Fashion Headbands
Apparel Search fashion summary — a short guide to fashion headbands.
A headband is a band of fabric or other material worn around the head — as decoration, or to keep hair and perspiration off the face. In its accessory form it is a loop of elastic material or a horseshoe-shaped piece of flexible plastic or metal, worn in the hair or around the forehead to hold hair away from the face or eyes. Some are basic; others are designed purely as fashion.
Fashion Headbands — Explore & Resources
Headache Bands, Beehives and Bandanas
Headbands have a documented fashion history. In the early 20th century, wide headbands known as headache bands were popular women's accessories — named for the belief that the tight pressure they provided around the forehead could relieve or prevent headaches. The French called such a garment a bandeau, plural bandeaux. The name survives in fashion long after the medical claim faded.
Each later era restyled the accessory. During the 1950s and 1960s, glamorous young women wore plastic headbands with the beehive hairstyle, or silk veils when driving. After the Summer of Love in 1967, hippies wore tie-dye and paisley bandanas as headbands, turning the same simple band into a countercultural signal. Few accessories demonstrate fashion's recycling habit as neatly: one functional loop of material, re-decoded by every generation that takes it up.
Choosing Headbands Today
Modern fashion headbands come in a wide variety of colours, sizes and designs, from plain elastic sport bands to embellished pieces that function as jewelry for the hair. Department stores carry seasonal women's headband collections and marketplaces carry handmade and vintage versions, so the practical advice is to search online or visit a local retailer to see the current year's styles rather than rely on last season's photographs.
The functional question answers itself: headbands are used to keep hair out of the face because they are perfectly shaped for the task — a band that follows the head, holds hair back and stays in place without clips or pins. Choose width and material by purpose: elastic and fabric for activity and casual wear, structured plastic or metal-based bands for a polished look, and embellished designs when the headband is meant to be the outfit's deliberate accent.
Headbands in Sport and Everyday Wear
The practical branch of the family never disappeared. Elastic headbands remain standard kit in sport, where they keep hair controlled and perspiration off the face during play, and the same sweatband logic carries into gyms, kitchens and workshops — anywhere hair and sweat are both problems. Everyday fashion versions borrow the sports construction and restyle it in prints and fabrics. The two branches occasionally trade places: a patterned sports band becomes a street accessory, and a fashion band in technical fabric turns out to be genuinely useful on a run. Buying with both uses in mind is the economical approach — one well-made band often serves the whole week.
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Common Questions
What is a headband?
A clothing accessory worn in the hair or around the forehead, usually to hold hair away from the face or eyes. Headbands are loops of elastic material or horseshoe-shaped pieces of flexible plastic or metal, made in many shapes and sizes for fashion and practical use.
What were headache bands?
Wide headbands popular in the early 20th century, named for the belief that their tight pressure around the forehead could relieve or prevent headaches. In French the garment was called a bandeau.
How did headband styles change in the 1950s and 1960s?
Women wore plastic headbands with beehive hairstyles in the 1950s and early 1960s, and silk veils when driving; after the 1967 Summer of Love, hippies adopted tie-dye and paisley bandanas as headbands.