Strolling in the rain

[MCrider]

Even though others have weighed in on this about the why's and how's of wearing a fedora in the rain, I just wanted to add what was hinted at... I hate water spots on my glasses! lol
Years ago I used to wonder with what the weatherman said whether I should take an umbrella or not. Several times I felt like an idiot carrying one while it was sunny out. Nowadays I just pick out a hat with a wider brim and don't worry about it.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

*bump*

 

[Brent Hutto]

When it rains while I'm wearing my hat I don't duck for cover or remove the hat but neither do I seek out chance to get it soaked. I have very effective purpose-built hats for a variety of situations.

I have a Tilley hat for keeping the sun off and soaking up sweat during golf or hiking, I have a Goretex rain hat for keeping me dry during rain and I have fur felt fedoras for keeping my head warm or cool and to keep the glare off my head from blinding passing drivers on sunny days.

Eat hat to its purpose and a purpose for each hat.

 

[Matt Deckard]

[YOUTUBE]1LzotVqUKgA[/YOUTUBE]

Also, check this out in regards to wet hats.
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=6981

 

[AlterEgo]

With around 80 hats and caps, I have a piece of headgear designed for every conceivable purpose.

If I KNOW in advance it's going to, for example, rain cats and dogs, then I'll wear a Gortex-lined tweed bucket hat (cold/cool tempertures) or a waterproofed Tilley (warm/hot temps).

However, weather forcasters being notoriously inaccurate (that's the only career I know of in which you can be consistently wrong and keep your job), I find that a fine relatively wide-brimmed fur felt--like an Akubra--is the all around best lid to head outside in for whatever weather nature has in store.

I have walked for hours in a downpour in such a hat, and the top of the crown eventually soaked through, yet only the part of my head touching the crown got slightly damp--mostly sweat--with the brim continuing to keep the rain off my face, neck, and eyes/glasses, and the rest of my head mostly dry.

I've worn my long-gone granddad's old "Sou-wester" in heavy rains, but found that its lack of breathability made me perspire more than the total water protection it conferred, so it now resides in a special place alongside his other WWI naval gear.

While hiking in a driving deluge with a friend, we decided to trade hats. He took my Akubra Lawson, and I, his Drizabone waxed cotton bush hat. Though many would maintain this is the ultimate rain hat, we found that my head got wetter than his because water blew through the screened ventilation holes on each side of the Drizabone crown. It was frigid that day, and my head got chilly while his stayed toasty. In order to get it back, I had to physically wrest my fur felt hat off his head!

I Scotchguard my hemp and cotton duck Tilleys after hand washing and hanging them up to dry, and that treatment--excepting the vent holes in a very windy rain--makes them utterly waterproof.

I tried a product similar to Scotchguard on an old wool felt, and, yes, it made it totally waterproof, but it also completely changed the feel of the felt. So, if you like a relatively soft and pliable "hand," I would not recommend waterproofing a fur felt, either.

Finally, I have a beret that is factory-impregnated with Teflon. It's totally waterproof yet breathes, so it does not feel confining and sweaty. But it's 'roundabout 10-inch diameter does not keep the rain out of my eyes and off my glasses.

Which brings me back to the best all-around hat for any type of weather, hard rains included: a quality fur felt fedora with at least a 2 1/2-inch brim.

 

[danofarlington]

Which brings me back to the best all-around hat for any type of weather, hard rains included: a quality fur felt fedora with at least a 2 1/2-inch brim.

Very interesting.

 

[Matt Deckard]

Best hat for rain weather is a plastic yellow rain hat. Best hat for any type of weather is a wax coated cotton Driza-bone with grommets for air flow. Fur felt in the rain is just a foolish choice. Though I do it anyway.

 

[AlterEgo]

Perhaps I drifted off point with all the exposition.

If you can take only one hat, and you don't know what mother nature's gonna throw at you, make it a fur felt with at least a 2 1/2-inch brim.

 

[CRH]

... Fur felt in the rain is just a foolish choice. Though I do it anyway.

I would think that as a "Devout Capitalist", Mr. Deckard, you wouldn't try anything foolish.

:eusa_doh:

I was wearing a Panama in the last rain I was caught in. Man I hate that cool water icky dripping onto my head.

 

[fluteplayer07]

Is anyone else afraid to take their vintage fur felts out in the rain? (Despite it being their original function?) Or is it just a strange, misplaced phobia of mine? I always think the color will bleed/run, or it will shrink, or... something. It just feels wrong to me. [huh]

 

[CRH]

Is anyone else afraid to take their vintage fur felts out in the rain? (Despite it being their original function?) Or is it just a strange, misplaced phobia of mine? I always think the color will bleed/run, or it will shrink, or... something. It just feels wrong to me. [huh]

I don't have any phobias about wearing vintage lids in the rain but walking under or crawling under an automobile in a vintage lid - that gets my heart rate and blood pressure up.

 

[BanjoMerlin]

Is anyone else afraid to take their vintage fur felts out in the rain? (Despite it being their original function?) Or is it just a strange, misplaced phobia of mine? I always think the color will bleed/run, or it will shrink, or... something. It just feels wrong to me. [huh]

I have no problem at all with wearing my vintage fur felt hats in the rain. If the color was going to run it would have done that decades ago. If I have a hat that is a bit large I might wear it in the rain on purpose just to let it shrink up a bit. Hats that fit well go on a form to dry just to keep them from shrinking.

I try not to wear new hats in the rain and NEVER a wool felt hat in the rain.

For me, the best "rain hat" is a 100% beaver western style hat with a 4" or bigger brim.

 

[Blackthorn]

I have no problem at all with wearing my vintage fur felt hats in the rain. If the color was going to run it would have done that decades ago. If I have a hat that is a bit large I might wear it in the rain on purpose just to let it shrink up a bit. Hats that fit well go on a form to dry just to keep them from shrinking.

I try not to wear new hats in the rain and NEVER a wool felt hat in the rain.

For me, the best "rain hat" is a 100% beaver western style hat with a 4" or bigger brim.

It's not just a matter of the color running but of the threads falling apart due to being wet, over time.

 

[johnnycanuck]

Hats in the rain? Not a problem. That's what they are there for. Here is me with my VS hat the second day I had it.

Johnny

 

[Brent Hutto]

I reckon I might just find out about fur felt hats in the rain next week. I bought my lovely little Borsalino Astuccio pretty specifically to take with me on this trip as it is foldable/rollable with its grosgrain sweatband. I'll be wearing it for five days in a row in southeast England which is the place they had in mind coining the proverb "Into each life a little rain must fall".

So from reading on this forum, I can't tell whether my first rain shower will result in:

A) The hat remains miraculously untouched and dries instantly without a single visible effect of having been soaked.

B) Will fall apart at about the fourth raindrop because it's a modern Borsalino and everyone knows they haven't had s*** for quality these past 25 years or so.

C) Somewhere in between those extremes.

I'll report back in ten days time...

 

[BanjoMerlin]

It's not just a matter of the color running but of the threads falling apart due to being wet, over time.

Good point but I always make sure the hat is dry before I wear it again. I'd be more worried about the effect of perspiration than rain. If the threads break they needed to be redone anyway.

 

[AlterEgo]

I don't have any phobias about wearing vintage lids in the rain but walking under or crawling under an automobile in a vintage lid - that gets my heart rate and blood pressure up.

Sounds like you, Craig, like I, are an auto do-it-yourself-er.

I never wear a hat--vintage, modern, or even the aforementioned cheapo wool, when doing car work. Not only would I fear soiling it, but also I find that the brim just gets in the way--that's the case with the bill of a cap, as well.

To keep grease, etc. out of my hair, I fashion a "hat" out of a bandana by folding it and tying it around my head like the late, great Aunt Jemima; it keeps the sweat out of my eyes, too.

Just don't ask me for pancake syrup.