Reactions when you first start wearing brimmed hats.

[fmw]

Exactly, Josh. When you get to be an old codger like me you stop caring what people think of you or what you do or say. It's unusual in young people but admirable. I've never had a negative comment about my hats either. Not one ever. I lived in Chicago for about a decade some time ago and never had a negative comment even about my Western hats.

 

[dnjan]

Probably my biggest reaction was from my wife. I started wearing hats about when I turned 50, and she was hoping that my mid-life crisis would manifest itself with a sports car (which she would drive). All it ended up being was hats (which she wouldn't wear anyway).
I will agree with the number of previous posts saying that after a certain age one can get away with a lot as long as: 1) you don't smell, and 2) you don't have food residue showing.

 

[Historyteach24]

I agree with most everything said. I especially agree with the younger generation comment. I am 24 years old and people our age truly have no sense of what style is. It really disgusts me to be honest. So if I have to deal with snide remarks to look good so be it.

 

[Lando]

I started wearing a cowboy hat when I was in college. It's been more than 12 years of constant hat wearing now and some of my friends actually say they remember me wearing hats years before I started. It's become so ingrained in how I look to them that they just don't remember a time when I wasn't sporting some sort of brimmed hat.
When I first started wearing that cowboy hat in college, I got plenty of odd looks and comments, but I never let up. I enjoyed it, I was confident and I found the fun in wearing a hat. A hat changes the demeanor of a person and can quickly cut them out from a crowd. In a year or two people were use to me wearing cowboy hats and fedoras and I've been wearing them since. I think once you've been wearing hats for a good long while you get use to their presence on your head and that makes them seem more at home on your head. Your gestures and movements become more natural and soon people just get use to the way the hat has become part of your presence.

"I wear it and I don't care. That's why it's cool." - The Doctor

 

[danofarlington]

Probably my biggest reaction was from my wife. I started wearing hats about when I turned 50, and she was hoping that my mid-life crisis would manifest itself with a sports car (which she would drive). All it ended up being was hats (which she wouldn't wear anyway).

 

[1961MJS]

Probably my biggest reaction was from my wife. I started wearing hats about when I turned 50, and she was hoping that my mid-life crisis would manifest itself with a sports car (which she would drive). All it ended up being was hats (which she wouldn't wear anyway).
I will agree with the number of previous posts saying that after a certain age one can get away with a lot as long as: 1) you don't smell, and 2) you don't have food residue showing.

You Don, are suffering from Inappropriate Male Menopause. Congratulations.

Later

 

[NotsoGolden]

Hello all! First post here. I have to say that as for reactions, mine have been mostly favorable. There have been some less charitable comments from time to time, but that goes with the territory of not being part of masses. I've only just found and began wearing brimmed hats fairly recently, but I've been admiring them for years. I began wearing hats in elementary/high school, but baseball caps were the extent. I guess it was nearly a decade that I began wearing proper "caps." Newsies or cabbie driver, if you will. I have several of them, and they've been an almost daily wear. As I age, and I continue to wear a daily suit, however, I find that a more fitting and formal hat was required. So I picked up a trilby, and have gotten rave reviews from those that matter...and the masses...they don't matter.

 

[DanielJones]

Well said Josh!:eusa_clap
We as a species are still a very primitive one. We don't understand that which is different, and thus we fear it, and anything that we fear we hate. Then to make ourselves feel better we attack that different thing in one way or another.
Those of us that are better evolved or developed appreciate differences and things that look good. We aspire toward or gravitate to those things that we like.

My best friend and his wife, I love them dearly and they are family to me. But, their tastes in beer hasn't evolved beyond Bud Light. Their food is simple junk food. Clothes, well jeans, t-shirts and ball caps. Maybe a nice get up but it'll never involve a tie or really nice dress.
I recall when I was switching from western hats to fedoras and my best friends wife snidely, and in front of her friends, asked me what was up with the hats? And at first she had a good laugh. Then I turned the tables on her and asked her what blind chimp did her rats nest of a hair do. Her hair dresser was one of the folks there. That killed the mockery right there, and on a positive note she eventually switched hair dressers.

Some folks just will never get it because their too primitive in most respects, but there is a vast group that does get it and do try to look better or do something that will better themselves. So, we can either ignore the primitives or turn the tables on them in such an intelligent manner that it goes over their head and leaves them even more confused than before they opened their pie hole.

For the most part, they don't matter. The ones who laugh and giggle at others are not going to contribute much to society except a physical labor force. You won't see them creating anything useful or artistic. You won't catch them bettering their environment or making intelligent choices. They just don't have it in them. The girl with the purple mohawk has some hutzpah, she doesn't care what the primitive think, because she is not one of them. She may have even thought your hat was attractive Josh but kept it to her self.

So Teach, if your wife loves the way you look now, Perfect! That is the only other person you need to impress other than yourself when you dress for the day. The others will just have to get used to you this way now, and they will. Eventually, they will think it odd if they ever see you without a hat on, and will most likely won't recognize you in public without one.

I haven't as of yet gotten any bad comments other than the one time with my best friends wife and that was short lived. Usually folks like the hats and ask where I got them, and I'm happy to tell them, especially if it is one of my custom hats and I can send the people their way.
Plus, I have my fathers curmudgeonly face most of the time, which wards off any of the jerks that might make eye contact or want to poke fun.

Have fun with your hats, life it far too short to have to deal with such primitive life forms anyway.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Alex]

I'm new to fedoras as you guys know, and I usually get the "nice hat" comment. Since I'm still in highschool, it's kind of pointless to wear one to school because our new principle is reinforcing the No Hat rule. I wore it today anyway, and anytime I had it on in the building, I was made to take it off. I felt singled out because kids are walking around with headbands and beanies, but I was the one who must've stuck out to them. What if that was my only sense of self expression and they killed it? What if I'm super insecure now and it's all because of those teachers. I'm not, but it could happen to some kid out there.

 

[Sam Craig]

One of the best things about living more than half a century is that you, hopefully, develop your own comfort and character.

I like hats because .... I still can't answer that one. I grabbed my first fedora off a Methodist Bishop in 1958 and my dad made me give it back. Still looking for that swell homburg.
But I don't exactly know why I love hats.
I like various colorful ties, of all ages and widths, straight and bow
I like vests in the winter and Aloha shirts in the summer
I like comfortable pants
I prefer slacks and sports coats to suits
I like comfortable shoes
I like wash and wear clothes 'cuz life's too short and the day's too long

All of these come together to make up my personal style

The natty hat just tops it all off.

Besides, like a great character tie from the 1940s, it's something the guy down the block isn't going to wear.

That's probably illustrating a lack of maturation, but none of us are perfect.

Sam

 

[brspiritus]

Right. My experience is like yours. I know for a fact that my fellow white guys in Minnesota, during my first 25 years up to the 70s, would often try to squelch any deviation from a few accepted norms, and thus discourage them. I read on TFL that that same thing happens in parts of the U.K. I am sure that scenario is replayed in other locations. I get opposite reactions from the many African Americans (and Hispanics, by the way), here in the Washington area. So you have this white guy-conservative reaction to anything deviating from a few norms. Everyone gets used to it. My point is that for people who are not white, this anecdote may help to explain why white guy fashions are what they are. I do not believe this sort of behavior is realized outside of our large white-guy group.

Yeah, the few hispanics I run into here are the same way. There is less resistance to dressing vintage here than I would have run into back in Baltimore. I think this is partially because of religious attitutes. Guys that slum it all week long will be seen sporting a white 3pc suit with a homburg on Sunday whilist on their way to church.

 

[Minnesota Marco]

Where's Trigger?

Among the comments from strangers I have received over the years while wearing a hat include: "Where's Trigger?" "Hey Little Joe, have you seen Hoss?" "Howdy, Tex." From the foregoing one can correctly infer that on those occasions I was wearing a western. I also wear fedoras, tweed driving caps and the like. No one usually makes comments other than when I wear westerns, which my wife and friends assure that I look good while wearing them. The paltry number of snide remarks over the last few decades has not caused me to alter what I plop on my gourd.

I concur with most of the sentiments expressed in this thread; one should wear whatever one wishes--strangers be hanged. But I do think that there are some circumstances in which one should take heed of remarks re headwear. If a wife or girlfriend cannot abide your choice of hat, then rethink if you want her happy. Also, if an employer or manager expresses a strong dislike of what you wear during work hours, pause. (Such criticism might reach you through the grapevine rather than directly.) If the boss doesn't like your fedora while you're working the drive-thru at Wendy's, well park it until after work.

There are other situations that come to mind, but I don't want to belabor things. We shouldn't care what others think of our hats, but only to a point. It isn't absolute.

 

[Joshbru3]

Wise beyond your years Josh. Well said!

Right on.

Well said Josh!:eusa_clap

Exactly, Josh. When you get to be an old codger like me you stop caring what people think of you or what you do or say. It's unusual in young people but admirable. I've never had a negative comment about my hats either. Not one ever. I lived in Chicago for about a decade some time ago and never had a negative comment even about my Western hats.

Thank you everyone for your positive feedback on my post! I really meant everything I said. It feels so good to be surrounded by people on the Lounge who not only understand my ways of thinking, but can appreciate and can relate. I'm so glad that I found the FL over a year ago!

 

[Joshbru3]

The girl with the purple mohawk has some hutzpah, she doesn't care what the primitive think, because she is not one of them. She may have even thought your hat was attractive Josh but kept it to her self.

Dan, I thoroughly enjoyed your entire post. It was very very well said. The girl with the purple mohawk most definately had some major hutzpah. Even though I would never leave the house dressed like her, I totally respected her for being an individual.

 

[hatophile]

I find it inspiring that there are many younger folk on this forum who are taking a leap into doing something unusual or different such as hat-wearing (which 60 years ago would have been the norm), and not being overly influenced by the sometimes more ignorant masses.

The only thing I can say is, you younger gents have many years of hat collecting ahead of you, good luck!

 

[scottyrocks]

I'm new to fedoras as you guys know, and I usually get the "nice hat" comment. Since I'm still in highschool, it's kind of pointless to wear one to school because our new principle is reinforcing the No Hat rule. I wore it today anyway, and anytime I had it on in the building, I was made to take it off. I felt singled out because kids are walking around with headbands and beanies, but I was the one who must've stuck out to them. What if that was my only sense of self expression and they killed it? What if I'm super insecure now and it's all because of those teachers. I'm not, but it could happen to some kid out there.

As a teacher, Im gonna offer two sides.

One: dont get mired down in the 'they killed my sense of self-expression' stuff. You dont wear hats in school. That goes back to the days when men, and men in training (aka boys) removed their hats when entering a building.

Two: Just because teachers are teachers doesnt mean theyre all rocket scientists. There are plenty of semi-brain-dead pedagogues running around, and some of us them not above enforcing a given rule with some and being lax about it with others.

 

[mhollis44]

After thinking about the question while reading this thread, I can't remember ever hearing a negative comment in regards to the hat I was wearing. The things I hear the most are the obligatory "nice hat" or "you look like you're in the mob". I wear a suit daily at work, so the look works for me. I simply carry it over to the weekend when I wear jeans or pants. I will say that it does draw a lot of attention from the females that I see. That fact drives my male coworkers crazy! I truly believe that those of us who wear a hat exude confidence, and women seem to be impressed with that.

 

[Neophyte]

After thinking about the question while reading this thread, I can't remember ever hearing a negative comment in regards to the hat I was wearing.

Another Chattanoogan on TFL?!

 

[danofarlington]

I truly believe that those of us who wear a hat exude confidence, and women seem to be impressed with that.

It is certainly better than exuding body odor. I agree that confidence pays off.

 

[fluteplayer07]

...One: dont get mired down in the 'they killed my sense of self-expression' stuff. You dont wear hats in school. That goes back to the days when men, and men in training (aka boys) removed their hats when entering a building...

+1 on that. In my opinion, physically wearing the hat is only a small part of the equation... Most of it is observing the rules of etiquette regarding hats. If one wears a hat for the attention, then I believe they're missing the point entirely. It's a selfish way to think about it, in my mind - a hat isn't to draw attention to ourselves for attention's sake (now that doesn't mean that I think we can't accept comments and compliments) - it's about blending bits of our cultural history into our modern one. And a majority of that is the etiquette involved, and the responsibility that we take upon ourselves to uphold and maintain these pieces of history. It's worlds apart from those embroidered cloth stingies so much the rage with today's 'socially and morally liberated teen idols', etc, etc.

Anyways, away from my pseudo-philosophical ramblings and back to the OP's question. I got lots of strange looks, some in awe, others that articulated words such as: "You're weird". I tip my hat and wink as I depart. :yo: