The heading is the top few inches of a curtain: the way the fabric is gathered, stiffened and fixed to the pole or track. It is a small part of the curtain that decides most of how it looks.
It also decides what the curtain can hang from, which is why it is worth settling early. This guide explains what each heading does to the folds, the stack and the hardware.
What the heading actually does
Three things follow from the heading you choose.
The shape of the folds. Some headings pull the fabric into defined pleats at regular intervals. Others gather it more loosely. The same fabric can look tailored or relaxed depending on nothing but the top.
How much fabric is used. A curtain is made wider than the window so that it gathers when closed. Headings differ in how much extra width they expect, which is why the same window in the same fabric can cost noticeably more with one heading than another. We make the finished curtain width 2.5 times the pole or track width for pencil pleat and for pinch pleat, 2.2 times for wave, and twice the width for eyelet and tab top. On a made-to-measure order you can ask for a different fullness.
How the curtain hangs and stacks. Some headings sit in front of the pole and hide it. Others sit below it and leave it on show. The heading also affects how much wall the open curtains cover, which matters on windows where you do not want to lose the glass.
Pencil pleat
The most familiar heading. A tape is sewn across the top and drawn up with cords to gather the fabric into a row of narrow, upright folds, a little like a row of pencils laid side by side.
It suits most rooms and most hardware. Hooks go into pockets in the tape, so the same curtain can hang from rings on a pole or gliders on a track, and the tape usually gives a choice of hook positions so the height can be adjusted a little on fitting.
Choose it if you want something unfussy that works almost anywhere, or if the hardware is not yet decided and you want to keep your options open.
Pinch pleat
A tailored heading where the fabric is gathered into groups of pleats at fixed intervals, with flat fabric between them. The pleats are hand formed or held by a stiffened tape, and they stay in place whether the curtain is open or closed.
Pinch pleats are usually made in twos or threes. Two pleats to a group reads as slightly lighter and more contemporary. Three is fuller and more traditional. The curtain hangs from hooks set behind the pleats, so it can go on rings or a track.
It is the heading to choose when you want the curtain to look formal and to hold its shape. Because the pleats are fixed, this is also the heading that shows a fabric's drape most clearly, which rewards a good fabric and is unforgiving of a limp one.
Eyelet
Metal rings are set into the top of the curtain and the pole passes straight through them. There are no rings and no hooks, and the fabric falls into wide, even waves.
Two practical points. First, an eyelet curtain needs a pole. It cannot run on a standard track. Second, the pole has to pass through the eyelet, so diameter matters, and the finial has to come off to thread the curtain on. Our eyelets are 40mm internal diameter and will run on poles up to 28mm, so check your pole against that before ordering.
Eyelet headings sit in front of the pole, so part of the pole stays visible above the fabric. If you have chosen a pole you want to see, that is a point in its favour. For more on how the two compare, see eyelet curtains or curtain rings.
Wave
A heading that holds the fabric in a continuous, even S-shaped wave from one end to the other, with no pleats and no gathered top. It reads as very clean and modern, and it stacks tidily.
Wave is a hardware-led heading. It depends on a compatible track with correctly spaced gliders, and the curtain and the track have to be specified as a system. It is not a heading you can add to hardware you already own. We do make wave, and it needs either a compatible wave track or a pole with an integrated wave track, ordered at the same time as the curtain.
Match the heading to the hardware
Work through this before you order.
- Eyelet. Pole only, with a diameter the eyelets will clear.
- Wave. A compatible track system, specified together with the curtain.
- Pencil pleat and pinch pleat. Either a pole with rings or a track with gliders.
- Heavy or interlined curtains. Whatever the heading, the support underneath has to carry the finished weight without bowing.
If the hardware is not fitted yet, choose the heading first and let it steer you towards curtain poles or curtain tracks. If it is already up, let the hardware rule the heading out rather than discovering the clash on delivery day.
Which heading should you choose?
Start with the room. A formal sitting room or a period house usually suits a pleated heading. A plainer, more contemporary room takes eyelet or wave more happily.
Then check the practical constraints. How much wall have you got beside the window for the curtains to stack onto. Whether the pole is meant to be seen. How heavy the finished curtain will be once the lining is added, which is covered in the curtain linings guide.
Then look at fabric behaviour. Structured headings show off fabric with body. Softer, looser fabrics tend to look better gathered than pleated.
Next step
Once the heading is settled, the rest of the specification follows. Take it into made-to-measure curtains, or if you are weighing two headings against each other for a particular window, ask us during a free design consultation.