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At what weather temp is it time to put fur felt to sleep for the summer?

LuvMyMan

I’ll Lock Up.
Messages
4,558
Location
Michigan
I would tend to think any well made fedora can handle some heat in warm or hot weather. I own a few vintage fedora hats, I will wear no matter what the temp is outside. My Husband owns both felt and straw, seems to like wearing straw more when it is really hot out. But that is mostly when temps are above 80 degrees.
 

fedoracentric

Banned
Messages
1,362
Location
Streamwood, IL
Year round for felts for me. Though I choose carefully and try to be mindful of how long I'm going to be out and what activity I'll be undertaking. Then I choose which hat accordingly.
 

Missouri Mason

Familiar Face
Messages
59
Location
Missouri
I'm willing to wear felt, no matter what the temperature. Having said that, what hat I choose is dictated by my activity. If I'm doing something that requires an exceptionally tough hat, I wear an Akubra. If I don't need a "nice" hat and it's very hot and/or humid, I'll wear a Tilley. Smoking hot and time for a nice lid? I wear a panama (unless it's raining.) For general wear regardless of temp, I prefer fur felt. I do stick to lighter colors in hot weather, and save the vintage velour Borsalino for winter.
 

Crazy Dave

Familiar Face
Messages
87
Location
Belgium
Felt year round for me. I bought a Stetson Toyo a while back, thinking it would be better suited for warm weather. It is not. And it is not as good for sun protection either. Just bought a white felt hat to replace it.
 

Brian Niebuhr

One of the Regulars
Messages
150
Location
Iowa
Felt all year for me too but I can see where straw would be a comfy choice when it's warm but not too hot out. Felt might seem a little warm just because the rest of the body is fairly comfy. When it's hot and humid, sweat is going to be dripping down my face even without a hat so it really wouldn't matter once it gets above 85 and humid. To keep things simple I just throw on my Akubra and head out the door.
 

viclip

Practically Family
Messages
571
Location
Canada
And let's not forget about skin cancer concerns, in as much as heat & sunshine generally go hand in hand. The recommendation for protection against exposure is a minimum brim width of 3 inches or 7.5 cm.

Certainly a fur felt hat will block the sunlight, I'm not sure about the effectiveness of straw hats in that regard.

Anyways I wear fur felt in the hottest weather, which can exceed 100 degrees F. in my neck of the woods. My biggest concern is to keep direct sunlight off of my noggin in order to avoid sunstroke; it would be nice to avoid contracting skin cancer too, although I must admit that relatively few of my hats boast 3" or better brims.
 

suitedcboy

One Too Many
Messages
1,348
Location
Fort Worth Texas or thereabouts
I wear fur felt year round. And I do not live in the coolest of areas. And I'm pretty much an outdoorsy kinda guy.

Same with me. I have 2 straw westerns I wear to mow the grass sometimes and 2 doz or a few more felt fedoras and 40 felt westerns.
I can't keep a straw hat on when working horses to save my life. All that flopping and size change when sweated in just doesn't work for me.
My head sweats little more in felt than it does in straw.
 

Joao Encarnado

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,776
Location
Portugal
The recommendation for protection against exposure is a minimum brim width of 3 inches or 7.5 cm.
My small brim hat is a 3" and I don't wear it. Some 3 1/2" but I wear much more my 4" or 5" brimmed hats :)
I only use my straw hat when I go to the beach. No one would steal a straw hat (don't know about my beaver hats... but I will not take the risk).
 

barrowjh

One Too Many
Messages
1,398
Location
Maryville Tennessee
I switched to Panamas this month and will wear them through August - September, maybe. However, during this time I keep a thin-ribbon at the ready since the Panamas do not like rain, and I end up wearing a Resistol San Ant., OR, or Borsalino thin-ribbon quite often. I do not like to wear the wider-brim westerns during the summer because the extra brim adds weight, and the full-weight thick western felt is heavy.
 

The Fedorable

One of the Regulars
Messages
220
Location
Califonria
I would wear my hat any time of the year. I've worn a wool felt in the humid weather in Guam and I've only had my first fur felt hat for maybe a month now and it hasn't been that hot here in Central Coast California. Maybe 80 at the highest, but the days have been breezy as of late. Heck, I'd wear my FedIV in the dry Las Vegas weather if I ever go.
 
Messages
12,017
Location
East of Los Angeles
...I do stick to lighter colors in hot weather...
And let's not forget about skin cancer concerns, in as much as heat & sunshine generally go hand in hand. The recommendation for protection against exposure is a minimum brim width of 3 inches or 7.5 cm...
These are the reasons I chose a Silverbelly Akubra Campdraft as my "sun" hat--the lighter color doesn't get quite as warm, and the 2.88"/73mm brim offers decent protection without being overly wide. I've never been a "sun worshipper", but I had to have a small amount of basal cell carcinoma carved off of my nose in January of 2013 so I figured it was time to be more proactive.
 

bombin

Familiar Face
Messages
54
Location
Salt Lake City
Those who are year-round felt hat wearers (in warmer climes), what sort of felt hat are you wearing? (Not bowlers, for instance, I assume).

I picked up a Barmah squashy roo as my "summer hat". It's still a bit hot, but I sweat at the least provocation, hat or no.
 

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