Man invented hats to protect their heads from elements but the first hat doesn’t look like the ones we see today. It’s probably just a big leaf of a piece of animal skin. Today hats have become more than just a headgear, a means of protection from environmental elements. But did you know that each hat has an interesting and sometimes strange story to tell? For example, these 8 strange facts about 8 styles of hats.

1. Beret. This style of hat started its journey in the 1880s. It was during this time that the French mountain regiment used the beret as a military cap to provide warmth and functionality. Blue berets were used during the regiment for uniformity. Donning a beret during the war is practical as it hid sweat stains and didn’t have corners or heights that could get in the way.

2. Chef. The billowy chef hat is traditionally manufactured with 100 little pleats resulting in a poofy piece of headwear. The number of pleats symbolizes the number of ways you can cook an egg. How many do you know? Egg benedict, poached, scrambled, soft boiled, hard-boiled, are just some of the most common ways to cook an egg and that isn’t even half of a hundred!

3. Cowboy Hat. The shocking thing about cowboy hat is that it is not the hat of choice for cowboys. For a hundred years, the wide-brimmed hats like the cowboy hat are worn by ranchmen and field laborers around the globe. What American cowboys prefer was always the bowler hat. What makes it favored by these cowboys is because the bowler hat has a reinforced felt on the crown-making it snug on the head providing extra protection against low hanging branches when cowboys search for lost livestock on the gusty plains.

4. Stetson Cowboy Hat. One company is known for its high-quality felt cowboy hats, its no other than the Stetson company. If you want the premier white Stetson they should have over a thousand dollars to spare as most of their felt cowboy hats costs from $200 to $600. Since the 1800s, the high-dollar hats have been part of the company’s business model. The idea behind the costly hat is that the Stetson believed that a hard-working cowboy who is serious about success will save up to purchase their high-quality hats.

5. Felt Hat. In the 1920s, a strange trend took over the United States. A guideline banned people from wearing a straw hat after September 15 each year. After the said date, you can only felt hats and if you are caught wearing a straw hat after the 15th you could take a beating for the offense.

6. Top Hat. This style of hat is known to be a status symbol as it represents class, mystery, and prominence. However, donning it during the warm weather could be torture. Upon knowing about this flaw, an inventor proposed an idea of a removable lid on the top hat to allow ventilation. It sounded like the perfect solution but remember that the main purpose of a hat is to protect the top of your head from the glaring sun. As expected, the trend did not take off and the top hat remained as it is. Another problem raised with the top hat is its height which is too tall for standard transportation. Taxi companies addressed the problem by making the inside space of cars and carriages more space and added height.

7. Dunce Cap. In the past, the dunce caps are used to single out underachieving students. The original intent of the hat is to help the wearer receive intelligence and inspiration from the heavens. As time pass, the dunce hat was thought more as thinking hats as wise people wore it more like Merlin.

8. Panama. This hat did not get its name from the place where it originated; instead, the name came from the primary code of the shipment which is by a ship through the Panama Canal. The finest quality of the Panama hat can have over 3,000 pieces of hand-woven straws. It is also alleged that when rolled up, the hat could fit the hole of a ring.

8 Strange Facts about Hats

Comments

Infographic Categories