# How did 1940s people (specifically, men) keep their hats from being blown away? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 3, 2019, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308 "2019-12-03T13:35:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/1 "2019-12-03T13:35:50Z")
I wear a hat of some kind most days. The two kinds of hats that I don’t wear are baseball caps and (unless the weather is in Arctic range) ski hats (the cap with a thousand names [Knit cap - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knit_cap)) because they’re fucking stupid-looking. Sometimes I wear a beret but usually I wear a brimmed hat of some kind. Yesterday I was crossing a broad, busy street (with the light, of course) and it was a bit windy, so I was using one hand to keep my hat on my head. Suddenly there was a gust so strong that it blew my hat away even though I was holding it. (Luckily a nice driver stopped for me to retrieve it but it was pure luck that it stopped in a place I could get it and no one ran it over). So do I just have to stick with brimless hats in windy weather or did men in the early 20th century have a trick to keep their hats on their heads? I specify men because I know women used hatpins and stuff to keep their hats on. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/2 "2019-12-03T13:38:16Z")
I wear a wool fedora on cold and rainy days. If it’s breezy, I tilt my head down and pinch the crown with one hand. I’ve owned it for about ten years now and I haven’t lost it yet, though I did lose a flimsier trilby to the breeze once. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/3 "2019-12-03T14:53:35Z")
It´s from late nineteenth century, but in _The Blue Carbuncle_ Sherlock Holmes notes that a felt hat shows signs of having had a chinstrap attached. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/4 "2019-12-03T15:11:49Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > It´s from late nineteenth century, but in _The Blue Carbuncle_ Sherlock Holmes notes that a felt hat shows signs of having had a chinstrap attached. Not a chinstrap – there was a cord at the back that attached to a button on the collar. > [@](#): > > Sherlock Holmes laughed. “Here is the foresight,” said he putting his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. “They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not entirely lost his self-respect.” [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The\_Adventure\_of\_the\_Blue\_Carbuncle](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Blue_Carbuncle) Heck, I had one of those on the hat I wore while white-water raftering. Kept my hat on me when I got sucked into a whirlpool. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/5 "2019-12-03T15:15:36Z")
Men losing their hats to the wind was a trope in old movies and cartoons, so it must have been common. Note: I’m not stalking you, Cal. Pure coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/6 "2019-12-03T15:22:08Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Not a chinstrap – there was a cord at the back that attached to a button on the collar. > > [The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle - Wikisource, the free online library](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Blue_Carbuncle) > > Heck, I had one of those on the hat I wore while white-water raftering. Kept my hat on me when I got sucked into a whirlpool. Thank you for the correction! I shall notify the editor of the Swedish translation I have! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/7 "2019-12-03T16:02:04Z")
Nothing more foolish than a man chasin’ his hat. – Tom Reagan ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/8 "2019-12-03T16:09:00Z")
I guess the phrase, “Hold onto your hat!” is now archaic. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/9 "2019-12-03T16:19:50Z")
You think wool caps are “fucking stupid looking”, but you admit to wearing a beret? Hoo-kay. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/10 "2019-12-03T16:22:23Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Nothing more foolish than a man chasin’ his hat. > – Tom Reagan > [@G.K.Chesterton](#): > > there is a current impression that it is unpleasant to have to run after one’s hat. Why should it be unpleasant to the well-ordered and pious mind? Not merely because it is running, and running exhausts one. The same people run much faster in games and sports. The same people run much more eagerly after an uninteresting little leather ball than they will after a nice silk hat. There is an idea that it is humiliating to run after one’s hat; and when people say it is humiliating they mean that it is comic. It certainly is comic; but man is a very comic creature, and most of the things he does are comic—eating, for instance. And the most comic things of all are exactly the things that are most worth doing—such as making love. A man running after a hat is not half so ridiculous as a man running after a wife. > > Now a man could, if he felt rightly in the matter, run after his hat with the manliest ardour and the most sacred joy. He might regard himself as a jolly huntsman pursuing a wild animal, for certainly no animal could be wilder. In fact, I am inclined to believe that hat-hunting on windy days will be the sport of the upper classes in the future. There will be a meet of ladies and gentlemen on some high ground on a gusty morning. They will be told that the professional attendants have started a hat in such-and-such a thicket, or whatever be the technical term. –[On Running After One’s Hat](http://fullreads.com/essay/on-running-after-ones-hat/) ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/11 "2019-12-03T16:24:37Z")
Old bit of ranchers’ lore about cowboys: “Never hire a man who rolls his own cigarettes, or wears a straw hat; if he’s not trying to roll a cigarette in the wind, he’s chasing that d\*\*\* straw hat all over creation.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/12 "2019-12-03T16:26:09Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > –[On Running After One’s Hat](http://fullreads.com/essay/on-running-after-ones-hat/) Nice try, Chesty, but you’re making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/13 "2019-12-03T16:31:29Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > ski hats (the cap with a thousand names [Knit cap - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knit_cap)) because they’re fucking stupid-looking. > > Sometimes I wear a beret :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Talk about stupid looking. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/14 "2019-12-03T16:38:50Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I wear a wool fedora on cold and rainy days. If it’s breezy, I tilt my head down and pinch the crown with one hand. I’ve owned it for about ten years now and I haven’t lost it yet, though I did lose a flimsier trilby to the breeze once. This. They were also sized way back when and fit pretty tightly - so a light breeze isn’t going to take it. I have my Dad’s fedora from the early 1960s and its a tight fit on my head. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/15 "2019-12-03T16:56:58Z")
Probably chin- or neck-straps in many situations but then alligator clips were invented; I’ve used a two-clip hat keeper since forever. Hat may blow off but it doesn’t go far. I just jam other hats down tight. The OP question makes me wonder about earlier times before fairly low fedoras replaced tall top hats. How did Abe Lincoln keep that stovepipe in place? ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/16 "2019-12-03T17:21:21Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I wear a hat of some kind most days. The two kinds of hats that I don’t wear are baseball caps and (unless the weather is in Arctic range) ski hats (the cap with a thousand names [Knit cap - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knit_cap)) because they’re fucking stupid-looking. > > … The 2 styles of hats the OP eschews because of appearance impress me as among the 2 most practical styles of hats… Not sure when it the last time I saw a man wearing a beret. But I CAN categorically state the last time I saw a guy wearing a beret and NOT looking like a doofus! That would be NEVER! 😉 Unless, perhaps, he was in France, wearing a striped shirt, with a mustache, and playing a concertina… Nah, he’d still look like a doofus! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/17 "2019-12-03T17:33:56Z")
The [peaked cap often](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaked_cap) worn by military and police (though increasingly only in a formal dress uniform) has a strap that goes across the front, just above the base of the brim. You might think it’s for use as a chin strap. And maybe, back in the day when such hats were worn as practical header, that’s what the strap was used for. But now? Strictly decorative (even though it is often capable of being brought down under the chin). Anyway, I nearly lost my headgear to many a sudden gust of wind while walking along piers or up the ship’s brow (the gangplank, if you will). It was blown off and sent flying more than once, but every time, I managed to catch it before it ended up in the water. Often only just. [grumbling]Stupid impractical headgear…[/grumbling] ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/18 "2019-12-03T17:39:45Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > This. They were also sized way back when and fit pretty tightly - so a light breeze isn’t going to take it. I have my Dad’s fedora from the early 1960s and its a tight fit on my head. Perhaps also that they would also use some sort of hair tonic/oil or whatever. With short hair and some sort of… elixir? I bet you could get a pretty snug fit. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/19 "2019-12-03T17:59:16Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > You think wool caps are “fucking stupid looking”, but you admit to wearing a beret? > > Hoo-kay. > [@Spiderman](#): > > :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: > > Talk about stupid looking. > [@Dinsdale](#): > > The 2 styles of hats the OP eschews because of appearance impress me as among the 2 most practical styles of hats… > > Not sure when it the last time I saw a man wearing a beret. But I CAN categorically state the last time I saw a guy wearing a beret and NOT looking like a doofus! That would be NEVER! 😉 > > Unless, perhaps, he was in France, wearing a striped shirt, with a mustache, and playing a concertina… Nah, he’d still look like a doofus! 😃 Yep, I look fantastic in a beret, and like a doofus in a baseball cap or ski hat. That’s life. And that’s aesthetics. De gustibus non disputandum est. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308/20 "2019-12-03T19:41:15Z")
I have the best solution: I never buy a winter coat unless it has a hood. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-1940s-people-specifically-men-keep-their-hats-from-being-blown-away/844308.md?page=2)