I"d like to resurrect this thread, guess I missed it before. I will be reading thru everyone’s suggestions! I work outside and try to protect myself as much as possible. Long sleeves and pants year round, plus wide brimmed hat as long as it’s not too windy.
I’m a fan of straw hats, I think they are a bit cooler than fabrics. Main downside is durability, but 40 hours of weather every week wears everything out. Shirts literally fall apart!. A year or two is a good run for a straw hat, then it’s compost. The best I have found so far is the O’Neill Sonoma, it’s a lifeguard hat: Sonoma Hat - Natural | O'Neill
This has a wide brim, they also sell a smaller brimmed hat.
I like the ones that Amish people wear, but I haven’t managed to get one yet. There’s a few places I’ve been looking at; one called Katie’s Mercantile, another called Gohn Brothers., & another called Good’s store that sells them on the web (along with a bunch of other mostly practical clothing), probably others also. Or ask your friendly but reserved local Amish person!
I picked up 2 of these boonie hats from Dollar General…they have them every year for about $9 or so. I wore one all last year and it got sun faded but did its job. Good enough for military…good enough for my outside duty.
I need a strap and a wide brim and this one fills the bill because it flaps down in back and allows me to maneuver my head between branches. Without a strap how do you deal with the wind? Stay indoors or use one hand just to hold onto your hat?
There it is. Unlike FN, I wear my hat almost every day I’m outdoors and there’s is any chance of burning sun exposure. Maybe because it is cool, really blocks the sun from anything not protected by my shirt and is not intrusive when I’m wrestling with neglected, huge apple trees. When it’s raining I wear a wool felt crusher hat and when I’m spraying I wear an Outdoor Research Gortex lined had. I’m outdoors most of the day most every day and hats are one of my tools.
I would like to suggest a method for washing your hats that I have found to be effective and yet less likely to foreshorten the lifespan the same way that laundering in a washing machine might be: the top rack of the dishwasher. I’ve been washing my hats in this fashion for quite a while and would recommend it to anyone who has one that is suitable for washing. The one caveat I can offer: leave out the dirty dishes for this load.
