Hats .......

[PGPKY2014]

I don’t wear a hat daily, but I wear a hat when I need to.

Out of all the types of hats, the absolute most useless one ever to exist is the baseball hat. At best, a baseball hat will maybe provide a little shade for your eyes. It will not keep sun/rain/snow off your head, neck, or ears. It is a piece of athletic gear that has little use outside of athletic endeavors. OK, got that out of my system.

Second major whining point – civilized men do not wear hats indoors! There are a few exceptions such as color guards and some assignments but if you can’t take your cover off when you cross a threshold, I will pass judgement on you.

A good felt hat with a real brim will work in most cool, cold, dry or damp weather. The style is up to you, but a good basic fedora will fit into most situations and is useful. Felt is not ideal in heavy rain or hot weather. A good dark gray fedora can pass for a stylish hat and still be useful as a casual hat. Cowboy hat styles are varied and sometimes work in formal situations but can look a little too “rural” in some settings. You must make that call yourself.

Hot weather and bright sun dictate something that breathes but provides shade. These are seldom situations that require a lot of style, and the standards get relaxed a bit in hot weather. Think Panama hats, think straw type campaign hats, think material that doesn’t get sweat stained easily.

While not suitable in formal settings but entirely adequate in casual settings, the Tilley model T4 is extremely useful. It provides shade. It keeps moderate rain off your head. It keeps snow off your head, and it isn’t too hot. It’s not a sophisticated hat for formal settings, so not the best “out on the town” hat, but very useful in a lot of situations and fits into casual situations well.

A Gore-Tex floppy boonie hat is as ugly as a mud fence but it the BEST thing in the world in heavy rain. And you can stuff it in your raincoat pocket when you walk indoors. Boonie hats are not stylish in any stretch of imagination but they are great in foul weather.

I thank GOD for the way my parents raised me!

 

[Petrol & Powder]

I keep an old U.S. army boonie hat for use in the sun. It's about the ugliest hat I’ve ever seen and I’ll never part with it! Sweat stained and faded but practical.

I have a cheap, boonie hat style rain hat I use when traveling that can be rolled up and stashed about anywhere. Equally ugly and incredibly useful!

 

[sundog]

Another vote for the boonie hat. Propper brand is pretty good quality, reasonable price.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

Another vote for the boonie hat. Propper brand is pretty good quality, reasonable price.

A nice felt Fedora is a better look if you don't want to look like you just fell off tractor or were cutting grass all day.
But a boonie hat sure is useful kit if you're in the sun or rain and working.

 

[Cadillac Jeff]

Hmmm. I wear a boonies hat most times, have for years.

Fits what I need a hat for.

Tye down in the wind, roll down in sun or rain if need be..

No tractors hear unless it has a snowblower on it, or ya count a skid steer...

Base ball caps....just No.

Summer time I have a stetson made wide brim mesh hat again with a tye down for windy days ,nice thing about it is I can wash it when it gets stains fron our 2 months of summer.

Also a nice straw type dress up wide brim for the 2 or 3 times I go to town during the before mentioned months..

 

[oscarflytyer]

To address the OP's question about felt, A good wool felt will work.

My experience with wool felt is that it will shrink if it gets wet, especially if dried out quickly. Why I go beaver/fur

 

[Petrol & Powder]

My experience with wool felt is that it will shrink if it gets wet, especially if dried out quickly. Why I go beaver/fur

A better choice but it comes with some extra cost. Can't say I disagree that's it's a superior material.

 

[bruce381]

Hats for shooting to cover bald head are ball caps , gardening outside are Bonies thats all i wear.

 

[fiver]

my 'shooting' hat is a neckerchief tied on like a bald biker wears it.
i get a lot of sideways looks from passers by when i'm chatting with someone holding a 30+K Perazzi wearing a corduroy vest,,, and my pony tail is flapping about in the breeze.

my actual round the yard hat is an over sized Fedora made out of...neoprene.
it's hot as hades in the summer so it has a couple of vent holes sliced in the top edge.
but it's the perfect, i ain't seen the sun since October, spring time 40-F keeps the sun off hat.

 

[smokeywolf]

Kind of a hat snob, kind of not. I like expensive hats (Stetson). Have a 20X that Dad bought back in 1949 and if I remember right, he paid fourty-something dollars for it. Have a Stetson that I bought in about 1987 for around $140 (close-out at the local feed store). Have baseball caps that aren't worth $10 and cheap-a$$ floppy brimmed hats that are good for keeping the sun off for 4 or 5 years, then the land-fill.

Even if you don't want to go to that price point, take a look at Stetson.

 

[CZ93X62]

I wear a bit of everything. Cowboy hat, ball caps, watchcaps, and a russian style trapper.

Funny story on the trapper. We were going to church on a cold and rainy Sunday. I saw somethign in the road and I pulled up next to it, opening the door to see what it was. The wife was setting in the back with our boy, and she asked "what is it?". To which I replied, a dead possum, at the same time I grabbed the sopping wet hat and threw it in her lap. She screamed and tried to claw her way out of the seatbelt and through the closed door. I had a good laugh and our boy who was 3 at the time laughed pretty good too.

I strongly suggest against trying this vs. a Castilian Basque lady. Just sayin'.

 

[Mainiac]

I wear a bit of everything. Cowboy hat, ball caps, watchcaps, and a russian style trapper.

Funny story on the trapper. We were going to church on a cold and rainy Sunday. I saw somethign in the road and I pulled up next to it, opening the door to see what it was. The wife was setting in the back with our boy, and she asked "what is it?". To which I replied, a dead possum, at the same time I grabbed the sopping wet hat and threw it in her lap. She screamed and tried to claw her way out of the seatbelt and through the closed door. I had a good laugh and our boy who was 3 at the time laughed pretty good too.

My friend spied a brand new looking,carhart stocking style winter hat,,had to have it.
It was beside a state owned salt shed,,and the roof had tons of ice and snow,hanging out over the eves,very dangerous.
Aanyways,he had to have it,so he risked his life sneaking under that death trap,and.....
It was used once,someone took a crap,and wiped there butt with it!!!
He was so bummed,,,and i cried for 5 minutes,laughing about it!

 

[fiver]

out the door you'd go as she come over the seat.

 

[Winelover]

Have three or four Stetsons sitting in hat boxes in one of the closets. Used to purchase one, every time we traveled out west, in the late 70' and early 80's. There's a grey one, a black one and a navy blue one. There might even be a brown one. Been too many years.

 

[RBHarter]

I've settled on a Stetson. Still mulling colors and material.

Mom said I can have Bing's Stetson . Black crush , no crown 4" brim , worn only a few winters in So Cal by a Marine that landed Iwo an 2 other beach heads . My Dad had it about 40 years and wore it about 17-18 weeks maybe 8-12 hours the whole of race week. Funny kind of he ended up with because he was the only friend fat headed enough to wear it. Bing was 6'3" 220# of prime Marine all my life . Cancer took him in 79' ........ It'd be a hard hat to wear , especially if I wore it out .

 

[smokeywolf]

You can shrink most Stetsons a full size, but can't stretch them even a half size without them eventually shrinking back to their original size.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

A family member purchased a Stetson in the late 1950's and proceedded to wear it for about the next 50 years. It was an expensive hat in the day. It was looking pretty sad in the end with a few holes and stains, but it was still a hat.
I don't recall what the style was called but it looked like your typical Texas cowboy hat, but with a flatter crown than most western hats. It was a light tan, felt hat.
It didn't see use everyday but when it did see use, it was used hard. It saw every type of weather. For years he wore it while fishing in brackish water and it went in the water a few times. He wore it mowing grass in the heat of summer and while cutting firewood in the snow.

I grew to respect felt as a hat material after seeing the abuse that Stetson took.

 

[Bazoo]

I don't have a Stetson, I have a Master Hatters of Texas 3X cowboy hat. I got it figuring I was going to abuse it, so why pay more for a Stetson. I probably will end up with a Stetson too at some point.

 

[fiver]

jeez.
apparently i'm the only guy that owns a saddle, but ain't got a cowboy hat.

 

[Brad]

No saddle or cowboy hat here. No cowboy boots either.