Unisex Winter Wool Beanie with Protective Earflaps

The cold gets your ears first.

Four in the morning, standing in the lay-down yard waiting on the bus, and it's not your hands that are the problem — you've got gloves for that. It's your ears. Twenty minutes in a cold wind and you've got an ache sitting behind the jaw that's still there at smoko.

A plain beanie stops at the top of your ear and the wind goes straight in underneath it. This one carries the ribbed knit on down into two earflaps that are part of the hat — not a flap that folds down and flips straight back up the first time you turn your head.

Wool-blend knit, turned-up cuff so there are two layers across your forehead and around your ears, and enough stretch to pull down low or push back off your face when you warm up. Six colours, one size. It's a warm hat for cold mornings. That's the whole job and it does it.

What It Does

• Early starts on site: out the door in the dark, waiting on the crew bus in a wind that finds every gap — the flaps cover the bit a normal beanie leaves out in it.
• Cold mornings on the water: out before sunrise with the wind coming across open water and nothing to duck behind.
• Nights in the swag: pull it on before you get in and keep the heat you spent all day making, instead of losing it off the top of your head.
• Under a jacket hood: single knit rather than a bulky fleece liner, so a hood goes over the top without shoving it off your head.
• Around town in a cold snap: plain enough to wear to the shops without looking like you're about to summit something.

Key Features

• Knitted-in earflaps: part of the hat itself, so they sit down over your ears and stay there — no press-stud, no tie, nothing to come undone.
• Ribbed wool-blend knit: the rib stretches to the shape of your head and pulls back in rather than going baggy.
• Turned-up cuff: doubles the knit across the forehead and around the ears, which is exactly where you feel the wind first.
• One size, nothing to get wrong: a single size, listed by the supplier to suit a 55–60 cm (550–600 mm) head.
• Six colours: black, grey, navy blue, khaki, coffee and red.
• No bulky liner: single knit through the crown — nothing sewn in to bunch, twist or ride up on you.
• Unisex cut: one hat, no separate men's and women's fit.
• Small metal badge: a low-key script badge on the front of the cuff. No oversized branding.
• Lives in a pocket: rolls into a jacket pocket or the crib bag and comes back out unbothered.

Limits

Here's what this hat is not, so you're not finding out the hard way.

• Not waterproof: it's a knit. It'll shrug off a light spit of rain for a few minutes and then it wets out. In real rain you want a hood over the top.
• Not hearing protection: the flaps cover your ears against wind and cold. They do nothing about noise and they are not a substitute for muffs or plugs on a loud site. Don't treat them as PPE.
• Not a certified helmet liner: it's thin enough that most people get a hard hat over the top, but any beanie changes how a helmet sits and how the harness loads. Check it with your own helmet first, and never slacken the harness off to make room.
• Not fitted sizing: one size only. The rib has plenty of give, but if you take a large hat expect it to sit shallower on the crown rather than not go on at all.
• Not a balaclava: it covers the ears and the sides of your head. Your face, chin and neck are still out in the weather.
• Not a hot wash job: no care label details came from the supplier. Treat it as wool — cold hand wash, reshape, dry flat. A hot cycle and a tumble dryer will shrink and felt a wool blend, and there's no undoing that.
• Composition not published: the supplier calls it a wool blend and does not give the percentages. If you need an exact fibre content — for a sensitivity, or a workplace fabric rule — we can't give you a number and we're not going to invent one.

Q & A

Will it fit a big head?
One size, and the supplier lists it to suit a 55–60 cm (550–600 mm) head. Ribbed knit has a fair bit of stretch in it, so most adults are covered. If you're at the big end of the range, expect it to sit a bit shallower on the crown rather than not go on.

Is it real wool?
The supplier describes it as a wool blend and does not publish the percentages, so we can't tell you how much wool is actually in it. That's marked "Not specified by supplier" in the spec table and it stays that way until we get a straight answer.

Do the earflaps fold up?
No. They're knitted in as part of the hat, so they sit down over your ears and stay put. There's no stud or tie to fasten them up out of the way — which is the point, because that fastening is the bit that always fails on a fold-up flap.

Can I wear it under a hard hat?
Most people can. There's no fleece liner in it, so it's thinner than a lot of winter beanies. But any beanie changes how a helmet sits and how the harness loads, so try it with your own helmet before you rely on it, and don't loosen the harness past its setting to make it fit.

Is it warm enough for snow?
For a frosty start, an alpine morning or a cold snap, yes. It's a knit hat, not an expedition hat — in wet snow it will wet through and stop doing its job, so run a hood over it.

How do I wash it?
No washing instructions came with it. Treat it like wool: cold hand wash, no wringing, squeeze the water out, reshape it and dry it flat out of the sun.

How long does delivery take?
Allow 10–14 days from the day you place the order, and up to three weeks in a busy period. Delivery is free right across Australia and New Zealand. Regional and remote addresses take longer again.

Specs