Since ushanka is in my username I figured I would make a blog post showing off the current state of my ushanka collection. Winter is over and I won’t be wearing these for a while so I figured now would be a good time to show them off. I will show an individual picture of each one and give some information about it. I own 22 total as of April 2024, here is a picture of them all together. (ignore the fact my shorkies Mike and April are in the picture, I have limited space in my room and had to use my bed for this.)

This is my first ushanka. The whole reason I got into collecting these things is because of my interest in the country Russia. I liked that ushankas are kind of a cultural symbol of Russia to most people in the US, so I asked my sister to get me one for my birthday in 2022. I wore it out a few times that summer but mostly as a joke because it was obviously way too hot to be wearing that thing outside.

Later that year I moved to somewhere with really cold winters (to me at least, I grew up in a desert) and wore it all winter. People started associating me with that hat. I found that ushankas are actually great for winter, and I realized how beanies and hoodies have always given me sensory issues. The issues I had with those were absent with ushankas. They weren’t tight or awkward and just relaxed on my head, plus they had the fur which is fun to touch.

This specific ushanka is no longer manufactured to my knowledge, so I tend not to wear it outside much. It has sentimental meaning to me and I would be devastated if I lost it or ruined it.

Next is this black and white ushanka. I found it at some store at a mall a few months after I started wearing my original ushanka regularly. I figured I would get a second one to have whenever I wash the main one. I don’t wear this one much because it’s rather ugly in my opinion.

A few months later I was in a discord call with some friends of mine, and the idea of a cat ear ushanka came up in the conversation. I looked it up and to my surprise it existed. I ordered it and it came in the mail about a month later. It’s really cute but I also don’t wear it much because it’s on the lower quality side and also a little small for my head.

This is a camouflage one I found at goodwill one day. I don’t have much to add to this one really, it’s just a decent ushanka.

Now after the last ushanka I got the idea to start collecting them. I had the thought while at work one day, what if the drummer Jon Fishman’s donut dress pattern was on a ushanka. I looked it up and sure enough I found an etsy shop selling them. It was a bit pricey at around 60 dollars, but it is by far my favorite ushanka.

First, the faux fur used on this ushanka is by far the softest and most pleasant to touch and feel. And the entire inside of the ushanka is filled with it. I got it a size bigger than I needed and it just perfectly rests on my head. All this fur also made it the warmest ushanka I have. The forehead flap also isn’t sewed onto the top of the hat, while still staying up on it’s own. This makes it so when it’s really cold I can just fold the flap down over my face to be extra warm. So just on a pure quality standpoint alone it is my favorite, but I also just love the pattern. I’m a huge Phish fan so this combines two things I really love.

The day I got the phish hat in the mail I wore it out and went to a thrift store and found this crappy black one for like 4 bucks. The material it’s made out of is kind of unpleasant to touch so this is another one of my less liked ones. I do like having a plain black and gray one in the collection though.

A few weeks later I decided I wanted the most stereotypical ushanka you could think of. So I ordered this one off Amazon. The ear flaps stick out to the side and it’s a little tight on my head so it’s another one I don’t wear much. But I do love the reactions I get wearing this thing outside.

Then I decided it would only be fitting to get a USA flag ushanka. This ushanka is very comfy and I love wearing it, I just wish the fur was a better material. It is very patriotic.

These next 10 are from Aliexpress, and are generally not the highest quality, but they were cheap and are still comfortable to wear. First we got a pumpkin ushanka.

Next is the care bear one. This one is just adorable. It came broken so I had to fix it with a little sewing. This one is easily one of my favorites.

These next three ushankas I’ll do together. I wasn’t aware of this until a friend informed me, but these are based off the characters from We Bare Bears.

This Kirby one is really really cute. It gets a lot of compliments when I wear it outside.

SpongeBob. I don’t know what else I can say about this one.

This Shadow The Hedgehog ushanka is great. I really wish I could have found a Sonic one but it is still awesome.

The last Aliexpress ushanka I got is a Splatoon one.

I saw this Green Bay Packers one on Ebay a while back. Now I don’t really like the Packers, or football really. The reason I bought this is because in 7th grade I had this extremely bad and mean history teacher, who was very obsessed with the packers. So it’s become kind of an in joke for me to buy packers related stuff.

This is another camo one I got at goodwill. This one is a bit more nature themed though. I assume it’s meant for hunting.

I forget where I found this one but a Vietnam veteran ushanka. I am obviously not a Vietnam vet because I was born decades after the war happened, and they wouldn’t have drafted a trans woman.

My most recent one, the transgender pride ushanka! I have this crocheted trans pride flag that one of my sisters made for me a little bit after I came out to her as trans. Once I got my first ushanka I would tuck it into the forehead flap sometimes to display it on it. I eventually decided I would get another of my original ushanka and sew it on to it. After finding out that my original one was discontinued I found a similar looking one and decided to use it.

It is off center and imperfect, because I wanted to preserve how it looked when I would just shove it into the forehead flap. I also put a few pins I have on it. There’s a protect trans kids one on it, because trans kids are the group of trans people being targeted the most right now in the US. Then there is an international women’s day one I had lying around. Lastly, there’s one that says “token straight friend” as a reference to the fact I am straight.

Something else I wanted to show is where I keep my hats. A lot of people tend to be shocked to see this, but I have no organizational system for them. They are all thrown and stacked in this corner of my closet. Finding a certain one is annoying because pulling a few out usually causes a hat avalanche.

That is all of my ushankas. It was very fun to take photos and talk a little bit about each one I own. I might try doing a post like this with my twisty puzzle or plushie collection, but those are much larger and would be way more time consuming to do. That is all for this blog post though, bye!

thanks for reading, i love you :3 💕