“DUST BANDIT, it will change your life,” the girl in the, modified to mini Dust Bandit tank top told me as she handed me a card. The booth seemed to have every color bandana known to man flapping in the breeze. I was intrigued by the display, but I don’t wear bandanas. After stating this fact, with no need to go into my ridiculous fumbling with bandanas in the past: taking a pocket knife to both my hair and the knot I had tied it into, tying knots so tight I may have cut off vital blood flow to my brain, and of course the many scarves lost to a sudden gust on the road. I had given up on the bandana long ago. “Check this out,” the girl said as she ripped the bandana, sorry, the Dust Bandit off of her head with a quick pull and I heard the familiar sound of Velcro accompanying the mass of hair that came out of the skullcap she had been wearing. She then put the same piece over her face securing at the back of her neck to demonstrate that I could go for a ride without bringing the desert home in my teeth; then rolled the Dust Bandit into the traditional biker sweatband.

OK, I’ll bite – maybe I’ll get one. But do they have my favorite color? No. They have everyone’s favorite skull designs, flames, camouflage, solids, & paisleys, custom silk-screened pieces to look like a wolf, kitty cat, or skeleton riding down the road. Then my eye caught the ‘bling’; crystal adorned Dust Bandits all one of a kind and made with Swarovski Crystals. I ended up with four Dust Bandits; so did the guy next to me who looked like a bandana pro. He’d been tying the knot for 40 years and even he was a convert that day. Now I am a bandana girl. I can tighten my skullcap even with my gloves on before I hit the road. I’m saving my face from sun, wind, and dirt. I haven’t even eaten a bug since that day. So, somehow, Dust Bandit, and its ‘NO MORE KNOT” strategy did actually change my life. Just like the girl said.
Dust Bandits are “Made in the USA” and can be found at Logan’s Valley Motorcycles in Mesa