5 Ways to Keep Any Hat On Your Head (even if it's tilted)

Sometimes anime characters have the weirdest designs. Maybe they have a hat that’s so top-heavy, there’s no way it could stay up. Or maybe it’s tilted all the way to the side of the head. Alternatively, maybe you’re faced with some heavy wind, and you just don’t want your hat to fly off your head.

No matter what situation you are in, you can try one of these quick methods to get your hat attached to your head (or wig), so that you won’t have to worry about it falling off at any point throughout the day.

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using a straight pin — Use a hat pin or long straight pin at the base of your hat to keep it in place. If it’s a heavy hat, use more than one pin.

1. Use a hat pin

The first option for keeping a heavy or tilted hat on your head is to use one of the oldest methods in the book. That is to use a hat pin. Traditionally, hat pins were made with elegant or decorative designs to make them part of the hat, but you can use something a lot simpler that won’t distract from the rest of your costume. You can even use a simple, long straight pin to discreetly attach your hat.

To use a hat pin, the idea is to use the pin more-or-less parallel to your scalp (you’re not poking it into your head). Press the pin through your hat, near the base of the hat. Then weave the pin below a section of your hair and bring the pin back up through the back of the hat (exactly like using an actual pin with fabric).

a hat held up with hat pins — This is a top heavy hat, so I used two pins at the top and one at the bottom edge to get it to sit right.

If you have a particularly heavy hat, you will probably want to use multiple pins to help keep the hat in place. Use as many along the base of the hat as necessary to keep it upright. I always shake my head a bit to test the hold of the pins before stepping out in my costume.

ribbon loops and bobby pins — Add loops of ribbon to the inside of your hat and attach it to your hair or wig with bobby pins.

2. Make ribbon loops and use bobby pins

Alternatively, you can use bobby pins to help hold the hat in place. Bobby pins are the type that has one smooth side and one jagged side, as opposed to hair pins which are U-shaped. The idea here is to attach ribbons to the inside of your hat that you can use to pin it down with the bobby pins.

a witch hat on a tilt — With ribbons and bobby pins you can easily position your hat on a tilt and still keep it on your head.

Simply sew or glue 2 or 3 little loops of ribbon to the inner border of your hat (so that you won’t see them from the outside). You can also use a thin string or other materials that your bobby pins can fit around. Then insert a pin through each loop and use them to attach your hat. The heavier your hat is, the more bobby pin loops you will need.

using hat elastic — Add a loop of hat elastic and use the hair to hide the elastic when you wear the hat.

3. Hat elastic

You can also use hat elastic as an attachment method for your hat. This is a thin piece of elastic that you use to loop around your entire head. It’s most often seen in children’s hats to help prevent kids from losing them.

a tilted hat with hat elastic — The elastic is not very noticeable and can keep the hat at a tilted angle.

This is probably the method that I use least often. It’s not great at holding heavy hats, and it’s slightly more visible than other methods. However, you can still make the elastic fairly invisible if you arrange your wig or hair around it, and it’s probably the easiest method to use.

using a comb — Attach a hair comb to the front of the hat and use that to attach it to the wig.

4. Use a mini comb

You can sew a mini comb or two to the border of your hat as well. This is exactly the same idea as the mini combs you see along the hairline of wigs that keep them from sliding off your scalp. Simply sew or glue the little comb to the inside of your hat and attach the hat by sliding it onto your head to catch your hair.

This method would be most beneficial for a hat that you want tilting off the back of your head. It’s also a great option if you have hair pulled back into a bun or ponytail since the comb will very easily slide and stick into one of these.

5. Sew your hat to your wig

If you’re planning on wearing your hat with a wig rather than your real hair, you can also choose to sew the hat directly to the wig. This is probably the most secure way to keep your hat on your head. Of course, you won’t be able to use your wig for any other cosplay, and sometimes this can make it somewhat difficult to get your wig onto your head because of the added bulk of the hat.

Use a curved upholstery needle to help you stitch it in place with some heavy-duty upholstery thread. Then just attach the hat through the wig, stitch by stitch. You probably don’t need to sew all the way around the hat to keep it secure but make sure to sew down any parts that hold the most weight of the hat.