The best office chairs with a headrest
Almost every chair sold with a headrest tells you it has one and nothing else — no travel, no angle, no height. One chair here publishes both numbers, one publishes what adding the headrest does to the chair, and two publish only the word. That ordering is the page.
By Stephen V.Last reviewed
Compare the four chairs
The first column is the point of the table and it is mostly empty. Every cell is the manufacturer's own figure as cited on the roundup each chair is ranked on — nothing here is converted, estimated or rounded for effect.
| # | Chair | Published headrest figure | Capacity | Warranty | Seat height | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  1. SIHOO M57 (Big and Tall, 330 lb) The only published headrest adjustment range
| 3.9" travel, 45° rotation | 330 lb | 3 yr | — | |
| 2 |  2. Steelcase Gesture A headrest on a chair with a 12-year warranty
| Optional; overall height 47–57" | 400 lb | 12 yr | — | |
| 3 |  3. SIHOO M18 Ergonomic Office Chair A headrest under $200
| "Adjustable" — no dimension | 330 lb | 3 yr | — | |
| 4 |  4. Ticova Ergonomic Office Chair A return window if the headrest lands wrong
| "Adjustable" — no dimension | — | 1 yr | — |
Two of four headrest cells are a word, not a number. Ticova and SIHOO both describe an adjustable headrest on these models and publish no travel, angle or height for it. The Gesture’s cell is an overall chair heightwith the optional headrest fitted — a real published figure, but not a headrest dimension, and we are not going to present it as one. Every seat-height cell is a dash, which is its own finding: the four chairs people buy for a headrest are four chairs whose makers do not publish the measurement that decides fit. Ticova’s capacityis a dash because its own site states “1136 kg”, which cannot be right — see the under-$200 roundup, where that is documented in full. Figures and dates come from the tall-people roundup, the under-$200 roundup and Series 1 vs Gesture.
Prices and stock as of October 18, 2026, from Amazon’s API. They change; we show a live number or none at all. #ad — we earn a commission.
Buy the SIHOO M57if the headrest is the reason you are shopping: it is the only chair we cover whose maker publishes what its headrest does — 3.9″ of vertical travel and 45° of rotation. Buy the Steelcase Gesture if you want a headrest attached to the longest documented life on the page: 400 lb, 12 years, parts and labor.
Now the part that makes this page short.
What we ranked on, and the column that is mostly empty
A headrest is a simple component with three numbers that would tell you everything: how far it moves up and down, how far it tilts, and how high it sits off the seat. Across every chair this site has researched, exactly one manufacturer publishes any of them.
So the ranking runs in this order, and the order is doing real work:
1. A published headrest adjustment figure.Travel and angle, stated by the manufacturer. One chair here has both. One has an overall-height figure for the chair with the headrest fitted, which is a published number but a different one. Two have the word “adjustable” and nothing behind it.
2. Weight capacity.One of the few chair figures with an actual test behind it — what a weight rating does and does not certify is worth two minutes before you read any capacity number anywhere.
3. Warranty term. The longevity slot, as on every chair page here. It matters more than usual on this page, because a headrest is a moving part on a hinge and hinges are what break.
Seat height normally leads our chair rankings and here it cannot, because not one of these four chairs publishes it. That is not an oversight in our research; it is a finding about the category, and the last column of the table is a dash four times over to make it visible.
What a headrest actually does, mechanically
It is a pad that your head rests against when the backrest is behind vertical. That is the entire mechanism, and it has one consequence worth understanding before you spend money on it: at an upright working posture, your head is forward of the headrest and the pad is not in contact. Nothing is supported because nothing is touching.
Which is why the recline figure is the one spec on this page that people skip and shouldn’t. The SIHOO M18 publishes 126°; the Ticova publishes a 130°rocking recline with a lockable upright position. Those angles are where a headrest switches from decoration to function. If you never go back past vertical — and plenty of people working at a keyboard never do — the honest advice is to ignore this whole category and put the money into lumbar adjustment and a seat height you can verify. Do office chairs need a headrest makes that case in full, including when one gets actively in the way.
Why the headrest dimension is missing almost everywhere
There is no standard that asks for it. ANSI/BIFMA X5.1, the general-purpose office chair standard, is a structural and safety test — it does not require a manufacturer to publish component dimensions, and headrests on task chairs are frequently an accessory line rather than part of the chair’s own spec table. Add the fact that most headrest-equipped chairs in the budget bracket come from brands whose documentation is a marketplace listing, and you get the column in our table: a word repeated, a dimension absent.
SIHOO is the counter-example and it is worth being fair about it. On the M57 it publishes travel and rotation, which is more than Steelcase does for a chair costing several times more. The same company then declines to publish a seat height on either of the models here, and prints two other heights that look enough like one to mislead a skimmer. Good documentation and bad documentation from the same source, on the same page — which is exactly why we cite the document rather than the brand.
The spread that actually matters here
Look at the warranty column against the price. The terms on this page run from 1 year to 12 years, and the 12-year chair is also the one with the highest published capacity at 400 lb. That is the real reason to spend up here, and it is not the headrest: the Gesture’s headrest spec is thinner than the M57’s, and it costs extra.
Capacity does not track price either. 330 lbappears on both SIHOOs, one of which is under $200 and one of which is not, and neither is beaten by the Ticova — whose own figure we refused to print.
Where price buys something measurable is documentation and term length. The Gesture’s figures come from a dated, item-numbered cut sheet; the budget pair come from product pages that answer some questions and quietly skip the one about fit. Our guide to what a chair warranty actually covers is the thing to read before you treat any of those terms as equivalent, because a 12-year parts-and-labor term and a 1-year consumer term are not the same promise with different numbers.
Before you buy a chair for its headrest
Three steps, in this order.
Work out your seat height first. It is the number that decides whether a chair fits you at all, and none of these four publish it, so you need your own target before you shop. Our desk height calculator produces it from your own measurements, and matching desk and chair height explains why the chair is the thing you set and the desk is the thing you set it to.
Then decide whether you recline. Not whether you could; whether you do. This is the single question that determines whether a headrest is a feature or a surcharge.
Then read the return window, not just the warranty. A headrest is the component most likely to land in the wrong place for your particular neck and shoulders, and no published figure on this page can predict that for you. Ticova states 30 days money back; SIHOO states a 30-day trial on the M57. Those are the specs that cover the risk this page cannot remove.
What we can’t tell you
We have not sat in any of these chairs. We cannot tell you whether the M57’s pad lands behind your head or your crown, whether the Gesture’s optional headrest is worth its extra cost, whether the M18’s hinge still holds its angle after two years of being pushed against, or whether any of these headrests is comfortable for you specifically. Those answers need a body and time, and they are the questions long-run owner reviews answer better than any spec sheet can. What we can do is tell you which figures exist, which do not, and which number in a spec table is quietly not the one you think it is. Our methodology is explicit about where our evidence stops and why we would rather print a dash than a guess.
The picks, in detail
1. The only published headrest adjustment range
SIHOO M57 (Big and Tall, 330 lb)
The only chair in our coverage whose maker publishes what its headrest actually does — 3.9″ of vertical travel and 45° of rotation — on a chair rated to 330 lb with a stated 3-year warranty. The seat height is still missing, as it is on every SIHOO we have read.
- Max seat height
- —
- Weight capacity
- 330 lb
- Warranty
- 3 yr
It is first for one reason: SIHOO prints the numbers. Its own page gives the headrest 3.9″ of vertical travel and 45° of rotation, which is the only headrest adjustment range any manufacturer publishes for any chair on this site. Everyone else sells you the word and keeps the dimension.
Those two figures are also the two that decide whether a headrest does anything for you. Vertical travel is what puts the pad behind your head rather than your shoulder blades or the back of your skull; rotation is what sets its angle once it is there. A headrest with neither is a cushion bolted at somebody else’s height.
The rest of the chair is the one we already rank on the tall-people roundup: 330 lb rated capacity, 3D armrests, dual-adjustable lumbar, and a 3-yearwarranty with a 30-day trial, all stated on SIHOO’s own site rather than implied by a listing.
The gap is the one that costs it points everywhere on this site. SIHOO publishes an overall chair height (42–49″) and a separate “chair back lifting height” (42.13–48.43″), and neither is the seat height. Both are close enough in size to a plausible seat-to-floor figure to be mistaken for one by anyone skimming. Work out the height you actually need from our desk height calculator first, and treat SIHOO’s silence as a reason to sit in the chair before committing.
Good
- The lowest-cost chair on this page that the manufacturer itself markets under the Big and Tall name
- 330 lb rated capacity, stated plainly on SIHOO's own product page
- 3D armrests, an adjustable headrest (3.9″ of vertical travel, 45° rotation) and dual-adjustable lumbar, each given a real published range
- A stated 3-year warranty plus a 30-day trial, both written out on SIHOO's own site rather than implied
Not so good
- No seat-to-floor height published anywhere on SIHOO's own page — the single number this whole page is organized around
- SIHOO instead prints an overall chair height (42–49″) and a separate "chair back lifting height" (42.13–48.43″), two figures close enough in size to a plausible seat height that it would be easy to mistake one for it
- 330 lb is the lowest weight rating of the four chairs here
- 3 years is the shortest warranty term of the four, stated outright rather than buried
Don’t buy it if: you can't test the chair in person before deciding. With no published seat height, sitting in it is the only way to confirm this chair actually reaches you — SIHOO's own documentation won't do that work for you.
$249.99 −20%
Price as of October 18, 2026. #ad — we earn a commission.
Where these numbers came from
2. A headrest on a chair with a 12-year warranty
Steelcase Gesture
The headrest is an option you add, and Steelcase publishes what adding it does to the chair: overall height goes to 47–57″. Behind it sits a 400 lb rating and a 12-year parts-and-labor warranty — and a documented 3-to-4-week lead time.
- Seat height
- —
- Capacity
- 400 lb
- Warranty
- 12 yr
This is the only chair here where the headrest appears in a dated, item-numbered manufacturer document rather than in listing copy. The Gesture cut sheet publishes an optional integrated headrestand states what it does to the chair’s envelope: overall height rises to 47–57″, against 39.25–44.25″ without it.
Be precise about what that figure is, because we are not going to dress it up: it is an overall chair height, floor to the top, not a headrest travel range. It tells you the headrest exists, is integrated rather than clipped on, and moves through roughly ten inches of overall height. It does not tell you where the pad sits relative to your own head.
What the same document does publish is the part most makers will not: “Weight-Tested to 400 lbs” and a 12-year, multi-shift, 24/7 both parts and labor warranty. That is the longest term and the highest capacity on this page by a wide margin, and it is the reason a chair with a vaguer headrest spec still ranks second.
Two things to price in. The headrest is an extra-cost option, not standard. And on 2026-10-10 the Amazon listing read “Usually ships within 3 to 4 weeks”rather than in stock — a month of lead time is part of this purchase. We work through everything else this chair publishes against its much cheaper sibling in Series 1 vs Gesture, where the short version is that the arms are what you are paying for.
Good
- 360-degree arms, described as such in Steelcase's own cut sheet — the mechanism the chair exists for, and the one thing on this page the Series 1 does not claim
- An optional integrated headrest, published as raising overall chair height to 47–57″
- A manually adjustable synchro-tilt mechanism, described in the cut sheet as built to support a wide range of postures and user sizes
- "Weight-Tested to 400 lbs," the same rating as the Series 1
- "12-year, multi-shift, 24/7 both parts and labor. Limited Lifetime Warranty." — the same 12-year term as the Series 1, inside the same umbrella language
- The source is a dated, item-numbered cut sheet (Item #16-0000113, 02/25) rather than a marketing page
Not so good
- The cut sheet publishes overall chair height — 39.25–44.25″, floor to the top of the back — and NO seat-to-floor height. The figure that decides whether the chair fits your legs is the one figure missing
- Roughly three times the price of the Series 1 for an identical published capacity and an identical published warranty term
- On 2026-10-10 its Amazon listing read "Usually ships within 3 to 4 weeks" rather than in stock — a month of lead time is part of this purchase
- Steelcase describes the 360-degree arms without publishing their travel in inches, so the headline feature is the one thing on the sheet you cannot compare numerically
- No BIFMA X5.1 statement in the document we read — same gap as the Series 1
Don’t buy it if: you want the headrest included. On the Gesture it is an optional integrated extra, so the chair you price up without it is not the chair on this page — and the cut sheet still publishes no seat-to-floor height, so the fit question stays open at three times the price of the chairs below.
Price as of October 18, 2026. #ad — we earn a commission.
3. A headrest under $200
SIHOO M18 Ergonomic Office Chair
An adjustable headrest, 330 lb of published capacity and a 3-year warranty under $200 — the best capacity-and-warranty pair in the budget bracket. SIHOO publishes no dimension for this headrest, unlike the M57 above it.
- Seat height range
- —
- Weight capacity
- 330 lb
- Warranty
- 3 yr
The M18 is the cheap answer to this page, and the comparison with the M57 at the top is instructive: same brand, same stated 330 lb capacity, same 3-year warranty, an adjustable headrest on both — and a published travel figure on only one of them. SIHOO gives the M57 3.9″ and 45°. For the M18 it gives you the words.
That is the whole reason it sits third rather than first, because everything else here is strong for the money: dual-adjustable lumbar that moves vertically and horizontally, height-adjustable armrests, and recline to 126°. Recline is worth noting on this page specifically — a headrest only does anything when the backrest is behind vertical, so a published recline angle is a genuinely relevant figure rather than a spec-sheet garnish.
The documented gaps are the same ones. No seat-to-floor height on SIHOO’s own page — what you get instead is an overall chair height (44″–51″) and a “chair back lifting height” (44.09″–51.18″), the identical pair of decoys. Armrests move up and down only. And we found no BIFMA claim on this product page. The whole budget bracket is ranked on what its makers publish in the best office chairs under $200.
Good
- 330 lb weight capacity — the highest published figure of any chair in this bracket
- Three-year warranty, twice as long as every other chair on this page
- Dual-adjustable lumbar support (both vertical and horizontal travel), height-adjustable armrests, an adjustable headrest, and recline to 126°
- Same brand family as the SIHOO Doro C300 Pro on our main premium roundup, at a fraction of the adjustability but comfortably under this bracket's budget
Not so good
- No seat-to-floor height published anywhere on SIHOO's own product page. What it publishes instead is an overall chair height (44"-51") and a "chair back lifting height" (44.09"-51.18") — the identical pair of decoys our main roundup documented for the pricier Doro C300 Pro, on a completely different model
- You cannot check whether this chair reaches your desk before it arrives, at any price point SIHOO sells at
- Armrests adjust up and down only (2D), not the 3D or 4D adjustment SIHOO's own pricier models offer
- No BIFMA claim found on this specific product page
Don’t buy it if: you are outside the average height range and need to confirm the seat reaches your desk before you buy. SIHOO gives you no way to check that number on this model, exactly as it does not on the pricier one we already reviewed.
Price as of October 18, 2026. #ad — we earn a commission.
Where these numbers came from
4. A return window if the headrest lands wrong
Ticova Ergonomic Office Chair
An adjustable headrest with 3D armrests and a 130° recline, plus a 30-day money-back window and a stated 1-year warranty. The capacity figure on Ticova's own page is not one we will print, and the headrest has no published dimension either.
- Seat height range
- —
- Weight capacity
- —
- Warranty
- 1 yr
A headrest is the component on a chair most likely to be in the wrong place for you, and nobody on this page publishes enough for you to predict it. So the thing worth buying is a way out: Ticova states a 30-day money-back guarantee alongside a 1-year warranty, both on its own official site.
What you get for the money is adjustment: an adjustable headrest, 3D armrests, lumbar support that moves in height and depth, and a 130° rocking reclinewith a lockable upright position. On the headrest question the recline lock matters — it is the setting that holds you at the angle where the pad is in contact at all.
And here is the figure we will not print. Ticova’s own site states the bearing capacity as “1136 kg” — over 2,500 lb, which is not a credible rating for a mesh task chair. We think a decimal point went missing, but correcting a manufacturer’s number for them and then printing the result is exactly the kind of invention this site exists not to do, so the capacity slot is a dash. That is also why this chair is fourth: it is the least-documented pick here, with the shortest warranty, and a return window is the only thing it publishes that you can rely on.
Good
- 30-day money-back guarantee plus a stated one-year warranty, both published on Ticova's own official site
- Adjustable headrest, 3D armrests, and lumbar support that adjusts in both height and depth — more adjustment points than the Amazon Basics or Flash Furniture picks above
- 130° rocking recline with a lockable upright position
Not so good
- Ticova's own site states the chair's bearing capacity as "1136 kg" — north of 2,500 lb, which is not a credible rating for a mesh task chair. We think a decimal point is missing (113.6 kg, roughly 250 lb, would be a plausible figure for this category), but we are not going to print a number we had to correct ourselves. The capacity slot is a dash for that reason
- No seat-to-floor height published anywhere we could find on Ticova's own site
- A money-back guarantee is a return window, not a warranty — worth keeping the two separate the way our chair-spend guide does for every 'money-back' claim in this category
Don’t buy it if: you want to check the exact weight rating before you buy. We could not verify a number for this chair that we would stand behind.
$139.99 −7%
Price as of October 18, 2026. #ad — we earn a commission.
Common questions
Do I actually need a headrest on an office chair?
Only if you recline. A headrest is a surface that meets your head when the backrest is behind vertical; sitting upright at a keyboard, your head is forward of it and the pad is doing nothing at all — which is why some people find one gets in the way rather than helps. Do office chairs need a headrest is the long answer, and high-back vs mid-back covers the related decision, since a mid-back chair rarely has anything to mount one on. The honest test is whether you lean back during the day. If you do not, spend the money on lumbar adjustment and seat height instead.
Can you add a headrest to an office chair that doesn't have one?
Clamp-on aftermarket headrests exist and we do not rank any, for the same reason this page leads with published figures: we have found no manufacturer document for any of them, and fit is specific to the backrest shape and frame of one chair model. A clamp that grips a flat-topped mesh frame will not hold on a curved upholstered one. If your current chair has no headrest and you have decided you want one, replacing the chair is the move we can evidence; bolting something on is not. The same logic runs through how to make an office chair more comfortable, which sticks to adjustments and add-ons that are genuinely model-agnostic.
What is the best office chair with a headrest under $200?
Of the chairs on this page, the SIHOO M18: an adjustable headrest, a published 330 lb capacity, a 3-yearwarranty and recline to 126°, which is the setting that puts the headrest in contact. What you do not get at that price is a published headrest dimension or a published seat height. The Ticovais the alternative if a return window matters more than a warranty term — 30 days, money back, stated on its own site. Both sit inside our under-$200 bracket, where every figure in this answer is sourced.
How high should an office chair headrest be?
Nobody publishes a target height for one, so we will not invent a number. What is checkable is the travel: the SIHOO M57 moves 3.9″ vertically and rotates 45°, which tells you how much room you have to get the pad behind your head rather than against the base of your skull or your shoulders. Set the chair in the order we use everywhere else — seat height first, then lumbar, then arms, then the headrest last, reclined to the angle you actually work at. How to adjust your chair walks the whole sequence, and how to reduce neck pain at a desk covers the screen-height half of the question, which is usually the bigger variable.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of these. If a manufacturer doesn’t publish a number, we print “—” rather than estimate it.
- SIHOO M57 product page (sihoo.com) — source of “General Dimensions: 28″W x 28″D x 42″-49″H,” the separate “Chair back lifting height: 42.13″ - 48.43″,” “Maximum load: 330 lbs,” and “(3) years warranty.” No seat-to-floor height is published anywhere on the page — read 2026-07-26
- Steelcase Gesture cut sheet (PDF, Item #16-0000113, 02/25) — source of the 39.25–44.25″ overall Work Chair height (floor to the top of the back), "Weight-Tested to 400 lbs," the "12-year, multi-shift, 24/7 both parts and labor. Limited Lifetime Warranty," the 360-degree arms and synchro-tilt description, and the optional integrated headrest raising overall height to 47–57″. The document publishes no seat-to-floor height. — read 2026-07-26
- SIHOO M18 Ergonomic Office Chair — Sihoo's own official US store page (source of "Maximum Load: 330 lbs", "(3) years warranty", the dual-adjustable lumbar, height-adjustable armrests, 126° recline, and the overall dimensions "28"W x 27"D x 44"-51"H" and "Chair Back Lifting Height: 44.09"-51.18"" — neither of which is a seat-to-floor height) — read 2026-07-26
- Ticova's own official site — states "Enjoy a 30-day money-back guarantee and one-year warranty"; also states "1136 kg Bearing Capacity", a figure (over 2,500 lb) we judged not credible for a mesh task chair and did not print — read 2026-07-26
Read next
Do office chairs need a headrest
Read this first if you are not sure you want one — a headrest only does anything at a recline angle you actually use.
High-back vs mid-back office chairs
Why back height decides whether a headrest is even possible, and what a mid-back gives you instead.
The best ergonomic office chairs
The main roundup, ranked on seat height, capacity and warranty — where the headrest is a feature rather than the ranking spec.
The best office chairs for tall people
Where the SIHOO M57 is researched in full, alongside the published seat-height ranges this page cannot give you.
How to reduce neck pain at a desk
The screen-height and setup half of the question a headrest is usually bought to answer.