I’m female, but wear a man’s hat. Not being hampered by the pins and complicated attachments of ladies’ headgear that caused the exception about ladies’ removal of hats indoors, I feel compelled to follow general hat rules. I reflexively take it off any time I’m indoors, but I see on websites such as the above link that there are accepted places to keep your lid on–such as train stations and bars. Also, I notice that I’m more or less always the only one who removes my hat, and will see people around me wearing ballcaps and such with rampant impunity.
What say you, hatted-ones? What are the modern rules of mannerly hatting?
I hang it on a hat rack or hold it in my off hand. If I’m sitting, I set it on the crown on the seat next to me, or on my knee under the table if there’s no other place for it.
Hat rules for women: If it’s not a sports-type cap, you can keep your hat on indoors in most situations. You should not wear a hat at home or to a job interview. If you wear a hat to your office you should probably remove it once you get there (this would probably fall under the rule of the home, since your office is your home away from home). You should probably not wear a hat when going to get your driver’s license picture.
Another reason ladies are exempt from the rules is the possibility that the hat might wreck their hair style, and they would not want to expose the deficiencies of their coif. (At home and at work the woman can theoretically go to the powder roome and do some reparative work.)
If it’s a baseball cap (golf cap, whatever) or a man’s hat (including a cowboy hat) I would suggest applying the men’s rules, but if it’s a feminine hat, apply the feminine rules.
(I used to barrel race; in at least one venue, and possibly more, you got 5 seconds added to your time if your hat came off. I don’t believe they ever did that do the male bronc riders.)
Baseball caps don’t register on my “hat radar” for some reason, unless the National Anthem is being sung, but if I see a guy in a cowboy hat, I find it annoying if he wears it indoors.
But since I find guys in cowboy hats annoying and pretentious anyway, this is totally a personal reaction, not necessarily a rule of etiquette.
Along the same lines, I think women can keep their hats on at all times; traditionally they were not required to remove them (and even encouraged to wear them to church and formal occasions) so I think the rule still sticks.
I wear one of my hats nearly everywhere; taking it off is the exception. Pretty much just formal events, job (maybe), National Anthem, my stepmom’s place. Not having anywhere to put it is one problem; another is that I have really long bangs (I’m one of those guys who digs having long hair) and the hat keeps them out of my eyes & mouth. Any social upbraiding would be strange, almost unknown.
I take my Akubra off to drive and when I’m inside people’s houses, having a meal, or doing something like asking the bank to lend me money. I don’t usually bother taking it off if I’m wandering around a shopping centre or something like that, though.
Personally, I’d say that if you’re wearing a man’s hat style (baseball, cowboy, etc) you should follow a man’s hat rules. There are specific reason for ladies’ hat rules, namely that they’re part of your hairstyle; a baseball or cowboy hat is not.
Sure, and being pinned in place and difficult to remove adds to the exemption. This is why I tend to remove it indoors, though I’m female–because I can.
Are men’s hat rules still in place? The Them doesn’t remove his at all. Is this now standard, or still considered sloppy manners?
Sounds about right:
Do you mean that people *telling *you to take off your hat would be strange and unknown? I wouldn’t ever presume to correct anyone’s manners in any situation.
I was surprised to see that rule about taking off a hat in an elevator “unless a lady is present.” I thought the rule was universal, and it was in case a lady came in!
I know a few cowboys and horsemen. I’m told that cowboys keep their hats on, even when eating, for a couple of reasons. One is that hardly anyplace has proper hat hooks or shelves for big hats. The other is that a good cowboy hat costs a couple hundred dollars or more. A cowboy doesn’t want to let it out of his sight, especially in a saloon full of lowlife hornswogglers and shifty varmints.
When I was just out of high school, I asked my dad how to get a loan. He told me to go to a my bank’s loan officer, “hat in hand,” which means humbly.
Believe it or not, some women go all aflutter when a man tips his hat to them. It’s rarely seen these days, and they’ll jump to the conclusion that an old galoot such as me is a gentleman.
They sure are in my mama’s house. If you try to wear a hat to her dinner table she’ll ask you, “Are you Jewish?” You say no, and she says “Oh - is your birthday? I didn’t know!” because those are the only two times she wants to see you in a hat at the dinner table. Of course this only goes for family and kids and such - she’d never say anything to an adult guest. But she’d want to.
My dad grew up in farm and ranch country, in an era when our state still had more horses than automobiles. The rule he taught me was “A gentleman always removes his hat indoors, or in the presence of a lady.”
That nonsense about keeping your hat on is a Baby Boomer’s act of rebellion, and is emphatically NOT part of the traditional etiquette.
I wouldn’t call myself hiply lidded as you put it, but I frequently wear hats: knit hat, ball cap or my old fedora (dang, I just realized I’ve had that thing for 35 years now). As you mentioned, when you go to the store you might be the only person who’s taken off their hat, but I don’t worry about that. As Mom used to say, I wasn’t raised in a barn: take off your hat inside or in the company of a lady. If you’re outside and it’s cold, you can put it back on after you greet her. As for where to put your hat when you’ve removed it, sometimes you just have to hold it.
I love my fedora. When I wear it I’ve noticed that strangers I meet on the street are more likely to speak to me. (Tell me they like it, ask directions, etc.)
Having been raised in the 50s, I know I don’t necessarily have to remove my ‘brim’ when I meet a lady; rather one can just put ones fingers to the brim and grin like Gene Autry
I never take my hat off because if I do, my pet monkey will escape.
