Hankie or Bandana?

It's that time of the year when the sun is about a little more often than usual and the chances of the less hirsute amongst us have the perennial challenge on how to keep the rays from turning exposed skin into a colour akin to cooked lobster.

With other body parts it is easy enough to cover and any extremities can be lathered in sun screens with a bewildering amount of protection factors (SPF).  

I am one of the dark haired northern Europeans that has a tendency to burn quickly but not take on that exotic look of the bronzed Adonis.  Apart from not actually having an Adonis like figure, I simply go pink and then it peels and I am white again.  To counter this I use an SPF50 sun screen that ensures that even in the Mediterranean or the Arizona desert I return home after two weeks looking pretty much the same skin hue as before I went.

But the head's always a problem.  I have any number of baseball caps. In fact I have a huge collection of baseball caps, usually event oriented (Centenary of the Isle of Man TT in 2007)  or sport team oriented (Cleveland Browns from 1991) or simply from clubs of which I have been a member (BMW Club), but in the hottest conditions although they keep the sun directly off, they aren't actually the coolest (temp not fashion) items when the sun starts to burn.

In the olden days, well probably post WW1, Englishmen of a certain class would wear a light straw hat. The hat would keep the sun off the head and the straw would allow the breeze through to cool the pate.  

Modelling the hankie - French Alps

But there are other Englishmen. A breed that doesn't wear a straw hat at all, either due to not being able to afford one, or that they were in an occupation where a hat would be an encumbrance. These gentlemen would wear a hankie (or hanky) or to give it its full name a handkerchief. The hankie can be adjusted for size by applying knots to each corner.  

And very effective it is too.  However a knotted hankie isn't seen as the height of fashion or to be very classy.  

So back to the title of this piece.  Hankie or Bandana?


Update:

As no one commented at all, even to take the piss at the picture above.....  I have bought one of these to keep my head sun free when out with the bike club.  Might not wear it any other time!