While reading the hat thread in GQ, I got to thinking. How many of us wear hats regularly? How many hats do y’all have? And what kinds?
I wear hats all the time. Keeps my hair under control.
I have a dark green wide brim felt Fedora. Sort of my formal hat and my go hat in the winter or rain.
I’ve got two Boonie hats. One light gray almost a pale khaki. The other dark gray. This one I like to tie the sides up with the chin cord. Both good for sun and rain work.
Got a couple of Cadet Caps. One is khaki and I keep it blocked. I use eight mil security film to keep it blocked. The other is a washed out green and is unblocked. Everyday work hats or just going out hats. Depend on what I wearing.
Three Tams. A black suede one. It’s real nice kind of formal. A khaki corduroy one that is kind of floppy. Good for the Pub. And a two tone gray one that is another everyday work hat.
Two hard hats. One for meetings on-site with contractors or owners. It’s white with the company logo on it. Painted the logo myself. The other one yellow and beat up for working. Yellow so I’ll blend in and be left alone to get some work done. If you wear white while working you keep getting stopped by some foreman or sub (other white hats) and asked a lot of stupid questions so they look busy while their guys work.
Used to have a nice straw cowboy hat. Had a wire in the rim so you could shape it tight. And a wood bead band. But too many Strippers like to crush it into their rack, that they ruined it. I’m keeping my eye out for one but haven’t gone out of my way to look for a new one.
I have 5 wide-brimmed hats for sun protection (I don’t have a lot of hair and I burn easily) - two leather Australian-style (no corks), two made from canvas that have a pocket inside containing a mosquito net that covers the hat and head, and a very untidy, floppy and beaten one made from straw or rushes.
I have trouble finding hats on general sale that fit my bulbous head (without visiting an expensive hat shop that is), so when I find one that fits me, and I like, I generally buy two.
I have a few wooly hats for the winter too - these are easier to get in my size as they usually have a bit of stretch in them.
I’m known for my hats as I try and wear a different one every day.
I have 6 fedoras, 4 bowlers, a couple of top hats including a 1910 collapsing opera hat, a couple of panamas, a Russian rabbit skin hat with the ear flaps, a chauffeurs cap and numerous other oddities.
For work I normally alternate between a bowler and a fedora unless it’s sunny enough for a panama.
3 cowboy hats, one is dress felt, one is straw for work and one belonged to a rancher friend that passed.
One wide brim for the yard and vacation.
Probably 70 ball caps that are the culled cream of easily 300 or so I collected and gave away over the years. I kept the very best ones and continually wear them for most every activity except the corporate workplace.
Gray Akubra Federation fedora, coffee-brown Herbert Johnson Poet fedora (both wide, dimensional brim). Black Akubra fed with a narrower dress brim. Cheapish Panama for everyday summer wear, and a hand-blocked Fino (350-400 weave) for summer dress wear. Jacaru kangaroo driver’s cap for winter everyday and summer driving. A couple of signed Giants caps.
For use, a few: ball caps, knitted watch caps, a balaclava.
For fun, a couple: a Kangol crushable porkpie and a black fabric flatcap, worn backwards in approved guitar-player form
I tried SO many freakin’ hats up to these - there’s a fine line between pulling off a hat and looking like an idiot. I don’t have an easy Hat Face but I do have a deep desire to find a Hat That Works*, so I was on the wrong side of that line for years. These two work.
*not sure why; I guess someone who looks at home in the hat they are wearing has an easy confidence about them.
There’s a narrow brimmed fedora, a straw fedora, a normal wool fedora with feather, and my rather expensive Borsalino “traveler” fedora. In addition, I’ve got my Brooklyn Cyclones, Cincinnati Reds, and Columbus Clipper’s baseball caps.
Quite a few baseball caps. Since I shave my head I always keep one handy for Going About In The Daylight. Then there are several cowboy hats of varying design and material, a couple of different Faire hats for different costumes, my backpacking fedora, a lightweight Tilley for camping, the ritual sombrero, and an F-104 flight helmet.
A top hat I bought on my honeymoon, an “Indiana Jones” type hat I’ve had nearly forever, a bright orange felt Halloween hat, a Cat-in-the-Hat type hat, a nice pirate captain hat, a green felt St. Patrick’s day hat, a striped red-white-and-blue hat, 4 or 5 baseball caps, a horned helmet, a purple wizard’s hat with stars, a Disney Sorcerer’s Apprentice hat (it lights up, my daughter brought it back for me from Disneyworld), and probably another dozen or so.
I have one medium brown cowboy hat, made of felt. In the past, I’ve had a variety of straw hats, but they just don’t work, and I don’t like the way they smell.
I have attached a feather band and a feather medallion to this hat, and also an old Avon owl brooch that used to contain perfume. This hat gets many compliments, but I’m going to buy a new one this year, as the cats have loved on it a bit too aggressively.
I love hats! Maybe 4 fedoras, 2 cowboy - straw and felt, 3 or 4 driving caps, a big sheared beaver Ushanka, assorted wool knit caps for winter and holding up liquor stores, boonies for fishing and hiking and at least 100 ball caps.
The kids gave me a nice Orvis ball cap with LEDs in the brim. I love it, but sweated it up so bad it’s gross. Can’t figure out how to clean it.
I agree with not really owning hats, especially baseball caps. They’re going out the window one day. Driving in the country and a nice CATor John Deere in the road? That’s a New Hat!
