In Praise of Hats

[Richard A Thackeray]

I generally wear a woolly hat

(it’s invariably a 'Lion Of Flanders' Planet X, when I drive to work in winter/dog-walking)

I still have a couple of Akubras, but not worn either for a long time!
(owned for over 25 years)
- a Snowy River
- a 'Sombrero' as it's named, but it's 'bashed' (as their phrase goes) into its most iconic variation of that particular model, as worn by Les Hiddins, aka.............


View: https://youtu.be/XfXK_hp2ibY?si=TR5oqFwmTz3IZL7P

 

[Dogtrousers]

Wooly hat if it's cold. Floppy hat if it's sunny. No hat if it is neither.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I still wear the occasional flat cap, mostly when it's too windy outside for a wide brimmed hat.

Just thought of another occasion I'll wear a flat cap. When in my pokey flat which is full of clothes hanging from door frames, door handles etc I'll wear a flat cap, as wide brimmed fedora hats tend to stop me passing though the gaps between hanging coats, jackets etc!

 

[SteveO69]

I’m fair skinned and when I had some hair was blond. I got horrendously sunburned as a 10 year old in France, blisters that scarred on my back, legs, arms and most painfully, feet. Since then, I’ve been a shirt on / cover up sort. Sunscreens and skin awareness have come a long way since my youth, fortunatley.

Baseball caps are fine on overcast days, need to shade the ears too, on sunny days, all year round.

 

[Time Waster]

Time was when men and lasses come to that, wouldn't been seen out sans headwear. Then it became unfashionable, but now the trend of men in headwear is back in fashion.
However, the default preference appears to be either baseball caps or 'benny' / 'tubigrip' / beanie hats.
So are men - clinging avidly to current fashion / are they afraid to be different / want to be 'American' or just can't be bothered to think outside the current fashion box - ?
Observations from our fashion gurus please - !

On a side note Base-ball was a suffolk creation. It was and is still played in that county to this day. It was a local game that was widely played. Indeed the first written evidence of the game was a newspaper report of the then Prince of Wales visiting Suffolk and having a good time playing the local bat and ball game called Base-ball. It took the whole afternoon of about 3 or 4 hours. That was a newspaper from 1739!! Long before baseball was "invented" in America.

Of course it got to America with the English settlers from Sufffolk who must have taken it across. AIUI the guy usually credited with inventing the game only recorded the game that some people were playing and had been playing for a long time. So does that mean Baseball caps would not be around if it was not for Colonials in USA who came from Suffolk?

 

[wafter]

One of my favourite items of clothing is a Scottish-made pure wool ribbed cuffless beanie in burnt orange.

I bought it first and foremost for its practical value, but it also looks good (largely because it covers my expansive slaphead).

I'm not sold on / don't think I could pull off any other headgear in the name of aesthetics alone - sadly I think anything other than a basic beanie carries an unaccepably high chance of making you look like a bellend.

 

[Time Waster]

I wear a woolie hat in winter (I usually prefer wool only but this Xmas I got bought a hat made by Inov8 and it is a synthetic. With a fleece lining it stops the wind better than my wool hats including the double layer Fjellraven.

Summer I have a brazillian tarp hat and a cap made by them. They get a bit hot and sweaty but are waterproof. I used to wear a Tilley but after it gets washed It did not always go back to the right size. I know about stretching it while wet but that works 50% of the time for me and if it didn't I had to re-wet it to try again. It was an organic cotton airflow model and used to be good until about the third wash then it shrunk badly every time. I would never recommend Tilley again certainly not in cotton. Also I heard they have dropped off in quality since they got sold out or something like that.

 

[Donger]

Top hat with a daffodil in it for me.

 

[Jenkins]

Another Tilley hat wearer - the LTM6 for me due to the wider brim giving a bit of shade to the back of my neck as well as my face in the sun. I've also got loads of motorsport related baseball caps acquired over the years, but hardly ever seem to weat them.

 

[Mike Ayling]

I'mWooly hat if it's cold. Floppy hat if it's sunny. No hat if it is neither.

+1 for me. When cycling I wear a buff on top of my head under the helmet as I am short on hair and was getting some interesting tan lines through my helmet vents. Plenty of SPF 50 on my ears and face.

 

[MichaelW2]

I used to wear a deerstalker, esp on my bike riding through rough parts of the city. Groups of slouchy yoof could not bring themselves to get aggressive but would usually be satisfied with an "Oi Sherlock!"

 

[Bristolian]

I have a collection of baseball style caps (all with logos of some kind on them) which I wear all year round for no other reason than they help me to see better. My eyes are rather sensitive to sunlight so keeping them in shade helps me to see detail in dark shadows - makes for safer riding, driving and better photography

 

[Accy cyclist]

I used to wear a deerstalker, esp on my bike riding through rough parts of the city. Groups of slouchy yoof could not bring themselves to get aggressive but would usually be satisfied with an "Oi Sherlock!"

I have two deerstalkers. I only wear them when in nicer/safer places than Accrington as I'd most likely get some verbal abuse If I wore either of them in Accrington . I wore one of them once and got some verbals off some chavvy women sat outside Costa coffee. I keep them on the back seat of my car like I do with a few flat caps and fedoras, in case I want to change my headgear while out and about. I might wear one of my deerstalkers when walking my dog in the local cemetery and I might even drive my car with one on, but that's about it for around here.