View Full Version : Straw Hat Vs. Scientific Hat
SunnyWalker
09-07-2008, 17:31
:sun Poll here: When hiking do you like to use a: Straw hat, cloth type of hat that is "scientific" (made from hi-tech cloth for hiking=High price), or a cotton (cheap) hat? Baseball cap? Do you ever use a rain hat (water proof) or do you just go without or use your existing hat in the rain?
-SunnyWalker
If you are intrested check out: sunbody.com
Pedaling Fool
09-07-2008, 17:43
I use a cotton (nothing special) cycling cap and only when I am subject to walking into the sun. Don't bother with headgear for the rain. I like the cycling cap because it's not bulky like a baseball cap and the visor is readily flipped up for greater field of vision, when needed.
minnesotasmith
09-07-2008, 17:54
1) I work hard so I can afford the gear I want.
2) Straw is made of cellulose. So is cotton. Straw hats also have lots of holes of semi-random sizes, which let in bugs and rain.
3) I'm a scientist.
A "scientific" hat for me...
WetBottom
09-07-2008, 19:52
When I saw the title of this thread I thought for sure it was some sort of philosophical question.
Now I just have to dream up what that would be...
Kerosene
09-07-2008, 20:09
Nylon baseball cap weighing an ounce, with a nylon brim that it protects my glasses from most rain without deforming as most cotton ballcap brims would.
Gray Blazer
09-07-2008, 20:22
Florida Gator Cap.
Dances with Mice
09-07-2008, 20:34
Fur felt. Cool in summer, warm in winter, waterproof any time of year. Been used by a couple thousand years by folk who live outdoors.
daibutsu
09-07-2008, 20:48
army boonie hat.
Jason of the Woods
09-07-2008, 20:50
I wear a buff. I've never found a use for a hat.
I typically don't wear a hat when I hike unless it's cold outside. They just hold in too much heat for my tolerance. If the temperature is around the freezing mark, then I'll wear a baseball cap. In camp if it's cold, I'll wear a synthetic watchcap. Outside of that, I do without.
fiddlehead
09-07-2008, 21:28
Depends on where the hike is and what i want a hat for.
If it's a hot climate and i'm hiking in the sun, i do like the natives in hot climates do (construction workers, farmers) and wear a straw hat.
They wear them for a good reason: they ventilate well and also protect from the sun. The hotter the climate, the bigger the hat.
(When i hiked the PCT my first time, i was stopped a few times by the border patrol cause I guess i looked like one of the Mexican immigrants.)
If i'm hiking in the rain, a baseball hat.
Here in Thailand where they may be lots of bugs/ants/snakes in the trees that i am brushing against, i wear a baseball hat.
Don't know about a scientific hat except my polypro and fleece balaclavas which i normally (in the cold) carry one or the other.
Summer--bandana rolled into a headband. Winter--(cold weather) fleece headband. Freezing weather--fleece hat or balaklava. RAIN--hooded water-proof jacket.
Frau
Lawn Sale
09-07-2008, 23:19
I use an OR GTX hat I modified with a plastic brim so it won't fold up in the soaking rain. It's held up great after many years and was one of the best mods I've made. I hate water on my glasses so I always use it when it's raining.
As a side bonus, it also keeps the horse and moose flies from buzzing around my face.
Rocketman
09-08-2008, 08:25
My general purpose summer hat or cap is one of those synthetic wicking jobs that I buy from the local running store.
I have several, in different colors and different wicking capacities. The old one from Gorgonz featuring 'hydroweave" can soak up a lot of water and last as a transpiration cooling hat for maybe 2 or more hours, especially good for summer biking. Haven't seen this model recently, and would like to get another. When dry, it has enough thickness to be a fairly warm hat for cool days.
mkmangold
09-08-2008, 19:05
1) I work hard so I can afford the gear I want.
2) Straw is made of cellulose. So is cotton. Straw hats also have lots of holes of semi-random sizes, which let in bugs and rain.
3) I'm a scientist.
A "scientific" hat for me...
Does than mean only the Scarecrow would wear a straw hat?
minnesotasmith
09-08-2008, 20:00
Does than mean only the Scarecrow would wear a straw hat?
Just a consistent cotton commando. ;)
Bandanna or ball cap on the AT and here in the mid-west. Way out in the blazing sun west, the cover it all $12 hat I got at army surplus store since I am fair skinned.
I've got a CooMax Buff and wear it all the time. Rain or shine, it makes no difference.
Blissful
09-09-2008, 11:56
Techno hat as I need it for my glasses when it rains and I'm hiking.
I have a variety of hats for different times of the year and different weather conditions.
Panzer
The Solemates
09-09-2008, 12:11
dont wear a hat on the AT, or any eastern trails for that matter.
out west, i wear an alps mountaineering floppy hat
in the yard/fields that I work, I wear this hat (http://www.elbowcreekmall.com/assets/images/Scala_Raffia_Straw_Cowboy_Hat.jpg)
The Solemates
09-09-2008, 12:13
dont wear a hat on the AT, or any eastern trails for that matter.
i do wear one of these (http://www.mountainhardwear.com/Product.aspx?top=1431&prod=344&cat=1489&viewAll=False)in winter while hiking the AT. in fact, this is what i took on my thru
Hot, humid, and shady--rolled bandanna as sweatband
Sunny, no shade--Tilley's broadbrimmed hat
Hot, with significant chance of rain--Tilley's
Cold--blaze orange knit cap
Really cold--knit cap plus hood
In warm weather I use nothing or a bandanna to make a full head covering-sweat band. In cool/cold/rainy weather I wear an OR Seattle Sombrero. It's list price is expensive. I got mine from REI-Outlet for $23 and love it. So that makes me 'scientific' in head gear as the OR is waterproof. See ""summit" On Tennent Mt - Shining Rock Wilderness" in my gallery for a pic of it.
It depends...
Western hiking (sunny and for rain) - 3 season backpacking:
Boonie Style hat. $8 at the Army/Navy store:
http://www.pmags.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=36&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=17186
Eastern hiking (or the rare, in the thick trees, Colorado hiking esp. on a warm, humid and cloudy day):
A simple bandanna
http://www.pmags.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=36&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=17494
Three-season backpacking, cold weather:
A light balaclava
http://www.pmags.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=36&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=17258
Ski touring, sunny and winter (but not early spring.)
Ball Cap
http://www.pmags.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=36&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=14705
Ski touring, cold and snowy:
Wool hat
http://www.pmags.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=36&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=16663
(or making breakfast at 5am in the morning on a hut trip. ;) )
It depends...
Western hiking (sunny and for rain) - 3 season backpacking:
Boonie Style hat. $8 at the Army/Navy store:
http://www.pmags.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=36&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=17186
Eastern hiking (or the rare, in the thick trees, Colorado hiking esp. on a warm, humid and cloudy day):
A simple bandanna
http://www.pmags.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=36&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=17494
Three-season backpacking, cold weather:
A light balaclava
http://www.pmags.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=36&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=17258
Ski touring, sunny and winter (but not early spring.)
Ball Cap
http://www.pmags.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=36&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=14705
Ski touring, cold and snowy:
Wool hat
http://www.pmags.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=36&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=16663
(or making breakfast at 5am in the morning on a hut trip. ;) )I see you're a man of many hats! :D
I see you're a man of many hats! :D
To everything there is a season,
and a time to every hat under the sun, snow and rain.
:)
NICKTHEGREEK
09-09-2008, 18:13
1) I work hard so I can afford the gear I want.
2) Straw is made of cellulose. So is cotton. Straw hats also have lots of holes of semi-random sizes, which let in bugs and rain.
3) I'm a scientist.
A "scientific" hat for me...
If that hat you wear in your "famous" picture is a product of science, bring back the dark ages.
minnesotasmith
09-09-2008, 18:41
If that hat you wear in your "famous" picture is a product of science, bring back the dark ages.
I'd have thought you'd have heard of Outdoor Research. It's one of their rain hats I had on. Worked...
To everything there is a season,
and a time to every hat under the sun, snow and rain.
:)But is it really just all vanity? Just chasing after the wind? :)
But is it really just all vanity? Just chasing after the wind? :)
Well, if you don't wear the dorky chin strap..your dorky hat can fly and you will be chasing it into the wind! :D
Actually I was happy to discover that you can tuck that dorky chin strap through the size adjuster velcro so that it stays tucked away up in the hat until needed. But in my picture on Tennent Mtn the wind was whipping pretty hard, so I did have to pull it out and keep my dorky hat from blowing away! :) :p
Three hats. 1) Seattle Sombrero for rain. 2) Light "hi tech" hat with brim and long ear and neck flaps, to deal with sun or bugs. 3) Light knit cap for cold or for sleeping. In mild weather, I usually just wear a bandanna.
minnesotasmith
09-10-2008, 08:52
Well, if you don't wear the dorky chin strap..your dorky hat can fly and you will be chasing it into the wind! :D
...Like a dork. :D
superman
09-10-2008, 09:27
I tried hiking with a straw hat but it got beat up bad when I wasn't wearing it. I have lots of hats but one of the criterias is that they can get stuffed in my pack with out being damaged. I save my big brimmed straw hat for mowing my lawn in the summer.
...Like a dork. :DWell, if my $50 (retail) hat is born into the wind, I'll be whatever I have to be to try and get it back! :D Not to even try would be really . . . well . . . dorky! :p
SunnyWalker
09-10-2008, 14:14
So far, "scientific" and man-made hats are the winner. It's those wicking properties!
Well, if my $50 (retail) hat is born into the wind, I'll be whatever I have to be to try and get it back! :D Not to even try would be really . . . well . . . dorky! :p
Yep..losing $50 to the wind is very dorky. And regardless of the price of the hat..a major sun burn is VERY dorky. :eek:
max patch
09-10-2008, 14:28
Urban sombrero from the J Peterman collection.
leeki pole
09-10-2008, 14:47
Columbia boonie hat. The chicks dig it.:cool:
So far, "scientific" and man-made hats are the winner. It's those wicking properties!Or 'snake oil salesmen' and 'marketing' strikes again!
rubyvermonter
09-11-2008, 12:31
I usually use a cotton visor for sun on exposed areas and rain, but I decided to leave it at home during my recent section hike.
RubyVermonter
A coolie hat may be the perfect cover, though I find a Victorian Pith helmet adds a bit of "dash"
Knit skull for nite and sleeping, switch to ski mask in late fall, early winter. Rip-stop nylon boonie for days.
i think the best all purpose hat is a leather fedora
i think the best all purpose hat is a leather fedoraIndy agrees! Oh, and don't forget the whip! :D :p
I just watched 'Air Force One' this past weekend on TV where Harrison Ford plays the President of the United States. I kept waiting for him to pull out and don his hat and whip! :D
gonewalkabout
09-19-2008, 11:47
I wear Columbia's version of a boonie hat with SPF 30 since there's not much on the roof. Contary to some beliefs, if you in a sunny environment (not the AT), keeping the radition off you head will keep you cooler than wearing no hat at all. Thats why the cowboys always wore hats and most who still work and live out west know this.
gonewalkabout
09-19-2008, 11:49
But does any one wear a staw hat and how do they like it? Does it protect the scrap from sun with all those holes?
I've got a vented Columbia boonie hat for sunny day hiking, or top-down motoring (chin strap needed for that).
On mixed days or rain it's the OR "Seattle Sombrero". As my hair gradually thins the rain falling on my head seems to bother me more. For me, the hat really postpones the desire to put on rain gear.
What launches me into a truly unique realm of dorkiness is the boonie hat I use on trail scouting crews or on my day job when I'm poking around dusty corners of infrastructure. I got quite a lot of looks on this one when my daughter made me wear it in a touristy park. http://www.candfsupply.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=617
I got quite a lot of looks on this one when my daughter made me wear it in a touristy park. http://www.candfsupply.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=617That's absolutely 'dorkulous!' :banana:sun
mkmangold
09-20-2008, 00:28
At Christmas when I was twelve, my aunt gave me a hat with... a long blaze-orange cone drooping off of the top and ear muffs to boot. When we went to her house one month later, I didn't want to insult her so I wore the hat. When my cousin saw me, he started laughing so hard he had to hold his belly. "Ma, Ma, come look: Mike wore that stupid hat you bought him as a joke."
Part of a hat looking cool vs dorky is who is wearing it.
In this photo, the hat (and the dude) looks very dorky:
http://www.pmags.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=17186&g2_serialNumber=4&g2_GALLERYSID=9b7269e0127675108ae6001d1d0952b4
Same hat, different person. For some reason, the hat does not look as dorky. :-?
http://www.pmags.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=17506&g2_serialNumber=2&g2_GALLERYSID=9b7269e0127675108ae6001d1d0952b4
NICKTHEGREEK
09-20-2008, 18:00
Shriner's Fez for camp lounging, Knock-off French Foreign Legion Kepi for the summer, Curly Howard autograph model Skunk skin cap for winter (nuk nuk)
SunnyWalker
09-26-2008, 17:50
Mags. what kind of shirt is that you are wearing? How about a shave?!!?? Hey, you brush your teeth lately?????? (smile).
I guess I have a so-called scientific hat. It is fairly light and has a brim for sun and rain, which can also be folded down for wind and cold. Is that scientific enough? In winter I have a balaclava and toque also. I think of everything as scientific though, with some aesthetics also, but I'm not much of a consumer and despise trade names etc. There is I think a non-scientific, non-consumeristic option though, a more primitive and even primaeval option, which I think we can all tap into but only when we are out there. Its at the primeaval root of science, and art, and perhaps even consumerism. Just find yourself out there, preferably lost, with some primitive need, and just let your mind go, which it will eventually anyway, and then improvise. Before you know it you might just have yourself a hat, or whatever else you might need at the time, and with some trial and error it might be not be too bad either. Science and schooling and modern technology and such things are powerful stuff, but don't let it get in the way of your education.
I got quite a lot of looks on this one when my daughter made me wear it in a touristy park. http://www.candfsupply.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=617
Now that will keep you from getting run over by a biker.
Part of a hat looking cool vs dorky is who is wearing it.
Same hat, different person. For some reason, the hat does not look as dorky. :-?
http://www.pmags.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=17506&g2_serialNumber=2&g2_GALLERYSID=9b7269e0127675108ae6001d1d0952b4
It is the stashing of the cordlock.
I'm pretty much known on the trail for my varied headgear. I wear a cotton Tilly copy with a ventilated crown most with a nylon sun hat (rear drop-down flap and long brim second). In cooler weather in hunting season I wear a baseball-type nylon hunting hat with a foam insulated crown. The nylon sun hat mentioned above was too warm for most hiking, so I pinched a little fabric here and there in the crown and burned little holes in it - much better. I need something to cover the bald spot and am very aware that both of my parents had skin cancer and I've spent most of my life outdoors before much was known about the damage that uv rays do to skin.
I would just like to say that a hat can be made of natural materials and still be scientific,
and be made of synthetic materials and still be unscientific. I would even argue that traditional headgear and other gear made of natural materials and developed over centuries tend to be more scientific than most consumer products we see in stores today including outdoor outfitters. The consumer products are sometimes superior because of modern materials, but are most often inferior despite the availability and use of modern materials and technology and science. Why? Because they are primarily designed to sell, and the vast majority of consumers are not 'scientific' or 'technical' in their purchases, even when they try to be. That is not to say that the same aesthetic and social forces were not at play in primitive societies. They were. But the physical environments were also more demanding, and the 'consumers' were far more experienced. So most of us we may have replaced nose rings and tatoos and feathers and lip cups and neck rings and such with flourescent nylon and spandex and hiking sticks and what not, but we are no less primitive in our reasoning, and generally speaking, far less adapted to life in the outdoors in our skills, fitness, knowledge, experience, and equipment choices. Let's face it. When we got out to the woods today, e really are quite rediculous.
Ziggy Trek
09-27-2008, 10:29
A coolie hat may be the perfect cover, though I find a Victorian Pith helmet adds a bit of "dash"
I always wanted to get one of those pith helmets with the little solar panel that runs a fan and ventilates the whole inside?
What would be the dork-factor if I got one?
What would be the dork-factor if I got one?Off the chart! :eek: :p
Feral Bill
09-27-2008, 17:09
Tilly Airflow for summer, great if I don't think of the price
old school wool balaclava for winter
generic ballcap when I feel like it
SunnyWalker
10-18-2008, 20:56
sunbody.com check it out for good palm leave hats. Go green!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Siegeofmalta
10-24-2008, 20:36
Those SunBody hats look pretty good. Made out of Palm Leaves might make them pretty tough.