16 Tips for How to Wear a Bandana on Your Head, Your Bag and Your Dog

What’s a clothing item that’s as American as apple pie but has been embraced around the world by French luxury retailers and Japanese hipsters? It’s the humble bandana, that small scrap of fabric that’s come a long way from around a cowboy’s neck, to today’s well-dressed woman’s head, neck or handbag. We’ve been seeing bandanas on city streets lately so wanted to pull together a cheat sheet of how to wear a bandana in the chicest way possible. We hit up TikTok, street-style reportage and the experts at Los Angeles’s Block Shop Textiles for a crash course in fashionable bandana style.

What Exactly Is a Bandana?

Any smallish square scarf in nearly any material can justifiably be called a bandana. The scarf is practically fashion prehistory, since it can be traced back to 500 B.C. It was later popularized when Martha Washington printed one with her husband George’s likeness as a sort of commemorative object. Through subsequent centuries in the U.S., it was used as a handy hankie, neck cover and brow wipe by a veritable Village People lineup: motorcyclists, cowboys and farm laborers were among the working men who regularly wore bandanas, as well as gay men who used the color and pocket placement of the scarf to signal their sexual preferences. Today, the most commonly agreed-upon definition of what constitutes a bandana is a piece of material that’s 22 square inches in size—unless it’s a bright 19-inch version from Southern clothier Sid Mashburn. And bandanas are usually 100 percent cotton, unless, say, they are made in French silk by Hermés. Basically, the only rule for choosing a bandana is to find one that has a color and pattern you’re attracted to, then tie one on!

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How to Wear a Bandana as a Hair Accessory

You can certainly tie a bandana around your head to turn a bad hair day into a style statement, but the “washerwoman style” of tying the bandana under your hairline in back is just the beginning. You can also tie all the ends together in a roseate knot on your forehead, or roll the bandana into a thin strip and tie it in the front or side of your head, making a hairband out of it. And using the bandana to hide your rubber band in a topknot, or multiple rubber bands in a faux hawk is way stylish.

1.   Washerwoman

Illustration by Paula Boudes

Fold your bandana into a triangle then tie the two ends along the fold behind your hairline in back. Pull out a few bangs for a look that’s more soft and sexy than severe.

2.   Top-Tied

Illustration by Paula Boudes

Fold the square into a triangle, then, starting with the point farthest from the fold, roll the fabric until you have a long bandana tube. Tie the fabric like a headband, with a double knot on top.

3.   Forehead Knot

Illustration by Paula Boudes

This triangle-folded bandana gathers all the loose ends in a knot over the forehead.

4.   Topknot

Illustration by Paula Boudes

Here’s a classic case of owning your truth, trichologically speaking—“Think my hair is messy, the way it’s bunched atop my head and not really even brushed? Well, as you can see with my fanciful scarf tied around my bun, this is exactly the effect I’m after!”

5.   Ponytail

Illustration by Paula Boudes

Chic, classic and so, so easy, we recommend running the middle of your bandana through the underside of your ponytail, so that it doesn’t fall off in all that hair-flipping you’ll be doing.

6.   Faux Hawk

Illustration by Paula Boudes

This TikTok-approved style has three successive hair buns that you weave your bandana between, then tie at the base.

7.   Braid Weave

Illustration by Paula Boudes

Fasten one end of a folded bandana at the top of your braid, then loosely weave it into one of the two sides of your braids as you work your way down. At the bottom, fasten the bandana inside the fastening elastic.

How to Wear a Bandana Around Your Neck

We love the classic move of folding the bandana into a triangle and the tying those ends behind your neck—think of an Old West bandit who has put down his face mask to shout something at the sheriff. Here again, folding the fabric into a long thin shape and then using to circle your neck, with the ends draping down or tucked neatly out of sight, opens up a range of looks. You can even tie the ends like a men’s tie, underneath a shirt collar.

8.   Cowboy

Illustration by Paula Boudes

The simple, back-knotted triangle lets you really show off the pattern of your bandana.

9.   Roll Tie

Illustration by Paula Boudes

Rolled then tied at an angle, this is the best way to wear a bandana casually while still showing off your necklaces and collarbone.

10.   Low Tie

Illustration by Paula Boudes

In this look, you roll your bandana like a tube, then double-knot it loosely a few inches from your neck.

11.   Neck Knot

Illustration by Paula Boudes

Take a rolled bandana, tie a double knot close to your neck, then tuck the ends under the scarf. The effect is like a chunky statement necklace, but way softer to wear.

How to Wear a Bandana as an Accessory

Fashionistas trace the now-standard move of tying your scarf around your purse handle to Babe Paley, the New York socialite played by Naomi Watts in Feud: Capote and the Swans. Seems that one unseasonably hot day, super-stylish Paley took off her neck kerchief, tied it around her handbag and voila—50-plus years later, we’re all doing it. Whether fluttering from a strap, wrapped around a bag handle or tied around our wrist or dog’s neck, we love getting creative with where and how we display our bandana.

12.   Purse Flutter

Illustration by Paula Boudes

Just double knot your bandana on your bag or backpack strap. Gauzy bandanas might look better folded in half rather than in a triangle before rolling, to better maintain a shape.

13.   Purse Handle Wrap

Illustration by Paula Boudes

Take your rolled bandana and wind it around your ladylike handbag’s handle—it adds a fresh Emily in Paris vibe to your look.

14.   Wrist Wrap

Illustration by Paula Boudes

An iteration of the look that Hermes popularized with its skinny Twilly scarf, this is a fun way to add a moment of color to an outfit—may we suggest trending bold red? Try it by rolling your bandana into a skinny shape then wrapping it around your wrist. (This also works wonders to actually sop up perspiration during a warm-weather run.)

15.   Belt Loop

Illustration by Paula Boudes

Who says a belt has to encircle your entire waist? In this bandana tie, you use the front or front-side belt loops on your trousers or jeans to thread your rolled scarf through.

16.   Pet Collar

Illustration by Paula Boudes

Whether you’re tying on a specially-made pet bandana (they have elastic to stretch with your pet’s movement) or lending Fifi one of your favorite pieces, we love giving a pet their own accessory. Just get ready to share the admiring glances—all onlookers’ gazes follow a cute bandana.

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