At a glance
Texture — Woven straw
Key Active — UPF claim (verify it yourself)
Best For — Shade, if the weave is genuinely tight
Price Tier — $$
What stands out
A wide-brimmed hat is one of the best things you can do for your face, and it needs no reapplication.
The face, ears and neck are among the most common sites for skin cancer, and they are the places people most reliably under-apply sunscreen.
A genuinely tightly-woven straw hat with a wide brim works well, and it is comfortable in heat in a way a fabric hat is not.
What both the AAD and the Skin Cancer Foundation recommend is a brim of at least 2 to 3 inches, all the way around. The Skin Cancer Foundation asks for 3.
Watch out for
⚠️ The UPF number on a hat is not reliable, and this is a documented finding — not a suspicion.
A 2025 study looked at the top 20 sun hats sold online in the US:
- 90% claimed a UPF of 40 or more.
- None would disclose which test protocol they used — even when the researchers emailed to ask.
- 33% failed the stricter UK and Australian standards.
- 25% had mesh panels, ventilation eyelets or crown holes — actual gaps in coverage.
The reason is that the US test measures a flat piece of the fabric, new and unused. It ignores the finished hat entirely — including the holes in it. The researchers' conclusion was blunt: "UPF claims for hats sold in the US online are not a reliable indicator for sun protection."
⚠️ Straw hats are the worst offenders, because a loose straw weave is made of gaps.
Even a good hat is not a force field. Modelling suggests hats cut facial UV exposure by around 76% at best — sun reflects and comes in at an angle. Your nose is poorly protected. Hat and sunscreen.
Key ingredients
⛑️ UPF 50 sun protection for the face, neck, and shoulders
Formulation Notes
⭐ Ignore the label. Do the light test. It takes three seconds and it beats any number on a tag.
Hold the hat up to a bright light or the sun and look through it.
If you can see daylight coming through the weave, UV is coming through too.
That is the whole test. It requires no equipment, no standards body and no trust in a manufacturer — and given that a third of labelled sun hats fail stricter standards, and that nobody will tell you how they tested, it is genuinely more reliable than the UPF number printed on the box.
Then check the brim: at least 2 to 3 inches, all the way around — not just at the front.