Is it better for a fitted baseball hat to be too big or too small?

August 3, 2016 1:42 PM

Is it better for a fitted baseball cap to be a *little* too big or a *little* too small?

I just bought my first ever fitted cap. I have an enormous head so I bought two sizes to try out - a 7 7/8 and an 8. The 7 7/8 feels a little too tight, but the 8 feels a little too large. I plan on rolling the brim a little bit, but I don't want to do that until I know I plan to keep it.

Will rolling the brim make the 7 7/8 feel larger, or will I always regret this decision? Alternately, is there a way to make the 8 fit a tiny bit snugger?

posted by rossination to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (12 answers total)

Best answer: Well as an A's fan I ought to give you contrary advice ;) but I'm a similarly sized head and barring hair cuts making your head extra poofy, I've found having slightly too large to be preferential. Too small and I end up feeling like someone's been hugging my head all day and can end up with a headache. Slightly too large and I'll have to put my hand on it if a train whooshes by, but generally it isn't an issue so long as it isn't too large.
posted by Carillon at 1:47 PM on August 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

I don't know if you'll regret keeping the smaller one, but I was in a similar situation and went with the larger one. I really regret it; it *looks* too big immediately on the outer corners of where the brim connects with the cap, and I always feel self-conscious when I try to wear it. I don't know if getting the smaller one would have been the right choice, either, but I wish I'd gone that way.
posted by stellaluna at 1:48 PM on August 3, 2016

Best answer: I have a big head too. Always err on the side of larger, not smaller, hats. The latter are almost a guaranteed headache. Also, go Ms!

And go Bosox!
posted by bearwife at 1:50 PM on August 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I've asked my coworker who wears a (different!) hat every day for his advice in this. He says he'd go with the larger one, particularly if you're rolling the brim, because rolling it is going to snug the fit down a bit, particularly around the sides of your forehead.

He did caution, however, when I showed him specifically the hat in question, that it was a "classic flat brim hat" and in his experience those don't take to rolling, even slight rolling, very well, and that if you're going for a rolled brim look you might not be happy with that particular hat at all.
posted by phunniemee at 1:53 PM on August 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Can you get one of those heel pads for fancy shoes and stick it in the brim? I sometimes have to go a size up in shoes and those gel heels keep me from having to put my faith in "stretching out" shoes with wear....
posted by Dressed to Kill at 1:58 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, bigger is better. In addition to the headache issues mentioned upthread, I've had hats that actually left lines where they dug into my head. Not a great look, or feeling.
posted by kevinbelt at 2:24 PM on August 3, 2016

My daughter used to use velco pads to get her riding helmets to fit perfectly. I imagine they would work just as well on a baseball hat.
posted by COD at 2:26 PM on August 3, 2016

I also have a big head. I bought a fitted Red Sox cap when they won the World Series in 2004 and have often wondered if a size bigger would have been better; it's ever so slightly snug, to the point where it's uncomfortable to wear if I need a haircut and sometimes leaves lines as mentioned above. (I bought mine at a store and I don't think they even had the next size up to be able to compare.)

I've never used padding strips like this on a ball cap but they work quite well on my slightly-too-large boater.
posted by usonian at 3:28 PM on August 3, 2016

Response by poster: Oh man, this is such great advice. Thanks everybody. I returned both hats and bought one of these "low profile" hats in a size 8 (thanks, phunniemee's coworker!).

Also, usonian, I will have to check out those padding strips for my slightly-too-large panama.
posted by rossination at 6:34 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I have a hat that's just a wee bit too small and I can't wear it for very long before it gets intolerably uncomfortable. Definitely err on the side of too big if you have to.
posted by synecdoche at 7:11 PM on August 3, 2016

Amount of hair makes a not-insignificant difference in cap fit. If you're planning on cutting off a lot of hair or growing it out then take that into account.

(I'm also a big fan of the low-profile 5950's. Way better than the standard model.)
posted by clorox at 1:11 AM on August 4, 2016

Larger.

I am a "long oval" head, and standard sizes don't quite sit well on my melon, even with cotton padding strips. That said, too-small hats never get worn, and so shouldn't have been bought to begin with.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:13 AM on August 4, 2016