Mail coifs & hair

[noodles_incident]

I'm thinking about acquiring a mail coif, but I am the owner of long & incredibly wispy/flyaway hair, and unfortunately I'm a bit attached to staying that way. I'm pretty sure a regular cap won't be enough to contain all the flyaways and keep them from working their way into the coif (especially with the amount of movement involved in fighting -- bareheaded, I go from a severe bun to a halo of curly bits almost immediately from even just light jogging), so does anybody else in a similar hair situation have advice on what they've done to keep it under control?

I'm currently considering options, and have come up with a couple of possibilities:

Option A: something sort of between a cap and a more fitted kind of hood, going down to about shoulder level & fitting tight about the face/head
- Pros: Washable/separate from the coif so I can also maintain that, easily transferable down the line if/when I get new equipment, probably easier & more durable
- Cons: Probably not all that much better hair control than a cap, and possibly uncomfortable around the neck zone

Option B: Lining sewn directly into the inside of the head/neck part of the coif
- Pros: More bulletproof tangle prevention, less complex patterning
- Cons: Much harder to maintain coif, huge pain to remove for cleaning/repair/replacement, more work to install in the first place, feels hairier on historicity (though I'm not technically bound to strict historical accuracy, but just on general principles. Feel free to prove me wrong, though, if there's record of this!)

Thoughts? Opinions? Option C that I haven't thought of?

[Gordon Thompson]

Option A seems best, some kind of open faced, stretchy-tight balaclava might do the trick. Neck area dont have to be tight, but even if it will be a little you'll get used to it. Not-tight lining wont do much I think, as hair would be moving around under it, and it will probably annoy you more.

By the way, as a former owner of long hair (to the half of my back length), I had similar attachment to it, but when I finally decided to cut them off, never regretted that. Only a guy who had long hair can fully appreciate convenience of short ones.

[Galileo]

I think you're looking for an arming cap - easy google search on that for various types. Thin fabric that can either tie or velcro (for a modern approach). Keeps my hair from getting into my mail coif, though it's not long, it has a lot of curl and tangles into the rings easily.

[noodles_incident]

I think you're looking for an arming cap - easy google search on that for various types. Thin fabric that can either tie or velcro (for a modern approach). Keeps my hair from getting into my mail coif, though it's not long, it has a lot of curl and tangles into the rings easily.

Yeah, from what I've seen to date (& personal experience with the extreme slipperiness of especially the front curly parts of my hair) I'm just not sure just an arming cap will keep everything under wraps/prevent flyaways from worming their way out, but it can't hurt trying, I suppose. Worst case, I can always fall back on something with a bit of stretch, like Gordon suggested.

[Ernst]

Some of the Wisby coifs use "Option B", a sewn-in lining

[Sean M]

Ernst has a good point about the Wisby coifs with the remains of textiles inside.

I think you're looking for an arming cap - easy google search on that for various types. Thin fabric that can either tie or velcro (for a modern approach). Keeps my hair from getting into my mail coif, though it's not long, it has a lot of curl and tangles into the rings easily.

Yeah, from what I've seen to date (& personal experience with the extreme slipperiness of especially the front curly parts of my hair) I'm just not sure just an arming cap will keep everything under wraps/prevent flyaways from worming their way out, but it can't hurt trying, I suppose. Worst case, I can always fall back on something with a bit of stretch, like Gordon suggested.

There is one famous painting from the late 15th or 16th century where a soldier wears some kind of hair net. I think you would want something like that and not just a simple coif (possibly in combination with braids or other structured hairstyles).

In the 13th century soldiers sometimes wore an iron skullcap under the mail coif rather than over (the great helm would go on top of both).

Real coifs fit much closer than the ones that come from India, and that would also affect the fit.

[noodles_incident]

Thanks, all! Much to think about.