Cars and hygiene killed the middle-class hat
medium.com
medium.com
It doesn't affect my hairstyle because my hair departed long ago.
I do get ridiculed for it now and then, but one advantage of getting older is one stops caring about that, and if pressed I'll just tell 'em they'll change their mind after going under the knife.
Melanoma or fishing accident?
More common you can get carcinomas that doctors prefer to cut out. BCCs often look like a rough patch of skin that never heals while a SCC can be more wart-like and also spread locally if not dealt with.
All are caused by sun damage.
Yup. It's not greasy, don't have to worry about missing a spot, don't have to wait the 20 minutes before it becomes effective, don't have to reapply it after a few hours, it doesn't expire, it doesn't smell like rotten coconuts, and it's very, very effective.
Directions: Apply liberally 15 minutes before sun exposure. Reapply: after 80 minutes of swimming or sweating; immediately after towel drying; at least every 2 hours
I’ve always heard this as time to absorb to become waterproof, but I’m not sure if it’s actual skin absorption or the liquid used to convey the sun blocking compounds to dry or evaporate. Either way, apply and then wait.
This is a good video to highlight this [0], the sunscreen part is in the second half. Probably many more like it.
This is a fairly succinct overview: https://blog.reneerouleau.com/chemical-vs-physical-sunscreen...
The molecules in sunscreen either block or absorb UV. Nothing gets “absorbed into” the skin. It just sits on top (the skin is an amazing barrier).
The fact the molecule can absorb UV doesn’t change if it’s sitting in a tube or on top of your skin.
Here's another excerpt from a different source:
> Chemical sunscreens use up to a dozen ingredients that, when applied, are absorbed in the top layer of skin. They react with the skin to absorb UV rays and convert them into energy before they can harm the skin.
> Chemical sunscreens aren’t as thick as physical sunscreens, so they are often used in sunscreens specifically made for the face as well as those found in spray bottles. Since chemical sunscreens need to be absorbed into the skin, they must be applied at least 20 to 30 minutes before heading outdoors.
> Physical sunscreens, sometimes called “natural” sunscreens, include two ingredients: zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. Together, these ingredients sit on top of the skin and deflect or reflect the sun’s rays. Think of physical sunscreens like a shield, while chemical sunscreens are absorbed into the skin. Both ingredients work well to protect from UVA and UVB (broad spectrum) rays. Since physical sunscreens are thicker, they can leave a white cast on the skin.
https://www.pennmedicine.org/cancer/about/focus-on-cancer/20...
These "chemical sunscreens" are also used in plastics to prevent UV damage. There is no "reaction with the skin" required - the molecule absorbs UV light all on it's own. And if the molecule "reacted" with the skin (i.e. create a chemical bond), that would likely alter it's UV absorption.
As per another reply, the only think I can think of is there is some "drying" of the sunscreen that prevents it from easily rubbing off. If you don't wait for it to dry, then the sunscreen won't perform as described.
The science isn't 100% clear on this as I know; and different sunblocks use different ingredients. This seems a reasonably good/quick overview: https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/report/the-trouble-with-sunscr...
The awkward thing is it to me years to learn how to do this. My family didn't wear hats, and no one I knew wore hats: the cultural knowledge/practice was totally lost.
From my perspective, hats are lost advanced technology, like fusion from Atlantis.
For me, I already had an "outdoors" vibe for the clothes that I wear, and it's still possible to find hats in that market space. Check out REI, LLBean, Campmor, Sierra Trading Post, are ones that come to mind just because I remember getting their catalogs at sometime or other. One of my sun hats came from Target too.
These things cost 10 bucks at an Army/Navy surplus store. I've had mine for about 15 years now, it's held up great.
And there are fancier (more expensive) ones that have better airflow, or are rainproof, or fast-drying etc. These are usually made by companies that make outdoor recreation gear. E.g. here's one that can be easily converted between a mesh sun hat and a waterproof rain hat:
I have similar experiences with dyeing my hair in bright colours as a guy; most people react neutrally or positively, others ... not so much.
There seems to be something of a cultural difference here too; in Ireland, New Zealand, and Indonesia I don't get too much grief from it, in the Netherlands ... meh. One guy (random stranger) even went so far as to shout "hey homo!" :-/ One of the aspects of my country I'm not especially impressed with.
Overall, it's not a bad people filter. If you're the kind of person who would ridicule someone over hair colour or wearing a hat then you're probably not the kind of person I want to interact with if I have the choice. I'd rather know sooner than later.
for your filter analogy, tattoos have a similar effect. one of my smartest friend has a great education with merit... and knuckle tattoos. he never wasted any time with a company that would not respect his life choices outside the job.
A similar thing is said about guys with long hair (or any fashion/appearance niche): Not everyone prefers it, but for the ones who do, you're in short supply.
I wonder if there's a noticable correlation between head cancers and the end of traditional hat wearing?
She trained as a Milliner, and has been desinging and making hats for decades.
She's a damn great milliner. She won 1st prize in The Worshipful Company of Feltmakers of London competition, in the 90's.
She worked for Philip Treacy.
She's been in numerous magazine and newspaper articles.
There is only one problem: no one buys hats these days :/
https://tocofashion.com/ is her site. You'll find it's mostly high fashion designs for women, but she has (and can) design and make hats for men.
If I think of an occasion that calls for a specific hat, I'll try to keep her business in mind. :-)
https://tocofashion.com/ is her site. You'll find it's mostly high fashion designs for women, but she has (and can) design and make hats for men.
https://tocofashion.com/ is her site. You'll find it's mostly high fashion designs for women, but she has (and can) design and make hats for men.
(also curious about the prices, maybe it's time for me to wear a fancy hat?)
https://tocofashion.com/ is her site. You'll find it's mostly high fashion designs for women, but she has (and can) design and make hats for men.
I think a decade from now they'll be analyzing the even more rapid demise of suits and briefcases.
I remember when 'casual dress Fridays' started. A leading men's shop took out full page ads in the newspaper extolling the virtue of looking professional vs. casual. They've since gone bankrupt.
I’m OK with the suit going but damn, without those there’s not much left for guys to wear that’s not athletic wear of some kind or another (and hell, sport coats kinda are anyway)
Sport coats are athletic wear? To me, a sport coat is the same thing as a suit jacket, with the only difference being that a sport coat isn't the same color as your pants. It will literally become a suit jacket if you put on matching pants.
For example, a sport coat, very much unlike athletic wear, will prevent you from raising your arms too high with its big squared shoulders.
Then our most popular outerwear shirt, the T-shirt, used to be underwear with a strong military association, and came into common use the same way much of the rest of our modern fashion did: youth culture, which AFAIK is also how we got the blazer (dad's orphaned suit jackets) and two-button and especially two-roll-three suit jacket styles (kids wearing hand-me-down 3 and 4 button suits and orphaned jackets "casually" with fewer buttons done up).
Yes, but also the collar is buttoned down because those shirts don't have bones and are not starched.
I'd even settle for denim if we must play at working on cars for women to accept it as fashionable. Maybe then I can finally have my cargo pockets back!
I still have my Samsonite briefcase my dad got me as a graduation present. Having a hard shell, it is perfect for my laptop, wires, and other junk. I also enjoy being the only person with such a briefcase.
A pic of what it looks like:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-SAMSONITE-Gray-Slim-Hard-Sh...
I’ll likely eventually find one cheap at a flea market or estate sale. That, or end up buying a slim modern Pelican case for the same purpose.
(alas, Concorde packet delivery no longer implemented.)
TEUs for Jumbo Framing?
I'm 43, I've never owned a brief case.
My father had them in the 80s.. but he had a laptop by around 1990 and the briefcase disappeared.
My father was an engineer and later manager in tech companies though, so maybe the briefcase hung around longer outside of the tech industry.
I don't think I've ever seen a briefcase in my career, which essentially started in 1996.
I'm 47 and not only own a couple of soft-sided small briefcases, I still see small hardsided briefcases, and the larger wheeled briefcases regularly (well, less so since I've been working from home due to the pandemic, but...)
> My father had them in the 80s.. but he had a laptop by around 1990 and the briefcase disappeared.
Soft-sided briefcases that existed before laptops and laptop bags are essentially identical, but for the padding in the laptop compartment.
Is it not likely that as car-owners began to shirk hats - and presumably they would have been more affluent - hats were increasingly worn predominantly by poorer people? Not unlike a tan was originally considered unfashionable as it meant you had been working in the sun?
I bet you could find other examples that confirmed that this was a fashion driven by lifestyle changes amongst the upper-middle class.
They don't just keep the sun out of your eyes. They keep your head warm when it's cold outside and cool when it's sunny. They keep your head dry when it's wet, but don't end up drenched in sweat.
Recently, when it was cold, while I was wearing a couple of hats and a couple of hoods, I happened to bang my head into an object above me, something which happens to me infrequently, but regularly.
Because of all the padding, I felt the impact, but it did not hurt me nearly as much as it normally would have.
Since then, I've been wearing one or two thick hats most of the time, and this habit has already saved me from that very unpleasant experience of hitting my head on a sharp corner.
People ask me if I'm warm, but I barely notice it. I think that, as also with sleeping in a thick blanket, my body adjusts and just produces less heat.
Clearly one of the big no-nos is mixing formal and casual. Fedora wearers without a suit, also the weird college-student fad of wearing a waistcoat ("vest") with casual clothing, much ridiculed. But on the other hand, wooly hats and baseball caps are more casual than a lot of general leisure and business clothing. We have the flat cap, but here in England that seems like an affectation unless you're from particular places where it's traditional. What alternatives are there?
Knit or woolly caps on the other hand have been used for over 1000 years. I think it's safe to think the knit hat will be around for many more generations
While there aren’t many people with hats, there are some (most, but not all, older than me; I’m 34). Never gotten a weird look or comment regarding my hats. We have a dedicated hat-store (split, one for women and one for men) 2 streets over and usually when I walk past there is at least one customer.
Interesting; in British English in service applied to a human being means in domestic service, like the servants in Downton Abbey; applied to inanimate objects it means that they are functioning or that a bus, for instance, is ready to take passengers.
This isn't meant to say that your way of saying it is wrong by the way.
Easiest way to fix this is to fit the hat to your head like they used to do in the way back whens. This technique works for felt hats and straw hats. When your hat is new it is unlikely to fit your head well since head shapes differ so widely. A old cowboy method of fitting the hat to the head will work perfectly every time. Wet the hat and the sweat band and put it on your head until the band has shaped to fit your head with no pressure points so that it contacts all the way around your head. Then just wear it until it dries. It will always fit your head perfectly and will not blow off in the wind. You can do the same thing with ill-fitting boots. Just get them wet, slip them on and walk around wearing them till they dry. They will fit your feet like a glove.
I'm with you on the headrest thing. That's the main reason I no longer wear a hat when I drive. You have to remove the headrest for that to be practical. Years ago before headrests in pickups were a thing I wore a hat everywhere. For a while I got around it by rolling the back of the brim up so it curled enough to fit with a headrest but that defeats the purpose of the brim.
I can see 8-9 cowboy hats right now from where I'm sitting. They each fit a specific person in my family. That's one of the reasons behind it being really bad form for someone to grab your hat and shove it on their head, the hat is fit for an individual and though it may look nice on them, it won't fit - plus it's disrespectful to mess with a man's hat.
Way back in my own way back whens, I boarded my horse with an old cowboy who told stories of his younger days rodeoing and riding. At one time he held the calf-roping record time he set at Madison Square Garden. Him and some of his cowboy friends, his sidekicks, were wranglers in the 40's and 50's for movie studios in California. He had worked with Tom Mix, Gene Autry, and others and taught the lead character from Rawhide (can't remember his name) to mount and ride a horse since he had never been on one when he got the part. He wrangled their herd for that old show. Anyway, getting long here but he told me a story one time about one of the stars he had worked with who couldn't or wouldn't wear a hat, saying that he had a head too much like a nickle watermelon and a hat just wouldn't stay on it.
I was reminded of that by your comment about losing your hat in the wind. Hope this helps someone.
Wearing hats could have easily been more popular because so many more men were veterans back in the days after WWI and WWII. They would have been used to wearing hats after being in the service. The time hats started dropping off in popularity also correlates with the rise of the anti-war movement brought on by the Vietnam war.
Also in the 1960s the Catholic Church stopped requiring women to wear hats in church.
A lot of people use umbrellas here for the same purpose, but with dense crowds, overhead obsticles and tying up a hand... I'd rather wear some form of hat while out and about!