# Wearing a hat indoors **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 2, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659 "2009-09-02T18:20:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659/21 "2009-09-03T00:12:16Z")
Bum Phillips (father of current Dallas Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips), during his own NFL coaching career, famously [refused to wear](http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/image/1976/09/26/001094826.jpg) his [trademark cowboy hat](http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/image/1984/10/10/001310639.jpg) when coaching games in a domed stadium - citing the “you don’t wear a hat indoors” tradition. I seem to remember it being claimed that his mother scolded him for wearing his hat in domes early in his career, shaming him into stopping - but I can’t find any references to that. Since the bulk of his NFL time was spent with the Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints, both of whom played their home games in domes, he appeared hatless quite often. ---
**Author:** ![statsman1982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@statsman1982](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statsman1982)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659/22 "2009-09-03T01:17:49Z")
I’ve lived most of my life in southeastern New Mexico and West Texas. It is very common to see cowboy hats and ball caps worn indoors. I have never heard anyone tell someone else to take off a hat when indoors. Ditto for other fashion rules (white after Labor Day, etc.) I **do** require my students to dress up before they give in-class presentations. I don’t require suit and tie, though. Just slacks and a collared shirt for men, and a pantsuit or dress for women. I teach in a business college, and for better or worse, a professional appearance is still important to obtaining and keeping a job (in some sectors). Thus, I try to get the students used to dressing in something other than soccer shorts, flip-flops, and t-shirts. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659/23 "2009-09-03T03:50:57Z")
If you wore it to my mother’s dinner table and you were not a guest (i.e., if you were a familiar) she would say, “Are you Jewish?” and you would say, “Um… no?” and she would say “Is it your birthday?” and you would think about it and allow that it was not your birthday, and she would glare at you and you would take your damned hat off and show some respect to my mother’s table. I mean, would you sit down at my mother’s table with no pants? That’s just as arbitrary. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659/24 "2009-09-03T18:28:56Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > We have a culture. Fashion is part of a culture, and humans find it fun to think up rules. Yep. Very true. > [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Women don’t ever have to remove them (because to do so might expose a flat, unattractive hairstyle).. And, of course, men never suffer from hat hair. :rolleyes: > [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > And you never wear a hat in your own house. In my own house, I wear what I please, when I please–that goes for hats, pants, fuzzy bunny slippers, or whatever. But, for the record, I don’t wear my hat in my house, because it has a hatrack right by the door, so there’s a place to put my hat when I take it off. > [@Zsofia](#): > > …she would glare at you and you would take your damned hat off and show some respect to my mother’s table. Were I a dinner guest in your mother’s house, I would act like a proper guest. If she didn’t want me to wear a hat, or wanted me to take my shoes off on her carpet, I would do so. I understand that it’s a condition of being invited to her home, and it’s simple courtesy to live by the host’s rules, whether you find them arbitrary or not. But I don’t feel the same about a bar or restaurant where I’m paying them money to be in their establishment. If there’s no dress code posted at the door, I assume I’m allowed to come in wearing my street clothes. > [@TV\_time](#): > > OK, I’m probably going to screw this up, but let me take a shot at this…You see, out here, the “cowboy” hat is more than just a hat to us. > > (snip) > > And you not being from around there, you didn’t. And I’m betting the fellow who confronted you resented you having a such a hat and not understanding that. You’re quite full of assumptions. I understand the culture of the hat. I grew up wearing a Stetson. I used to have a ranch. I’ve competed in team penning and rodeo, and raised cattle. My Stetson has been stepped on by darned near anything in hooves, and worn fixing fences in rain, snow, sleet, and hail. It’s been nibbled on by goats. It’s a real cowboy hat. (NOTE: The one I was wearing that night is my “good” hat. It’s not sweat-stained and nasty like my working hat, which I would have removed because it’s scuzzy-looking) You’re absolutely right about messing with a man’s hat to start a fight. They mean something, and they’re expensive (I don’t know where you found a $40 felt cowboy hat, but I haven’t seen a decent one that cheap in decades). I’m not going to set my good hat in a puddle of beer on the bar. I’m not going to put it on the floor to get stepped on. I was going to summarize by saying I don’t understand why someone would rather look at my hat hair than my hat, but it goes deeper than that. I don’t understand why someone would get belligerent over what someone else is wearing (unless it’s some offensive slogan on a t-shirt, but that’s not really about the clothing). Why does anyone CARE what shoes or hat or belt or whatever I’m wearing, and why should that affect my behavior? ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659/25 "2009-09-03T19:55:51Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > There are specific Army and Navy regulations (which are different from each other) regarding when and under what circumstances a sderviceman uncovers “indoors”. And they’re different in the US than in Canada. Some of my colleagues (Canadian Forces) who’ve been posted to the US have commented on the difference. In Canada, a member often keeps his headdress on when walking around inside military buildings; in the US it comes off at the door. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659/26 "2009-09-05T14:13:17Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > You’re quite full of assumptions. I understand the culture of the hat. I grew up wearing a Stetson. I used to have a ranch. I’ve competed in team penning and rodeo, and raised cattle. My Stetson has been stepped on by darned near anything in hooves, and worn fixing fences in rain, snow, sleet, and hail. It’s been nibbled on by goats. It’s a real cowboy hat. What assumption? You, in your first post, assumed that the cowboy hat and the baseball cap should be treated the same way, getting all offended that you were supposed to take your hat off, while others continued to wear baseball caps. Unless you respect baseball caps as much as your “real” cowboy hat, there was no assumption to be made. Apparently, in that part of the country, it is considered a sign of disrespect to not take off your hat. It’s no more inane than the hat culture you have. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659/27 "2009-09-05T16:29:18Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > What assumption? The assumption that I’m not from this part of the country. > [@BigT](#): > > Unless you respect baseball caps as much as your “real” cowboy hat, there was no assumption to be made. This is the first time I’ve ever heard the assertion that taking your hat off indoors was to show respect _to the hat_. That’s an interesting take on things. > [@BigT](#): > > Apparently, in that part of the country, it is considered a sign of disrespect to not take off your hat. It’s no more inane than the hat culture you have. I don’t have a “hat culture” per se. I have a “fashion culture,” I suppose, that consists mostly of live and let live. You want to wear something on your head (or hands, or feet, or whatever)? As long as it isn’t damaging something or making a mess (e.g., muddy boots), I’m not going to ask you to take it off. And in a _bar_? I simply do not understand why people would care whether someone else wears a hat in a bar. I really don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659/28 "2009-09-05T20:28:38Z")
I always get a kick out of Frank Sinatra’s rules of style, from [http://www.sinatra.com/style/rules-of-sinatra-style:](http://www.sinatra.com/style/rules-of-sinatra-style:) • Never wear brown at night. Never. • There’s no excuse for brown shoes past sundown… Or white shoes. Or anything gray, unless it’s deep charcoal. Or blue, unless it’s midnight blue. In fact, let’s keep it simple: after dark, men should wear black. • Ties should be silk. And conservative. • Cuff links always. But leave the fancy jewelry to Sammy. • When dressing formally, a vest is better than a cummerbund. • Don’t wear a tuxedo on Sunday. • Orange is the happiest color. • Shine your shoes. • Take your hand off the suit, creep. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659/29 "2009-09-05T20:31:54Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > I have noticed that here in the Midwest, many people seem to exempt ball caps from the “no hats” rule… That’s probably because a baseball cap isn’t a hat, it’s a novelty item. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659/30 "2009-09-05T20:42:19Z")
I think people do not associate baseball caps with hats, though by and by the baseball type cap has replaced the derby hat as outerwear. I went to visit St Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan and I was asked to take off my hat and it threw me for a moment, as I didn’t get what they meant. Then I realized I had on my baseball cap. I didn’t associate a baseball cap with a hat. So I took it off, no big deal ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659/31 "2009-09-05T20:56:54Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > I always get a kick out of Frank Sinatra’s rules of style, from [http://www.sinatra.com/style/rules-of-sinatra-style:](http://www.sinatra.com/style/rules-of-sinatra-style:) > > • Never wear brown at night. Never. > • There’s no excuse for brown shoes past sundown… Or white shoes. Or anything gray, unless it’s deep charcoal. Or blue, unless it’s midnight blue. In fact, let’s keep it simple: after dark, men should wear black. > • Ties should be silk. And conservative. > • Cuff links always. But leave the fancy jewelry to Sammy. > • When dressing formally, a vest is better than a cummerbund. > • Don’t wear a tuxedo on Sunday. > • Orange is the happiest color. > • Shine your shoes. > • Take your hand off the suit, creep. You could do a lot worse than to follow those, I must say. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659/32 "2009-09-05T20:57:07Z")
I’ll never forget my first day of college, in an 8 a.m. economics class in 1981. A guy slumps in, probably a junior or senior, one who you just knew had been around a while. He lets his book bag fall to the floor and slides into a desk, bleary-eyed and waiting for the class to begin. The guy has obviously just gotten out of bed, and is wearing a baseball cap to hide his unruly hair. A middle-aged, nattily dressed professor strolls in, places his briefcase on the desk, and immediately asks our hero to remove his cap. The guy reaches down and picks up his book bag, s-lo-w-l-y pulls himself to his feet, and slumps out of the classroom without so much as a word or glance in the professor’s direction. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-hat-indoors/508659.md?page=1)