Results of a study presented October 25 2017 at the American College of Surgeons ACS Clinical Congress 2017 suggest that surgeon s caps that expose small amounts of the ears and hair are not inferior to the bouffant style disposable scrub hats that cover those features. Cloth skullcaps which do not have a porous crown like their disposable counterparts showed lower particle counts and significantly lower microbial shedding at the sterile field compared with bouffant hats.