Beaver and rabbit fur hats can all be worn in the rain – you just have to dry them thoroughly afterward.
I wear a straw hat in the summer and one of a variety of felt hats in the winter – I’ve got a fedora, a Stetson cowboy-style hat, a Borsalino wide-brimmed hat, etc. I’ve even got a Homburg, but I rarely wear it because I don’t think I can pull it off.
Eventually, I’d like to get a Derby and a top hat.
I own a dark brown campaign hat, complete with Boy Scouts insignia on the front, from time to time. With the rain cover on it, I can wear it outside during torrential downpours with a leather jacket on cooler days. It actually goes quite well with my leather jacket, not so well with any of my t-shirts sans jacket though.
When I was in JROTC, I wore a blue flight cap with my Air Force uniform, and on numerous occasions, I tried to convince the other cadets that the cadet officers should wear aviators’ sunglasses and MacArthur-style commander’s caps. Apparantly they didn’t agree with me.
I’ve got a black flat-top bowler (derby). I wear it when I feel like, for formal occations or not.
I’ve also got a black, silk top hat, reserved for situations where tuxedos are mandatory.
I have a very nice fedora that I wear while camping. It has faded over the years and acquired a number of honorable scars. My Gods, have I really had that hat for 21 years?
Other than that one, it’s baseball caps and the odd cowboy hat in rainy weather.
I was just thinking the other day that I’d like to get a hat other than a baseball cap. Not too dressy, but something distinct and different. I’ll have to give that to a lady friend of mine as a Christmas challenge.
“Twat” has certain gender associations…are you saying that a guy wearing a hat is considered womanish, or what?
That’s funny. I’m the same age and mostly bald, and that’s the main reason I do want a hat when it’s cold. I like ‘traditional’ hats but rarely wear my fedora–as noted it’s usually not cold enough to do so. Also, I have a sneaking fear, reinforced by some of the comments in this thread, that wearing a hat will mark me as “the old guy”, or that people will otherwise be snickering. If I lived in a cold climate I’d really be in a quandary.
I have a suspicion that the guys who think of a real hat as an affectation or a mark of old age are the same guys who cringe at being called “Sir” and still think of themselves as little boys.
I have several colleagues who wear real hats as protection against the elements, and they usually look quite nice in them.
Sure, a hat will look like an affectation if you’re wearing it with baggy jeans and a football jersey. But they look great with real, grownup clothes.
I’ve got my floppy boonie-style gardening hat and my ratty old wool ski cap I wear from November through March. Sadly, the pom-pom is long gone.