In Need of a Hat

As I get older, my sun protection habits continue to evolve. I used to focus on sunblock as my main strategy to prevent burns, but now I tend to focus on wearing more clothes and using less sunblock. (As a bonus, wearing long pants instead of shorts means less shaving!)

I used to hate wearing hats, which my mom always insisted that I needed to wear when outside in the sunshine. But I noticed a couple of years ago that wearing a baseball cap seemed to help keep my husband from getting sunburned when he was outside all day. I used sunblock on my face, of course, but I always seemed to miss a spot -- and my scalp was particularly prone to burning. So I tried wearing a hat, and it worked like a charm. And now I am a big believer in hats!

I have a baseball cap for short trips outside and a bigger sun hat with a wide brim that protects my ears and neck, too. The one problem is that I'm pretty new to hat-wearing, and I often forget to pack a hat.

Case in point, I'm at the beach for the weekend and forgot to bring either one of my hats. Fortunately for me, my husband brought TWO hats and graciously offered to share one with me. That is good news for my poor scalp!