The Test of Coif Sizing

After many years, I finally got around to testing out the math I had proposed for Coif Sizing.  I'll eventually add much of this to the existing Coif page, but this is a start.

The exercise started by creating a catalog of extant coifs, but I realized along the way that it was also important to know what they looked like when they were worn.  The board of portraits and illustrations of coifs and caps being worn is not as well documented as the others, but it's a start.

To test the sizing, I made a coif of the "recommended" size for my height, then one two sizes larger and one two sizes smaller.  I choose a difference of two sizes to make sure I could tell a difference and so that it would hopefully be more evident in pictures.

Because I like to conserve fabric, I actually used the "too big" coif to create the "too small" coif by taking tucks and resewing.  Here are pics of the coifs.  The left shows the proposed correct size coif on top of the "too big" coif.  The right shows the "too small" coif on top of the correct size coif.

It's important to note that I used hair taping to build the right foundation for wearing a coif.  This makes a huge difference in how a coif fits and feels.  All of my coif research started as a quest to get one that stayed on my head better, which I now know is largely due to proper hair taping.

So, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's look at what the coifs look like on me. Here they are arranged from "too small" to "too big".


When looking at the portraits that include a cap that might be a coif, there is more hair visible above the forehead that I had realized, and some seem to sit perched on the back of the head more like what I see in the "too small" pic.  However, the "too small" coif was too short and didn't cover enough of the ears, and felt like it was being uncomfortably stretched to sit on my head.

The correct size coif felt pretty good.  While many extant coifs have a widow's peak point at the top, I don't see as much evidence of this in the portraits and I think with the point removed, this size would be about right.

The "too big" coif was comfortable and felt fine on my head.  In looking at the picture, it looks a little baggier than it should be and covers more of the hair than I would like.

Conclusion:
For me, at least, the estimated correct size seems just about right.  However, I was testing a difference of two sizes and I could probably go down one size without a problem.