stripes in the round

OK - I need some help. The first pic above shows the stripes with no added 'fix' for the stripes - just straight knitting in the round. )The stripes look BAD where they meet up. I attempted in the second hat (pic 2) to slip the first stitch on the first row of the color change (but not slipping the first stitch of second row of each color change). While I think it looks slightly better than the first pic, it still isn't the results I want. Can you help???? Do you have any advice? Thanks!!!!

C and R's London Beanies

Here are the London Beanies I made for the boys. Originally the hats were supposed to be for J. The Blue and Gray stripe one was made first using Caron Super Soft and I think that's why it came out so small. It fit J's head, but didn't cover his ears. Turns out it fits 5 year old R just fine though and he is happy as can be with it! The second hat was made with Lion Brand Wool, which of course is thicker. I didn't think about that ahead of time and I added 5 mores rows before I got to the stripes, so to be sure to cover J's ears. It fits J, but he thinks it looks like a chemo cap (and the stripes begin 5 rows higher on the head, so it looks kind of dorky anyway.) However, it also fits 7 year old C (who has a Charlie Brown head, God love him), and he doesn't care how it looks on him - he loves the hat. J is just a little bit more picky. (Or a lot more picky!) So, I'm going to try again on the beanie for J. I'm going back to the Caron yarn (is softer and machine washable). Pics in a few days!