I got my first hat my junior year in college. I am now 66 and have collected them ever since. Some years I won't buy any, and some years I will buy three or four. I have about 45 or 50 hats of all types.
Homburgs are my favorites - and I have both straw and felt in a couple of colors.
Living in Northern Michigan, I have bought several hats at Henry the Hatter in Detroit - about 285 miles south of where my wife and I live. That store has been there well over 100 years. I also have bought some hats from three or four hatters in New York, St. Louis, and San Francisco - both in person and online.
I also bought a couple western ten gallon hats - again in straw and felt - while attending a convention in Albuquerque a few years ago. The merchant gave me several cards to stick inside of the hats which read "Put it back! Like Hell it's yours!"
On the same trip, I went to a hat shop in Sante Fe that makes hats by hand specifically for your head. They put this round device on your head which has several hundred small rods sticking down. Much like the novelty items people used to have on their desks, the device gives a detailed representation of your head - with every bump and cranny. I never did buy a hat there, but they still have my head's shape on file.
My head is fairly large - 7 3/4 or extra extra large (XXL) - and is round. On the New Mexico trip, I discovered that hats are also designated as "round" or "oval". The ten gallon hats are 7 3/4 Rounds. Generally you only buy hats by size and not shape.
They say not to set your hat on the brim as it can get deformed, and suggest resting your hats upside down. I always thought that might harm the top, so I have mounted the hats on Shaker pegs on two sides of our bedroom.
I am enclosing three pictures showing one side of our bedroom. I am also sending a picture of me wearing three of my hats: my latest hat - a steampunk top hat, one of the ten gallon hats, and a Stetson outback design.
I have had my eye on an "Absinthe Top Hat" for two or three years now, but the lowest price I have seen had been $280.00, which I just can't justify - no matter how cool the hat.
Early in my collecting days, I bought about ten plastic hat covers - to take care of various brim sizes - but thought they looked so damned silly that I threw them away. So, I have bought eight rain or oilskin hats of various styles and colors for bad weather, and only wear the felt hats on dry days.
I meant to make one other comment. Most people who wear hats use them to accessorize their outfit. I like the hats so much that I often pick out the hat that I want to wear that day, and then choose the clothes to accessorize the hat.
I mean I really, REALLY like hats. I just wish President Kennedy hat worn a hat to his 1960 inauguration. His failing to do so sort of killed men's hats. In the 40's and 50's, every man in every movie or TV show - Dragnet even - wore a hat. In the 60's and later few did.
Oh well, that just means there's more hats out there for me!
