Real stories · The hat that spares the hairdo

Warm ears or decent hair — I'd given up choosing, until this hat

A hat you can take off without checking a mirror — that's the small miracle here, and any woman who's paid for a blow-dry knows exactly what I mean. I'm 67, and for years winter offered me a daily choice: warm ears under a woolly hat that left my hair flat, staticky and defeated by ten in the morning — or decent hair and ears like ice.

Mostly I chose the hair, and froze on principle.

Then I found the Aurevine from a British label called York Boutique — a gloriously plush faux-fur hat with a soft, smooth lining. Mine is the brown; there's khaki, black, pink and white as well, one size that simply fits.

The difference is in how it sits. A knitted hat grips and flattens; this one rests — the plush shape holds itself while the smooth lining glides over your hair rather than clamping it down — which is why it comes off in the café and my hair emerges on speaking terms with the morning's brushing. Warm right over the ears, and honestly rather glamorous with it.

A plush faux-fur hat with a soft, smooth lining that rests on the hair instead of clamping it — which is why it comes off indoors without a mirror check, all winter.

It was £19.95, half the usual £40 — rather less than one wash-and-blow-dry, and it protects a week's worth of them. I did check I could send it back if it didn't suit — a fortnight, free delivery — which settled the last of it.

It has since done three weeks of dog walks and one very windy Tuesday in town, ears warm throughout, and at the coffee morning I took it off and Margaret actually waited for the reveal — then looked genuinely put out. 'Your hair's fine,' she said, in the tone of a woman whose bobble hat had already done its worst.

If you also ration your hat-wearing to protect your hair, do have a look. The Aurevine is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 190 women, it comes in five colours, one size — and at half price, with the gift season coming, the brown goes first.