Felt hats in summer..

[John in Covina]

Simply amazing!

 

[Inusuit]

Depends what I'm doing...

It's dry heat in Wyoming, so I wear felts all year around to work, to town, out to dinner, fishing mountain trout streams. The only straw hat I own is a 3.5 brim Sunbody. I wear it if I'm working hard and long enough to raise a prolonged sweat, or using the tractor in hot and dirty conditions.

 

[Edward]

It has now hit that time of year here in London when I can only rarely (usually on wet days) wear most of my fur felts. Predominantly, I am in cotton caps and straws at present. The one fur I can wear and have worn in extremes of temperature is my safariised Akubra Riverina. I keep the lining in it (I know some remove), but the big difference is made by the eyelets allowing much of the heat to escape. It's no match for a panama on the hottest of days, but that said, a much better all-rounder, as it can cope with rain. I wore it in the extremes of heat in Bangalore last month (up to 38C in the afternoon there), actually in preference to a panama I also took with me. I've also worn it on several trips to China. In 2008, I toured the Eastern side of China for the guts of three weeks extremes of heat in Beijing, Xi'An, Guilin... and the most severe rain in 125 years in Hong Kong. The Akubra was superb in all. I do find I sweat much more, or, more accurately, I am much more aware of sweating, out the top of my head than was the case before I started to shave my head. This does make me wish that Akubra, and others, would favour black or dark linings in place of white, which can get nasty sweat stains on it. The white lining in my Riverina has interesting reddy-brown tide marks where, when new, I sweated dye out of the hat band into the lining.... still, it's not visible when worn, and it does protect the felt itself from such stains...

Love to find a nice vintage pith helmet some
day and try that out. Comments on pith helmets
in the heat?

I have a fondness for the American style pith helmet which stems from Hunter S Thompson.... the illustrations in Fear and loathing in Las Vegas always looked to me more like a pith helmet than the cloth-type I later realised it actually was (as per Johnny Depp in the film). They strike me as marvellously practical; for hiking / camping in hot weather, I'd be keen on one, though they're perhaps a bit "costumey" for wearing about town. That said, most folks probably view even the most simple of panamas as costumey, so.... [huh]

 

[BanjoMerlin]

My typical summer hats are lightweight, light colored fur felt. Open-weave straws don't give me the UV protection I need and the tight-weave Panamas don't breathe all that well.

There's also that cooling trick of dipping your hat in water and wearing it while it dries that just doesn't work out well with straw.

If it is sunny but not too hot I'll grab a Panama.

 

[John in Covina]

I tend to wear furfelt fedoras mostly but switch to my panama for a casual look.

I mentioned this elsewhere but Cowboys "On the Range" tended to stick with furfelt year-round.

The things is for me to remember if my head is getting too hot under the hat take it off, wipe with hankie, allow to breathe / evaporate and replace when a bit cooler.

If you look at old pictures 1930's and 40's you will see that the number of straw hats increases in the summer months but furfelt fedoras and cloth caps don't vannish from the scene.

Also for me getting a few hot and sweaty days in a new fedora goes along way towards breaking it in. I use hats cause I am a pale white guy and need to keep from getting sunburned constantly - that leads to skin cancer and such. Want to avoid!

 

[fenris]

Here in the Philippines we only have two kinds of weather... HOT or HOT & RAINY.

I still wear fur felt despite the weather. I take it off when I'm too hot and use the hat as a fan - hehehe.

There are tons of straw hats here (ranging from dirt cheap to $100 panama hats), but none I've found suits me. I guess I'm just too used to seeing the Indy-styled hat on my head that I feel that tapered crowns look weird on me.

 

[Edward]

I use hats cause I am a pale white guy and need to keep from getting sunburned constantly - that leads to skin cancer and such. Want to avoid!

I hear ya. Taken me ten years in the hot climes of London to go white (being a Celt, I'm naturally a pale blue)... I'm sure it's no coincidence that, while I have worn various hats to keep in the heat in the Winter and the Sun off in the Summer over the past fifteen years or so, my interest in hats really took off when I started shaving my head in mid 2006....

 

[tnitz]

Felt in Sun

I, (like many of the cowboys around here - I'm not one) wear a silverbelly hat in the summer - it keeps the intense sun off your head and out of your eyes.

Most summers I have worn a straw hat while working down at the rodeo grounds, weedeating. It's an old beater and the only hat I've grown attached to, especially after it spent a winter in a snowbank. Anyway, I used to like it best because I could soak it and wear it which kept it cooler.

However, I recently refurbished my old Akubra Military slouch since I never wore it. I've been wearing it since and find that it's actually cooler than the straw (when wet, straw does swell and close up). I do have sweat on the top of my head, but as already mentioned, it helps to cool it down. I don't generally like the grommets, but it's true that they and the missing liner help alot. Also, the slouch is what I would call a darker color and I haven't found that really changes much.

In other words, my recent experience suggests to me that a felt can be just as cool as straw, maybe even cooler. Also, while I once did wear good light panamas working, they were never really durable enough for that and a more durable straw is typically also hotter. And they aren't very cheap these days.

But, just remember, that combination of sun's heat and sweat are going to affect the felt. I would also recommend a high crown, myself, to provide breathing room up there.

 

[Unca Dusty]

Actually, it depends on the felt.
I have a vintage Stetson panama with a
tight weave and no liner that can be almost
as hot as some of my felts. I have felts,
like Resistol, Mallory, and Stetson Open Road
type hats that ride significantly higher over the
ears than your average fedora, and as a result
stay cooler. They are lighter colored, too.
Forget about my dark brown Cavanagh
fedoras on hot days.

But when it gets really hot, nothing beats a
panama with an "open weave" that allows
air to pass through.

Love to find a nice vintage pith helmet some
day and try that out. Comments on pith helmets
in the heat?

Pith helmets (the classic cork and canvas) are ridiculous tropical head wear. No ventilation and no opportunity to wick away perspiration. I tried out a surplus U.S. Marine pith (WWII vintage, I think) in the desert of Southern New Mexico. Man, it was dry heat but my head under the helmet was still drenched (most of the piths I have seen have support structures around the sweat band so there is room between your head and the helmet--but the helmet is shaped in such a way that there is no circulation in this space). I can't imagine how hellish it would be in humid conditions. And they are very heavy for a warm weather cover.
I agree with you about felts and straws. My "breeziest" hat has such a loose weave that I don't think it is really protecting my melon from solar radiation--it's like a bunch of holes sewn together with straw...

The answer is: get a hat for every conceivable situation!

 

[danofarlington]

Pith helmets (the classic cork and canvas) are ridiculous tropical head wear. No ventilation and no opportunity to wick away perspiration. I tried out a surplus U.S. Marine pith (WWII vintage, I think) in the desert of Southern New Mexico. Man, it was dry heat but my head under the helmet was still drenched (most of the piths I have seen have support structures around the sweat band so there is room between your head and the helmet--but the helmet is shaped in such a way that there is no circulation in this space). I can't imagine how hellish it would be in humid conditions. And they are very heavy for a warm weather cover.
I agree with you about felts and straws. My "breeziest" hat has such a loose weave that I don't think it is really protecting my melon from solar radiation--it's like a bunch of holes sewn together with straw...

The answer is: get a hat for every conceivable situation!

I'm originally from the Minneapolis area, and have worn hats there visiting once or twice a year; but I was the only one as far as the eye could see. What is the hatwearing quotient in Minneapolis from your point of view? Here in Washington, I see few good hats (not that they aren't there but I just don't see it), but definitely more than in Minneapolis. When I was young in Minneapolis in the 1960s, apart from the long-hair and freak styles, there was a heavy intolerance of anything that deviated from bland casual clothes there. In other words you'd get mocked for wearing something out of the ordinary. By the way it was about the same in Denver where I lived for two years subsequently. I hope it's different now. I've been away for 30 years.

 

[Unca Dusty]

I'm originally from the Minneapolis area, and have worn hats there visiting once or twice a year; but I was the only one as far as the eye could see. What is the hatwearing quotient in Minneapolis from your point of view? Here in Washington, I see few good hats (not that they aren't there but I just don't see it), but definitely more than in Minneapolis. When I was young in Minneapolis in the 1960s, apart from the long-hair and freak styles, there was a heavy intolerance of anything that deviated from bland casual clothes there. In other words you'd get mocked for wearing something out of the ordinary. By the way it was about the same in Denver where I lived for two years subsequently. I hope it's different now. I've been away for 30 years.

It's probably still pretty thin--although it is not that different than other parts of the U.S. that I have visited. On the positive side I have seen many more hats in the past 10 years than I used to (again, that might also be a trend that mirrors the rest of the country--I don't really know. 20 years ago people in this area treated a person wearing a hat as an oddity and did that kind of passive/hostile thing where they either stared or politely looked away...now I get compliments on my hats more often than not. Walked passed a frat bar the other evening in my gray fedora and heard some intoxicated college kid yell "Nice lid, man!"-- that would not have happened two decades ago.

 

[danofarlington]

that would not have happened two decades ago.

It would not have.

 

[Neophyte]

After taking the liner out of my Akubra Fed IV, I can wear it in the summer, no problem.
I live in East Tennesse, and it reaches about 97 degrees most days. I'm not sure what it's like where you live, but I myself have not had a problem.

 

[David Conwill]

Well, ...Indiana Jones is a fictional character.

My first thought as well. That and “It’s because pith helmets remind him of Belloq”.

Seriously, though, I’ve seen numerous pictures of working-class folk (especially farmers) wearing felt hats in what appears to be summer weather. It makes me think straw hats are something of a luxury item, and not particularly durable for men of action and toil.

-Dave

 

[leo]

...wear a silverbelly hat in the summer - it keeps the intense sun off your head and out of your eyes.
...sweat on the top of my head, but as already mentioned, it helps to cool it down.
...my recent experience suggests to me that a felt can be just as cool as straw, maybe even cooler...

Exactly. There's a reason desert folks for centuries have kept their heads (and bodies) covered.

Too hot? Wear nothing but flip-flops and shorts in the sun for a few hours and see how cool you are. lol

 

[Blackthorn]

I wore a Stetson Temple to an outdoor funeral in a heat wave in Sacramento last year and was surprised how much cooler it was than no hat at all (I took it off during the prayer and couldn't believe how fierce the sun was). And the only comments I heard (7 or 8 of them) were that I was the only one there with the common sense to wear protection from the sun. I didn't own a panama hat at that time, but that might have been a better choice in hindsight.

 

[danofarlington]

I wore a Stetson Temple to an outdoor funeral in a heat wave in Sacramento last year and was surprised how much cooler it was than no hat at all (I took it off during the prayer and couldn't believe how fierce the sun was). And the only comments I heard (7 or 8 of them) were that I was the only one there with the common sense to wear protection from the sun. I didn't own a panama hat at that time, but that might have been a better choice in hindsight.

Maybe so weather-wise, but I think a felt is more fitting for a funeral. I view Panamas as kind of festive and carefree.

 

[Rick Blaine]

After taking the liner out of my Akubra Fed IV, I can wear it in the summer, no problem.
I live in East Tennesse, and it reaches about 97 degrees most days. I'm not sure what it's like where you live, but I myself have not had a problem.

Fellas...down here, it's not the heat, it's the stupidity, er, humidity, I mean.
Neo, I don't see how you can do it. After 70f I just cannot abide felt here in Knoxpatch, I do so wish I could.

Really I can see it could work out west in a drier heat, say 20 percent humidity, at least you would have evaporative cooling. Down here, nada. NO. SUCH. THING.

And fenris, I am in awe of you. I don't see how you could wear felt AT ALL, EVER in S. E. Asia, my gawd.

On the other hand, ol' Johnny C. I'll have you know the very first (of many) trips I have made to Calgary was on 3 June in '99... & IT WAS SNOWING! (and me w/ my Panama) >harumph<. Of course LAST time I visited, in Feb., it was -40... so,well, there you go.

Me, I have to have light straw or minimal cloth in these wet, still summers. To say nothing of a good handkerchief! Vents: mandatory!
I so look forward to October.

 

[fenris]

And fenris, I am in awe of you. I don't see how you could wear felt AT ALL, EVER in S. E. Asia, my gawd.

Well, I don't stay that long outdoors. I'm usually in an air-conditioned mall. If I have to stay outdoors for a long time, I at least find a shady spot so I can remove the hat and fan myself with it.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Here in Florida we get some of the longest, hottest and most humid summers anywhere. Still, I wear a hat every day. Sometimes felt, sometimes panama straw. Also, I am outside in it every day from around 2PM until 9:30PM or so which is the real peak heat period. The panamas are for clear sky days and the felts are for our afternoon thunderstorms. Both provide me with greater confidence in my 'look' as well as protection from the elements. In fact, I've been wearing brims so long (starting with westerns as a kid growing up around horses) that I would be decidedly UNcomfortable without one on.

I agree with the 'use a hanky to wipe your brow and give your head a breather now and then' camp. I've also learned that a simple pocket comb is a great tool for keeping cool. Dragging the large tooth portion through my mop sort of 'vents' my noggin down to the scalp. Very refreshing. After a minute, I put my hat back on and enjoy.

My only criteria for what hat NOT to wear in the summer is that there are several vintage felt fedoras with beautiful ribbons that I don't want to sully with sweat. But that leaves several hats that are used to it and don't get babied.