Hat Day

What the day is

Hat Day is observed on January 15, which in the northern hemisphere is the point in winter when a hat stops being a style decision.

Origin and background

For most of recorded history, adults in public wore something on their heads, and going without was a statement. Hats signaled trade, rank, religion and marital status, and the etiquette around when to remove one was elaborate and strictly observed.

Then it collapsed, and remarkably quickly. Through the 1950s and 1960s the everyday hat disappeared from western men's dress almost entirely. The popular explanation credits President Kennedy appearing hatless at his inauguration, which is tidy and wrong: he wore a top hat that day, and the decline was well advanced before it. The likelier causes are duller and structural. Cars replaced walking and public transport, so people spent far less time outdoors and a car roof does what a brim did, with headroom that makes a hat awkward. Central heating spread. Hairstyles became something to display rather than cover. And formality in dress generally relaxed.

The thermal argument is worth correcting too. The claim that most body heat escapes through the head is false and appears to derive from a misreading of old military trials in which subjects were dressed except for their heads. The head loses heat at roughly the rate its surface area suggests. It is simply the part people leave uncovered, which is why covering it helps.

Hats survive where function demands: cold, sun, religious observance, and the occupations that still require one.

How to take part

• Wear one, particularly if you have been cold all week.
• Cover the ears, which is where the discomfort actually is.
• Try a wool or fur felt hat rather than wool-blend, and notice the difference in rain.
• Find out your head measurement, since most people buy by guess.
• Stop repeating the heat-loss claim.