Although summer is over, protecting ourselves from the sun’s ultraviolet rays to ward off skin damage and cancer is an important year-round practice. This includes applying broad spectrum sunscreen, taking extra precaution while being outdoors during peak sun times and wearing protective clothing. One tried-and-true method — simply wearing a hat — is also recommended, but does the type of hat matter? And what about those ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) ratings advertised for certain hats?
Erum N. Ilyas, MD, interim chair of dermatology in the College of Medicine and colleagues sort out these questions in a recently published article in The Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology. The teamfound that those UPF claims — which refer to the hat’s ability to block UV — aren’t really that reliable for consumers seeking protection from the sun’s rays.
So what should consumers look for?
“When shopping for a hat with UV protection, you should focus on coverage,” said Ilyas, who was senior author on the study and is founder and CEO of a licensing brand for UV-protective clothing and a sun-protective clothing brand. “This includes crown coverage—does it cover the entire head— and the circumference of the brim, which should be at least 2.75 inches long.”
In the study, Ilyas and Drexel College of Medicine students Nia Gyongyosi and Jemima Constanza, simulated online shopping for the 20 most searched for sun-protective hats and found that roughly of third of the hats sold online in the United States with UPF claims fall short of the European criteria set for adequate sun protection.
The authors used UK and Australia standards as they are more thorough, the authors argue, than those commonly used in the United States. In the United States, the UPF testing protocol AATCC 183 — which is often used to test a hat’s UPF protection —
considers only the fabric a hat uses, but does not factor in a hat’s structure and design.
“UV rays can be reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through the materials used in a hat,” said Gyongyosi, who is also lead author on the study. “Look for tightly woven materials with minimal gaps for sun to poke through. For example, while a loosely woven straw hat may offer some shade, it typically provides far less UV protection than a cotton twill hat with more tightly woven fibers.”
To perform the simulation, the team used 11 search terms, such as “summer hat,” “sun hat,” UPF Hat” and “Beach hat” — as determined by volume of United States-based Google searches from roughly 264,000 individuals on two days in July 2024, according to a search engine optimization platform. Then the team took detailed notes on each hat, including style, UPF rating (if applicable), brim length and other characteristics, such as whether the hat included eyelets or mesh, reflective materials or a cape for neck coverage.
Finally, the researchers analyzed these characteristics to determine the probability of consumers finding a wide-brimmed, or legionnaire style hat, that meets UK and Australian standards for adequate UV protection. “Surveys have shown that roughly three out of four consumers seeking sun protection prefer a UPF claim, but these claims are often not reliable,” said Ilyas. “It’s not as simple as testing one section of a fabric and assuming the entire hat will provide the same protection. Design and construction matter. If the style or gaps in the material still allow UV to pass through, or doesn’t actually cover the skin effectively, the protective qualities of the material will not translate to real-world protection. These UPF claims may give consumers a false sense of security, which can be especially dangerous during days with high UV exposure.”
