Saturday, May 9, 2009

Hold on to your hat

Wearing a hat or cap can reveal alot about a person. Hats can be a fashion statement or an accessory besides the obvious practicality of covering your pate.Some people are adverse to covering their noggin even in the most adverse weather because they do not want to have hat head. The hair flattens down on the head appearing somewhat unattractive.News flash, that's what combs and brushes are for.

When my friends and I were in our early teens we would often go into department stores and make a detour to the hat section. Adolescent females do not need much prompting to giggle, and that we did. Sometimes we would get rather raucous and attract attention from disapproving adults but tended to be oblivious enjoying our frivolity. We actually had a name for this activity, "let's play hat". I have always had a thing for hats and this activity was probably the launching point of my love for chapeaus
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I began to wear a baseball cap way ahead of the trend. It started out as a way to shield my face from the sun at the beach as I began to notice accumulating sun damage. If this was a way I could slow down the wrinkles and spots why not. Baseball caps are now commonplace and lots of people enjoy displaying their loyalties to whatever sports teams they follow. I have too many baseball caps to count but would admit that the Red Sox are a reoccurring theme as well as various places I have visited in my travels. Now there is a device to wash your baseball caps in the washing machine so they don't become misshapen. It's a plastic shaped cap with snaps to mold it and keep it in place.

Wearing a hat in the winter is just good common sense. It's nice to have a pretty beret or wool hat to keep your head warm and dry from the snow. I have two baskets of hats all of which are various colors to match my winter coats, scarves and gloves. I keep adding to my collection and have a difficult time getting rid of any of them. I'd say my favorite used to be this nice little black beret until my husband began to tease me I looked like Monica Lewinsky. I don't think he liked the beret but I continue to wear it anyway.I had never heard a wool cap referred to as a touk until I moved to Northern N.Y. but that's what they call them up here.Again, the Red Sox are well represented in my winter hat collection.

Wide brim hats have a dramatic flair. There are not alot of places to wear them unless women chose to dress up going to church. Every year during the summer season we try to go to Saratoga Race Track in N.Y. State a few hours south of where we live. The women adorn themselves in the most magnificent hats and I forget sometimes to watch the horse races because I'm too busy gazing at the millinery finery displayed. I have a few wide brimmed hats of my own which I have sewn ribbons and flowers on to. I also wear wide brimmed hats on the beach in Costa Rica mostly resembling gardening or cowboy straw hats. It seems to prevent me from feeling overheated in the hot sun.

I would guess that there are times when people may have more that one motive to don a cap or hat. If you had not washed or styled your hair on a certain day it would definitely hide the unattractiveness with out feeling overly self conscious.Unless you work at a very casual job though this would unlikely be tolerated. However, now people in the food service industry often wear hats to maintain sanitary standards. There is nothing worse than finding a hair in your food.( As an aside, I recently saw a bearded gentleman with a net over his beard while working in a deli, good idea.)

What if you were trying not to be noticed and wearing a cap or hat might alter your appearance enough that people out in public might not recognize you? Since I am not a famous Hollywood celebrity I guess there is nothing to worry about regarding that although I do confess to wearing my sunglasses and hat sometimes to not run into people I don't want to stop and talk to. Am I bad? I wonder what those people ( Stacey and Clinton) from the show "What not to Wear" would think of my hat adornments? I guess I don't really care. I hope they don't show up knocking at my door because I won't answer.

2 comments:

Madame DeFarge said...

I always think that wearing a hat is done to draw attention to you, given that so few people do it, especially in the UK. I always want to wear one in summer, because I hate the glare, but it's not really the in thing. Baseball caps and business suits not an ideal combo

gaf85 said...

Madame, It's interesting because my mental picture of you is of a women who occasionally wears a hat. To be sure, not many of us can carry off that look with style. I care what I look like but sometimes I don't care what others think and will do my own thing just to stay true to myself.