h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have been concerned for some little time that people do not wear enough hats and that whilst wearing them they get them wrong. Can you help? Ho, that seems simple I hear or surmise that you say. However, there is a convention that requires that the hat fits the job. Floral hat - summer lease ; Netted dodarh - racing day and subtle punt ; Bowler ;off to the bank...... well you get the drift that certain head-wear is appropriate for each occasion. The modern trend of unadorned, nee naked noodle leaves me ,for one , cold. A sympathetic waver may be made made for woolen beanie, balaclava, knitted ear socks and such without name, but my point is that not only do people not wear hats approprius such as the confronting green derby on Pat's day or the knotted hand kerchief which fails to match the ankle socks and sandals of the seaside but the hat worn often fails to function as protection. Too often has it come to my attention the hat is worn at an angel. How does one approach another and politely inform them, " Your hat infuriates!"
Seeking solace, Steven.

So sad to hear (or rather read) about your hat wearing out. It's such a shame when one's headgear reaches the point of uselessness. Though I do think hats can also be discarded before their time. I once burnt the edge of my trilby (short and uninteresting story) and there were voices calling on me to chuck it at that time, but I felt it added character and gave the hat some personality.

Subsequently my wife forbad me to wear it, and I fought long and hard to persuade her of the virtue of some headgear. She eventually relented and allowed me a beenie. It's not the endgame, though. It's a foothold. The fight continues.


Geggs

I think hats are a statement, or a really good way to hide a bad hair day.

Either way it says something about your personality. I love Terry Pratchetts hat, although not everybody can get away with that, I know, I tried...

Hats do not suit me, my ears stick out and my hair looks worse after, even on a bad hair day. They make my head sweat and are uncomfortable. I will be happy to try a hat that might not do these things as I think a hat would be nice. I tried a woollen hat with tabs that cover the ears, but it was a bit too "out there" for me and I felt self concious. I need subtle and forgiving.

Any ideas?

Grow your hair and get yourself a Hippy Hat

I love hats, and, luckily, hats love me. Unfortunately it's hard to get away with wearing them in all but the most formal situations. I just wear my Tilley hat at all available apportunities instead.

After a long time of thinking hats didn't suit me, I tried on a rather nice 'cowboy hat' (and I use the term loosely... it's a cheap pre-formed thing) that a friend bought for me. It's covered with a flame pattern... And that was it, I loved it. The following year I bought a black hat, same style, with a wire rim and an elasticated inner that keeps it on even with a good breeze. Interestingly it's made from woven paper!

Anyway, I enjoyed that but it got crushed last winter and without steaming it or something I dont think I'll get it's shape back.

last month I bought this year's hat. It's brown (natural) woven grass type design, same style again (hey, if it works...)with plenty of air gaps but has a string of square turquoise beads around it. I'm thinking of getting a brown and turquoise belt to wear with it as most of my clothes are black. Accessories make an outfit!

Lastly, I have a sort of hat/visor that's blue knitted ribbed (with silver thread knitted through) and open-topped. I fold the top down and wear it with my hair up through it... And it's kinda cute. I wasn't sure at first but I quite like it now.

I wear hats for two reasons:

1. I'm slightly bald. Sunshine burns the top of my head.
2. I'm short-sighted, and a peak keeps the rain of my glasses. For heavy downpours, you might want an umbrella, but the lightest rain speckles the specs and it's very annoying.

I like hats on women. There's a theory that they died out because of the war - people economising, making do and mending. Before the war, or so I'm told, women wore hats whenever they went out.

My Grandma (died 1978 aged 96) wouldn't go out without a hat. My Mum's generation seems to have largely abandoned them although I've seen many men & women of that era wearing hats regularly. They usually fit the occasion & outfit.

I haven't found a style of hat to suit me yet. Sticking out ears & short hair doesn't make it any easier. A hood has to suffice in cold weather & a floppy papery one is tolerable as a sunshade in Summer. A hat so completes an outfit, I wish I could wear them.

Hats can be more an expression of personality these days. For weddings etc those silly little 'fascinators' seem popular.

My mother kept threatening me that if I got married she would buy a mother of the bride hat, you know the ones, garish, huge, takes over the entire photo... shudder... So I said Id never get married! She was kidding, I wasn't.

Living, as I do, deep in the US of A, I am surrounded by men in cheap peaked baseball caps bearing advertising slogans. Next up is the beanie, worn by the less commercial minded sort, then the rag worn by bikers and urban gang types. It seems to me that the only reason for a hat is to kill off the follicles in the scalp so that the ageing process shows, and the drug companies can continue to earn income from the sale of anti-balding treatments. I own and wear a Stetson brand wide brim bush hat, in nice black felt, that I wear as a statement sometimes.

I think hats and gloves were something that one wasn't seen outdoors without or one was seen as lacking either money or class/decorum.

Nowadays it tends to be more of a choice *to* wear one. If you can find one that suits you!!

There's just something sooooo h2g2 about the fact that this is posted in the middle of the QI forum and nobody even bats an eyelid.

But this is soooo Qi at its best keep it up

Where's Taff? See if he can find the klaxons in this one.

I was saying folk should wear more hats at the Hootoo meet on Saturday. I was the only person to come wearing a hat, iirc, a top hat with a purple ribbon about it, to mark my support for electoral reform.
Just because one is protesting the establishment is no excuse for not wearing a decent hat.
Still most left with a hat, courtesy of the Italics.

Hats, I like em'. 2 baseball caps one camo, one fluro-orange. 3 beanies. One straw summer hat a bit like you would see a Mexican peasant farmer wear in a spaggeti western and an old felt jobbie with a feather in it.

Hats?
I own two Lancashire 'nebbers' and two baseball caps......

Never wear all at the same time though!!!!



GT

I have one or 2 as well.

don't like baseball caps, but have one at work, that i wear at a jaunty upward angle

i wear a black leather cowboy hat for the same reason as Catach does

keep the sun of my pate and the rain off my spex

when exatly did the decline of the hat kick in

as a kid i remember my grandad allways wore a hat, my father never did??

Me? I don't really like hats. The naval jobbies, with the brim on top were not good & the peaked ones too - too much to take care of.
Nowadays they're a necessity (skin cancer susceptibility) & a Bnuisance - I keep having to go back for 'em (I tend to limit my visits to only a dozen or so coffee shops in my town - they've got to know me).

I have several hats, all with brims: floppy blue ones for the garden & about the houses, floppy blue ones for about town, floppy blue ones for protest shopping with Ms Stress and floppy blue ones for special trips out. They wash well.
I also have a few rather nice Oz & NZ types (4 inch brims are recommended) which Ms Stress grabs on the way out.

There was one project (Clyde shipyard in winter - gawd it was cold) where I was the (nominal - and struggling) team leader.
On the last day of one phase (job done) & before everyone but me went home back down South or to USA or Canadia, they held a 'Hat of the Project' competition, without my knowledge.
I was simultaneously awarded 1) the prize and 2) a lifetime ban from ever participating again. There was, they said, no contest.
I think it was something to do with the peak, the earflaps and the determinedly vacant expression. The nose, too, was a factor.