I later realized that a big part of the problem I was having was the yarn, which had an unusual texture and a natural kink, which made it harder to see the loops I had crochet together. Once I moved on the yarn that I wanted for my headband, it was much easier to see what I was doing. I consulted some YouTube tutorials to clarify the proper single crochet process, and made my initial chain to the length of a bit longer than the circumference of my head. I continued with 6 rows of single crochet stitches.