So as not to derail this thread about taking off your hat during the national anthem, I figured I’d start my own. Mods, feel free to move to IMHO or elsewhere if you like.
When I wear a hat, it’s almost always a baseball cap. When I wear a baseball cap, I never want to take it off because I inevitably have “hat head.” Which is to say that the band of hat mats down my hair and I look somewhat like a mushroom head.
Finally to the questions.
Pre-Kennedy-era, it seems that all men wore hats. Custom has it that the hat was often taken off, especially when eating, indoors, etc. How did our forebears avoid hat head? Are the bands of fedoras that much looser than ball caps?
Any way to avoid hat head, other than don’t wear a hat?
People normally kept their hair much shorter in the days when fedora’s were popular. When your hair is shorter, there is less of a noticeable impact from hat head.
I’ll buy that, but I don’t think everyone had buzz cuts on the back and sides, did they? My hair isn’t particularly long (for this era). My hair also is pretty darn straight too.
I put my hair back in a headband before I put my hat on (I wear a hat most days in summer to keep the sun off my head). My hair doesn’t look great or anything after I take the hat off, but it looks good enough to be seen in public.
My grandad always wore a hat (fedora type). He didn’t have especially short hair and I never noticed him having hat-head. So I have no idea. Maybe looser hat?
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That’s right. Baseball caps are not hats, they are caps. This means they are used for sport. As such they are subjected to a degree of wind and physical activity that a hat would not be subjected to. They therefore have to be tighter than a hat.
Even if the person wearing the cap is not playing in it, the cap is cut so that if it is too loose it goes too low over the eyes.
A hat is built to be worn more loosely, and thus affects the hair less noticeably.
You are projecting contemporary ideas about hair onto the past. Look at any ‘men wearing fedoras’ movie - they greased their hair down with, what, Brylcreem? bear grease? As long as it was cut to the proper length by Joe the Barber, no one walked around fretting about mussed up hair. They didn’t wash it in the shower every day like we do now, either, and dandruff was just a natural by-product.
Being in my mid-40s, I have never had reason to wear a hat for style (and don’t plan to start now) - all the hats I wear are service hats - baseball caps to keep sun out of my eyes, wool caps in winter to keep my head warm, hard-hats when trimming large tree branches and the like - outside of stupid hats for Halloween, I don’t wear hats for style, and so have no idea what kind of fit they would have.
That said, I have watched on-line a lot of comedy shorts from the 1920s/1930s - Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy, W.C. Fields, Three Stooges etc. In these, the male actors always wear hats (and ties!), even when performing manual labor - I figure this was simply Hollywood ‘realism’, as sensible carpenter, mechanic, laborer etc - and most likely middle class weekend DIYers too - would not be wearing a fedora or bowler or panama hat doing such work - I could see farmers and other outside laborers might be wearing straw hats or the like to protect from the sun, but again we’re back to service hats, not style hats. However, the Hollywood ‘realism’ of always wearing hats did allow for slapstick like trying to retreive a dropped hat with your hands full of lumber, having a co-worker step on your dropped hat, a hat brim being pulled down your head by the boss, and if you’re Lou Costello, trying to sell hats for the Susquehanna Hat Company.
Of course, that doesn’t answer the OP’s question, because the ‘Hat Head’ solution for say, Laurel & Hardy, was probably the director yelling ‘Make-Up’ when they took their hats off on-screen…
During WWII, there were posters made warning machinists and laborers from wearing ties around heavy machines - if only Moe, Larry & Curly had read those posters, they would have be saved a lot of ‘pain’…
Years ago I saw some newsreel footage on television (as part of a documentary of some sort) where Thomas Dewey was speaking directly to the camera with the worst sort of hat head. It was like dent around his head that only showed where the hair was.
(This was early footage, probably from when he was special prosecutor. I searched Youtube and Vimeo and some history sites but couldn’t come up with it.)
Check out the old photos from Shorpy’s. Especially in street scenes from before WW2, it’s impossible to find so much as a single male without a hat on his head. I full-size the pics and examine them carefully, and I always expect to see at least one free thinker who would dare to go hatless, but they just didn’t exist.
A real hat: A proper hat sits low enough on the back of the head and far enough forward that the band is on the forehead. You won’t get hat head from a well-fitted hat. When of quality materials, a good hat breathes well enough and/or absorbs enough moisture, too.
About baseball caps: Properly worn, a baseball cap of the proper size won’t cause very much hat head, although one’s hair is more prone to hat head. If you’re a hack, the cap rests on your hair in front. This is lame. The other lame cap-wearing issue is a ‘floppy’ ball cap. Don’t wear these. A proper ball cap has a structure to it – it’s supported and maintains its shape.
I wear my caps in the gym, outside, etc. I learned all about hats and caps from my grandfather, who wore them like a proper old-timer. When I remove mine, the front of my hair might – just might – be ever so slightly tamped down from contact with the cap, but the cap is never actually resting on it.
Watch old films, and you’ll notice that when a man removes his hat, it is immediately followed by a reactionary swipe across the head, usually just sweeping at the front hairline.
I could write a book on the subject. My grandfather was born in 1911 and was of the prime hat wearing generation… and told me all about it.
Yeah, I don’t think people worried about hat head back in the day. I found it surprising in old movies how often otherwise nattily dressed characters had hats that were somewhat misshapen. Once upon a time, a hat was not a fashion statement. It was expected to keep rain off of your head. Now if it starts raining, I protect my brim.
In agreement with, and in addition to… My 76 yr old Dad, has always had a “pocket comb”. (And still does, even though he ain’t got that much left,* to comb*! ;)) On the other hand, I’ve never carried one.
I think one of the reasons for that, is the changing of hairstyles, worn by the different generations. As a young man, I tended to wear my hair quite long. I’m 50 now, and keep it pretty short. I wear different style hats quite frequently, a “baseball” type cap a lot of the time. Especially, if I’m working outdoors. Sometimes a “cowboy” hat, (in order to “dress up” a little) and other times, no hat, at all. Also, you have to take into account, an individuals “type” of hair and the particular “style”, in which they wear it.
