Is your head in danger from the sun?

Flickr: sarahstierch

I've never been one much for hats but I was at Wimbledon last week and there was - however briefly - this yellow thing in the sky. Although I have a full head of hair I also have a couple of cysts on my head - harmless, I've had them looked at, my dad had them so I know where they are and that they won't hurt - but, and here it comes, they do give me exposed patches of skin on my cranium. This, for someone who has no particular desire to drop dead of cancer too early, is not good news.

So I've been considering the options. A lot of men at Wimbledon were wearing baseball caps. I hate baseball caps with a passion. They are functional but they really look cut price - and on checking the prices of the straw panamas at the souvenir shop I saw I was right. £49.50 for something you're going to wear only once or twice when we get a bit of sun, if you please. That said

So I did the only decent thing - went to Amazon and found something similar albeit without the Wimbledon colours in the band (note to self: who cares?) for £34, which was much more comfortable. Of course I can't try it on, but you compromise a bit sometimes. It's fair trade and it's also a traditional panama in that you can fold it up. One of the Amazon reviewers takes his on holiday in a sawn-off picture tube, the sort you pick up when you buy a print at a gallery. I'm glad he thought of that as I had a nasty feeling mine was going to end up smelling like the Pringles tin into which I was going to stuff it.

Alternatives are available including fiddling around with sun block; for people with a completely bald head I'd recommend this as well as the hat. For a patchy bloke like me, the hat option will do fine for the moment.