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I Like This Hat, But How Do You Just Start Wearing a Hat...

amador

A-List Customer
Messages
372
Location
Locum Tenens
Wearing your hat initially feels like carrying a conceled weapon for the first few times. You think everybody can tell you are packing and feel very self concious, my wife indicated that I was hypervigilant initially but now she cannot tell when I'm packing. When I started wearing a Fedora I felt the same way. Wife mentioned that I was also hypervigilant when I started wearing. Now I only become self concious if someone mentions the hat or I a get the nod. I have become more polite and cordial and avoid trouble; guns and hats do that to you. I don't want to get in a situation where I will lose my hat or have to use my gun. I can't forget I'm packing but I can forget I'm wearing.
 

DesertDan

One Too Many
Messages
1,582
Location
Arizona
Welcome to the new folks chimimg in here.
Amador that is a very good analogy :D

I never had any of these issues when I started wearing a hat as a part of my daily wardrobe. I think that this is in part to the fact that it was very practical for my work. I was in construction and landscaping and could never understand why so many guys wore ballcaps as they offered virtually no protection against the desert sun. So I adopted the wide brimmed hat and went through a few styles until I found what worked for me. The only uncomfortable experience I had was that I didn't comfortable wearing my dirty, beaten work hat everywhere and so I started to buy a few "dress" hats. That led to me thinking that having a few different colors would be kinda nice.............I was a lost cause after that! :D
 

amador

A-List Customer
Messages
372
Location
Locum Tenens
I was in the military for quite some time and wore "cover" and was used to that and manners came with training. I had bad manners that I grieved over during cold winter nights. As a civilian I have worn a myrid of caps, baseball and otheriwse, Greek fishermans hats, berets, drivers caps, military style caps, Tilley hats, straw hats but never a Fedora. The Fedora must carry some sort of significance for me to have its effect. Perhaps because my father used to wear one back in the 40's after he can home from the War. And I have never paid as much for a cover except perhaps for my service cap with scrambled eggs on the brim.
 

danofarlington

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,122
Location
Arlington, Virginia
Like this and not look like an eccentric at best and a bit nutty at worse?

Do you just jump in and pretend like you've always been wearing them? Do you acknowledge that you just started wearing a hat like this? It's a big move.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Akubra-Hat-...?pt=US_Hats&hash=item5d30984553#ht_824wt_1110

Find excuses to wear the hat: To the store, to the post office, to church/synagogue/mosque/temple, to a restaurant. Seek out HWOs (hat-wearing opportunities). The more you get used to wearing it, the more natural you'll feel in it, and the more relaxed you'll look. If you're going to wear a hat, you've got to be relaxed, because a self-conscious hat-wearer is a sad sight.
 

DesertDan

One Too Many
Messages
1,582
Location
Arizona
Also, have confidence that there will come a time when it will all come together and you will suddenly realize that the hat has fully become a part of your natural daily wardrobe and you don't think any more about it than you do any other piece of clothing you are wearing.

This will most likely happen when you forget your hat for some reason and then feel awkward the whole day because you don't have a hat on! :D
 

MikeBravo

One Too Many
Messages
1,301
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Here's my tip: leave your hat by the door and chuck it on your head every time you walk outside. Simple

A warning though: you will have to get used to admiring glances and nice compliments from women.

Think you can handle that?
 

amador

A-List Customer
Messages
372
Location
Locum Tenens
You are going to have to explain to me what "scrambled eggs" are in relation to hats lol

Field Grade officers wear dress hats with gold braid on the bill. A Colonel is referred to a having a chicken on his shoulder, a Leiutenant Colonel is a Jr Bird Man and a Major is a No Time in Grade Field officer. The gold braid is of course "scrambled eggs" no apparent connection with the aforementioned chickens. All of this in good fun.
 

dr.velociraptor

One of the Regulars
Messages
285
Location
Hudson Valley NY
I received the hat, it seems like really good quality and I like how it looks. The wife however said I look crazy and I can't wear a hat like that in public. I'll still wear it though, but it is a pretty drastic change.
 

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,178
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
What amador 'described' is on the bill of this cap:

HatBluCL92Eggs.jpg
 

jkingrph

Practically Family
Messages
848
Location
Jacksonville, Tx, West Monroe, La.
Field Grade officers wear dress hats with gold braid on the bill. A Colonel is referred to a having a chicken on his shoulder, a Leiutenant Colonel is a Jr Bird Man and a Major is a No Time in Grade Field officer. The gold braid is of course "scrambled eggs" no apparent connection with the aforementioned chickens. All of this in good fun.

The USAF Field Grade hat is blue with silver "braid" in the form of clouds and lightning bolts, commonly refered to in the service as "farts and darts".


Jeff former Maj. USAF
 

amador

A-List Customer
Messages
372
Location
Locum Tenens
My Sgt Major used to tell us Lts that having your hands in your pants pockets in cold weather was "wearing Air Force Gloves". So that if it was cold enough for Air Force Gloves we should put on out Army issue gloves. Farts and Darts indeed.
 

Benzadmiral

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,815
Location
The Swamp
Doctor, you look kind of like a young Charlie Daniels with a more moderate style of hat. Or like Hank Williams Junior:

"I have loved the ladies,
"And I have loved Jim Beam;
"And they both tried to kill me
"In nineteen seventy-three. . . ."
 

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