supplies last.
Not really a hat person? Perhaps a headband is more your style. You can find the Yanantin 100% Alpaca Woolen Headbands by clicking the link.
