Actually, not a rule. Nothing in the rule book says "no tape on headgear." It was a rule interpretation from a few years back. Kansas decided to ignore it but this year we decided not to ignore it. Minor difference maybe between a rule and an interpretation, but there was never a rule against tape on the headgear and there's no rule against it now. The guy at the federation that gets to "interpret" the rules -- I think his name is Colgate--decided this was going to be the interpretation of some rule--perhaps the one referenced above about the uniform being worn as intended by the manufacturer---I doubt anyone actually asked the manufacturer if they intended wrestlers to tape their headgear...its been a common practice for 50 years so it wouldn't be a surprise to the manufacturer, though.

You can put all the stickers you want on your headgear, however. So a sticky-backed "sticker" is fine, but a sticky-backed piece of cotton tape is not.