Whether you wish to start a career in welding or just a DIY welder, the best safety equipment and practices will always be a critical consideration. So if you are worried about protecting your long hair from any potential safety risks while welding, you’re on the right track. In this article, I will share everything you need to know about how to weld with long hair and more.
Before any welding project, you should have welding equipment at hand to protect your head and hair. A welding cap works best to protect you from any hot metal or slag splatters. To keep your long hair from causing any disturbance and protect it, you just need to tie it up in a bun or a braid. For extra protection, you can push it in your welding jacket.
Any welding operation you take on will present several hazards to you and those in the vicinity. So it is only natural to be worried about keeping your hair from getting in any welding equipment and causing a safety hazard. If you wish to know more about how you can weld with long hair safely, I will discuss the matter in detail and share some tips in the rest of the article.
How Your Hair Can Be A Safety Hazard During Welding
Welding operations present the operator and anyone around the workplace with a huge array of hazards. To keep yourself and others safe, it is a must that you know of all the hazards and risks that can happen during your welding project. If you are someone with long hair, it’s easy for things to go wrong when you are working on a project.
Before we take a look at all the ways you can weld with long hair, we need to understand what dangers you might face and everything that could go wrong.
When you are welding, there will be molten metals, welding arcs, and UV rays in the workplace. The combination of these components puts you at a high risk of severe burns. The welding arc itself is extremely hot and may reach a temperature of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
But the real danger comes from the spatter, sparks, and heat created by the arc as they may reach any space within 35 feet. In such an environment, you would want to come with enough protection for your long hair. Hair can burn really fast and other dangerous situations may arise if your hair catches on fire. At the least, you might have to cut or even shave off your hair.
So, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), is extremely important for all welding operators. It lets you work freely and protects you from most potential welding hazards. You can prevent the most common welding injuries such as – burns, electric shock, and exposure to UV rays, and others with adequate PPE.
When you are wearing a welding jacket, helmet, and hoods, or welding cap, they protect your head and hair from any potential dangers. But if you forget to wear any of them, you are exposing yourself to any splatters that may find their way inside the gap.
If you have long hair, it’s always important to tie it in place securely and put it inside your jacket. There’s always a risk of it getting inside your equipment, obstructing your vision, or even catching on fire. So if you are not wearing adequate PPE to protect all parts of your body, you are always exposed to dangerous risks.
5 Safe Ways to Protect Your Long Hair When Welding
When you are welding, the most critical and necessary consideration should be your personal safety. Your head is the command center and the most important part of your body when you are doing any work. When you are welding, having long hair puts both your head and hair at potential risk of getting injured.
There are several ways you can keep your long hair from getting in the way of your work. There are many equipment manufacturers out there who have designed PPE to protect every part of your body when you are welding. With them and many other ways, you can protect your long hair. Let’s look at the top 5 ways you can protect your long hair when welding:
1. Welding Hoods and Helmets
If you want utmost protection from any ultraviolet rays, flash burn, heat, infrared light, or sparks, welding hoods, helmets or shields will be your best choice. They will protect your face, neck, eyes, and hair all at once. So I’d recommend investing in one for the best protection.
Welding hoods can be made of cotton or leather and are quite lightweight. Whatever helmet you choose, make sure it is lightweight and comfortable to wear. It should also have a spatter shield, adjustability, a sensor bar, and replaceable parts available.
2. Welding Cap
You can buy a welding cap if you want something lightweight and comfortable. It should provide enough protection for your head from any hot metal, sparks, or splatters.
Not only do they protect your hair, they are made of 100% cotton, which is super breathable. So, you can work without sweat flooding your eyebrows.
3. Put your Hair in a Tight Bun
A tight bun is the classic and easiest way for a welding operator to protect their long hair. To secure your buns so that they won’t get undone, you can wrap an elastic band around them.
For any unruly hair, just push them up with bobby pins and you should be set. Anything that keeps your hair from waving around and away from the working surface will do.
4. Learn How to Braid
Buns may be the easiest solution for welding with long hair, but it’s not the best solution for all. It does not work for all hair types and isn’t the most secure hairstyle out there. So I would suggest learning to do a tight braid to make sure it will hold together.
You can learn how to do a French braid as it is best at keeping hair together. It keeps your hair closest to the shape of your head and looks great with a cap.
5. Tuck It All in a Bandana
Braids aren’t easy for everyone and can even be a pain to do every day. So the last trick I got is to tuck all your hair inside a bandana.
It will provide you the protection from any sparks that fly around everywhere when you are welding. To push all the ends in, use bobby pins or a bun. Bandanas aren’t my first choice. That would be the good old welding cap. But, to each their own. And if you are a bandana person, this works great.
Can Welding Cause Hair Loss?
Unless you consider your hair catching up on fire because of your negligence, welding is not particularly linked to hair loss.
When you take up any welding operations, you are exposing your body to hazardous welding gases and fumes. There’s no doubt that they may be extremely harmful to your health and you must keep the fumes away from your head. But what many people wonder is whether breathing in the fumes can speed up hair loss.
The truth is that there is no connection between breathing in fumes and hair loss. Hair loss is genetic and can increase due to stress or other illness. If the fume causes either of these, only then it may affect your hair loss.
Conclusion
Welding operations can expose any worker or DIY operator to several health and safety hazards. So if you are either of them and have long hair, you might be worried about how to weld with long hair.
In this article, I have shared 5 tips and tricks for how you can weld safely with long hair. I hope these tricks can come in handy. Thank you for reading till now.
