My wife is really diligent about putting hats on our kids’ heads when it’s sunny. I never really thought about it because for most of my life I’ve had a thick head of dark hair and have only been burnt on rare occasions. When you have kids though, you have to start thinking like an adult; even if you’re already an adult but never thought like one. For instance, if you’re obsessed with tanning yourself, like this New Jersey mom, you really ought to think twice about exposing your kids to the negative affects of the sun. 

There really is no easier way to protect yourself from the sun than throwing on a hat. You can mess with sunscreen and that is an option but that can be messy and time consuming. It is also something you have to keep reapplying every few hours to keep up the protection. If you wear a sun protection hat it will not only cover your head but the wide brim will cover your back and shoulders a lot while you are standing. Not to mention that a hat has many more uses than keeping the sun off you and out of your eyes. It can also keep you warm at night too besides just keeping you cool during the day. Not to mention that a stylish hat can be a fashion statement and add a very noticeable level of sophistication in a way that no other accessory really can.

It’s funny when you hear about teens and crazy moms from New Jersey using tanning beds like crazy. I have nothing against a good tan and actually love sitting out in the sun myself. It just seems like I hear more and more about the negative affects of too much sun exposure and skin cancers. Especially if you are susceptible to sunburns and have some of the high risk factors such as light hair, eyes, and skin than you should really think about wearing something to protect yourself from getting burnt. There will always be people that are naturally tanner than you and nothing is really worth getting skin cancer for. The most important thing is always to keep yourself from getting sunburned and a good sun hat is the perfect way to do that if you have to be out in the sun.

I really didn’t have a clue. My first thoughts was that it was between the “Cowboy Hat” and the “Baseball Cap”. But then I got to thinking that this was probably a very western centric view and that I needed to open my mind a little and think about the kinds of hats people wear around the world. After all, why would people who care nothing for sports or country music wear either of these hats?

I did some research and really could not come up with much until I stumbled upon this article entitled, “The History and Future of the World’s Most Popular Hat.”  Well, lo and behold my first thoughts were right. According to this the baseball cap is the most popular hat in the world. Of course I don’t think that means baseball is the most popular sport in the world or that people who wear baseball caps even like baseball (I know I don’t).

So just what is it then that makes the baseball cap so popular?

• They are comfortable and casual.
• They enable people to easily express themselves with logos, slogans, and graphics without having to consider how well their hat matches the rest of their clothes or whether or not it is “in style” as for most people a baseball cap is always in style.
• They do the job of blocking the sun from your eyes well.
• They are easily worn indoors and while sitting since their is no brim in the back of the hat.
• They just work.

It’s hard to argue against the functionality of the baseball cap and for most people this is of most importance. Even the Navy, Coast Guard, SWAT Teams, and the FBI use them. So while they may not be the most sophisticated or stylish of hats you’d be hard pressed to find another hat with such widespread appeal. So whether you’re tracking down international criminals, running the country, playing baseball, or just supporting your favorite cause, feel good knowing you’re wearing the most popular hat in the world.

While the women do wear quite elaborate, bold, and gaudy hats, it’s the men that I find to be truly entertaining. It’s obvious that for most men being the most stylish is not the goal. Being funny and awesome seems to be what is on most men’s mind (and on top of their heads). Just check out this gallery here of some of the great hats that men wear. It really got me wondering how much time these guys spend on making these things? I’m assuming that they make them themselves because I’m pretty sure you would have a hard time convincing your wife or girlfriend to make a cowboy hat out of a Coor’s Light box. But who knows? Maybe some women are into that kind of craftiness?

It’s funny how these kinds of traditions last over all these years. It seems like if you can get a whole bunch of people to get together and do something silly together they will make it a tradition and keep doing it for years. As long as everyone is being stupid then anyone can. Not that I’m saying we shouldn’t do these kinds of things, it actually looks really fun. It’s kind of like being a kid again. If you ever sit around with a bunch of kids and watch the way that they play you’ll notice that the most important thing to them is what the other kids are doing. If everyone is doing something they have to do it to. If they can’t participate that’s when the trouble starts. If all the kids are wearing hard hats except for one there is bound to be trouble.

So perhaps silly hats are just a way for grown ups to take a break from being so serious and just play like they used to. If only it was that simple because grown ups have a hard time playing anything without attaching some kind of labels or hierarchy system. But maybe for a day everyone will have fun

But was your mom was right when she told you that you need to wear a hat when you go outside to keep your head warm. What about when people told you that you lose most of your body heat from your head? It seems that it is a little more complicated than that. You actually don’t lose the majority of heat from your head but it’s more of a variable rate of something between 20%-35% depending on how cold it is outside, if you are exercising, and how big your head is. While the old saying is not really true it is more true for some people than others. Newborn babies lost more heat from their head because their heads are so much bigger in comparison to their heads as compared to adults.

Of course wearing a hat is not only for places that are cold. Protecting your children from the sun is just as important as protecting them from the cold. Though I don’t have fair skin or problems with sunburns my daughter turned out to be very fair. My wife is very diligent about keeping a sun hat on her head when she is out in the sun we vacation in places like Hawaii. I on the other hand don’t think twice about it since I tan easily and have dark hair. Although, the older I get the less dark hair there seems to be on my head so I may have to start thinking about that more as time goes on.

So how do you get your kids to wear hats? One of the best ways I’ve seen is to get them “fun” hats. While this won’t work for newborns once your child is old enough to be more aware you can get them to wear hats that may be like characters they like or are more like “dress up” hats. My daughter loves to pretend she is a princess and normally princesses don’t wear hats but we can get her to wear a pink cowgirl hat at least. I’m sure if I had a son I could get him to wear an Indiana Jones hat. And then there are those really fun animal hats that I see a lot of kids wearing these days. If it’s fun, kids are way more likely to wear something on their head than for reasons of sheer pragmatism. And tough they may not get hypothermia the first time they walk out of the house without a hat on, it’s probably still a good idea the younger your child is.

Hoodies in High School

I used to wear them all the time back in high school and I still do sometimes. They used to be something I couldn’t live without but now they are saved for lounging around the house and doing yard work. I’m talking about hooded sweatshirts and what seems to be the ultimate teenage staple these days. I have nothing against them now. In fact I remember a time back when I was a teenager myself when my friend and I had to go to one specific department store just for a special brand of plain, black, zippered and hooded sweatshirts.

I’ve often thought about why you see so many kids wearing them. Even in rain and snow you are more it seems more likely that you’d see a teenager donning a hoodie as opposed to a rain coat. Why is that? What is it about hoodies that teenagers love so much? Is there something wrong with real coats and hats? I’ve come up with two reasons why I think hooded sweatshirts are so prevalent among teenagers as opposed to things like rain coats and hats. 

1. Hooded sweatshirts have been officially deemed acceptable.

If there’s one thing you care about during your teenage years it’s fitting in. Buying or wearing a coat brings in so many different variables. What style? What length? What fit? What material? Hoodies come mainly in cotton and pullover or zippered. Sure they can have various decorations on them but all in all they are relatively uniform.

2. Kids don’t go outside as much as they used to.

This sounds like something an old man would say when I was kid while I rolled my eyes but now that I’ve entered my 30′s I really do believe this to be true. And how do I know that it’s true? How do I know that it’s not just my perception of my childhood? Well perhaps that is part of it but I just don’t see how teens can be on their computers and iPhones and playing video games this much and still have time to get outside. One study says that 99% of teens play video games. That has got to make a difference than say 20 years ago when all we had was Nintendo. Today we have all kinds of systems, computers, and smartphones to vie for our attention.

So if kids don’t go outside as much as they used to, they don’t have to worry about dressing for the elements as much as they used to either. The focus is on comfort while indoors and if you can brave the cold from your house to the bus stop and back then for the rest of the day you won’t have to worry about carrying your coat around all day. Plus, why go out on a limb and wear a silly rain hat when you can just put your hood up?

So what about coats and hats?

My theory is that coats and hats are more complicated (socially and stylistically) and expensive therefore teens are more shy about choosing one. You can buy a cheap hoodie and replace it in a few months but a good coat is something you may buy once a year. What if other kids don’t like it? What if it goes out of style?

I know what you’re thinking, “My teenage son wears nothing but baseball caps.” You’re probably right. But I would say that the reasons teenage boys wear baseball caps are similar to my first reason why teenagers love to wear hooded sweatshirts: they want to make sure they conform to what is acceptable and cool. Baseball caps are an easy way to do that. Just think about it. Remember the kid in school that wore a fedora? He was probably labeled a weirdo. There were a few at my school like that. One was definitely strange and the other seems like one of the coolest people I know now. He was just a lot more willing to truthfully express himself while most kids were worried about if they were normal or not.

1. Indiana Jones

O.K. so no list about hats and movies would be complete without Indy’s classic fedora so let’s just get it out of the way first. No one in film is more famous for wearing a fedora than the whip slinging archaeologist known as Indiana Jones.

2. V

So this one may not be on the level of Indiana Jones but like I said this is a personal list. While it’s likely you would disagree with his political methods, you do have to give V plenty of credit for style. No other Englishman can pull off a Spanish Hat quite this sewer dwelling masked terrorist.

3. Alex DeLarge

Never has a derby hat looked so maniacal as it does on Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange. Disturbingly dark humor or morality tale? I will leave that up to you. But one thing that can’t be debated is this is one unforgettable derby wearing droog.

4. Red

Let’s get back to someone that everyone can admire. Red from the Shawshank Redemption spends a whole lot of the film in a “newsboy cap” or maybe even more specifically an “apple newsboy cap”. It’s obvious where it got it’s name from but I would argue that no one has worn a newsboy cap with as much grace and poise as this convicted murderer. For whatever reason, we still fall in love with Red. Maybe we can tell he is sorry for whatever he did. Guilty or not he wears his hat well.

5. Jack Sparrow

Caption Jack Sparrow to be more precise. I have to admit that after the first Pirates of the Caribbean I wasn’t too thrilled with the sequels. However, Johnny Depp’s character is likable enough to carry the whole franchise. And Jack Sparrow just wouldn’t be the same without his black tricone hat. Not one to be without it, Captain Jack Sparrow understands the importance of a really good hat and would often go to great lengths to make sure it was never left behind.

So even if you aren’t a character on the big screen you can still create a look that is unique by adding your own style of hat. Hats can be one of the most memorable things you wear to people. Find a good one, whether it’s a fedora or a pink hard hat and stick with it and it will stick with you.

Let’s start with what I think is the most common rule of hat etiquette that is still practiced. Take off your hat for the national anthem. Of course most of the time you are going to be doing so is at some kind of sporting event where people are very casual but for whatever reason it has stuck around. A lot of people who enjoy going to stadium games feel some kind of patriotic duty to remove their hat for the national anthem.

But what else? A much more common occurrence but what I don’t see honored very often anymore is removing your hat while indoors. I’m not sure why but this rule has not stuck around. Especially for the baseball cap wearing crowd, no one seems to think twice about wearing a hat indoors unless there is some rule (say at school or work) where they are not allowed to do so. These rules are seen as very stuffy and old-fashioned by most young people today. An exception to this rule used to be that in public buildings a man could keep his hat on in hallways and corridors but would remove it once he entered a room.

So what about prayer? It seems to me that a lot of people do honor the rule of removing your hat during prayer. The nice part about this rule is that no one should have their eyes open to see your messy hat hair. And while it also seems that places and occasions where prayer actually takes place in public, such as churches and weddings, are the same times when people are not likely to be wearing a hat in the first place. I say this is a good one to follow.

Ah but last and definitely not least is this one: remove your hat at the dinner table. I don’t know why but this one seems like a good one to me that should stick around for good. Sitting down for a long period of time with the intention of sharing a meal with others seems like a great time to remove your hat. I’m not sure why it seems like the right thing to do but it just does.

So whether it’s a leather fedora or a casual cap, it’s still a good idea to honor some of those old rules. You won’t lose out on much and you may gain the respect of someone a little wiser than you that remembers when everyone paid attention to these kinds of things.

It’s funny how hats can mean something in one generation and take on a whole new meaning in another. While some hats will forever be destined to a certain time period and meaning (such as Civil War hats), others have come in and out of popularity in different incarnations. A great example are the coonskin caps of the pioneers. These were traditionally Native American headwear that was made form the entire skin of a raccoon, head and all. But when most people think of them we think of the frontiersmen and even people who fought those Native Americans. If you were a young boy playing cowboys and indians, you normally didn’t have the coonskin caps on the indians. Or what about the cowboy hat? The name would suggest that they are worn by those who wrangle steers and herd cattle. But often times they bring up thoughts of the wild west and gun slinging sheriffs and bad guys.

It may be too soon to tell what type of hats our time will be remembered by. My guess is that the baseball cap will be one of the main ways people think of hats during our era. That’s kind of a shame because to me a baseball cap has a lot less adventure and mystery as some of the older hats that we think of throughout our countries’ history. Of course that is our national pastime but there is something about a coonskin cap or a cowboy hat that seems to encapsulate the original American spirit, for better or for worse. While the baseball cap may have some class to it when we think of players like Babe Ruth, nowadays it’s hard to think of any national heroes when you think of sports caps. The jury is out as to what will cherished in museums and added to part of our history. I guess it’s too early to see but one day they’ll be able to look back on our time and tell which hat really fits our era.

Of course they can and one of the best ways to learn how to have fun is to watch the way that kids do things. A lot of the way that kids learn is by being creatively challenged to have fun with things that really aren’t that fun to begin with. Take a piece of newspaper for example. When you think of reading the news, “fun” is usually the last thing that comes to your mind (that is unless you are reading the funnies). But what does a kid see when they are being creatively challenged to have fun with a piece of newspaper? It could be a silly hat or a boat or part of a tent of a hundred other things that their imaginations can come up with. Of course you can buy children’s hard hats but it can be more fun when they make things themselves.

I’m not saying that adults don’t like to have fun. Everyone loves to have fun. But what about having a little fun with your hat? Ever heard of a ugly sweater party? You know when people throw a part around Christmastime and every wear the ugliest looking sweater they can find? Why not have a funny hat party? Find the ugliest hat that you can in your dad’s closet or your grandma’s wardrobe and wear it with pride! You could even wear a hat to spice up your everyday life. Perhaps a silly hat Friday would add a little fun to that really boring office environment that you work in. Of course it may be hard for you to not laugh if your typically stiff and straight-laced boss decided to throw on a pink cowboy hat.

Hats can mean many things but often times as adults we just forget about how fun it is to wear different hats. If you’re a stay at home mom, throw on a camo hard hat and have a lego fight with your kids. Who knows? I’m sure you can come up with many ways to make life a little more fun by wearing silly hats. I am all for style and functionality but you can’t forget about having a fun every now and then too.

For a while that movie for her was Toy Story 3. And while she loves Woody and Buzz, like many little girls her favorite character is Jessie the cowgirl. If you haven’t seen Toy Story 2 or Toy Story 3 you either must not have children or if you do have kids you must not own a television. Even as I’m writing this I can hear my daughter yodeling at the top of her lungs and doing her best Jessie imitation. She only fell more in love with Jessie when we took her to Disneyland and she got to see Jessie for herself in person. The look of wonder and joy on her face was priceless.

Of course we had to buy her some Jessie accessories so she could pretend to be Jessie herself. Jessie is really known for two of the most prominent features of her outfit: her cowboy boots and her hat. Not just any hat. Most girls may like pink cowboy hats but Jessie has a distinctively red hat with a white band. Perhaps if I had a boy she would be more into hard hats but we did end up getting her a Jessie had and caved in and got her the Jessie boots to boot! You got to love some things about kids, especially how they are so different than us. The thing is that it helps us remember what we were probably like when we were kids. All of us at one time were obsessed with certain movies or t.v. shows of looked up to some character or superhero so much that we wanted to dress just like them. I know there’s a lot of guys out there that secretly wouldn’t mind having an Indiana Jones hat. Who wouldn’t want to be a world traveling archaeologist? I guess it doesn’t hurt to remember what it’s like to be a kid and pretend again every now and then.