An object of the invention is to provide a thermal head provided with an excellent protective layer where a dielectric breakdown is hardly caused even when printing is performed on a recording medium of low moisture absorbency. In a thermal head of the invention, heating resistors are provided on an insulating substrate, and the heating resistors are coated with a protective layer containing carbon and silicon. The protective layer contains 65 to 90 atm % carbon, and carbon-to-carbon bonds of the protective layer include 95.0% or more covalent bonds related to an sp.sup.2 hybrid orbital.